The Dragon Breaks
Where every outcome is true, and none are real, until time remembers its path.
A Dragon Break is a violent schism within the Aurbis where linear time collapses, allowing past, present, and future to bleed into one another. It represents a fundamental fracture in the laws of physics and magic, typically ignited by cataclysmic magical events, divine interference, or reality-warping acts by entities such as the Psijic Order or the Tribunal. During these ruptures, cause and effect lose their tether, creating scenarios where contradictory outcomes coexist until time eventually 'snaps back' into a coherent, singular timeline.
- Nature
- Metaphysical Anomaly / Temporal Collapse
- Primary Cause
- Reality-altering magic or divine intervention
- Key Figures
- Psijic Order, Meridia, Almalexia (Morrowind)
- Most Famous Instance
- The Warp in the West
- Resolution Mechanism
- Time 'snaps back' to a single consistent reality
Lore & Background
To the mortal mind, a break feels like chaos incarnate: history becomes mutable. A character might die and live simultaneously; castles rise from dust only to crumble in the same breath. Written accounts created during these events often record mutually exclusive versions of history. The Psijic Order of Artaeum stands apart as unique navigators, skilled enough to walk through the fractured moments without losing their sanity or becoming trapped in a loop, acting as anchors who guide the timeline back toward stability.
In Their Own Story
The sky above Wayrest did not darken; it fractured into a kaleidoscope of impossible colors. One moment, King Eadwyre sat upon his throne, and in the next, he was a child playing with wooden swords, then an old man weeping by a grave that had not yet been dug. A dragon circled overhead, breathing fire that turned to snow before hitting the ground, while the same dragon was simultaneously a statue of stone. The guards fought battles they had already won and lost, their weapons passing through ghosts of enemies who were also alive. In the center of the chaos, a single monk from Artaeum stood perfectly still, watching the river flow upstream as he waited for the world to remember how to be real.
Reader's Guide
The event concludes only when reality forces itself into a single line—a process known as 'snapping back.' One timeline is selected as official history; all others are discarded. Yet, the scars remain: fragments of lost realities persist as echoes, prophecies, or unexplained magical anomalies in the restored world, serving as permanent reminders that the impossible once happened.
Did You Know?
- The term 'Dragon Break' stems from the belief that even dragons, who perceive time non-linearly, cannot comprehend the chaos of such an event.
- During the Warp in the West, the kingdom of Iliac Bay experienced over a thousand years of history and dozens of different kings within a span of less than a day.
- The Psijic Order utilizes specialized techniques to 'walk' through Dragon Breaks without losing their sanity or becoming trapped in a temporal loop.
- Some scholars theorize that the entire recorded history of the Third Era may have been subtly influenced by minor, unrecorded Dragon Breaks.