From Worldlines, Timelines, and Timethreads--the traces that we leave

A Note on the Language of Time and the Art of the Weaver (fictitious)

The terms used in the novels — and in the stories whispered across the Threads — are only partially invented. Many are drawn from real-world science, philosophy, and theory. But when filtered through the loom of the Time Weaver, they take on a different kind of life.

This post offers a closer look at three foundational concepts: timeline, worldline, and the uniquely woven timethread.

Timeline: The Story We Tell Ourselves

Everyone knows what a timeline is: a sequence of events, arranged in order.Linear, straightforward, and clean.

A timeline marks the when — birth, graduation, loss, triumph. It is the skeleton of a life story. The scaffolding upon which history is hung.

But timelines are flat. They contain no depth, no dimension. They show what happened and when, but never how it felt, or what it meant.

A timeline is a map of footprints — not the journey.

Worldline: The Path of Existence

A worldline comes from physics. It tracks the location of an object in space over time. Think of it like a comet’s trajectory, or the arc of a falling leaf.

Worldlines exist in four dimensions: length, width, height, and time. They tell you where something was and when.

But a worldline is silent. It doesn’t record change or state. It doesn’t notice the difference between a sigh and a scream. It is the path, but not the passage.

It is the where and when — without the why.

Timethread: The Woven Truth

A timethread is something else entirely, and plays an important part in the novels.

It is the hybrid of a worldline and a timeline — but more alive than either. It not only tracks where and when, and what happened, but also the state of mind in the moment of the occurrence, the choice, the experience. How the event changed the soul at the center of it all.

A timethread captures the emotional weight of moments. The meaning behind actions, choices, and what was left behind. It records not just motion and chronology, but also transformation.

And timethreads are never solitary. Yours interacts with mine. With your partner’s, your parents’, your children’s, your peers’, even with strangers you may never meet again. Timethreads are not restricted to human lives — they record the states of all living beings, forming a delicate fabric that shifts with every decision made.

The timethreads flow in the river of time — a river woven from the worldlines of inanimate objects and the timethreads of all who live.

For the Time Weaver, to perceive a timethread is almost — but not quite — like reading a memoir. It is a life’s story, but richer and more intricate: not just the recollection of events, but the texture of memory, the weight of silence, the ripple of choices that were never made. A memoir is written in words; a timethread is written in being.

The Weaver’s Art

In the Weaver’s hands, a timethread is more than data. It is destiny, unspooled. Each timethread is a recording of a life lived. The raw fiber of existence. These are not just paths or records, but the essence of temporal energy itself.

A timethread is what the Weaver pulls to nudge a destiny, to restore balance, or, in rare cases, to let it all unravel.

Each thread carries the echo of a soul.

When the Weaver works, he listens. He listens to laughter that fades into silence. To grief that still lingers. To triumphs born of failure, and failures born of love. His loom is not mechanical but emotional — stitched together by longing, courage, fear, and choice.

He does not command time. He coaxes it. He does not overwrite fate. He aligns it, ensuring that nothing hampers the flow, nothing disturbs the laws of time. Always forward, never back.

Weaving the Unweavable

The Time Weaver’s task is not to prevent calamity or ensure joy. He doesn’t rewrite the pattern; he makes sure it holds. That it sings.

And that is why the Weaver does not answer prayers, hopes, or wishes. He ensures that beings remain in command of their own lives. He does not superimpose his vision of how you should live — that is left to other influences, divine or mundane.

What he ensures is that every thread — no matter how frayed — finds a place in the weave.

Because no story is ever truly lost.Not while the Weaver still weaves.

One Thread, Three Views

Let’s say this:

A woman plants a tree in her garden.Years later, she sits beneath its shade, watching her child climb its branches.

• On a timeline, we read:“Age 30 – Planted a sapling. Age 36 – Became a mother. Age 42 – Sat in its shade with her child.”

• On a worldline, we map: From the nursery where she bought the sapling, to the garden, to the bench beneath its growing branches.

• On a timethread, we feel: The soil under her fingernails.The quiet hope pressed into the earth with every handful of dirt.The pride and love blooming years later, when her child’s laughter joined the whisper of the leaves.

  
  

In the End

A timeline is how we remember. A worldline is how we measure. A timethread is how we understand.

For the Weaver, each life is almost like a memoir — but written not in ink, but in existence itself.

And only he can read them all.

I hope you enjoyed this little tangent into the world of The Time Weaver.