The Time Bandits are time travelers of Uchronic Paris who take what is not theirs. Cells fit for them were built before any were jailed.
| Type | Group |
| Spanish entry | Bandidos del Tiempo |
Description
Their mark is aging: “to travel through time is to age”. A being of time charges aging as the price of a gem. Between journeys they grew beards and long hair.
Time as loot
“Time is money”: it is lent, mortgaged, rented and paid for “unforgettable pleasure”. Two authorities watch it:
- the Ministry of Time, which investigates time crimes and hired four fifths of the group;
- the Prefecture of Time, which regulates travel; its Subprefect of Time, “man of the wheelchair and steam”, leads investigations.
They were also invited “to be Guardians of Time with whatever title you want”.
The map of time
Time is described as a “computer” unrolling like a carpet of comic-like illustrations, a “library” of moments, a “labyrinth”, and (per Philip the watchmaker) a space. They range over Uchronic Paris and beyond the semi-plane of time, the barrier around the city that reveals dangers to those in time debt. They reach back “at least 150 million years”, to the Night of Time named in the Bible of Kronamon.
Limits
Sealed until now, time “has opened”; its “closed system” sets limits: after a chronocide “you cannot go back”; some places cannot be revisited “because it was changed so many times”; each journey creates anomalies that wake pursuing beings. “All events are chained” to one outcome: they “go by another path” without changing events. Their boldest stroke was kidnapping the Labyrinth of Time “to face the dark diabolical forces”.
Powers around the trade
- A deity over Paris (God of Time, Lord of Time, Lord of History) chooses its elect; its legacy is debated with Philippe.
- A call of the Dragon of Time made dragons and most heroes vanish.
- The Imam of Time, of Islamic tradition, is present and “very dangerous”.
- A new Palace of Time stands near Notre-Dame.
- Cakravartin holds that “time runs backward”.
- Swann’s father visited the legendary forge, a “place of time” unseen for a thousand years.
- At Ti’s appearance “time stopped for a bit”. “The sacrifice of the guardians of time” is mentioned without detail.
Open questions
- Whether the name came from the authority, the bandits (“we are time bandits”) or their chronicler.
- Whether the deity’s names mean one power; whether time really stopped for Ti.
- Whether the Ministry and Prefecture are one body; whether the Labyrinth of Time is a place or a thing; whether the Guardians of Time are the Uchronic Guards.
- Their number and names; the price and unit of time; the penalty; where their prison is.
- Unconfirmed: “if they tell me everything ends in 12 years”.