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"This... Is the Scroll of Eternity. All of Time... All of History. Everything... Its all listed in here. But... here just take a look at this. As you can see... if history... is any way altered or distorted... it could change the world as we know it. We have no choice. We have to stop it... We can't let history change."
Future Trunks explaining the nature of the Time Scrolls to the Future Warrior in Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Scrolls of Eternity (終わりと始まりの書 Owari to Hajimari no Sho), more commonly known as Time Scrolls, are special scrolls that contain the record of various timelines and eras in the history of the Universe that appear in the Xenoverse series.

Overview[]

DBXV Supreme Kai of Time & Future Trunks looking at the Scroll of Eternity Xenoverse Intro 10014583 791130770942540 2750955195088557904 n

Supreme Kai of Time and Future Trunks observing Towa & Mira via Time Scroll

The Time Scrolls are an essential tool used by members of the Time Patrol in their role of defending history. They allow Chronoa and Future Trunks to pinpoint various time distortions caused by villains such as the Dark Empire and Demigra. The scrolls are contained in the Time Vault located inside the Time Nest. The time scrolls hold a record of specific time periods such as the battle with the Saiyan Raditz during the beginnings of the Saiyan conflict in Age 761, the Dragon Team battles against the Saibamen and the elite Saiyans Nappa & Vegeta, and the battle on Planet Namek. Due to Future Trunks' use of the Time Machine resulting in the first-time distortion in the history of the universe and the Supreme Kai of Time's decision not to erase the new timelines created as a result of his actions, some scrolls record Alternate Timelines such as Future Trunks' own timeline. These timelines are also created naturally, through Tokitoki's eggs or via natural distortions.

Part of the Supreme Kai of Time's job involves the creation of new scrolls to record history as time marches on and according to her she can erase certain changes in history should she choose to such as the aforementioned new timelines created in the wake of Future Trunks and Cell's use of Future Bulma's Time Machine. Because they are stored in the Time Vault should it ever be destroyed or damaged, history would be erased implying that the destruction of a time scroll could erase the period it records from history.

In order to prevent Time Machines used by the Time Patrol from creating alternate timelines, which was a dangerous side effect caused by the use of Future Bulma's Time Machine, the Supreme Kai of Time instructed Future Trunks on how to create Time Machines that lack this dangerous side effect that was present in Future Bulma's original Time Machine.

Like Time Machines, Time Scrolls are also capable of Time Travel though only to the point in history in which they record. They can also summon its user back to the Time Nest once history has been corrected. As they were created by the Supreme Kai of Time and their important function in recording history, they apparently do not produce alternate timelines making them another safe method of time travel for use by members of the Time Patrol.

When a time distortion occurs in a specific time period, the scroll will become enveloped by dark energy and will show a new record of that time period that shows the results of the change in history, such as historical figures like Goku being killed at a point when they weren't supposed to or finding them in a hopeless situation where they are on the verge of being killed by an enemy or enemies that should have already been defeated or killed.

"Are you the Patroller who's on the critical mission? Everyone's talking about you! You know the great hero? But if you look very closely at each of the changes the hero made, you'll find slight imperfections in history. That's because those interventions were made by someone who never existed in the original timeline. Because of this, we can detect tiny fluctuations in history. That's why we have Parallel Quests. We keep trying again and again to fix history completely, but we can only ever get a fraction closer to the correct version."
— Namekian Time Patroller Skid explaining time fragments as tiny fluctuations in the corrected history Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

When there is a change in history the scrolls split off and once a history has been corrected the Supreme Kai of Time is able to rejoin the split scrolls. However, even if the Time Patrol fix the history to the way it was supposed to be, it's still not the same due to the presence of the Time Patroller(s) that fixed it. Therefore, when the scrolls are rejoined, there are some things that remain in space-time and these are known as runaway Time Fragments. The fragments themselves are not really a problem if they are left alone. However, they end up creating their own histories, which can draw bad guys' attention, thus Parallel Quests are the Time Patrols attempt to deal with these stray fragments and prevent them from being misused or causing problems. These runaway Time Fragments are produced by tiny fluctuations in history created as a side effect of Time Scroll based history correction as the Time Patrol can only get a fraction closer to the correct version.

Normally when Chronoa puts the scrolls back to gather after a correction, the original flow of history is restored thus the changes and fixes disappear as the original timeline is restored thus explaining why people do not remember a Time Patroller they have encountered previously in an altered timeline as those events disappear from history. This is to prevent any anomalies however though they have no memory of past encounters with a Time Patroller once history is corrected, people can have a vague feeling they have encountered that patroller if they meet them again as shown by Goku who notes that he has a odd feeling like he had met the Future Warrior previously after they help calm down Beerus after he eats Chronoa's pudding in the altered timeline of Age 778.

"A change like that will vanish when I put the scrolls together. But still...maybe I should leave it."
Chronoa explaining to Elder Kai how minor changes usually vanish during the A Desperate Future Saga

However in certain cases Chronoa can leave alterations in if they are minor and do not effect the original flow of history as she did during the A Desperate Future Saga when she allowed Future Trunks' reunion with Future Gohan before his death in the altered timeline of Age 780 of Trunks' timeline as Future Gohan had chosen to go to his death knowing that his student would bring peace to the future and that his fight had a purpose. Chronoa did this out of respect for Future Trunks and Future Gohan, believing that the change itself was minor as did Elder Kai who jokingly noted they'd just let that one slip by. However, unfortunately Towa's Distorted Time Eggs created a natural time distortion which produced an alternate future timeline shown in the Unknown History Saga where Future Trunks choose to fulfill his desire to save his master and Future Gohan is able to tap into his hidden potential when he fears for Future Trunks' safety allowing him to defeat the Androids with Future Trunks' assistance. This shows that even minor changes can have unpredictable results thus even Chronoa must be careful to ensure they disappear from the original history to prevent cases like this one. However, this case was unique as the distortion was caused by the Distorted Time Eggs reacting to Future Trunks' strong desire to save his mentor resulting in a completely nature time distortion (similar to the artificial ones created by the design flaw of Future Bulma's original Time Machine) which creates an alternate timeline. However, it is up to Chronoa herself how to deal with said alternate timeline the fate of which is unclear as Chronoa never reveals her final decision on the matter.

"If your wondering why we use a time machine to enter Parallel Quests, but scrolls for other quests, then let me tell you. It's because the history for Parallel Quests is different from the history that's stored in the Time Vault. It might be easier to understand if you think of it as a bunch of digressions and sidebars that have spun off from the main story. The long and sort of it is that we can't access that history using the scrolls, on with a time machine."
— Namekian Time Patroller Skid explaining the difference between original and parallel timelines in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Even when the original unaltered timeline is restored following a successful correction, runaway time fragments are naturally produced as a side effect resulting in parallel timelines that the Time Patrol deals with through Parallel Quests. Though as these parallel timelines are not recorded in the Time Vault a Time Scroll cannot be used to access these timelines, though thankfully Chronoa taught Future Trunks and his mother how to fix the Time Machine's design flaw that produces alternate timelines to develop a new model of Time Machine that is time distortion free which Chronoa sanctioned for use by the Time Patrol allowing them to access these timelines. However since they are not recorded within the scrolls there is no danger of these timelines overloading the Time Vault as they are simply a natural side effect of Time Scroll based time correction which are no where near as dangerous as time distortions or history changes.

In the Infinite History Saga, it is revealed by both Chronoa and Fu that the Rifts in Time the Time Patrol is investigating are not connected to the history recorded thus altering history within the rift's timeline is technically safe and Chronoa herself even comes close to hypothetically suggesting they could alter history safely when Fu points out that fact before catching herself as the only way to weaken the rift is to fix its history, which could be rendered impossible if too much is altered in addition to the fact it goes against everything the Time Patrol stands for. When Fu's alterations make it impossible for them to correct the timeline, Fu reveals his ability to absorb the energy of the changes he makes which causes the rift to disappear. Fu later offers the use of his ability to deal with the rifts, though this creates a moral dilemma for the Time Patrol as they must aid Fu in altering the history of the rifts to utilize his power. Though she does not morally approve of Fu's actions of altering history even in a technically safe manner or trust him, Chronoa decides to leave the decision whether or not to work with Fu to the Future Warrior. However, even if altering the history of Time Rifts is safe due to them being unconnected, they can still be used by villains such as Dabura who created the rifts as part of his revenge plan. It is also revealed that during her infiltration of the Time Vault in Age 852 shortly before her own death in Age ???, Towa secretly utilized the Time Scroll for Age 774 within the Time Vault to directly save her brother from being killed by Innocent Buu before covering her tracks so the alteration was never detected by the Time Patrol until they encountered the vengeful Dabura alive.

Usage[]

In the Super Dragon Ball Heroes manga, the Scroll of Eternity is utilized by members of the Time Patrol, including Xeno Trunks, Xeno Vegeta, Xeno Goku, Xeno Gohan, Xeno Goten, and Xeno Pan. While working as an intern Time Patroller, Putine is also granted access to the scrolls though Chronoa warns her against using the scrolls to spy on individuals private lives suggesting that using the scrolls to in that manner is normally frowned upon as it is an invasion of privacy (given the fact the scrolls record every action in an individual's life including their personal lives). However Putine ends up finding a history change while taking a peek at Gravy's history, which resulted in Putine finding out he had a girlfriend she apparently never knew about and enraged her to the point she brought a mallet with her when she was sent to correct the change which she used to strike Young Gravy who was an innocent bystander. However despite her attack on Gravy, she ended up fixing the history change and Chronoa took the opportunity to explain the importance of protecting history as while some parts of history may not be to a Time Patroller's liking it is important to preserve all history.

During the Supreme Kai of Time Saga, Aeos and the Warriors in Black take over the Time Nest after capturing Chronoa, whom Aeos believes is unfit for the position of Supreme Kai of Time. Aeos can also be seen with several scrolls.

Video Game Appearances[]

Time Scrolls are first mentioned in Dragon Ball Online, under the name Time Passport, when Mira steals one of them, which gives him, Towa, and the Time Breakers the ability to travel through time.

Time Scrolls also appear in Dragon Ball Xenoverse and used during Time Patrol Missions (which serve as the game's story). Once a mission is completed, the player can then use the Time Scroll to replay the mission at any point after that by visiting the Time Vault located in the Time Nest which are organized by saga with each mission acting as different episode. In addition when viewing the scrolls in the Time Vault, there will be a brief summary of that outlines the plot of either the saga or the current mission. It will also list the players overall score and grade for each completed mission and the overall grade for each completed saga. The same holds true in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, save for the Infinite History Saga though a special Time Scroll variant called the Tokipedia acts as its menu.

In Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission and the SDBHWM Crossover Story Event for Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle, Chronoa reveals that Sealas plans to destroy the Scroll of Eternity in order to rewrite history as he views the current official history to be unjust and seeks to create a new history in line with his sense of justice, creating Ahms to acquire the power necessary to achieve his goal. Though the Super Dragon Ball Heroes game world is a virtual representation of the official history, it is separate from it thus alterations to the game world's timeline is less risky as the only drawback is that it can cause the game world to collapse allowing game world characters and enemies to manifest in normal reality, though this is of little concern to Sealas who takes advantage it to further his goals. In Chronoa's flashback, Sealas is revealed to be the first Time Patroller and disciple of Chronoa, who she recruited from the Galactic Patrol. However, his sense of justice made it hard for him to stand by and allow the darker parts of official history to play out as they are supposed to. Chronoa did her best to teach him that it is their duty to preserve history even the parts they would prefer didn't happen such as genocides, wars, and deaths of innocents. However, his uncompromising since of justice made it hard for Sealas to standby as villains committed atrocities. Eventually it came to a head when Chronoa and Sealas were fixing a history change on a planet being attacked by Kid Buu during one of his historical rampages. However, as Kid Buu had nothing to do with the history change, Chronoa order Sealas to not intervene when the Pure Majin attacked an innocent boy as it was a part of the official history. However, Sealas defied her order and shielded the boy from Kid Buu's attack. Chronoa forced Sealas to return to the Time Nest, where she admonishes him for his actions before telling him to go cool off. Curious about the boy whose life he saved, Sealas checked the scroll only to discover to his horror that Kid Buu destroyed the boy's homeworld after he and Chronoa returned to the Time Nest this his attempt to change history was ironically fixed by Kid Buu. This also explains why Chronoa only chewed him out as his attempt to alter history failed. His failure combined with his strong sense of justice caused him to consider the current official history to be flawed due to it being unjust, resolving that the only way to correct the flawed history was to rewrite history. However fortunately Chronoa learned of his plans and sealed him away in the Crack of Time for his crime.

Trivia[]

  • In Xenoverse, it is implied that before Future Trunks' use of his mother's time machine originally there was only a single Scroll of Eternity, however the time distortion created by his use of the Time Machine caused the scroll to split, leading to the creation of alternate timelines.
    • It is unclear if the Time Machine created in Universe 12 mentioned in Dragon Ball Super produced any time distortions as it is possible to create Time Machines that do not produce them as demonstrated by the Time Machine's used by the Time Patrol and Chronoa's assertion that the Time Machines used by Future Trunks and Cell had a flaw in their design that creates alternate timelines. Presumably it did not or Chronoa meant Trunks' Time Machine created the first artificial time distortion in Universe 7 (it should be noted that the existence of the Time Machine of Universe 12 was not revealed at the time of Chronoa's explanation of the first time distortion created by Future Trunks' time machine in Xenoverse) as a young inexperienced and traumatized Tokitoki produced a natural one during the period Demigra was experimenting upon him when Chronoa as still a Kai. Given that said Time Machine is in the possession of Agu, presumably its use was either prevented or dealt with before it could be used to alter history and/or create alternate timelines. Alternatively, the timelines it created were erased by Chronoa (or her Universe 12 counterpart if there even is one which is unlikely given that all 12 Universes share the same timeline as there is a future multiverse and a separate multiverse in the main timeline).
  • If one examines the Time Scrolls closely, one can see a tassel with one of Tokitoki's feathers attached to it.
  • The Time Chasm Crystals found in the Crack of Time function in a similar manner as they are capable of showing various events in history. The only difference is Time Chasm Crystals are a natural phenomenon while the Scrolls of Eternity are created by the Supreme Kai of Time. Time Chasm Crystals also lack the ability to be used as a means of Time Travel.
Eternity scroll

The heavily distorted Time Scroll for Age 737 in the opening of Xenoverse 2

  • A Time Scroll that shows the history of Age 737 appears in one of the opening cutscenes in Xenoverse 2. After showing a history change where Bardock sees a vision of Super Saiyan Blue Goku fighting Golden Frieza, it unrolls until it is stopped by Turles' foot.
    • Interestingly, this scroll is extremely distorted after the history change indicating it maybe what happens when a scroll is completely overwhelmed by a change. However, another interesting possibility is that this scroll represents the Time Passport used by the Time Breakers or that the Time Passport itself may be little more than a Distorted Time Scroll artificially created by Towa.
  • Though the Time Nest is located on the edge of Universe 7, it is likely that the Time Vault stores history for the entire Multiverse as the universes are known to share timelines. However, the Xenoverse series primarily focuses on the history of Universe 7 as it is where most of the series historical events take place.
  • It is shown in Xenoverse 2 that although the future timeline ends at Age 796 when the future multiverse is erased and abandoned by its surviving inhabitants, its timeline is still recorded in its scroll. This means that in the Xenoverse series, Future Zeno did not erase the timeline itself just its multiverse.
  • It is implied that most Rifts in Time are unconnected to the history stored within the Time Scrolls which is why altering history in those timelines are safe as they are separate from the official history. This is why Chronoa tends to permit most Time Rifts to remain once they've been weakened and/or their cause is found. However, in the case of Goku Black's Time Ring enhanced The Work of the Gods, the rift connects multiple timelines together including recorded ones which make it far more dangerous. The same holds true for Wormholes that connect different timelines.
    • However, Chronoa herself generally opposes altering a time rift's history on moral grounds even though it is theoretically safe as such alterations can negatively affect the lives of those that inhabit those rift timelines thus explaining why Chronoa disapproves of Fu's experiments, even though she permits the Future Warrior and their partner to aid Fu in order to utilize his ability to absorb the changes if they feel it is the best way to handle the rifts.
  • It is implied that because Tokitoki's eggs create natural alternate timelines, their scrolls are allowed to exist under Chronoa's rules.

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