DOORLOCH - N/A TIMELINE UNKNOWN

(Timeline Tuesday #12)

While creatures hailing from distant timelines are, by their very nature, unusual, their roots can typically be traced by timeline historians. Through careful research, we can often learn and understand the origin of these entities.

Doorlochs, however, have managed to avoid any concrete understanding of their past. They are incredibly mysterious, defying investigation by appearing and disappearing in a seemingly infinite assortment of reality layers. While it is unlikely they have always existed, the species certainly appears this way.

Doorlochs are supernatural humanoids with the body of a door. They feature a pair of arms and legs, and will often sport a pointed hat atop their flat heads. The frame of their doorlike body appears to be constructed from solid wood, and will shatter or splinter in similar fashion, but when viewing this material at a cellular level it becomes clear the doorloch is constructed with a living, biological matter that is wholly unique. Doorlochs also have unusually long fingers, sporting five digits on each hand.

These entities do not eat or sleep, and while that might cause harm to most creatures, doorlochs appear to have their own unusual way of gathering sustenance. With the ability to travel through timelines at will, it is hypothesized doorlochs somehow retain energy from their journeys. This plane-shifting energy is then broken down into fuel.

The doorloch lifespan lasts approximately three thousand years. At the end of this time, doorlochs will suddenly crack apart and pass away.

These entities are highly intelligent, but do not communicate through speech. Instead, doorlochs use their doors to display a variety of scenes to express an emotion or communicate a message. When this happens, the area outside a doorloch will exist solidly on one timeline, while the space between the door’s frame will offer a view into another.

Interestingly, these displays are more than just visual representations. Every time a doorloch opens its door, it is connecting to a real alternate timeline of existence. One could, if they so desired, walk through the doorloch and enter this new reality. The entity uses itself uses this process when traveling through realities, connecting to another timeline and then pulling themselves through the door in a strange inward movement. When this occurs, the doorloch will produce a specific tearing sound before popping out of existence.