The Doctor's people, the Time Lords, hail from the planet Gallifrey, 250 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Kasterborous. Gallifrey has an orange sky, and its population lives in one main building called the Capitol - 53 stories high, divided into sectors, with a communications tower and a central meeting room known as the Panopticon. The Capitol is surrounded by cloisters, and the vaults and foundations underneath it date from Gallifrey's Old Time. Important events in the Capitol are transmitted via public register video. Occasionally, it is vandalized by a group called the Shobogans, despite being patrolled by Chancellery Guards armed with stasers. Most Time Lords never venture into the wastelands outside the Capitol, and even if they did, they would have no idea how to survive - but in the past, a group of Time Lords who became known as Outsiders dropped out of Time Lord society and went to live in the midst of nature, where they became adept at hunting and generally surviving. The Time Lords, however, remain xenophobic - they do not like the Outsiders, and they most certainly do not like alien species. Because of this, Gallifrey is protected by transduction barriers and a quantum forcefield.
The Time Lords are divided into three chapters - the Prydonians, traditionally dressed in scarlet and orange; the Arcalians, in green; and the Patrexes, in heliotrope. They are ruled by a President, who is appointed by his predecessor on their Resignation Day, and traditionally holds symbols of office like the Sash and Rod of Rassilon, relics from the Old Time. The Prydonian chapter has produced more Presidents than all the other chapters together. Incoming Presidents traditionally pardon all political prisoners. There seems to be no limit on how long a President may serve - one President, Pandak III, held the office for 900 years, a particularly long time. Other Gallifreyan titles include the Chancellor, and below him the Castellan. Biog data extracts are kept for all Time Lords, color-coded by chapter and only accessible with a key.
One of the Time Lords' most celebrated figures is Rassilon, an engineer and architect responsible for most of the technology that the Time Lords enjoy. "Rassilon journeyed into the Black Void with a great fleet. Within the Void, no light would shine and nothing of that outer nature continued in being, except that which existed within the Sash of Rassilon. Now Rassilon found the Eye of Harmony which balances all things, that they may neither flux nor wither nor change their state in any measure. And he caused the Eye to be brought to the world of Gallifrey, wherein he sealed this beneficence with the Great Key. Then the people rejoiced." The Eye of Harmony to which this excerpt refers is the nucleus of a black hole which Rassilon was able to harness, and from which all the Time Lords' energy originates. The Great Key of Rassilon is actually a very ordinary-looking key, which is usually entrusted to the Chancellor. At his induction, the President is told to search for the Great Key; but because the Key, combined with the Rod and the Sash, provides the sum total of Time Lord power when linked to the Matrix, most Presidents are never given access to it. The Doctor becomes the first President since Rassilon to hold the Great Key, and this is only as a last resort when Gallifrey is invaded. The Sash of Rassilon is held by the President and stays in his possession at all times, although it has been damaged and no longer protects the wearer from all harm. The Rod of Rassilon (also sometimes called the Key!) is an ipolite rod that the President carries on ceremonial occasions, and at other times is kept in a display case of relics in the Panopticon. Its function is unknown.
A form of transportation known as "transduction" is sometimes used on Gallifrey, but the TARDIS time capsule is the usual means of offworld transportation for Time Lords. They do apparently have the capability of transporting a single agent through space and time without a TARDIS, although their arrival and departure is still heralded with the usual materialization sounds. In lieu of a TARDIS, a Time Ring can also be used - this is a thick band, made of some copper-like material with a metal swirl on top, which is clasped by all the participants who wish to use it for travelling purposes; they are then sent hurtling through time and space to their destination, although whether or not this destination is pre-programmed is unknown. The Time Lords can also control their TARDISes remotely, although there seem to be some restrictions on exactly when they can do this. They only begin directing the Doctor's TARDIS once they know where he is, and from this point they can even take control of it without the Doctor's permission. They like to see it as granting the Doctor his freedom in exchange for the occasional favor.
The Time Lords can be rather harsh disciplinarians. Crimes are judged by the Tribunal - in the Doctor's case, when he was first accused of interfering in others' affairs, the Tribunal chose a lenient sentence and simply banished him to Earth. This sentence was eventually remitted at the intercession of the Celestial Intervention Agency. The next occasion on which the Doctor fell afoul of Time Lord justice, again for excessive interference, he was tried by an Inquisitor in front of a jury of Time Lord peers. He was initially found guilty on this occasion, as well, and sentenced to give up his remaining regenerations, until events brought the prosecutor, and the evidence against him, into question. Executions, when they occur, are carried out in the vaporization chamber.
At the Academy, Time Lords are taught how to stop their hearts to feign death. When they actually do die, they are able to regenerate their entire body at a cellular level, which results in a complete change to both physical appearance and personality. For most Time Lords, regeneration is a painless process and they have the freedom to customize their new appearance; but the Doctor, being half-human, is not so fortunate. Time Lords can regenerate a total of twelve times, after which they, too, succumb to death, unless they prolong their life with unnatural means. It is implied that when a Time Lord dies for the twelfth time, and can no longer regenerate, his body simply fades away.
The Time Lords rely on the Amplified Panatropic Computations (APC), aka the Amplified Panatropic Computer net, which is a small part of the Matrix. The Matrix is the repository of the knowledge of departed Time Lords, composed of trillions of electrochemical cells in a continuous matrix. When a Time Lord dies, a brain scan is made at the moment of death and the impulses are transferred to the Matrix. Even Rassilon's mind lives on in the APC net. Its function is to monitor life in the Capitol and use the combined knowledge and experience to predict future developments. The Matrix can be entered mentally and physically; inside, it is like a fantasy world of illusions and dreams. Time Lords can use the artron energy in their brains to alter the "reality" within the Matrix.
Besides being extremely technologically advanced, the Time Lords are extremely powerful. They can place forcefields around entire planets, or even put them in a time loop as if they never existed at all, although this is only done in extreme circumstances. Their ultimate weapon is the Demat Gun, which is armed using the Key of Rassilon, and literally dematerializes its victim to parts unknown.
Unfortunately, during the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords, Gallifrey is destroyed and all the Time Lords presumed annihilated.
