Time loop

A time loop that Zorian, Zach, and Red Robe are apparently trapped within.

Every month time seems to go back to the start of the month. An iteration of the loop is sometimes called a restart. The people who retain their memories across restarts are also called "time travelers" or "loopers". They are distinguished by a marker on their souls. Zach was originally the only one. Quatach-Ichl used soul meld on him and Zorian, transferring a chunk of Zach's soul to Zorian along with the marker. This caused Zorian to loop (retain memory) as well. The imperial crown allows the Controller to place a temporary marker (referred to as "lesser marker" by the Guardian of the Threshold), which allows the marked person to persist for six restarts^[1]. Such people are referred to as temporary loopers.

Only the souls are looped but not the physical bodies, so loopers retain memories and can improve their spellcasting skills and mana reserves using the loop but can't become fitter, as any physical body changes (injuries or improvements) are effectively removed at the end of the month. Time loopers additionally are restricted to what's gathered to be the surrounding regions, and cities beyond the distance of Korsa are estimated as the limit where they'll start to lose connection.

Zach's death seems to end the loop, as does the emergence of a primordial. Astronomy seems to be normal, and the spiritual realms (inhabited by angels and demons) are cut off.

The soul marker on Zorian and Zach's soul can be tracked, and has a switch to end the loop iteration.

No actual time travel takes place; rather, a "blueprint" of the material plane (possibly limited in size, but certainly including the entire planet) is taken, for each time loop iteration, a copy is produced inside a pocket dimension and allowed to exist for up to one month (local time; the month inside corresponds to a small fraction of a second in the "real" Mother of Learning world), and then destroyed, except for the marked souls, which are moved to the next copy produced from the blueprint. Nevertheless, the expression "time loop" is used to describe the phenomenon, including presumably the designer of the mechanism implementing it (the Sovereign Gate).

The impending destruction is noticed by Spear of Resolve Striking Straight at the Heart of the Matter^[2] and Kylae Kuosi^[3], whose divinations produce a "blank" inside the time loop whenever they try to predict the future beyond the day of the summer festival, "as if everything beyond that date simply ceases to exist" (which is true with the regards to the copied world).