The People, sometimes stylised asthe people [singular: either exclusively Person (PROSE:Ghost Devices) or People (AUDIO:Walking to Babylon)], came together from various space-faring species which encountered each other and then built theWorldsphere. They were watched over byGod.

Biology[[edit] |[edit source]]

The People, culturally, could be divided into organic and inorganic. Even within these classifications there was great variation in the People. Many of the organic People werehumanoid, though with greater variation thanhumans, ranging in skin colour, number of digits and other traits. Other People had vastly different forms, including the assimilatedAll of Us. The inorganic people were spherical drones and ships. They were typically much smarter than organic People. (PROSE:The Also People,PROSE:Walking to Babylon) There was overlap between the two categories, such asClarence, whohad a mechanical brain and an organic body. (PROSE:Ghost Devices)

The People were not known for theirtelepathic abilities. (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle)

Culture[[edit] |[edit source]]

The People's culture consisted ofinterest groups. These interests ranged from learning primitivecooking styles and studying other species to the study oftime travel. (PROSE:Walking to Babylon,Ghost Devices)

Their worst punishment was ostracism. (PROSE:The Also People)

History[[edit] |[edit source]]

At the end of theMillennium War of150 million BC, the People feared theMad Mind of Bophemeral becoming agod more powerful than their ownGod and revealed their existence to the outside universe to choreograph the final assault on the Mad Mind. The People's God worked withTime Lords led byRassilon to generate thetime loop that ended the Wars. It was God who communicated the victors' wish to theSix-Fold-God that the War be completely forgotten by the universe. (PROSE:The Quantum Archangel)

Before2564, the People fought a war with an insectoid species generally known asthe Insects. About twenty-six billion sentient individuals were killed, and fifteenplanets, three rings and fifteenasteroid habitats were completely destroyed. (PROSE:The Also People,PROSE:Walking to Babylon)

Subsequently, the People signed aTreaty with the Time Lords. TheSeventh Doctor,aM!xitsa and the AI known asGod formed half of the original negotiating team. (PROSE:The Also People)

In2594,God planned to investigatethe Spire ofCanopus IV and to cause/stop theparadox that surrounded it. Despite all his simulations showing thatBernice Summerfield would kill herself if she was involved, God sentClarence to recruit her. Though Bernice did try to kill herself after the events,meddling by temporal forces allowed Clarence to save her. (PROSE:Ghost Devices)

In2594,WiRgo!xu,!Ci!ci-tel and!qu-!qu-tala believed that the People had become complacent since the war with All of Us was too easy and used thetime travel technology ofthe Path to travel to the ancientEarth city ofBabylon,570 BCE. Ostensibly there to rough it out and develop a sense of humility, they also were trying to break the treaty with the Time Lords and lead to atime war. This would give the People a sense of risk.Bernice Summerfield convinced them to give up this plan. (PROSE:Walking to Babylon) Despite the incident in Babylon, God knew that a conflict was inevitable. Since he believed that the People's lack of telepathy was the reason they hadn't mastered time travel, God planned to utilise theOracle of the Lost to avoid the issue. (PROSE:Tears of the Oracle)Romana III sought future Time Lord technology to help with their "dispute" with the People. (PROSE:The Shadows of Avalon)

After the invasion of theFerutu in2595, the People recalled all their agents and sealed themselves in theirWorldsphere. (PROSE:Where Angels Fear,Twilight of the Gods)

By the earlyposthuman era, the People were thought by some to be myth. Very shortly afterher resurrection in theCity of the Saved,Marinthe said thatDyson spheres were theoretical if one didn't believe in the People. (PROSE:Farewell to a World)

In thepost-War universe,Ferran's teams recovered a crashed ship in theLibrarinth; the ship's builders were "long since gone" and lived in "a time that may not even have happened." Ferran christened itSupremacy. (PROSE:Father Time) At theend of the universe,Helios speculated that theNeedle People of the Librarinth were from theAccidentally Left Behind When Everyone Else Transcended This Reality Interest Group, reasoning it would explain their obsession with finding God. (PROSE:The Infinity Doctors)

Behind the scenes[[edit] |[edit source]]

• The People have much in common withthe Culture, featured in many of the novels ofIain M. Banks. The earlier books featuring the Culture predate the first appearance of the People.
• InLance Parkin's early drafts for an epilogue toThe Dying Days, he specified that the People were destroyed by theDaleks in theFinal Dalek War.^[1][2]

Footnotes[[edit] |[edit source]]