Weekly Question: Who created the Pocket Watch?

[Ben]

Hello Timecresters! I've been away for quite a while, so I thought I'd stop back with a question about Ash's communication counterpart, and its origins. We know that Ash inherited it from his birth family, more specifically Luthor. However, we also see Julius modifying the watch in the Chapter 10 flashbacks. If Julius knows his way around the watch, perhaps Luthor inherited the watch as well. It may not seem obvious, nor do we know what it is made of, or much about the Nexutas spell's workings, but since (Ezra Memory Oracle Spoilers) the Nexutas spell was first used by Ezra a millennia ago, it may not be such a farfetched idea that Luthor was not the creator of the watch. So, I ask all of you, who created the Pocket Watch? How does it communicate between worlds? As with every weekly question, the best theory will receive 300 Time Crystals, the second place theory will be rewarded 100 Time Crystals, and upon closing, we will have a random winner of 50 Time Crystals! It's good to be back, and finally, without further ado, fire away!

[hyperhs]

OooOOh, this sounds fun. Hi, I'm hyperhs, and I'm new here! This is my first time posting anything on here

Let's go.

Stuff We Know About The Watch:

• Currently owned by Ash Elden; has had it since he was delivered to their adoptive family’s doorstep as a baby (Confirmed Ch. 9, Windsorhowl Path)
• Previously owned by Ch. 9/10 spoilers Luthor Timecrest; used to communicate to his own human friend
  • At some point tossed away the watch, Riley picked it up and delivered it with Ash to the Eldens (Confirmed Ch. 9, Windsorhowl Path)
  • ‘Julius picked up the pocket watch. He sighed, sat down, and started modifying the watch.’ -- Ch. 10, trusting Chronos
• No known production records listing the pocket watch (no confirmed maker) (Ch. 8, Grand Library)
  • The Archive Oracle searches Alyncian tomes, and there's probably no human records in the Library.
  • Conner has an interest in it, and is probably aware of its connection to the human world.
• The only confirmed function of the watch is for communication with the human world. I don’t recall Ash ever using it to tell the time. Ever.
  • Come to think of it, do Alyncians use watches to tell the time? Everyone else sees Ash talking to the watch and, beyond asking who he’s talking to, they don’t appear to question its function. I don’t remember any mentions of clocks at all, either. Correct me if I’m wrong.
• Glyphs appear on the watch face as we send words to Ash; only Ash (and Chronos, presumably) can see them. In Timecrest 2, these words appear directly in Ash’s head.
  • Chronos’s words do not reach the player until after Timecrest 1, he claims to have cast a spell on the watch allowing him to communicate to the player directly.

Stuff We Know About Nexutas
Disclaimer: I’ve only unlocked the first two Ezra stories.

• It’s the spell used to connect to the human world; its connection is found in an apple.
  • The description for the Nexutas spell simply says ‘Connects Alyncia to you. Ash has been working long and hard to reach you. Who would have thought that the key is in an apple?’
• Speaking of apples:
  • There’s a scene in Ch. 8, if you visit the Apple Courtyard, and you can see Conner uprooting all the apple trees. (Again, adding to the idea that he knows that Ash is communicating with a human, and that Conner is perhaps trying to prevent such things from happening by, you know. Killing all the apples.)
• The waiting animation of the circling light is most likely what Nexutas looks like.
  • Ash describes the spell at work (in conjunction with the watch) as “a blue circle of dust transform[ing] into glyphs (Ch.1) and a “paleish, circling, beautiful blue light” (Ch. 6).
  • Fun fact: even when connection is lost for Ash, we can still see the Nexutas spell at work.
• Ash didn’t cast Nexutas to connect to us.
  • [when learning Levitas in Ch.1] “I can definitely say I didn’t feel this when learning Nexutas… I’m really curious as to why that is…”
  • You don’t reconnect with Ash in the wait between Timecrest 1 and 2 until you get that message from Red Text.
  • “You still think it’s your magic that led to the connection between you and the human in this courtyard.” -- Ignis, Ch. 9
• This spell can be affected (Ignis torches the watch and communication becomes spotty afterwards) Ch. 10.
• Ezra Memory Oracle Spoiler Ezra cast Nexutas Ultimas in the memory oracles, and he didn’t have a watch. Possibly it required a stronger spell due to the fact that he had to form that connection from scratch.

CONCLUSION. I think the pocket watch originates from the human world, and was possibly made by Julius Timecrest.

REASONS:

• I have no reason to believe watches are a normal thing. Perhaps they were introduced to Alyncia when the human world and Alyncia were connected. They don’t seem to be feared, as most human artifacts are, but they don’t seem to be very common, either. That could just be Ash’s unreliable narration, but. Well. Who knows.
• The Timecrests (Julius, Luthor, Ash) have a connection with humans, for obvious reasons, and the watch has only ever been spotted in their hands.
• I think it’s been brought up before, but Julius Timecrest is the human in the Timecrest family, right? Correct me if I’m wrong. And he’s also the one shown tinkering with the thing, suggesting that he’s familiar with it. Perhaps he brought it over from Earth.
• Nexutas is compatible with the watch. Apples are the item that Nexutas is drawn from. And we know apples and watches are items in the human world; it’s not too much of a jump to assume that Nexutas would work better if it had a history with the human world. Like, you know, being made on Earth, by a human.

Other thoughts that came up while compiling all this:

• I think the watch might be the thing that we channel the time travel power through? It's brought up that it's really weird for us to be able to turn back/stop time in Alyncia despite not being there, and it probably has something to do with the watch. Ezra's really powerful, but powers regarding time seem to be a human thing. And if the watch was a human creation, that might have something to do with it.
• I have a bunch of new thoughts on Chronos but they aren't related to the watch so I'll probably make a separate post. Eventually. Maybe. RIP
• Conner's actions researching the watch and messing up the Apple Courtyard suggest that he suspects that the watch has something to do with humans, and may even know that the key to the Nexutas spell has something to do with apples. He's probably trying to confirm it so he can rat out Ash like he did with Marik. His motives could be that he's an overzealous human-hater, but (and I don't have anything to really back this up, just my gut) I think he might be a human descendant himself? He's been shown to be ambitious and has no qualms about running over other people to put himself on top. He could be ratting out other people to keep suspicion off of himself. It seems like the type of thing he'd do.
  Adam says (Tremble Caves spoilers) Conner killed him and then paid him to keep quiet, but it's never actually confirmed -- just heavily supported considering Adam wasn't burnt to ashes like everyone else. Also, before he dies, he says "beware of Conner... he is..." without finishing the sentence. It might be that he would say that Conner is a human descendant, which would be taken seriously due to human prejudice.
• In the Ch. 10 flashbacks, Luthor said "I can only turn back time five minutes at a time… I’ve scarred Ash for life." And we know that Ash also only travels back five minutes and is unable to undo damage done to others (RIP). Just saying... maybe Chronos and his human friend learned that one the hard way, too.

OOOOF. This got really long, whoops. But yeah, those are my thoughts on the watch!

[ChristineMoon]

Welcome to the board, HyperHS! Wow, that’s is a lot of research and proof there. Great suggestions! Can’t wait to hear more theories.

[IrisNightfall]

I have a couple ideas.....
but my first choice would be (spoilers!) Ezra’s human friend, Alvin. Since he is the first human, that we know of, to use time crystals in Ezra’s world.
We know that Ash and Luthor are half human. So they have the ability to manipulate a small amount of time. However, i’m more curious about their parents. In one memory, from Chapter 10, Julius basically tells baby-Ash that he was ‘created by two worlds with love’. So, which parent is full human? My guess would be Julius. At the end of one memory he is tweaking with the pocket watch. So,if he is fully human, then he probably has a better under standing, and perhaps a stronger control, of time magic.

Luthor’s comment about Ash and how he is “not the first Alyncian” to contact us.... it’s hard to say if he is referring to himself, or someone before him (perhaps his father?).
I believe that the creator of the pocket watch is also the red voice that taunts us through out the game.

So, WHO IS THE RED VOICE?
The posibilities that i’ve come up with are...
Alvin - Ezra’s human friend.
a ‘past’ version of Chronos.
a ‘future’ version of Ash.
Julius - father of Luthor and Ash.

The red voice could represent the anger or twisted personality who was betrayed, or became obsessed with power....
This leans closer toward Alvin or Chronos (unless there is a new character introduced in Timecrest 3).

However, there is also a BLUE VOICE.
This unknown character talks to us with sorrow and guilt for ‘not following our advice’. For now, this narrows the list down. Leaving Luthor/Chronos, Ash, and Julius.

Through out the memories in chapter 10, we see that Julius is determined to provide his knowledge and abilities to help the King. (Luthor sees this as a horrible idea.) so, if Julius is the ‘first alycian’ we talked to.... perhaps the advice we gave was a warning about the king, and Julius is too cheerful to notice the danger.

In Luthor’s situation, perhaps we are trying to convince him of a better solution for the situation between humans and alycians. Which results in failure.

In Ash’s case, we are not clear on what he will choose in the end. So it is almost impossible to know what mistake he makes.

Now....
Are the RED and BLUE voices two sides of the same person? If so, are they trapped inside the pocket watch, or reaching out to us from a different timeline?

[ChristineMoon]

Great suggestions, Iris. I definitely remember reading that Julius is human. And if you play through chapter 10 again (go with Roger in 8), you may find out something interesting about Helena’s history.

There are plenty of theories on who the red and blue voice belong to, but no confirmation. I’m really looking forward to part 3 to get those answers.

[Ben]

Also, a non-spoiler hint for Chapter 10: take the photo. You'll know what I mean

[IrisNightfall]

Well...... i’ve already taken the photo before. But how does ignis know Ash’s mother?..... he kept talking about ‘violet eyes’..... she has violet eyes right?
Darn it, i can’t remember! 😫

[Kataleara]

Luthor invented that particular watch Ash has inherited, but perhaps Ezra invented the initial concept that which the Timecrests expanded upon by linking the spell to a watch.

[ChristineMoon]

Welcome to the board, Kataleara! Great suggestion, since Ezra founded magic and is certainly old enough have the time to work on inventions.

[sting251]

I think if could have been made as a joint effort by Riley, Luther, and Luthor's parents/ one of his parents. Seeing as how Riley knew about how it works, luthor's connection to it, and the fact that she gave it to ash, I don't think it's too far fetched of an idea that, at least partially, Riley had a part in making the pocket watch.

Or...

making it magical. It may have just been a regular pocket watch from the human world that they made magical and able to connect the two worlds, and Riley and Luthor made it enchanted.
Riley may have given it to ash, after it stopped working for Luther, or whatever happened, hoping ash could find it useful and make a connection to us, bringing it full circle.

[ChristineMoon]

Good points! The Valdorians definitely had a full library of magic at their commands, and Riley knew a lot of spells.

[Gehvin]

Apple did—I think it is a custom pocket Apple watch made for Julius, a wealthy, intelligent human who fell in love with Helen and they created the connection to each other.

[sting251]

How long will this thread go until we get results?

[Ben]

Hmmm, how about now?

[Ben]

Congratulations to this week's winner hyperhs and our second place winner IrisNightfall, and our first random winner is sting251! You will all receive information on how to redeem your time crystals. Great theories everyone, and I'll see you next time!