Temporalian

Temporalian is a term used in speculative fiction and worldbuilding to refer to a fictional civilization, people, or language associated with time. Broadly, Temporalian denotes beings or cultures that perceive, measure, or manipulate time as a central aspect of reality. The name combines Latin tempus meaning time with the suffix -arian, signaling relation.

In narrative contexts, Temporalians are often depicted as possessing chronotechnologies or temporal abilities, such as time dilation, accelerated aging, or the observation of alternative timelines. Societies described as Temporalian frequently structure themselves around timekeeping, chronology, or ethics anchored to temporal considerations. For example, calendars may encode histories and futures non-linearly, or governance may adapt to cycles of time that affect memory, labor, or resource use.

The term also appears in speculative linguistics and worldbuilding to denote a language or dialect family where tense, aspect, and mood are encoded through temporal frameworks or temporal reference points. In such depictions, Temporalian grammar may encode time differently from Earth languages, using tempo-based affixes or systemic time-slicing.

In fiction, Temporalian concepts appear in science fiction novels, role-playing games, and video games as shorthand for stories about time travel, causality, and temporal ethics. While not tied to a single canonical source, the term provides a flexible label for exploring how civilizations might organize life around time, or how beings might interface with pasts, presents, and possible futures. See also time manipulation, chronomancy, non-linear time.