The Time-Keepers are powerful beings of pure knowledge who become the guardians of all of time, steering it to its proper end without interference.
Custodians of the Timestream
The Time-Keepers are the creation of He Who Remains, the very last director of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) existing at the final common endpoint of all surviving realities in the multiverse, just prior to the heat death of the universe. The Keepers serve two purposes: First, they are a gift to the future, teaching those of the next universal cycle how to avoid the errors of the past; and second, they serve as living batteries of chronal power, the accumulated (and growing) energy of the TVA’s eternity of existence, which is used to ensure quality of life for retired TVA employees.
Unfortunately, the three entities that hatch from He Who Remains’ nurture pods are immediately flawed—even warped. Dubbed the Time-Twisters, they travel backwards through time, seeking the origins of the universe, heedless of their destruction of each era through which they passed. The Twisters’ backward spiral interacts with Earth every 30 centuries, a cosmic upheaval upon their departure reducing it to cinder as they left.
Zarrko the Tomorrow Man’s Timescope observes their destruction of 80th century Earth, and he realizes that the 50th century Earth that he had conquered (Earth-7613) would be next to fall. Zarrko brings Earth-616’s Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, and his allies Jane Foster and the Warriors Three to his kingdom, then announced a great reward for anyone able to destroy the Twisters. After the Twisters casually wipe out Zarrko’s army, they are informed that the worlds they had visited were not better off via the gift of learning as they had assumed, but had instead been utterly destroyed. Unconcerned (feeling the knowledge they sought was worth the sacrifice of a million worlds), the Twisters ignore Thor and his allies’ assaults as they departed, destroying Earth-7613. Zarrko, Thor and Thor’s allies travel to the Citadel at the End of Time, arriving moments before the Twisters’ hatching. They show He Who Remains what his creations had become, and he terminates the incubating Twisters, preventing their existence.
He Who Remains then replaces the Time-Twisters with more perfect versions—the Time-Keepers known as Ast, Vorth, and Zanth. However, this reality created two divergent branches of reality. In one reality, Reality-794282, He Who Remains aborts the Twisters and creates the Keepers; and in the other, Reality-761243, he does not abort the Twisters, and thus never creates the Keepers. Ever since, the two divergent branches of reality shift back and forth in dominance, with the Twisters and the Keepers competing for dominion at the end of time, and thus being able to shape the next reality. At some point, He Who Remains banishes a mysterious fourth Time-Keeper, who becomes known as the Oracle of Siwa, to ancient Egypt in 2950 BC.
The Keepers set themselves up as custodians of the timestream, authorizing the installation of Uatu the Watcher’s extradimensional portal, allowing him to view other realities. They also appoint Immortus as custodian of the segment of time between 3000 BC and 4000 AD.
Vast Temporal Powers
The Time-Keepers have great power to manipulate temporal energy. They can age entire armies to dust or reverse aging to before the point of life (virtual immortals such as Asgardian gods can resist these effects). They can summon beings from any point in the timestream, sending them to do their bidding. They can travel through time and into various alternate realities, form powerful energy shields, project force blasts, and grant power to others.
The Throne of Judgement
The three Time-Keepers work together using the power of the Forever Crystal, which allows them to remove countless realities from existence within seconds. They claim to have authority that not even the cosmic arbiter known as the Living Tribunal can judge.
The fourth Time-Keeper, the Oracle of Siwa, operates independently of the other three. Siwa can see flashes into the timestream but cannot time-travel like the others.
Forever Foes
The sole divergent counterparts of the Time-Keepers are the Time-Twisters, with one each existing in one of the two final divergent realities at the very end of time. The Keepers and Twisters each manipulate events in the multiverse to ensure their own survival and domination of their counterparts. The Time-Twisters originally sought knowledge at the beginning of time, heedless that they destroyed the time periods through which they passed.
Foreseeing that the Avengers pose a threat to the Time-Keepers’ existence, they instruct their time custodian Immortus to break them up. However, he becomes impressed by them, and instead defies the Time-Keepers’ order. Also seeing that Rick Jones poses a threat, they amass an army of destructive alternate-reality Avengers to oppose him. Defended by Immortus’ hostile divergent counterpart Nathaniel Richards, AKA Kang the Conqueror, the mysterious Gustav Brandt, AKA Libra (formerly of the Zodiac Cartel), and the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence, Jones gathers the Avengers from various time periods to his side. Immortus seemingly destroys the Time-Keepers, but they survive his assault.
Tentative Allies
The Time-Keepers only true allies are themselves as time will tell that their time custodian Immortus turns on them. They also serve the TVA as their living batteries of chronal energy, supporting their eternity of existence and providing them a life in retirement.