In the world of Lost there exists a very special island, a point on earth unlike any other that contains special qualities, call it Eden, call it Atlantis, but it exists. The island is unique in all the earth as it is a place which encompasses all time at once and all the points of its own historical timeline converge. It is a place where literally the past, present and future coexist. It is a place where the voices and ghosts of the future can bleed into the lives of those in the past or present and vice versa.
The island has the ability to not only traverse time, but physically travel so that its location cannot be easily found. Existing on the island since time immemorial is a race of four toed humanoids that are living in peace, harmony and seclusion from the rest of the planet; they have built both a temple and great statue of their great leader Jacob. However, the ghosts and whispers of the future have warned Jacob and his people of a terrible calamity that will take place on the island in the distant future. It will not only destroy the island, but the entire planet and perhaps the very fabric of time.
What is known is that a group of people from outside their island come there and cause the events that lead to this calamity, and it must somehow be stopped. Jacob being a man of both faith and science sets out to devise a way to change this unchangeable future. There is hope, as there are prophecies that if the event can be avoided the son of the one who can stop the cataclysm will become another great leader of their civilization and of the world. However, these are only prophecies, and fate, it seems has already sealed the doom of all humanity. While Jacob understands the impossibility of changing the future, his faith in the prophecies set him on a course to try to attempt to change the future. Using his abilities, he is able to harness the unique electromagnetic power of the island with a simple machine that utilizes a wheel. He devises this first to protect the island from any outsiders. The wheel machine also allows him to traverse at any point in the timeline of the island itself. It also allows him to physically move the island, and move himself or others off the island completely, through a portal or wormhole to a point on the opposite side of the Earth (Tunisia).
The island itself and a small radius around the island (due to its unique electromagnetic qualities) always run at a time rate continuum that is different from outside the radius which runs in the present non-island time. Daniel Faraday in his experiment proves this when he has a payload fired to him that arrives 35 minutes after he expected it to arrive.
There are some specific rules to travel on and off the island:
- One can use the wheel device to go to the past, but only the island's past. It cannot be utilized to get to the past on any other portion of the planet through the Tunisia exit portal.
- The device can be used to travel to the future, both the island's future and a future off of the island, but only coming out the Tunisia portal exit for the off-island future.
- The device can also be utilized to safely transfer off the island through the Tunisia portal into present off-island time, but this is dangerous and could cause the island itself to skip through time.
- Besides the device, one can leave or enter the island only through some very specific coordinates which will allow him or her to reach the off-island present time safely.
- Travel outside of these coordinates, will cause a person to go mad as their consciousness cannot make the time transition, unless they have a constant as a point of reference. (If the island is in 2002 but present time is 2003, your 2002 consciousness will be unable to reconcile your now 2003 consciousness and you will get a brain aneurysm and die)
