An ancient Gallifreyan religious relic that is mystically attuned to the frequencies of the Time Vortex and Time Lord DNA. The Holem was originally the smaller component of the Expirichron, a rudimentary time/space device, created by the clandestine Gallifreyan cult called the Clocon, from stolen Time Lord Technology; created to be used as a weapon against the Time Lords.
With the Time Vortex acting in tandem with the energies of the Holem, the powerful forces of time energy turn inward upon the basic make-up of anyone of the Time Lord race, affecting them internally. Within the stasis of the Stillness, at the center of the Time Vortex, the Holem, mystically attuned, becomes a catalyst, concentrating all frequencies of energy contained in the vortex and transforms them into meta-genic reverberations which bombard Time Lord DNA, causing cellular mutation and instigating what is called Retrocyclic Regeneration. This regeneration causes a complete cellular breakdown of Time Lord physiology and regression through all of his/her previous regeneration cycles back to a point in the body’s original state, actually reversing the body’s age and the normal effects of time.
The Holem was removed from the Expirichron prior to its confiscation by the Time Lords and was lost on Gallifrey. Centuries later, when it was discovered on another planet, its history now lost in time, it became a sacred relic to a small group of religious sky worshippers. It eventually came into the possession of the Soothsayer of the planet Maol.