Warcraft Timeline

[Fallacy]

http://www.blizzplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=468&sid=10a5843de700c53a5d98e65553ea3e7a

Thanks to Abric for this.

[EnheilRas]

It's wrong.

I could go step-by-step, but I'm running on 3 hours sleep.

[Abric]

It isn't anything official, just some post by some guy. I'll try to find some better ones out there for you, Fallacy.

[Abric]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/timeline.html - Here is Blizzard's. It's more reading based, than an actual timeline... but it's official.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Warcraft - A very generic one from Wikipedia.

http://www.warcraftgaming.com/azeroth/history.php - Here's a timeline from Warcraft gaming.

[Danyxandra]

YAY Abric!!!! Thank you so much!.

[EnheilRas]

But even then, that doesn't make much sense because Thrall was 24 when WCIII began. He was born in the middle of the First War.

[Abric]

The best thing to do, is go by what Blizzard says. All the other stuff is reference material... but Blizzard should be the end all/be all of things that *must* be accurate.

If you are like Manus, and your world will crumble with the slightly of error... just keep in mind that with each race and each era, the type of calendar years are different.

I know, personally, I go by what is probably (I'm assuming here) the way that each era/race goes at.

Like, I go with Arathor time. Because, hey... some of us are old school.

[EnheilRas]

And then you discover shit like.. Draenor's Year Span is about a third of Azeroth's Year Span

and things get all fucked up.

[Tubruk]

I only gave it a quick read-through...but the unnoficial one seems to have a lack of troll stuff.


First they take out our sublime-singing joke and now this. Why do dey hate us so much?

[Kallindra]

http://www.blizzarduniverse.net/warcraft.php?pid=37

This has a nice timeline of how the events in Warcraft III: RoC and FT played out. It gives a good recap of the campaigns.

[Darkblade]

Re: First link.

They show Thrall escaping at "year 16", and present time being "year 25". Considering the portal opening is 1 year (of game time) past the beginning of WoW, makes our "present time" being 26 on that calendar.

Which would make Thrall escaping 10 years prior to the gate opening, whereas according to the Old Hillsbrad/CoT quest, it was 7 years prior (their "year 19").

Discuss. ;)

Also checked out the wiki timeline. It was wrong as well (listing TBC as year 27, instead of the "official" 26. I corrected that. That wiki also lists Lords of the Clans as year 18, whereas Thrall officially escaped in year 19. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how long time passes in that story before he escapes.

[Irontoe]

Well, it certainly makes writing a bio for a 180-year-old dwarf a PITA.

[Anaie]

ah didnt see this thread before I posted my other one... going to move that here.

[Anaie]

OK... I have seen way too many timelines that dont agree on key events. Anyone have a good timeline for WoW? ((I cant see the offical site at work, so if its there, oh.. hehe))

Specifically Im looking for information on scourge events.

Formation of the Cult of the Damned
Plague released on villages of Lordaeron
Plague and fall of city of Lordaeron
Forksaken break free
The Burning Crusade/current year

Any help would be appreciated, I am trying to consolidate some background rp details....

[Fallacy]

The beginning of the Cult of Damned was what spurned the Third War, so that's at the beginning of the 20th year after the First War. The Plague was spread very quickly once they had access to the grain supply of Lordaeron, perhaps only a month afterward. The city itself didn't fall until Arthas had returned and murdered his father a few months later, as the Plague, at that point, was thought to be suppressed. The Forsaken didn't break free until nearly another year after that.

The Burning Crusade takes place 5 years after that, making it currently the 26th year after the First War.

[Fallacy]

Re: First link.

They show Thrall escaping at "year 16", and present time being "year 25". Considering the portal opening is 1 year (of game time) past the beginning of WoW, makes our "present time" being 26 on that calendar.

Which would make Thrall escaping 10 years prior to the gate opening, whereas according to the Old Hillsbrad/CoT quest, it was 7 years prior (their "year 19").

Discuss. ;)

Also checked out the wiki timeline. It was wrong as well (listing TBC as year 27, instead of the "official" 26. I corrected that. That wiki also lists Lords of the Clans as year 18, whereas Thrall officially escaped in year 19. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how long time passes in that story before he escapes.

And, sorry I didn't get to this earlier, the problem is that Lord of the Clans takes place over several years. Thrall actually escaped at the age of 12, but spent some years among the Warsong and the Frostwolves before returning to free the other orcs from the camps, which took some time in itself. Lord of the Clans is also marked on the official timeline as taking place on the 18th year, which marks the end of the book, I'd suppose.

[Vilmah]

My favorite WC book, and the inspiration for Vilmah.

[Anaie]

The exposure of the cult and the beginning of the plague is in 20 though right? the Cult began to form in 10 and grew until 20, infiltrating and planning?

Also, in the beginning it was the plauged grains, then after the grains were destroyed, the plague cauldrons were used, if I read properly? Also, anyone know the year when the Scarlet Crusade attempted the Naval invasion of Northrend?

[Fallacy]

The Cult of the Damned wasn't nearly that old. As soon as it started taking action, only a few months after it was formed, was when the Silver Hand began to take action against it, which was the beginning of the Third War.

The cauldrons were used directly to poison the grain. After most of the population was infected, there was no point in using them so subtly anymore, and they were brought in directly to infect people.

The naval excursion happened not long after the Scarlet Crusade was formed, but probably before the death of Mograine and its corruption.

[Anaie]

at least 3 years from what I know.... ((from the main site))


Kel'Thuzad returned to Lordaeron in disguise, and over the span of three years, he used his fortune and intellect to gather a clandestine brotherhood of like-minded men and women. The brotherhood, which he called the Cult of the Damned, promised its acolytes social equality and eternal life on Azeroth in exchange for their service and obedience to Ner'zhul. As the months passed, Kel'Thuzad found many eager volunteers for his new cult amongst the tired, overburdened laborers of Lordaeron. It was surprisingly easy for Kel'Thuzad to achieve his goal: namely, to transfer the citizens' faith in the Holy Light into belief in Ner'zhul's dark shadow. As the Cult of the Damned grew in size and influence, Kel'Thuzad made sure to hide its workings from the authorities of Lordaeron.



Regardless, thank you for the help!

[Kaebora]

I personally have been using the official timeline posted up there on the World of WarCraft site. However, I have some issues with how they portray the eredar on there that totally go against official books and in-game descriptions of their past:


...Over the eons, Sargeras encountered two powerful demonic races, both of which were bent on gaining power and dominance over the physical universe.

The eredar, an insidious race of devilish sorcerers, used their warlock magics to invade and enslave a number of worlds. The indigenous races of those worlds were mutated by the eredar's malevolent powers and turned into demons themselves...

I take the discrepancy in years to be Blizzard's attempt at retconning things from previous games that they've reconsidered and I take this timeline (and its descriptions) to be actual canon lore. Indeed, all of the written books match up with this timeline (to my knowledge) and the majority of the stuff from the games match up as well, so I'm inclined to go solely with what is posted on their website.

In this example, however, it states that the eredar are an "insidious race" - which, if you've read Rise of the Horde (which, by the way, isn't even ON the timeline at the beginning and neither is Tides of Darkness, though that is relatively new) is NOT the case. The eredar were NOT an "insidious race", but instead were incredibly peaceful, though powerful. They were corrupted by Sargeras and Velen took his draenei faction and left Kil'Jaeden and Archimonde.

This is clearly wrong, and I'm honestly thinking of drafting an e-mail/main forum post/something to Blizzard (specifically the people in charge of lore) to get them to change this and other discrepancies, or at least explain them.

If they're going to have a timeline of events on their site, it should be correct.

So, if you guys want to gather up all the discrepancies, we can make this a joint effort or something and get some answers to some of these questions.

I'm assuming that no one has questioned this stuff before, which is why I'm planning on doing so myself. Please let me know if I'm simply restating some call to arms that someone else has already had. =P

[Malakim]

If you read that lore page at the beginning of it, it says that not all of this lore is "correct" (Even though it was, and I still stick with it because going lol lore we wanna have space demon squids and so instead of going a band of them were touched by the light when they went to corrupt a world controlled by the naaru and they purified the demon taint in those Eredar or something simple like that they changed all of it.)

Oh and it says that plan on changing that lore page "someday"

[Kaebora]

Ah yes, I see where it says that now. Still, it might be a good idea to just point out their problems for them so they have to do less work. Might give them an incentive to change it faster if their employee has to work less to do it.

[Bronan]

Really from a IC point of view timelines would vary from race to race, because for example the tauren have very limited history in writing. They are very oral based when it comes to history so there timeline will be different than say the gnomes

[Lurazinae]

I, personally, am quite fond of "lol lore", because there seems to be more discrepancies in Blizzard's Warcraft lore than there were in the Bailout Bill.

[Swerto]

Zing!

[Raziel]

porkbarrel lore

[Renaza]

So, is there a decent timeline anywhere? Most of the links from the front page of this thread are now dead.

I'm new to playing Horde, and I don't want to make a "my Night Elf was born in Darnassus" type of mistake.

[Darkweald]

Take your pick of any of the various timelines provided by Blizzard here:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Timeline

I tend to find this one, which concatenates all available timeline sources to the best of its ability, the most useful:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Timeline_(unofficial)