Talk:Timeline

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• 2010-2014

Zinn and the Creation of Rata Novus

We met the Asura Zinn during War in Kryta, which took place during the Beyond events, in 1079 AE. It's after that, that Zinn was exiled from the Asuran Community and left off to create Rata Novus. So we should be able to pin-down the creation of Rata Novus within those years, no?

Meaning that Rata Novus lasted less than a century =/ --Edgar.Doiron (talk) 14:47, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Unfortunately, our "happened within these years" gap is very large. We know that asura can live up to 120 years but we don't know Zinn's age so we can't even narrow it down to a case of "between 1080 AE and <(120 - (Zinn's Birthyear - 1080)) + 1080> AE". However, we also know they were well established by the time they fell and by all indication, when they allied with the Exalted (which given they came to be around the time the Zephyrites did would point to them building Tarir and hibernating within 50 years after GW1 - little later than when the dwarves fully turned to stone at the latest). So we can reduce it down to just "between 1080 AE and 1130 AE, most likely on the earlier side of the spectrum" but that's not efficient to denote on the timeline article. Konig 22:17, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Updates

When will the timeline be updated in the game —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.91.54.120 (talk • contribs) at 13:52, 7 June 2016‎ (UTC).
I hope they update the timeline soon for the living world . Now that mordremoth gas been dealt with. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.91.54.120 (talk • contribs) at 18:00, 7 June 2016‎ (UTC).

There is no timeline in the game. The closest thing is the year marking on the story journal - so we won't get more of that until LW season 3. Konig 22:33, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

Feedback 2016/07/19

The timeline states Southsun Cove was "discovered", yet I have found no evidence that it was not known about beforehand, with the obvious exception of it not appearing on maps. The only reference to a discovery is that it was included in the "Lost Shores" patch. I find it difficult to believe an island of this size would not have been discovered in the ~100 years since Zhaitan's rise or even prior to that, assuming it did not emerge over the years (given the unique wildlife here, one could assume it has existed for quite some time, being more than 100 years.)--110.142.3.225 14:03, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

The entire plot (or pre-plot) was about how Canach and a team was sent out to explore the island and document it. The reason we had to track Canach down during The Lost Shores was because no one but him (and what little remained of his team) knew where to find Southsun Cove. The western (and larger) island is volcanic, so it's actually relatively new, where it isn't covered in karka webbing, and Zhaitan has prevented a lot of sea faring. Furthermore, not all maps are scaled to size - Southsun might be, but all other maps definitely aren't. I think we're meant to believe there's far more open water than we see on the world map. Konig 16:56, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Tarir in the timeline

In the timeline it is stated, that Tarir was built by the Forgotten and Exgalted in 1228 AE. That is a mere 100 years from the present. In the article about Tarir, it is stated, that it is an "ancient city, built centuries ago". That does not fit each other. 80.136.132.167 09:42, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

This happens when I don't double-check others. Tarir was built about 200 years prior to the current date in-game. I will note that the original lore we got on Tarir did imply that it was built even before GW1, before we knew where it was or the more exact lore of the Exalted. But it was created around the forming of the Zephyrites, and it was from the Zephyrites that the Exalted were chosen from - the Zephyrites formed ~200 years prior, in the last days of the dwarves as the successors of the Brotherhood of the Dragon. Konig (talk) 16:09, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Highlighting the years in which the games take place.

Is is possible to highlight the table rows the represent the years in which GW1 and GW2 take place? I think that would be useful, especially for GW1. ~ Fishrock ^(talk) 22:51, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

I can get it for GW1, but for all the years that GW2 takes place would just be highlighting the top 6 rows for GW2. And without a doubt, at least a few more in the future. Eventually it'd get to the point where the first screen's height's worth is highlighted. Which seems counter to the point. Konig (talk) 23:23, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Spoiler?

Should we add a spoiler warning at the top or is it already obvious enough that it'll have spoilers? ~~Trevor95251 13:02, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Present day redux

Queen Jennah was crowned in 1316. TiffanySmith.8216 (talk) 22:44, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm going to take the sylvari character creation "my race awakened twenty-five years ago" in-game statement as when the sylvari were born. Present year is 1325, the Firstborn were born in 1300. It makes the most sense given the years for other things - 1326 for when Scarlet's terrorizing started, Mordremoth awoke in 1327, defeated Mordremoth in 1328... There's no room for the Pact and killing Zhaitan to have taken place any later than 1325. Zojja says "I blamed you for many years, myself" in the Arah dungeon, and we know that started in 1320. "Many years" makes sense - that occurs near the end of 1325, making six years since Destiny's Edge broke up, which fits with the "many years" description. I never understood why the timelines all say the sylvari awoke in 1302 - that makes absolutely no sense. TiffanySmith.8216 (talk) 22:41, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

Uh, TiffanySmith, you're responding to comments from 2012/2013 :P --Imry ☎ 22:46, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

Fixed: made their comment a new section and archived the old stuff to avoid further confusion. - Do_odleplex 23:07, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

To clarify for TiffanySmith: Anet LOVES rounding their years. The Firstborn was born in 1302 AE. The whole "the first sylvari were born 25 years ago" from opening sylvari cinematic is just Anet rounding because 1) it flows better than "my race awakened twenty-three years ago" and 2) originally Anet was planning to have a true living world where the personal story "always happened now" while the living world content happened in a specific order - which meant they had to be super ambiguous about the Pact and the Commander status; this was too much of a hassle and too limiting in plot so they gave it up when reaching the end of Season 1 (this is half of why there's practically zero reference to the Pact in S1). The timelines state the sylvari were born in 1302 AE because that's what the novel timelines list it as, and I do believe there's a couple NPC dialogues in the game citing 1302 AE as well.

Also, about Zhaitan's death later than 1325 AE: Conspiracy of Dunces marks Zhaitan's death during spring 1326 AE, just "a few days" before 60 Zephyr (a direct, proper, translation from Gregorian would mean ~May 15th since the Mouvelian calendar begins on the Spring Equinox (aka March 20th-22nd depending on year for Gregorian calendar). Konig (talk) 23:53, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

Zhaitan

In the timeline Zhaitans death is mentioned in 1326 while the story journal for Victory or Death says 1325 AE.--Aylia (talk) 23:01, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Conspiracy of Dunces marks Zhaitan's death as 1326. Victory or Death's chapter is marked 1325 in the story journal, but that starts at Temple of the Forgotten God. Minor inconsistency by ArenaNet. Konig (talk) 20:38, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Reverse order

In my opinion, the order of the timeline should be reversed: the oldest events at the top, recent events at the bottom. A) It is the most common usage, I cannot even recall if I've seen any timeline page on any site using it the other way, B) listing the most recent event at the top is a great way to spoil the current story to new players. And no, having the spoiler tag and being able to switch it with a click doesn't count, many people can understand words even if they are not actively reading them just with a glance. It has been reversed at least once and I talked with some other people who agree with me, but I don't want to change it just on "a whim." ~Sime 19:51, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

I am bumping this topic (and will ask in discord too when I am on my PC). ~Sime 09:11, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

Agreed. It's unclear to me why we have most-recent-first when the precedent is very much the opposite. This article is implicitly spoiler-heavy but that would be lessened a lot by reversing the order to display most recent events at the bottom. Heillos (talk) 11:52, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm indifferent so long as lore isn't removed like the last time it got swapped to oldest first.

In regards to the "spoiling the current story to new players", I've been thinking on that for a while tbh and I believe we should remove main story beats from the timeline entirely. I've reduced the amount several times to keep it to simple "starts" and "ends" to reflect the GWW timeline (which is also newest first), but people always expand it (e.g., the most recent IP edit that spoilers a ton of EoD and IBS) and in all honesty I think we can leave the main story beats to just be "Events of Living World Season # begins." and "Living World Season # ends." Currently, the main story beats take up a full height of my 2k monitor, so that's quite a lot of spoilers for folks who may just click from the main page, even if they were shoved to the bottom that'd only delay the spoilers. Konig (talk) 12:23, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

Done. -Chieftain Alex 16:10, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, that saves me some troubles asking about it on the discord and fixing it myself. Now, for the other stuff... ~Sime 18:02, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

"Events of X begin"

Apparently this has caused some confusion recently, as it might make the timeline look like it is either in the wrong or non-chronological order (for example, Zhaitan being killed after S1 begins). I added a basic explanation to the intro, but perhaps we could just shuffle it around to the correct spot? Was told this comes from the GW1W tradition, and I guess it also shows where certain expansion/seasons spoilers begin, but maybe there could a better way to make this info visible without any potential confusion? ~Sime 17:16, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Should we also highlight the releases (Guild Wars 1 campaigns and expansions, Guild Wars novels and Guild Wars 2 Living World Seasons and expansions) too? --TGM-Christ (talk) 17:37, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

I originally wanted to basically add a line for each expansion/season that would be separate from the timeline lists, which I think would help with the issue as it would directly show you where the content takes place while also allowing everything to be listed chronologically, not sure if that's what you mean? Do not see anything like that on the GW1 wiki. And I reverted the changes made by another user even though I basically agree with them, since this talk exists for a reason and we might even find a better solution than just moving the releases. ~Sime 16:09, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

This is what I mean btw: File:User Sime timeline.png (I know it is possible to make it in the code but my two brain cells have issues with this thing).~Sime 16:16, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

How could this be done better? hmm...--TGM-Christ (talk) 16:23, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

I added a proposal picture, see above. The start of an expansion/season/book would be denoted in its own row, and not mixed with the chronological events. In cases like when the Personal Story (Zhaitan defeat) and S1 begins in the same year, I would do something like this:

1326 - Zhaitan is defeated

---------Events of Living World Season 1 begin.--------

1326 - The karka attack Lion's Arch, and Southsun Cove is discovered.
Scarlet Briar assaults Tyria
etc. ~Sime 16:30, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

This could work.--TGM-Christ (talk) 16:33, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Not entirely a fan of that method, but won't oppose. My immediate concern is how that would interact with the sortable function. Particularly for the PoF/S4 segment. Konig (talk) 19:26, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Added section headers. They're somewhat sortable - probably someone else who knows better how to fix how they sort. -Chieftain Alex 20:04, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Regarding gw1/book headers - don't they detract from the gw2 ones? -Chieftain Alex 00:27, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

They felt the same to me, and could lead to the same problem of confusions, so I thought it was better to include than not. I had asked Sime beforehand on discord and she agreed so I went and did that while fixing other things. Personally I'm not much a fan of this setup, but it is functional at least. Perhaps if the dividers popped out less and the table used different coloring, it'd appeal to me more? Konig (talk) 02:34, 12 March 2023 (UTC)