According to the extent timeline, Illiir didn't curse the dwarves until -1740 IC, following the Theocracy of the Cleansing Flame. If we can trust this, what were the Celestial Giants doing during the First Imperium? Did they even exist on Onara? Or were they invited from elsewhere to act as guardians after the Theocracy burned the First Imperium to the ground?

If the latter is true, then as a species, the dwarves have only been on Onara for just over 3,000 years... and presumably the Khitani would not be overly familiar with them, since most of the enclaves ended up along the Corlathian mountain range. Other thoughts on this?

Dragon Wars began in -2100 IC
Illiir Cursed the Dwarves in -1740 IC.

This means that the Dwarves have been fighting the Dragons, suggesting they've been on Onara for almost 400 years BEFORE the curse, at least. This means that the First Imperium and the Celestial Giants existed simultaneously, with the Giants forging their empire in the north where the Unsealed Lands presently are, while the First Imperium's core was further south in the more human-friendly climates.

IIRC its suggested in Legacy of Damnation that there were Giant Kingdoms on the Border of the First Imperium in territory that is now basically the Sealed Lands. Hence Giantshome and Tultipet's Keep.

It has been suggested & debated by some people on the LA TALK list in days of yore that the Celestrial Giants might have been former allies of PoM (which is why they knew about them to called on them, and get a response). This possibility, if true, would suggest that they might have a connection going back to the War with the Other or some other extra-planar conflict.

As an aside I'm pretty sure that timeline is not 100% accurate. I take it as the "Political Consensus/Party Line" position.

Is there an actual timeline posted somewhere? If so, could someone post the URL?

...if not, does anyone want to start a timeline (kind of like a wiki) that can be edited as new things pop up? (My suggestion would be to make it vertical, so that it can scroll easily on web browsers.)

One of my biggest problems following everything that occurs on Arcanis is lack of a good "flow". Seeing a timeline would help me tremendously.

Scott

There are timelines in Ssethregore and Codex Arcanis

Hello Scott,

I have two timelines - the "real" one and the "commonly known" one.

The commonly known one is the timeline that most of the educated people of the Known Lands are taught.

Then there's the one that I wrote a very long time ago and modified when I started preparing Arcanis for publication. I'm a stickler for continuity and details of that nature, so I keep very detailed notes.

While the Commoly known time line and the "real" one conform to one another for the most part (mostly the modern era, say 100 IC or so to the present), a lot of hostory has been lost or just not known by the modern man. The whole Time of Darkness (analogous to the Dark Ages in RL) has many, many holes in it where people don't know what happened or when. Heck, there's even a dispute as to whatthe current actually is given that no one knows exactly what year the Time of Darkness actually started or ended).

I've toyed with the idea of publishing actual years in the History section of the Cradle of Empires, but decided against it as it would spoil a lot of the mystery of the world, IMO.

As to the question at hand, "what were the Celestial Giants doing during the age of the Imperium of Man", I'd first need to know what period of the Imperium are you referring to. Do you mean, since inception? During the life of it or towards the end?

So many questions.

Hopefully, you'll eventually meet the Emperor of Fire and he might be able to shed some light on the subject. The dwarves certainly can't. They've lost knowledge of their own history for quite a while and filled in the blanks with conjecture and supposition, just like some of the other races, including humans.

Henry,

That is exactly what I suspected. (Several years ago you were investigating the possibility of writing a set of books that detailed the world of Arcanis from a god's-eye point of view. And while I figured that might kind of spoil the fun, it would also provide the answers that everyone wanted. Thankfully, that wasn't necessary. It's a lot more fun to find out piece by piece and work the puzzle.)

But what I was suggesting is that someone (the players) build an online timeline that condenses what we know (as well as what we think we know or what we just suppose) in one place. So while this supplement says these events happened at this time, and that supplement says that those events happened at this other time, if they were gathered together in one place, it might make looking for clues (or just grasping the entirety of the known history) that much more possible.

As a personal example, I'm a very visual person. When I can "see" something working in my head, I can analyze it and commit to memory fairly easily. But when I don't have a clear mental image, it's much harder for me to memorize. So, when I was in grade school or high school and my history teach would tell me to memorize who did what and when, I had a lot of trouble. I barely made passing grades and promptly forgot everything after the test. But when I had a teacher who told me the stories behind the names and dates, or when I watch certain shows on the history channel, it all comes alive. I see the big picture and how person-X might have started a war because he had a cold. (fictional example.) But it all fits. Consequently I'm able to remember those details and reference them. So I think it would be with a timeline. If the players got together and amassed key points in Arcanis history (from existing references) we might be able to see patterns and pieces that were difficult to see before. My biggest concern would be that people might try to put too much information in there and begin to cross lines with respect to copyrighted information. I certainly wouldn't want this to discourage the purchase of any PCI products. (Actually, I would think that it might just do the opposite if done correctly.)

Anyway, those were my thoughts.


Scott