Timeline and Age Changes

[Mathias]

Spoiler:

From the 'tail.

So would that put us on year 29 or year 30 with the official timeline?

[Grakor456]

Spoiler:

From the 'tail.

Huh. Thanks Aphetoros, that helps.

...unfortunately, its screws up the timeline even more, as the official AND unofficial timelines both have each WoW expansion occupying consecutive years.

So, we're going to have to make our own, using some dates from the official as reference, I suppose. Assuming the canonicity of the novels, combined with the theoretical dates I put up for Rise of the Horde, this means that a timeline would look something like this:

-10,000 - War of the Ancients.
-9,000 - The World Tree is made.
-7,300 - The Highborne are exiled.
-6,800 - Quel'Thalas is founded.
-2,800 - The Troll Wars.
-2,700 - First Guardian is appointed.
-2,500 - Ironforge is founded.
-1,200 - Seven Kingdoms of humanity are founded.
-823 - Aegwynn clashes with Sargeras' avatar.
-230 - War of Three Hammers.
-5 - Rise of the Horde. Blackhand is made warchief, Draenei slaughter begins.
-1 - Orc chieftains drink demon blood. Sacking of Shattrath.
0 - Dark Portal is made. First War.
6 - Second War. Internment camps are made.
8 - Invasion of Draenor.
10 - Alexstrasza is freed from the Dragonmaw clan.
18 - Thrall frees the orcs from the internment camps.
19 - Thrall and Tirion rescue Eitrigg from execution.
20 - Reign of Chaos.
21 - Frozen Throne.
23 - Sunwell Trilogy.
24 - Cycle of Hatred.
25 - World of Warcraft begins.
28 - Burning Crusade.
32 - Wrath of the Lich King.
34 - The Shattering.
35 - Cataclysm begins.

...dates for WoW stuff are approximate, of course, but assumes a total of 10 years has passed.

Any comments?

[Mathias]

So we would be on year 34 come restart, and doing elemental invasion-like events that lead up to the Shattering?

[FlyingSquirrel]

War of the Satyr @ 9,500.

[CappnRob]

DEM YEARS FOR THE WOW EXPANSION EVENTS

I AM SATISFIED IN THE PANTS, GRAKOR.

[Kira13]

*smack*
That was all.

[Anski]

I for one like the orc trial of life beginning at such a young age. It makes sense in my eyes from the outer grasping of the lore, but I can understand why you'd want definite complete solid timeline. Is it too much to ask to retain such a thing within our non-Blizzard server?

[Grakor456]

I for one like the orc trial of life beginning at such a young age. It makes sense in my eyes from the outer grasping of the lore, but I can understand why you'd want definite complete solid timeline. Is it too much to ask to retain such a thing within our non-Blizzard server?

What exactly are we talking about here? The orc age of adulthood?

[Anski]

Oui.

[Grakor456]

I'm...rather uncertain as to the argument for not changing it. 20 is more logical given the rate of orcish aging, is within Rise of the Horde, and therefore the canon point of adulthood. Honestly, it's also the number I subjectively prefer, and while that is a selfish, personal argument, I'm not sure your particular motive for wanting to keep it as it is.

[ChampionMouse]

I always had the impression that Orcs, given the often brutal nature of their society, had to rise to the occasion of adulthood sooner than humans. But then again, I also thought most of them wouldn't live as long for the same reason. There is a possibility that this is just an incorrect interpretation too.

Anski's question sort of made me think about that. so I thought I would throw it out there.

Are Orcs more similar to humans in their aging than I thought? Or is this a newer idea? Just curious. It will help me put some things into perspective.

Thanks for letting me type gais. ^-^

[Xigo]

Orcish life is usually a quick, raging flame compared to the long-lasting flickers that other races are.

They live. They don't lounge about. And they die, often by the blade.

It would make sense that they are considered adults at a younger age. Durotan was considered an adult after completing that trial thing, and he was still relatively young.

My musings.

[Grakor456]

Durotan took his rite of passage at age 20, which is the time it is established that all orcs take their rite of passage. Similarly, even the current age progression shows that orcs age more slowly than humans (edit: post-adulthood,) though their lifespans are roughly the same. Many orcs do die early deaths due to violence, but I don't feel that this impacts their actual lifespan or age of maturity.

It's a matter of opinion as to which makes more logical sense, but I would rather go by a canon source than a non-canon one.

[Bovel]

Aphetoros, asking GMs on retail for lore help is like asking anyone out of this community if not worse. They are not hired to know or even required to learn anything about the game they are working on. So that one of these GMs has "picked up" something is nothing I'd use as basis for anything.

[Grakor456]

A few more links.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/story/timeline.html

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1009891132#9

Will comment more on this later, but I'm inclined to believe that we were right from the beginning, and there's only one year between each expansion.