Timeline and Age Changes

[Grakor456]

The following is a mess of dates, numbers, novel references, and lore geekery. You have been warned.

Previously, for our racial timelines, we've been using the unofficial timeline from Wowpedia, here: http://www.wowpedia.org/Timeline_%28unofficial%29

However, this timeline is rather imperfect, due to a lot of issues relating to the events of Rise of the Horde and not using the official dates. For one thing, Grom's age is entirely messed up in this timeline (Grom in WC3 is stated to be 46. If Rise of the Horde ended at -19, he'd have been 2 years old for the drinking of the blood in Rise of the Horde...clearly far too young.) The problem is that this timeline, while more inclusive, has some dates spread too far apart and messes up the lifespans of certain lore characters.

So, we're going to use the official timeline, here: http://www.wowpedia.org/Timeline_%28from...e,_2007%29

This timeline, however, is also problematic, in similar spots of history. So we're going to have to do some creative guessing.

You'll notice, for example, the timeline has two different dates for Rise of the Horde...one for the in-game book events, one for the novel events. This doesn't make sense, as they cover the same thing. The -45 date for the Shadow Pact doesn't work for the same reason that it doesn't work in the other timeline: Grom would be too young. In addition, this would mean that Durotan and Draka would have had Thrall in their 60's, as Thrall was born on either year 0 or 1.

However, year -1 also doesn't work as a date, as the events of Rise of the Horde take place over the course of several years. So, the best guess I can gather, from this source and others, is that -1 would be the time for the climax of the book, which would be the clan chieftains drinking the demon blood and then sacking Shattrath City. This would place the first attacks on the draenei a few years earlier, approximately year -5, and Durotan's befriending of Orgrim Doomhammer at around year -10.

Other nice factoid: Orcish adulthood is at age 20, not age 15. Oops!

If I have time soon, I'll try to construct my own timeline based on this. I imagine that the other dates for the novels are similar, displaying the time of the climax of each book. Which means year 18 would be the year that Thrall broke the orcs out of the internment camps and sieged Durnholde.

[ImagenAshyun]

A more consistent timeline, if at least for this server, would be highly favorable as opposed to general gists or conflicting dates (Rise of the Horde especially). Maybe to let some work off your back, there can be those of us who can suggest where to set certain dates.

[Grakor456]

Unfortunately, approximations are the best that we can do in this case. Year -5 has to the the earliest that the main plot of Rise of the Horde could have begun at: Ner'zhul and the rest of the orcish shaman warning the clans about the threat of the draenei. This is because Durotan meets Grom here, and he's already an adult and a chieftain, so Grom had to be at least age 20 here. Thankfully, the novel does mention that Grom was unusually young for a chieftain, so this number is a possibility.

Rise of the Horde, otherwise, doesn't do a very good job of pointing out dates or the passage of time. Year -4 would probably be the year that the orcs begin their initial assaults on the draenei, -3 when the elements abandon the orcs, and with -2 or -1 being the Shadow Pact and the sacking of Shattrath. Approximately. I think, in this case, it's better to just give approximate dates than specific ones that could be wrong.

The only other thing I really have to go on is the short story Unbroken: http://www.wowpedia.org/Unbroken_%28story%29

Unbroken specifies that at least a year passes between the sacking of Shattrath and the creation of the Dark Portal, but that's about it.

In both timelines, there are two characters with problematic ages, though: Garona and Thrall. For Garona, given the time Gul'dan could have had to force an orc to breed with a draenei, Garona would have been far too young to assassinate King Llane in the First War, unless Gul'dan magically aged her (which he was known to do, and forced orcish youths in Rise of the Horde to be magically aged so they could fight.) Thrall had to have been born around year 0 due to the ending of Rise of the Horde, but that would mean that he wasn't even an adult by his race's standards when he became Warchief, as Rise of the Horde makes it clear that the orcish rite of passage to adulthood happens at age 20.

Blizzard goofed in a lot of ways, we just try to salvage the mess.

[Kaghuros]

I recall that Kretol changed the Orcish and Human ages around a few years ago because the original age reference page's numbers didn't seem to make sense. I notice that it's been changed to the new ages on the wiki as well, and that Orcs live about a decade longer than Humans. Do they really live that much longer? I've actually never seen anything to the contrary now that I think about it, but I'd have thought Humans lived lives of about the same length.

Edit: Also! Why is it that Tauren become adults at half their venerable age? I think that seems a bit odd. Venerable is 110 and adulthood is 50 on the wiki.

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Also, at the risk of a double post, my Warcraft III manual lists the so-called "time of peace" at 13 years. I take that to mean that there were 13 years between the Battle of Grim Batol and the rise of Thrall. Perhaps the time of internment began before those 13 years, or perhaps Thrall was an adult in body but not technically by rite of passage. He was, after all, the youngest Warchief in the history of the Horde.

[Krilari]

There are accounts of Tauren maturing at 15 instead of 50 (or According to the wowpedia/wowwiki timeline, at least)

Also, on the topic of race ages...

I can has 2000 lifespan for belves? q-q

[FlyingSquirrel]

Actually, Kril, and I believe I told you this. They lowered the needed ages for Blood Elves, so you're farther from your dream then ever.

[Krilari]

Actually, Kril, and I believe I told you this. They lowered the needed ages for Blood Elves, so you're farther from your dream then ever.

I was aware that blood elves to reach adulthood previous to 110 years though I don't believe you were the one to tell me. None the less It is still very possible in that both wowwiki and wowpedia state that high/blood elves can normally die of age at 360 while others live up to 2000 years.

[CappnRob]

The high/blood elves that lived for thousands of years are either really powerful, or were actually Highborne who hadn't died yet.

[Jonoth]

My only questions regarding the timeline is what year will we be in post-restart, and are we still post-Wrath (ie Lich King is dead)? The official timeline linked doesn't have any years after WotLK.

[Grakor456]

We'll probably still be post-Wrath. We're kind of going to be in temporal limbo, as some sources state that the Cataclysm happens the very next year after Wrath. This feels wrong to me, but I'm unsure what else to do if that's going to be the official stance.

Tauren age: Someone provide me a link that states tauren adulthood is gained before 50, and I'd be happy to have it changed.

Blood elf lifespan: I still believe 2000 is incorrect and only a reference to certain lore characters. I have seen nothing stating that rank and file blood elves of the current generation can live up to 2000. So, no, Belf lifespan will not be changing unless someone can find a reference that says otherwise.

Orcish age: All sources seem to point to orcs aging well, so they age slightly more slowly than humans, though their lifespans don't seem that different.

Thrall etc.: Thrall was captured at the end of the First War, before the internment camps. Internment camps happened after the end of the second, and there's about a 12 year gap between that and Lord of the Clans...so, close enough.

[Mathias]

Sources I looked up said the Cataclysm occurred three years after the defeat of the Lich King (which would be five years after WoW started). Now to actually -find- those sources so I'm not talking out of my ass.

Edit: I'm terrible at locating things. That is all.

[Krilari]

An earlier lore account claims tauren have relatively short life spans, reaching adulthood around age 15 and rarely living for longer than 100 years.

From http://www.wowpedia.org/Age#cite_note-26

The 15 year old age is taken from Lands of Mystery, which I realize is an RPG book, but there is even less backing on the 50 year old tauren from what I've seen.

Plus, 15 makes a wee bit more sense than being considered a young adult for half of your life.

[Bovel]

Plus, 15 makes a wee bit more sense than being considered a young adult for half of your life.

I must agree to this, other mammals tend to develop a lot faster then us humans when considering years to adult and total lifespan. Cows are mammals which reach adulthood rather quickly, it'd make sense if taurens ratio of years to reach "manhood" were shorter than humans.

[Aphetoros]

From the 'tail.

[Krilari]

From the 'tail.

Funny you post that. Not because of the GM response, but one of the channels you are in is called [dreadhorde] that was the name of the multi-guild organization that just destroyed the alliance cities on a weekly basis. Does a character named Baleyg happen to be in there?