TIMELINE OF VELGARTH

What To Know

Below is a monumental effort to record every event within the lands of Velgarth.

As each new chronicle is written, new events will appear and old events may be adjusted.

In a world of poets and historians, there will be many different viewpoints and histories.

Not all will line up with reality.

Therefore, it is the effort of the Herald-Chronicler, the Guard Archivist, the Collegium Historian, the Rethwellan Royal Archivist, a kyree historian, and their assistants, to find the truth and pinpoint, to the best of their ability, the exact moment of these events.

Those moments in history that are not yet verified (non-canon) are clearly marked as are the locations of the manuscripts and histories where each event can be found, should further research be required.

During this process, Collegium Historian Assistant Trica, is updating the Rolls over on the Valdemar Wiki.

Check it out to stay updated.


Calendar

According to Foundation the months are named based on the season and the moon: Midwinters Moon, Ice Moon, Thawing Moon, Budding Moon, and Flowering Moon.

Mercedes Lackey has stated that New Years begins on the 1st day of the Midwinter Moon.

Using these names and a 30-day moon cycle, the following Calendar has been officially approved by Mercedes Lackey and can be used for reference.

Moons Modern Dates Known Events During This Moon
🌑 Midwinters Moon (January 1st to January 30th)
  • ♞ The New Year begins on the 1st day of Midwinters Moon (January 1st).
🌒 Ice Moon (January 31st to February 29th)
  • ♞ Candlemas occurs on the 2nd day of Ice Moon (February 1st).
  • ♞ The 3rd day of Ice Moon (February 2nd) is usually when weather-witches are able to predict how good or bad the weather will be for the rest of the season.
  • ♞ Winter ends on the last day of Ice Moon (February 29th).
🌒 Thawing Moon (March 1st to March 30th)
  • ♞ Spring officially begins on the 1st day of Thawing Moon (March 1st).
  • ♞ Herald-Chronicler Assistant, Joshuah's birthing day is the 1st day of Thawing Moon (March 1st).
  • ♞ Planting Season begins with the start of Thawing Moon.
🌓 Budding Moon (March 31st to April 29th)
  • ♞ Spring Equinox is on the 1st day of Budding Moon (March 31st).
  • ♞ Crops are either being planted or already planted and growing.
  • ♞ Growing season continues until Harvest and Wine Moons.
🌔 Flowering Moon (April 30th to May 29th)
  • ♞ Beltane occurs on the 15th day of Flowering Moon.
  • ♞ Spring ends on the 5th day of Flowering Moon.
  • ♞ Summer begins on the 6th day of Flowering Moon.
🌔 Mead Moon (May 30th to June 28th)
  • ♞ Herald-Chronicler Myste Williger's (Mercedes Lackey) birthing day is the 25th day of Mead Moon.
  • ♞ Midsummer's Eve occurs on the last day of Mead Moon.
  • ♞ Queen's Own, Talia Sensholding's birthing day is the last day of Mead Moon.
🌕 Midsummer Moon (June 29th to July 28th)
  • ♞ Kyree Historian (Larry Dixon)'s birthing day is the last day of Midsummer Moon (July 28th).
🌖 Foaling Moon (July 29th to August 27th)
  • ♞ Summer ends on the 3rd day of Foaling Moon (July 31st).
  • ♞ Autumn begins on the 4th day of Foaling Moon (August 1st). Also known as Autumn's Eve.
🌖 Harvest Moon (August 28th to September 26th)
  • ♞ Autumnal Equinox occurs on the 26th day of Harvest Moon (September 23rd).
🌗 Wine Moon (September 27th to October 26th)
  • ♞ Typical harvest time for wine ends mid-Wine Moon.
  • ♞ Autumn ends on the last day of Wine Moon (October 26th).
🌘 Mourning Moon (October 27th to November 25th)
  • ♞ Winter begins on the 1st day of Mourning Moon (October 27th) and is celebrated with Winterfinding.
  • ♞ Sovvan-Night occurs on the 6th day of Mourning Moon (November 1st).
  • ♞ Harvestfest is a celebration of memorial festivities held in the evenings on this day.
  • ♞ Sovvan is considered by some as a time to celebrate the lives of ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died.
🌘 Dying Moon (November 26th to December 25th)
  • ♞ Midwinter's six days of Festivities begins on the last day of the Dying Moon (December 25th).
  • ♞ Feasting, and gift giving are common elements of Midwinter festivities.
  • ♞ Bringing sprigs and wreaths of evergreenery (such as holly, ivy, mistletoe, yew, and pine) into the home and tree decorating are also common during this time.
  • ♞ Traditionally Valdemar celebrates with additional festivities taking place during the six days leading up to Midwinter's Eve.
  • ♞ On the 6th day of Midwinter's Festival, is Midwinter's Eve, the last day of the year (December 31st).




History of Velgarth

Pre-Founding Era

    All dates here are offset from 2 BF, a guesstimate date for the evacuation from the Eastern Empire.
    They will be adjusted when new source material indicates the actual Founding date.

Eastern Empire History

Dating from before the Cataclysm
    The Eastern Empire has been ruled from the Conquest Throne for centuries, first by the High Kings and then after the Cataclysm by the Emperors
    • Beyond: Chapter Three
    • Beyond: Chapter Nineteen
    • 📚Note: In Selenay's time, the Emperor rules from the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne is made of weapons from conquered monarchs. One would assume this is an archetype, but the internet shows no history predating Lackey's Storm Rising published in 1994. That was two years before George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire was published in 1996. See Iron Throne (A Song of Ice and Fire)
    • Storm Warning: Chapter One
    The Emperor wears the Wolf Crown, the Ring, and the bespelled Carcenet, which is made from gold and iron.
    The gold contains protection spells, and the iron deflects counter-spells
    • Beyond: Chapter Nineteen

110 BF

    Mages of the Eastern Empire trap a young Greater Earth Elemental.
    They bind it and magically conceal it from other Elementals searching for it.
    A Greater Elemental cannot be forced to give anything, but if it is wounded it will emit magical energy to heal.
    So the captive young elemental is tortured and allowed to heal, over and over again.
    It supplies all of the mage energy used in the Palace and most of what is used by the Imperial mages.
    The heat it emits is used to warm the palace, heat water supplies, and cook food.
    This continues for over a century
    • Beyond: Chapter Seventeen

50 BF

    Soferu is Emperor of the Eastern Empire and resides in the Empire's capital city, High Ashuel
    • 📚Thus far no official documents have been found that give the name of the Emperor or the Capital of the Eastern Empire at this time. The only known recording found is from the journal of Navar in his account For Want of a Nail. As the official accounts found in Beyond do not name the Capital or Emperor, this entry remains
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

40 BF

    Duke Erik, of the Duchy of Valdemar in the Eastern Empire, marries Lady Lyantha
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Hakkon Indal is born out of wedlock to Lady Lyantha's runaway sister
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

38 BF

    Lady Lyantha's sister appears and gives her illegitimate toddler, Hakkon, to Erik and Lyantha to raise.
    She is never seen again
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

30 BF

    The Eastern Empire's mages accidentally discover a way to capture air elementals - vrondi.
    Once trapped, an elemental is given a choice of death or captive servitude
    • Beyond: Chapter Nine
    • Beyond: Chapter Fifteen

    The first Doll construct is made by the Eastern Emperor's mages in the Imperial City
    • Beyond: Chapter Fifteen
    A Doll has a canvas body over a skeleton, and a face with only a hint of eyes, nose and mouth.
    Its "brain" is an enslaved vrondi, imprisoned in a breakable bottle and inserted into the construct
    • Beyond: Chapter Nine

    Kordas is born to the Duke Erik and Lady Lyantha of Valdemar
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Isla and her twin brother, Idor, are born to the Baron of Sterngal
    • Discrepancy: Delia's (Fidelia) personal journals claim that Idor is a year older than Isla. Since she was born when Isla was 12, presumably she is mistaken. Kordas says Isla and Idor were twins, and he is the same age, so he would know
    • Beyond: Chapter Two
    • Beyond: Chapter Five

19 BF

    The Emperor's mages create Dolls to staff the gargantuan "Office" of Records, where all of the paperwork that runs the Empire is processed.
    Dolls replace all the filing and copy clerks, leaving only the human Imperial Secretaries
    • Beyond: Chapter Fifteen

19 BF

    Lady Isla, daughter of Baron Sterngal, is brought to Valdemar Manor to meet Kordas for the first time. They become close friends. They are eleven (11) years old
    Lord Idor, son of Baron Sterngal, is sent to be a "hostage" at the Emperor's Court
    • 📚It is mentioned that Isla was sent to Valdemar and escaped being sent to the Emperor's Court like her brother. It also mentions that Kordas avoided being sent and did not go until later
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

18 BF

    As more Dolls are created, a "critical mass" is reached where the air elementals' simple individual intelligences combine into clusters, and then into a great hive mind, each knowing what the others know, to cope with their enslavement as well as possible
    • Beyond: Chapter Fifteen

    The human Imperial Secretaries in the Office of Records realize that their jobs are just stamping and filing, which can be done by Dolls.
    They create documents awarding themselves noble titles, manors and incomes, and quietly leave.
    The Dolls now perform every paperwork function that runs the Empire
    • Beyond: Chapter Fifteen

    Fidelia (Delia) is born to the Baron of Sterngal.
    She is the younger sister of twins Isla and Idor
    • Beyond: Chapter One

17 BF

    Kordas is sent to the Emperor's Court as a royal hostage, accompanied by Hakkon
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

14 BF

    Kordas and Hakkon seek Lord Idor of Sterngal when they realize he has not been seen for several days.
    They find him and his bodyservant severely ill in their room at the Emperor's Court.
    Idor and his bodyservant die within hours of being found
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

12 BF

    Kordas and Hakkon return from the Emperor's Court when Duke Erik is dying
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Kordas marries Isla of Sterngal.
    The two of them are eighteen (18) years old.
    They vow they will never allow a child of theirs to be taken as a royal hostage.
    When she becomes pregnant, Kordas, Hakkon and their Healer Cestin conceal it from everyone
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

11 BF

    Restil, son of Duke Kordas and Lady Isla of Valdemar, is born in secret and raised along with the Duke's household children so that he can never be a hostage.
    He is ostensibly Hakkon's illegitimate son, as are their next children
    • 📚While the journal For Want of a Nail, written by Navar, gives different information, Herald-Chronicler Myste's latest research finds an official record called Beyond that corrects this information
    • Beyond: Chapter Two
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

9 BF

    The second son of Duke Kordas and Lady Isla of Valdemar is born
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

8 BF

    All of the human servants and staff at the Emperor's Court are replaced by Dolls.
    Only the courtiers, officials, soldiers and guards remain.
    The displaced humans are sent to the war front.
    • Beyond: Chapter Nine

7 BF

    The third son of Duke Kordas and Lady Isla of Valdemar is born.
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

    Navar joins Baron Valdemar's levy as a soldier.
    • 📚Since Beyond has established that Valdemar was a dukedom at the time Navar joined as a soldier, it is possible that Navar, in recording his story, For Want of a Nail refers to Valdemar as a barony, since that is what it was when they left the Eastern Empire.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

5 BF

    The Baron of Sterngal, father of Isla and Fidelia (Delia), dies with no living sons.
    The Emperor seizes the Baronial titles and estates and gives them to someone else.
    • Beyond: Chapter Two

    The day after the Baron of Sterngal dies, Delia is forced to pack up as the new Baron and his wife arrive to take over the territory.
    But Duke Kordas of Valdemar arrives and helps her pack her things, along with family heirlooms, and takes her to live in Valdemar
    • Delia is thirteen (13) years old. Kordas and Isla are twenty-five (25) years old at this time
    • Beyond: Chapter One

2 BF

    Cestin is Healer for the Duke of Valdemar
    • Beyond: Chapter One

    Delia helps Cestin and Kordas with the birth of a Valdemaran Gold by using her Fetching Gift to turn the foal within the mother. She is sixteen (16) at this time
    • Beyond: Chapter One

    Stafngrimr (Grim) is the stablemaster for the Duke of Valdemar
    • Beyond: Chapter One

    Soferu is Emperor of the Eastern Empire and wears the Wolf Crown while sitting on the Iron Throne in the Eastern Empire's capital city, High Ashuel
    • 📚Thus far no official documents have been found that give the name of the Emperor or the Capital of the Eastern Empire. The only known recording found is from the journal of Navar in his account For Want of a Nail. As the official accounts found in Beyond do not name the Capital or Emperor, this entry remains
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Hakkon serves as Seneschal to Duke Kordas, being cousin to Kordas.
    All the servants and the lords of the fourteen (14) manors report to him.
    He is also in charge of the Exchequer, Housekeeper, Head Cook, and all the pages and squires
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Squire Brianta is assigned to Hakkon for knighthood and Seneschal training
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Hakkon agrees to assign Restil to be Isla's personal page
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Jonaton is a powerful mage and is one of eight living at Valdemar Manor.
    He has the most seniority and is Hakkon's partner.
    He is suddenly inspired by a brilliant new theory for a way to escape the Empire.
    He will use a splinter from a tree segment that arrived in the Empire in a changecircle centuries ago, knowing it will still have a magical connection to the original tree far to the West.
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Pelias and Siman are two more mages who live in the rooms just below Jonaton
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    The Circle of mages hiding in Valdemar are Ponu, Dole, Wis, Koto, Ceri and Sai.
    They agree that Jonaton's theory will work with their magical support
    • Beyond: Chapter Three

    Juuso Beltran serves as Herald to Duke Kordas of Valdemar
    • 📚Thus far no official documents have been found that give the full name of Beltran. The only known recording found is from the journal of Navar in his account For Want of a Nail. As the official accounts found in Beyond do not give the full name of Beltran, this entry remains
    • Beyond: Chapter Three
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Beltran is about Ivar's age
    • Beyond: Chapter Seven

    Beltran receives a low-priority Imperial message, a summons from the Emperor to deliver the Duchy’s tribute: strings of horses.
    Kordas' family is appalled.
    Kordas makes it clear that The Plan is not about him: the people of the Duchy must escape
    • Beyond: Chapter Seven

    Kordas orders Hakkon to stay at the Duchy to support Isla.
    Kordas will take Beltran, who is "high enough in rank to go anywhere with [Kordas], but low enough to be ignored on his own"
    • Beyond: Chapter Seven

    When Ceri Foresees that Kordas will be "invited" to stay, Isla brings out formal Court wear for Kordas, and Beltran dons "his formal tabard with the winged white horse device that marked him as the Valdemar Herald on it"
    • Beyond:

    As the Emperor plays his usual mindgames, Kordas' stay at Court extends longer and longer.
    He stays in contact with the Duchy as The Plan progresses
    • Beyond:

    Kordas tours the foster-hostage area of the Court to see how the children are doing.
    • Beyond: Chapter Eleven

1 BF

    Baron Valdemar and his people, after a year of travel, have finally escaped the Eastern Empire and enter Hardorn.
    • 📚In Beyond it has already been established that Kordas and his people Gated to Crescent Lake, which is within the borders of modern day Valdemar. Therefore, the year of travel before reaching Hardorn may have been a tale created. to hide the magic that Kordas had available to them from those they encountered.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

Autumn

    The first settlement, on the banks of a river, is a bedraggled city of camp tents
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

0 AF (After Founding)

Founding of Valdemar

  • According to all official known accounts of this event, the year is always marked as Zero (0). It is believed that the inhabitants and founders of Valdemar wished to start over and no longer count their time in the Eastern Empire.

    The first city, a haven from their travels and the evils they left behind, becomes the capital of the new kingdom, and is named Haven.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail.

    The river banks that Haven is built upon is named Terilee.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Baron Kordas becomes King of Valdemar.
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five

---♔ Reign of Kordas Valdemar ♔---

Spring

    Captain Arwulf, who is in charge of the scouts, sends Navar, Doladan (a mapmaker), and a dozen chosen soldiers on an expedition to map the neighboring lands.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Doladan, roughly fifteen (15) years old, was the former Chief Assistant to the Master Gardener in the Valdemar Barony
    • Navar says that Doladan is "hardly older than Prince Restil" putting him at roughly 15 years old
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Mistress Karilgrass is mentioned as someone who knows herbology.
    She is the Master Gardener whom Doladan mentioned.
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Torimund, Felara and Senard are mentioned as names of soldiers
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

One Spring Night

    King Kordas decided that Valdemar needed to have a permanent way to choose good leadership after he died.
    So he prays to all the gods and goddesses
    • 📚According to Exile's Honor, Elcarth "unearthed a dusty account" claiming that, in regards to the gods Valdemar prayed to, "One of them had been Vkandis Sunlord..."
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five
    • Exile's Honor: Chapter Six
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    The first Companions are Grove-born
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five

    King Kordas is Chosen by Companion Ardatha
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five

    Chief Herald Beltran is second to be Chosen, by Companion Kyrith
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    King Kordas's son, Prince Restil, is Chosen by Companion Steladar
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five

    King Valdemar "decided that the title of Herald should be made to mean more than it did, since only one person can be King or Heir, but there could be lots of Heralds"
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five

    General Peralas Harleth is Chosen
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

    Chief Herald Beltran becomes Chancellor to King Kordas
    • Arrows of the Queen: Chapter Five
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

Just After High Summer

    Torimund dies, prompting Doladan to name the forest Pelagiris Forest
    • "Pelagir" is a word in the Old Tongue that means "danger", making the literal translation as: Forest of Danger
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

Late Autumn Early Winter

    Five more soldiers die before Navar, Doladan and the others make it back to Haven, which has greatly improved in size and construction
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Master Rilbard is mentioned for the first time
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    A Herald's Council is mentioned for the first time
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Prince Restil, who sits on the Herald's Council, has just turned twelve (12) years old
    • Restil's age is based on Beyond: Chapter Two
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Mistress Emolde, former wetnurse to Restil and Dethwyn sits on the Herald's Council
    • It is possible Emolde has been Chosen and is a Herald. Also, Beyond does not give a name for the other two boys born to Kordas and Isla. It is possible one is named Dethwyn. Hopefully, further documents will be found to confirm or correct this information found in the journal of Navar
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Journeyman-Mage Lorton sits on the Herald's Council
    • It is possible Lorton has been Chosen and is a Herald
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Blydel and Imryn are named as journeyman-mages
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Mistress Karilgrass, the Chief Gardener, sits on the Heralds' Council
    • It is possible Karilgrass has been Chosen and is a Herald
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    There are now nearly twenty Companions in Valdemar
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    The Journey's End is one of four taverns in Haven
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Navar meets Companion Ardatha for the first time
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail
    Navar is Chosen by Companion Tisarand
    • Changing the World: For Want of a Nail

55 AF

---♔ Reign of King Restil ♔---

  • 📚Since Kordas was roughly thirty (30) years old at the time of the Founding of the Kingdom of Valdemar, it is assumed that King Kordas lived until his mid-to-late eighties before dying. Current estimate says he was eighty-five (85). Since Restil was eleven (11) years old at the time of the Founding, this puts him at sixty-six (66) when he becomes King after his fathers death
    The last members of the Goshon tribe go to the new Kingdom of Valdemar as instructed by the dreams of their shaman
    • Crossroads: The Blue Coat

73 AF

---♔ Reign of Unknown Ruler ♕---

  • Hypothesis: King Restil reigned for about eighteen (18) years and died at the age of eighty-four (84)

525 AF

---♕ Reign of Queen Terilee ♕---

    576 AF

    ---♔ Reign of King Tavist ♔---

      Herald-King Tavist was the son of Herald-Queen Terilee and the father of Herald-Queen Leshia
      • Tavist's reign had been a quiet one, a reign devoted more to studied diplomacy than the kind of deeds that made for ballads
      • Magic's Pawn: Chapter Four
      Arvale annexes from Zarmon successfully thanks to the Arvale-Zarmon negotiations, leading to further negotiations with Rethwellan
      • Magic's Pawn: Chapter Four

    627 AF

    ---♕ Reign of Queen Leshia ♕---

      Elspeth, future Queen of Valdemar, is born
      • Magic's Promise: Chapter Two








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