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Wingfeather Scholars and Appreciators of the Strange, Neat, and/or Yummy, here is your challenge and task: To help me and Chris Wall create a world timeline of concurrent events. Chris, our producer, is interested in this because it will help the animation team as they work on storyboarding the next script. When should they cut from a scene in Skree to something dreadful (or exciting) happening in Torrboro, for example, or even Throg? What did Gnag know about the Jewels and the Fane of Fire? Did he know all along, or did he find out later? And did Nia know also? And how long was Esben in Throg, and how long was he in Clovenfast?
As you can see, this will be a monumental task! I suggest big pieces of butcher paper. Miss Linda, who has done such things before, suggests painter’s tape and sticky notes, so that things can be moved around if necessary. I wish we could all work on one piece of paper together, but alas, despite my offer of a room in the library, we might have to pretend.
So, to start: What’s happening in book one, and what do the other books tell us is happening at the same time?
Aaaaand go!
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Well, from the short story collection we know that just prior to On the Edge Sarah Cobbler is kidnapped and her father begins wandering across Skree.
As Janner is living like in Glipwood, Gammon is probably both planning more rebellion on the Ice Prairies and roaming the rooftops of Dugtown as the Florid Sword (that was my brother who dressed up as him for Halloween!).
In the Hollows, Ridgerunners are probably raiding the fruit trees, Rudric is fighting the games to win his position as head of the Hollows, and Esben is probably in Clovenfast, perhaps painting a picture of the kids after Leeli sings to the seadragon.This is all SO exciting to me! I got to go to Hutchmoot this year, which was a dream, and I learned so much about what’s going on at Shining Isle Productions. Y’all are doing an AMAZING job!
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Henrietta! You were at Hutchmoot? Did we meet?
That’s interesting to think that Rudric may have been in the Bannick Durga at the time! Can we find a place in the books that tells us how long he’s been serving as Keeper? I bet it’d be in the early chapters of Monster.
I bet you’re right that Sara’s father is currently wandering. That makes me wonder how he and Armulyn connect. In “The Places Beyond the Maps” Armulyn tells him he’d seen “the seeds of Anniera” earlier and is looking for settlements so he can tell them that the Jewels are alive. So that conversation is happening after the Dragon Day Festival, but how much longer? Is there any way to know?
Do we have any clues as to when Esben gets to Clovenfast?
This is so fun. 🙂
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So many things to think about. As we get things figured out I have a wall at my house I might put tape and sticky notes on (if no one objects) but I am not there right now.
If we start WAY back there is the creation of the world, the naming of the world, the rise (and eventual fall) of Ouster Will, Yurgen’s back story, ect. Most of that is in the ancient history of the world by the time of the stories so I don’t know how much it will come into play except as ancient legends, but it is all way back there.
The more current history that I can think of seems to start with Podo and his adventures (piracy, dragon hunting, reform/ romance in the Green Hollows, ect). Then all the history of Gnag’s invasion and where everyone was then, and what they have been doing in the 9 years in between.
To add to what Henrietta said, it isn’t just Gammon who is planning stuff. Oscar has been making book buying trips for the last 9 or so years, but he has also stockpiled weapons. He is not as harmless as he appears.
It took some time for the Igiby family to get settled, but the kids were so small the don’t remember it, and it took more time after that for Peet to come to the area (he had to get out of Throg first and find them) but he made it and they didn’t remember that either.
I must re-read to know what Nia knew about the Fain of Fire. I know that she knew how to educate her kids for their abilities and that she could guide them not to try to control the magic when strange things happened to them, so I suspect that she was very aware of what it meant to be part of the royal family (this would have happened to her husband too…and her brother in law).
I don’t remember what things were revealed from the book that Nia and Oscar translate, and what she was supposed to already know. I need to do a lot of re-reading. I have no idea what exactly Gnag knew, except that what he wanted he didn’t get from just having the land, or having the king and his brother.
I need to re-read, but these are great questions. Very exciting!
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I think the best thing to do would be to make a list off all the major events that happened in the books. Then with a list made, we could start ordering all of them and putting events together. This would be easiest to do with some kind of visual representation. Sticky notes on a board, like Mary is doing, or a digital document. Once we have the main events we could start to fill in smaller things that happened in between each event. (This would be easiest in a digital document)
That’s my suggestion, I don’t exactly have time to do much of that. But it would be cool if we could have a digital document that anyone could view (and or edit)
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This isn’t very visually appealing (very important). Neither is it correct right now. Nonetheless, here is an example of something we could do after making a list. Here is a Google Docs link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11y_TfrUF0Zkzm7Qumkaz15KDDRoZ6-G7r8_9S5j1QCs
Tell me if it doesn’t work for some reason. Because in the words of an annoyed computer user: “computers are annoying”
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That document seems like it will work great! We may have to change our units throughout the timeline. Sometimes, things happen slowly, once a week, and then sometimes every hour brings a new adventure (and thus a new point on the timeline). Just a note to everyone, to edit the document you click the “view only” button and then you can send a request to the creator to edit it. I think you have to submit your email, just so everyone knows. Great idea Nathan!
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Ok, cool! Here I cleaned it up a bit, and put it in Google Sheets instead of Google Docs. So we can use this link now:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-CBaalDExwFE7CMsbc0_WJc_uLgz7nzpUxj2hICsMNM
I don’t want to set it with public write access for obvious reasons. So if you need to edit go ahead and request access. 🙂
Also if you are working on the document a good deal I’ll just make you an admin so you can add other people, and such.
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I guess I can’t set people as admin, so nevermind about that part. I wonder if people with edit access can add other people?
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I don’t know, but I’m gonna go request access. I haven’t done any work on this yet, but I intend to at some point soon. I think this is a very good way of doing it so that we can work together. Even if it is a bit awkward to have to add people, having us all working from the same thing will keep us from duplicating each others’ efforts. If we have points with conflict (and we probably will when something isn’t clear) we can discuss it and figure out our best guess.
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Nathan, that is fantastic. Thanks so much for setting it up for us! That’ll make it much easier to organize all the details without confusing each other or repeating things.
The one thing I’ve done so far is to go through the whole first book and figure out actual dates, so I will go request access and then put those in.
Can we put chapter numbers next to events, if we know them? If you are unsure, that’s okay—we can help each other sort it out. 🙂
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That is actually a great idea! Yes go ahead and add what you have. Also anyone with edit access can add other people, so you and Linda can do that too. 🙂
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There appears to be an anonymous buffalo looking at our spreadsheet! haha!
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Perhaps the Veggietale song “Everybody’s got a water buffalo” was true? But we have a regular buffalo instead of a water buffalo, apparently.
Seriously, I know people who are looking without edit access are given “anonymous animal” names. So someone out there was looking. Hi, someone!
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Perhaps! Haha 😄
Hopefully our buffalo friend wants to help!
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Well, I am rethinking some of my dates. I’ve put relative dates into the spreadsheet (day 1, day 2, etc.), but I mixed up the Hoe and Shovel forms in the appendices, so the absolute dates (Fivemoon 30, Sixmoon 5, etc.) are not as clear as I thought. I’m going to spend a few more brains on that, but if anyone wants to jump in, feel free.
By the way, Chris is excited about our progress so far and is planning to invite a few more participants. 🙂
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That’s cool! So what are the fivemoon and sixmoon dates? I don’t recall ever hearing of anything like that before.
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I don’t know how often dates come up in conversation (years, sometimes, but I don’t recall months or days). These are from the permission forms in the appendices. “Permission to Hoe Garden,” “Permission to Use Hoe,” and “Permission to Shovel Hogpig Droppings.” Basically Fivemoon means the fifth month of the year, and Sixmoon means the sixth month. The number after that is the day of the month.
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We’ve got another anonymous buffalo on the loose! This time it’s purple! 😀
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Ha! That might be me, guys. I was just looking at the spreadsheet. It’s looking really great so far!
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Do we really need the “List of Events in Book Order” column? We don’t seem to be using it and the timline is working just fine as a list right now.
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Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!
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I wrote a whole bunch of stuff on the Timeline. Maybe I should’ve just written it over here? It’s kind of long.
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Miss Linda has added started adding in the second book! Also, we have made progress on the dates for Esben and Artham escaping Throg as well as Esben arriving in Clovenfast! Go check it out, because a lot of it was estimation and I want another brain to make sure it makes sense.
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Here is the link again in case you don’t want to go rummaging through the thread trying to find it 😁
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-CBaalDExwFE7CMsbc0_WJc_uLgz7nzpUxj2hICsMNM
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I think Gnag did not originally know about the Fane of fire, only that he needed jewels of some sort. It appears to me, at least in the first book, that he thought they were physical jewels (just like the reader thought). But then the question is why did he want the jewels in the first place if he didn’t know about the Fane? Also why did he need to get a stone from the Fane if he already had two stones. It seems to me that he could have just used the holore and/or the holoel temporarily and then put it back. Maybe the stones were too small to bond with a Dragon? As for Nia knowing about the Fane, in the last book she didn’t seem to know much about it at all (like that THAGS had to be used). However, correct me if I’m wrong, she did know that the Fane of Fire was where the Maker was, and she knew where it was without any of the children telling her. Kal only said that the maker had told him, and to trust him.
Any thoughts?
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Gang seemed to have a pretty seamless plan by the fourth book for how he would get the Holore and Holoel. He could have been planning that for several books, or maybe he’s a good thinker on his feet (er – cloven bearers). He is very old though, and it seems that new ideas would be hard for him to grasp quickly. He is the kind of person who just pursued one goal for as long as it takes, regardless of the consequences. Not sure how this all plays out, but I think he knew at least that something like the Fane existed, even if he didn’t know all the deatails until he got one of the First Books.
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He already had the Holore and Holoel. Those were the stones that he was using to meld the fangs. But yet it seemed he needed another stone from the fane to meld himself. This is what I am confused about.
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The way I saw it was that the small stones (the Holore and the Holoel, I think) worked fine for melding the Fangs. But. They were several hundred (or thousand) years old, and had been used on thousands of Fangs and Cloven. They were getting weaker, and needed to be replaced. Gnag wasn’t going to settle for a weak stone to meld himself with. Even if they would have worked on something as large as a Sea Dragon, he wanted a bigger and better rock for himself, so he would be more powerful.
Also, I think he knew about the Fane of Fire, but it was a theoretical knowledge. He hadn’t been to it yet, because he didn’t have the Jewels, and he may have had some doubt as to its reality.
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Yeah that makes sense! I think we have figured out pretty much everything about the first book (Not the ancient one). Can anyone else think of any more events that we should figure out the timing of? Or knowledge we should track down to see who knew it?
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