Category:Rock's Timeline

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A brief summary and timeline of the interconnected contributions made for Ravenloft by Rock.

Please note that entries in italics are from official canon or netbook-canon, and are presented here as points of reference for events occurring in the Timeline.

Other Worlds

The Abyss

  • ???[1]: The evil goddess Shar[2] breeds the first Devoratrices out of Succubus stock to serve as her Shadow Inquisitors.
  • ???: Succubus Slap, having disappointed her master or masters by failing to corrupt Evanar, is subjected to punishments horrific even unto a demon.
  • ???: A portal to the Demiplane of Dread opens onto a certain layer of the Abyss. Succubus Slap is released from her punishment so she can be forced to go through the portal and report back on what she finds. The portal closes with Slap on the other side.

Amber[3]

  • 54 A.F.A.[4]: Oberon, King of Amber, encounters the Witch Crissilda while touring the ring of Shadows closest to Amber. He spends a day and a night in her hut before continuing on his journey.
  • 55 A.F.A.: The Witch Crissilda gives birth to fraternal twins due to the 'visit' by King Oberon of Amber: a boy she names Trieres, and a girl she names Arkura. Later this same year, agents of Amber come to collect mother and children in spite of Crissilda's vocal objections. Crissilda is put up at the royal palace of Amber as a concubine, whereas her children are raised by the King's servants. Already heartsick due to being away from her home, Crissilda soon starts receiving negative attention from Oberon's legal wife, Queen Cymnea.
  • 59 A.F.A.: In the Courts of Chaos, a second son is born to the House of Bleykoven. The boy is named Sare, and his care is largely left to the House's demonic servants, while his parents lavish their attention on the firstborn son of the House.
  • 63 A.F.A.: The Witch Crissilda dies in what is considered to be a freak accident, but was actually arranged by a courtier loyal to Queen Cymnea, albeit without the Queen's knowledge. King Oberon lets the matter pass, save for a none-too-subtle remark before the court that while wives and concubines may come and go, his offspring should be sacrocanct.
  • 65 A.F.A.: Arkura, illegitimate daughter of King Oberon and the now-deceased Witch Crissilda, starts studying under Dworkin Barimen, great sage of Amber and master of the Pattern. She is highly intelligent for her age and absorbs knowledge like a sponge.
  • 69 A.F.A.: Sare of Bleykoven is scarred by his older brother in a supposed play-fight that turns out to be an attempt to remove him from the House's succession. Sare survives but is blinded in one eye, preventing him from engaging in the painting and drawing that he loves most. As his elders show no sympathy and attribute the 'accident' to his 'clumsiness', Sare grows bitter, distant and hateful towards his family.
  • 70 A.F.A.: Sare of Bleykoven starts his formal education in the Courts of Chaos well ahead of schedule, having petitioned the loremasters to consider him - and incidentally to be able to get away from his older brother Rumaleic.
  • 71 A.F.A.: Trieres, illegitimate son of King Oberon of Amber and the now-deceased Witch Crissilda, is caught slipping poison to his older half-brothers by Queen Cymnea in a bid to secure his own eventual ascension to the throne. Oberon removes Trieres from Castle Amber without the benefit of initiation into the Pattern and strands him in a distant and primal Shadow realm, where neither technology nor sorcery will function. While this is supposedly exile, it is for all intents and purposes a death sentence.
  • 71 A.F.A.: King Oberon forcefully ends his illegitimate daughter Arkura's tutelage under Dworkin and announces his decision to see her engaged to the crown prince of the nearby Shadow-realm Welkür in order to seal an alliance. In the dead of night, Arkura makes her way to the chamber of the Pattern and manages to survive its initiation, allowing her to travel independently through Shadow. Oberon is displeased, but formally acknowledges Arkura as a princess of Amber, and allows her to resume her studies for the duration of her engagement.
  • 72 A.F.A.: Arkura, Princess of Amber, starts travelling the Golden Circle of Shadows allied to Amber, studying local customs, history and sorcery. While her travels range to the very ends of these allied realms, she grudgingly obeys the edict of Oberon that she not travel beyond them.
  • 75 A.F.A.: The firstborn heir of House Bleykoven of Chaos, Rumaleic, suffers a riding accident that leaves him paraplegic. He accuses his younger brother Sare of having done something to his mount, but in spite of investigation by the House and independent authorities, there is zero evidence of this. Sare reacts with nothing but scorn to the accusation.
  • 77 A.F.A.: Sare of Bleykoven has fully regenerated his eye and survives his initiation in the deadly Logrus. Once the madness from his initiation passes, as his first act as a technically mature adult, he legally divorces himself from the House of Bleykoven, renaming himself Sare of Chaos. As his second act, he departs the Courts for Shadow, intending and vowing out loud never to return.
  • 81 A.F.A.: King Oberon of Amber recalls his daughter, Princess Arkura, from her travels around the Golden Circle. As her fiancé has now aged to the point that he and Arkura at least appear to be the same age, the King demands that Arkura should travel to the Shadow-realm Welkür, where she must become Queen. Amid much pomp and ceremony, Arkura departs in icy silence, a cold distance between herself and her remaining blood relatives.
  • 81 A.F.A.: Princess Arkura of Amber arrives in her fiancé's home of Welkür and is welcomed with much pomp and ceremony. While she fulfills her role with perfect etiquette, her heart is unmoved by the decayed glory of her new home and the nervous attentions of her fiancé, the crown prince.
  • 85 A.F.A.: Princess Arkura of Amber is formally married to crown prince Hugo of Welkür after an appropriate courtship. Hugo's father uses the opportunity to abdicate, leaving the young couple as king and queen of the corrupted realm.
  • 86 A.F.A.: Sare of Chaos has built himself a home in Shadow, which he calls the Castle of Cards. The 'Castle' is part painter's atelier, part gallery, part house, and all-round a cozy den for a bachelor with a love of solitude. To keep his mind sharp, Sare continues to study the secrets of the Logrus and Sorcery when not busying himself with his paintings and sketches of far-off realms and peoples.
  • 91 A.F.A.: Arkura of Amber, Queen of Welkür, is now fully convinced that she and her husband King Hugo are not fertile together. She encourages him to take on a second wife to secure the succession of the nation, and assures him she does not, in fact, see doing so as an insult to the royal house of Amber. When King Oberon of Amber sends letters expressing a different view, Arkura destroys these before Hugo can see them.
  • 92 A.F.A.: Arkura of Amber organizes and judges a series of trials to find a second bride for her husband, King Hugo. In spite of everyone's expectations, the trials are fair and take Hugo's own preferences as well as the needs of the kingdom into account.
  • 92 A.F.A.: Now freed of the duty of childbearing, Arkura offers her husband King Hugo an amicable divorce. Hugo, who fears reprisals from Amber, does not accept the divorce, but offers Arkura a position at the head of a new ministry with carte blanche to improve the kingdom. While Arkura is no politician, she finds the challenge of improving Welkür more interesting than playing Queen, and she accepts.

Gothic Earth

  • 1798 A.D.[5]: Students at the University of Cambridge in England, having partaken of forbidden texts, found a qabal they name the Brightwell Coven. Desiring power through knowledge, they create a grimoire known as the Libre des Ombres Sécrètes, in which they record lore from various university libraries throughout Europe, as well as information which comes to light due to archaeological explorations. The qabal soon falls under the influence of the Red Death, but the members do not care: their motto is that Evil is 'not a burden to bear nor an enemy to fight, but a gift', reflecting their complete lack of morals and ethics in their pursuit of power, as well as their willingness to accept dubious gifts from vile sources.
  • 1852 A.D.: The Brightwell Coven's headquarters in London come under assault by unidentified troops. The qabal's leadership sends a group of novices to Amsterdam with the Libre des Ombres Sécrètes as a decoy, only for the last elder to walk into a trap set in their Alexandria hideaway.
  • 1962 A.D.: The being that shall come to be known as Mr. Black is born on Cuba. Despite being Evil to the core, it starts operating as a Renegade almost immediately.
  • 1986 A.D.: The creature known as Mr. Black is caught in a deadly trap set by minions of the Red Death in Russia. Even though it manages to survive, it is cast into the Mists and barred from returning to Gothic Earth.
  • 1998 A.D.: The woman who shall come to be known as Mu is born in the Netherlands.
  • 2001 A.D.: The woman who shall come to be known as Slice is born in the state of Massachusetts in New England to a middle-class family. From early youth, she is troubled by grotesque visions; actually echoes of the Red Death's interference with Gothic Earth's Weave of Magic.
  • 2008 A.D.: Young Mu is inducted into the Brightwell Coven in Amsterdam, which has divined her nascent skills as a linguist and code-breaker, as well as her magical potential. She decodes and translates a considerable amount of the Libre des Ombres Sécrètes before she realizes what she has been tampering with and flees the qabal.
  • 2017 A.D.: Acting on a combination of visions shown to her by the Red Death and her own investigation, Slice kills an up-and-coming politician, for whom she had been working as a campaign staffer. She is promptly arrested and confined to the Maine Correctional Institute for Women. Amid huge media attention, Slice is tried in absentia, never receiving an opportunity to defend herself before the court.
  • 2019 A.D.: Slice is convicted of murder and sentenced to execution by means of cyanide gas. The Mists fill the place of execution instead and whisk her away.
  • 2028 A.D.: Witnessing a fire in the home base of the Brightwell Coven in Amsterdam, Mu unwisely plunges into the fire - either to save the old people who inducted her or to take the Libre des Ombres Sécrètes for herself. The fire's smoke transforms into the Mists, which steal her away.

Krynn

  • 963 IA[6]: The Cataclysm[7] strikes Krynn.
  • 13 AC[8]: Evanar first appears on Krynn. She wanders the devastation of the post-Cataclysm world, recording her findings in a new journal before she is pulled back to Toril.
  • 93 AC: Evanar's second visit to Krynn. Hoping that the joint power of Solinari, Lunitari and Nuitari might suppress the silver fire of Mystra, she presents herself at the Tower of Wayreth and demands the right to take the Test of High Sorcery. She is allowed to, on the condition that she not throw the test, but give her best effort. To Evanar's appalled chagrin, she passes the Test and is inducted into the Order of the White Robes. She receives a gift - the Shawl of Truth - that at least allows her to shed the appearance 'gifted' to her by Mystra.
  • 313 AC: Fraternal twins Arcael (girl) and Valael (boy) are born to an Elven family in the city of Qualinost.[9]
  • 333 AC: The young Elf Valael first starts showing symptoms of a recurring lung disease. His father, a minor Wizard of the White Robes, nevertheless forces him to study arcane magic instead of engaging in exercizes that might have improved his health. When Valael's twin sister Arcael asks to be taught as well, her father brusquely rebuffs her, claiming she lacks the right temperament.
  • 337 AC: Wick is born on the continent of Ansalon to a married couple of mercenaries.
  • 338 AC: Elven twins Arcael and Valael defy their father's wishes, with Arcael helping her brother to get exercize in the fresh air to improve his physical health, and Valael teaching his sister arcane magic from his own instruction books.
  • 347 AC: Wick and his parents are travelling the continent, doing mercenary work to put food on the table, when they encounter a Wizard. The old man tests Wick on a whim, and announces that he has the talent to become a Wizard of High Sorcery - provided he receives the necessary education and applies himself. Wick's parents start saving up as much money as they can so they can put their son through wizard school. Although he always wished to become a swordsman like his parents, Wick studies to honour their wishes.
  • 348 AC: Beginning of the War of the Lance[10].
  • 350 AC: (Spring) Wick's parents deliver their son to the Tower of Wayreth[11] so he can continue his studies in relative safety. They leave to continue their own mercenary work.
  • 352 AC: Arcael saves her family and several people from their home city from an enemy attack by skillful application of Enchantment and Illusion magic, turning their enemies against each other. Instead of congratulating her, Valael's father disowns her on the spot and denounces her as a Dark Elf[12] for turning to magic that belongs to the Black and Red Robes. Arcael is banished from her community.
  • 352 AC: The daughter of Traven, a human Wizard of the Red Robes, dies due to the ongoing war, and his wife commits suicide. Unnoticed by his friends and colleagues, Traven goes mad and resolves to bring back his family through magic.
  • 353 AC: Official end of the War of the Lance.
  • 354 AC: Dark Elf Arcael formally apprentices with Traven, human Wizard of the Red Robes. As he is unable to study or cast higher-level Necromancy spells, Traven deliberately nurtures Arcael's resentment towards her father and people, steering her towards the Order of the Black Robes.
  • 360 AC: Wick passes the grueling Test of High Sorcery at the Tower of Wayreth and is inducted into the Order of the Red Robes. He receives the silver dagger Silverwolf as a graduation gift. His wish to go see his parents for the first time in over a decade is denied, as the Order wants him to stay at the Tower and conduct research into Conjuration magic, for which he has a knack.
  • 367 AC: Arcael, now an Enchanter, passes the Test of High Sorcery and joins the Order of the Black Robes. For the first time in fifteen years, she reunites with her twin brother Valael at the Wizards' Conclave. Although Valael is now a White Robe, and in spite of their father's rage, the twins get along as well as ever. Arcael does note with some concern that her brother's health has deteriorated.
  • 367 AC: Arcael and Traven step up their clandestine and blasphemous research into ways to transfer and create life through arcane magic, with Traven supplying Transmutation and Arcael Necromancy. The Elf wishes to save her brother, whereas Traven still wants to revive his wife and child.
  • 368 AC: Wick encounters a member of the Black Robes, wearing a necklace that belonged to Wick's father. The Black Robe gleefully confesses to having murdered both of Wick's parents. In defiance of the laws of the Wizards of High Sorcery, Wick stabs the Black Robe to death, using the magical dagger Silverwolf. Rather than face the judgment of his fellow Wizards, he next uses a Conjuration spell he had been developing to flee to another world: Toril.
  • 373 AC: Valael succumbs to his lung disease. His father hides the fact that he refused to get his child treatment, having expected him to overcome the frailties of the flesh through willpower. He gives a speech before the Conclave, praising his son and denouncing his daughter Arcael as a 'pointless existence' that stole his heir's health in the womb.
  • 375 AC: Still grief-stricken over her brother's death, Arcael ends her private research with Traven and seemingly defects to the Knights of Takhisis[13]. In truth, she wants to prove her father wrong by helping her fellow Wizards of High Sorcery destroy the Knights' Order of the Thorn as a double agent. Unfortunately for her, Arcael is not as accomplished at deception as she thinks she is; her ruse is seen through and she is fed disinformation, which she passes on to the Wizards of High Sorcery.
  • 381 AC: The Orders of High Sorcery attack the Knights of Takhisis. Arcael is caught in the middle, with the Wizards of High Sorcery convinced she has betrayed them, and the Knights knowing she came to destroy them. Seeing no recourse, Arcael attacks everyone around her, finally conjuring a mist to cover her escape. When the fog clears, the Elf mage has been drawn into the Demiplane of Dread.
  • 382 AC: Traven conducts his most ambitious experiment to date, believing he can make up for the loss of Arcael by reciting scrolls she left behind. The experiment fails disastrously, destroying the body of Traven's wife and most of his laboratory and notes. As Traven cries out for any power capable of granting him his heart's desire to do so, the Mists come for him.

Toril

  • -339 DR[14]: The Netherese[15] archmage Karsus[16] casts an epic-level spell that leads to the destruction of Netheril and the death of the first incarnation of Mystra.
  • -338 DR: The second incarnation of Mystra prophesies a need for champions to meet future calamities. Her visions lead her to abduct a young human woman from an old and dying world. She renames the woman Evanar and appoints her as 'Mother of Champions', forcefully making her a Chosen and infusing her with silver fire so she may not die. When the woman tries to refuse and begs to be released to her home, Mystra showers her with 'gifts', including an inhumanly aesthetic appearance. None of these gifts manage to win Evanar's agreement or her cooperation, and she soon flees the care of Mystra's priesthood, seeking seclusion in the wilderness.
  • -133 DR: Sare of Chaos 'discovers' Toril during his travels. Enchanted by both its scenes of natural beauty and desolation, he starts travelling the world to paint its scenery.
  • -100 DR: Sare of Chaos encounters Evanar in the forest where she has secluded herself. Sare feels a strong physical attraction to Mystra's Mother of Champions, but out of romantic inexperience and social awkwardness resolves to befriend Evanar, rather than pressing any sort of suit.
  • -63 DR: Evanar and Sare of Chaos have become as close a pair of friends as their natures will allow. They try studying each other's styles of magic, without success. Sare offers to show Evanar other worlds, which she accepts; the two of them go walking in Shadow under Sare's power.
  • 000 DR: Evanar and Sare of Chaos start working on a way to break Mystra's Tether, a curse that forces Evanar to return to Toril no matter how far she travels.
  • 000 DR: Mystra, goddess of magic, lodges a complaint with the Serpent of Chaos, in whose faith Sare of Chaos was raised. The Serpent refuses to chastize Sare for interfering with the will of Mystra, but tells her she is free to take her own steps against him.
  • 13 DR: Sare of Chaos and Evanar think they have worked out the mechanics of a method to Mystra's Tether, the curse forcing Evanar to return to Toril, as well as purge her of the silver fire that has rendered her effectively immortal. Sare believes Evanar may need a higher-level initiation in order to be able to channel the energies needed, as neither one of them can conduct the ritual alone. Although he is saddened by the thought that he is working to help his friend to die, Sare offers to find an appropriate initiation out in Shadow while Evanar makes preparations on Toril. Barely has Sare left Toril before Mystra places a subtle curse on him, which will prevent him from finding whatever world Evanar is in.
  • 241 DR: While Mystra's attention is partially diverted by her new favourite Elminster, the Succubus Slap approaches Evanar in her seclusion and offers her the power and freedom of the Abyss in return for turning her considerable power to the cause of Evil. Evanar considers the offers for less than five seconds before telling the demonic temptress that if she were willing to vent her anger and sorrow on innocents, she would have been razing Toril for a long time now. She effortlessly banishes the fiend from her presence and back to the Abyss.
  • 1321 DR: Wick appears on Toril after his mad flight from Krynn, by ways of the Demiplane of Time[17] due to flaws in his Conjuration spell. Unaware that his brief brush with the Demiplane has catapulted him backward in time relative to Krynn, the Wizard of High Sorcery establishes himself in Beregost[18].
  • 1330 DR: Wick completes construction of his home in Beregost, the House of the Red Moon. He invites his lover, the swordsman Chadrezzan Ilmiskir, to live in the house with him.
  • 1340 DR: Chadrezzan Ilmiskir, disappointed by the way Wick spends little time with him in the House of the Red Moon, being more occupied with travelling and learning - and how he treats him more as a sparring partner than a lover when he is home - leaves to continue on his own training journey.
  • 1350 DR: Wick receives an invitation from the Simbul[19] to come to Aglarond[20]. When he does, the Simbul communicates an offer from Mystra to become one of her Chosen[21] and devote himself to magic forever. Wick grows both panicked and enraged, curses Mystra for what he perceives as an attempt to take his freedom to study both arcane magic and the sword as he chooses, and again casts his flawed Conjuration spell to escape from Toril.
  • 1358 DR: The Time of Troubles[22] strikes Toril.
  • 1359 DR: Chadrezzan Ilmiskir, crippled during the Time of Troubles, returns to the House of the Red Moon to make sure Wick is alright. He finds the House abandoned. As he is unable to continue as a swordsman, he cleans up the House and starts studying Wick's abandoned library in an effort to find his former lover.
  • 1360 DR: Evanar petitions the latest incarnation of Mystra to release her so she may finally die. The Lady of Mysteries, having learned of the prophecies of her predecessor, regretfully declines. She offers Evanar succor, but the Mother of Champions rejects the offer and returns to her isolation.
  • 1362 DR: Chadrezzan Ilmiskir tries to cast a self-designed spell, a combination of Wick's Conjuration and a Divination, in an effort to find his former lover. The spell proves to be too much for the self-taught wizard and he dies of a heart attack mid-casting. The spell goes haywire and drags the House of the Red Moon to the Demiplane of Dread.
  • 1371 DR: Rock Gnome Bard and Harper[1] Agent[2] Colmarr Greatorm is sent to gladden the heart of Evanar, unwilling Mother of Champions for Mystra. Instead, having learned of Evanar's past and her anguish, he flees her home in horror and abandons the mission.
  • 1372 DR: Colmarr Greatorm founds the Sevenstrings due to having learned of the many-worlds interpretation[3] from Evanar during his stay with her; he wishes to end all conflict on Toril by allowing every faction to gain access to a world of its own. He gathers followers from many species without any regard to alignment and petitions several gods for support. The group begins research into the creation of a technomagical portal as prototype.
  • 1372 DR: The Devoratrix who will become known as the Red Haunt is dispatched to test the loyalty of Mulan Red Wizard and Shadow Adept Girin. Surprisingly, the two villains grow close emotionally and romantically, even as they plumb the depths of the Shadow Weave together.
  • 1374 DR: Girin and her Devoratrix companion (who will one day become the Red Haunt) decide to flee Toril in hopes of freeing themselves from Shar. They are attacked on the Plane of Shadow, and Girin suffers mortal wounds. The two villains channel Girin's soul into a magic ring in hopes of restoring her to life later, but the Devoratrix is caught by the Mists before she can leave the Plane of Shadows.
  • 1377 DR: The Harpers[4] and Moonstars[5] become aware of the Sevenstrings' activities, but wildly misinterpret these, believing them to be a debased cult that wishes to open a gateway to an as-yet unknown layer of the Lower Planes. A joint taskforce attacks the Sevenstrings' base, the 'factory'. The weaker members of the Sevenstrings are slaughtered, the stronger are apparently vaporized when an errant spell causes their prototype portal to explode.
  • 1385 DR: The Spellplague[23] strikes Toril in the wake of an assassination attempt upon the third incarnation of Mystra.

The Demiplane of Dread

5th Century

6th Century

7th Century

8th Century

Cross-Reference

This timeline crosses paths in places with Wolfglide's Timeline.

References

Subcategories

This category has the following 11 subcategories, out of 11 total.

Pages in category "Rock's Timeline"

The following 97 pages are in this category, out of 97 total.