Legends of the Drenai

Legends of the Drenai

A conjectural timeline of Druss's life and times.

Timeline developed by
Dale E. Rippke

Version 3.0

Spoiler Alert!--While I've attempted to keep story points a surprise, there is material here that can spoil them.

Legends of the Drenai
A history of the nation of Drenai and the surrounding areas.
All dates ending in "?" are not precisly fixed and are thus approximate.

Estimated Date	Story Title	Important Events
-9515		The Elder Race creates a technology that can meld and manipulate flesh. They use it to create half men/beasts called Joinings to fight their wars. The wars devastate the cities of the Elders.
-9500		The Fall. The ice buildup at the poles causes the earth to begin to wobble. The wobble alerts the Elders that a catastrophe is about to occur, and they attempt to prepare for it. Centrifugal forces cause the ice on the poles to begin migrating towards the equator; the world tips. As it tips, the oceans rise up and cover the land, and the ice spreads to cover entire continents. Stress on the crust of the Earth causes a major increase in volcanism. The resulting ice age is named the "Days of Ice and Fire".
-9430		The nation of Chiatze is founded, presumably the first to rise after the Fall.
-4500		The city of Kuan Hador is founded.
-4100		Two Illohir deities decide to cast a spell that enables the spirits of the air to take on a physical form and interact with the inhabitants of the earth. Unable to eat normal food, the Illohir are forced instead to feed on the dark emotional energies and the life force of the earth's inhabitants. The humans begin to regard them as demons and begin a war with the Illohir that lasts for the next one thousand years.
-3110		The Demon Wars begin. This war is waged between two Demon-Lords, Anharat, who desires the destruction of the human race, and his brother Emsharas, who sets out to thwart him.
-3100		At the Battle of the Four Valleys, Emsharas, the human armies of the Three Kings, and a combined host of sorcerers and Kriaz-nor (meld-legions) from Kuan Hador join together and defeat Anharat, dispelling his magic. Then Emsharas evokes the Great Spell, which results in the banishment of all the remaining creatures of the Illohir from the earth.A golden Age of Enlightenment begins for the city of Kuan Hador with the end of the Demon Wars.
-3095		*The benevolent rule of Kuan Hador become tyranny as several nations refuse to pay the costs of the Demon Wars and the Kriaz-nor* are sent to attack and plunder them.**
-3020		The "Great War" begins when several nations rise in rebellion against the city of Kuan Hador.
-3000		With help from the descendants of Emsharas, the rebels create their own legions--the Raj-nor and their swords of power. The "Great War" ends when the human army forces the surviving sorcerers and their half-human slaves to retreat through a magical gateway into another world. The city of Kuan Hador is destroyed by fire and the magical portal is sealed with a powerful enchantment to prevent the enemy from ever returning. The remains of the city fall into ruin.
-2100?		The excessive volcanism ends, the earth begins to warm and the glaciers begin to retreat, ending the "Days of Ice and Fire".
-1420?		Death of the legendary immortal, Silverhand. His death is said to have caused a dead tree to bloom into life.
-570		Oshikai Demon-bane, the father of the Nadir people, leads several rebel tribes from the lands of the Chiatze, pausing only to fight an army on the plain of Chu-chien. With two more Chiatze armies closing in, Oshikai leads his beleaguered people across the dreaded Ice Mountains, emerging into a terrible desert of salt. He leads his people, who refer to themselves as Nadir, across the desert and into a lush, southern land that is inhabited by a peaceful people.
-560		Oshikai dies shortly after arriving in this new land. Oshikai's wife, the sorceress Shul-sen, is murdered shortly after his death, and ritually entombed within the Towers of the Damned. The Nadir roam free, splintering into many tribes. They begin to subjugate the peaceful southerners, raiding their villages and taking their women. The southerners fight back and become more organized.
-550		The southerners form the nation of Gothir, their hatred compelling them to visit upon the Nadir the terror of the killing raids.
-252		The Tattooed People, forced back by the migration of several nomadic tribes (including one called the Drenai), flee through the Gateway and into a different world.
1		The nation of Drenai is founded with the building of its capital at Drenan.
70		Three Nadir shamen of great power decide to create a statue to the Gods of Stone and Water. They draw the magic from the surrounding land and shape the statue, a giant, amethyst-eyed wolf they called Alchazzar, from the stone of the Mountains of the Moon. They then draw all the remaining magic from the lands, and place it within the statue, believing they can use it to control the destiny of the Nadir. One of the shamen, Shaoshad, steals the amethyst "Eyes of Alchazzar" and the magic suddenly ceases. Shaoshad is killed near the Shrine of Oshikai, but the "Eyes" are not recovered. Robbed of their Gods, the Nadir tribes - peaceful until then - turn upon one another and begin to fight terrible wars among themselves.
165?		Leaving the deserts of Ventria, the Sathuli cross the Ventrian Sea and settle in the Delnoch Mountains.
170?		The Knights of Blood build their first temples in Chiatze. The order is founded by a wizard named Zhi Zhen.
180?		The Knights of Blood become very powerful and try to overthrow the Chiatze emperor. Zhi Zhen is captured after many battles and impaled on a golden spike. The order does not die out, instead goes underground.
270		The Gothir capital of Gulgothir is surrounded by a raiding army from the north. Six virgins are sacrificed to appease the gods, and the attack is beaten off.
300		For the past 300 years the nation of Drenai has gradually expanded by conquering older, decaying nations. The conquered people are more prosperous; they welcome the rule of Drenai Law. The Drenai build schools, hospitals, roads, and encourage trade.
375?		Prince Orien is born in the palace at Drenan.
395?		Orien of the Two Blades becomes the first Battleking of the Drenai, setting them on the road to Empire. By the time he has finished, he will be the victor in a hundred battles and a score of wars.
400?		King Orien wins a battle at Dros Corteswain.
415?		Dakeyras of Drenai is born.
422?		Prince Niallad is born to King Orien.
428?		Karnak of Drenai is born.
431?		Dakeyras joins the legion at Dros Purdol.
434?		Dakeyras leaves the legion to get married and become a farmer.
440?		Dakeyras's family is slaughtered by a party of nineteen renegades. He spends the next several years tracking them down and slaying them; in the process he becomes known as Waylander the Slayer, an assassin of great renown.
441?		Orien of the Two Blades travels to the Mountains of the Moon and hides the Armor of Bronze in a chamber on Mount Raboas. He then steps down as King of the Drenai. His son Niallad becomes the new king.
459?		In the autumn, the legion is reduced by 10,000 men following Niallad's order of a new militia program, in the hope of promoting peace and trade with Vagria.
Early 460?		In the spring, Vagria, led by General Kaem, invades Drenai, and several weeks later, Waylander assassinates Niallad. Waylander is doublecrossed, and as a result Kaem's only son dies. The Drenai capital of Drenan falls to the Vagrian advance. Hundreds of towns and villages are burned and scores of thousands of Drenai are killed.
Late 460?	Waylander	Waylander falls in with Danyal and Dardalion and escorts them to safety in Skultik Forest. He then travels to the Mountains of the Moon to recover the Armor of Bronze for General Egel. Egel lifts the siege of Dros Purdol. Karnak makes his name by surviving the siege. Waylander kills Kaem and disappears with Danyal off the face of the earth. Dardalion forms a temple of Source warrior-priests called the Thirty in Skarta.
462?		Karnak leads an invasion of Vagria that sees the emperor toppled. The Drenai ruling houses refuse all talk of a monarchy and a republic is instituted. Egel is nominated to lead the government but refuses. He takes the title "Earl of Bronze" and retires to build a mighty six-walled fortress across Delnoch Pass.
464?		An agent of Karnak assassinates Egel in his fortress at Dros Delnoch. In the civil war that follows, Karnak rises to rule the Drenai.
465?		Waylander's wife Danyal dies when her horse falls on her.
470?	In the Realm of the Wolf (Waylander 2)	Waylander discovers that Karnak has placed a price on his head. Drenai is simultaneously invaded by the armies of Gothir and Ventria. Karnak One-eye is captured by the Gothir, but freed by Waylander. Ventria attacks the cities of Erekban and Lentrum, and captures Skeln Pass. The Gothir army besieges Kar-Barzac. Karnak gathers his forces at Dros Delnoch and leads them against the Ventrians, smashing them in decisive battles at Lentrum and Erekban, where he kills their battle monarch (Cyrios the Lord of Battles?).
471?		Waylander's daughter Miriel gives birth to Senta's son.
472?		Karnak increases the bounty on Waylander's head.
473?		Miriel gives birth to Angel's son.
475?		Karnak One-eye, popular leader of the Drenai Republic is assassinated while on a victory parade in Drenan.
478?		Dros Delnoch comes under siege and nearly falls, presumably to the Gothir.
483?		Waylander travels to the land of Kydor, after living incognito in the Gothir city of Namib for several years.
489?	Hero in the Shadows	Waylander is implicated in an attempted coup in Kydor. He disappears and is never seen nor heard from again.
491?		Angel's son grows to become a powerful warrior. He marries a Nadir woman and they leave her tribe to journey southward into Drenai.
493?		Angel's grandson Bardan is born in Drenai.
515?		King Pasia of Gothir gathers a great army and attempts to invade Drenai territory. Bardan and a raiding party of twenty men walk into the army's camp and slay King Pasia, mounting his head on a pole. The Gothir army returns home. Bardan is proclaimed a hero.
517?		The Second Vagrian War. Bardan acquires the demon-bound, double-bladed axe, Snaga, looting it from an old barrow in which lay the bones of an ancient battle king, a monster of legend, Caras the Axeman.
518?		The evil influences of the Axe worm into Bardan's soul, and he becomes corrupted. He becomes widely known as Bardan the Slayer, the butcher of babes, the rapist, the slaughterer.
519		Bress, son of Bardan, is born.
523		Gargan, future Lord of Larness is born in Gothir.
533		Bardan the Slayer is killed by his enemies. His son Bress flees with Bardan's axe, Snaga.
535		Michanek of Naashan is born.
536		Sieben the Poet is born to Drenai parents in the Gothir city of Gulgothir.
539		Bress marries Alithae.
540		Druss is born to Bress and Alithae, a short time later Alithae is killed in an accident.
545		Gothir is in upheaval because of civil war. Lord Gargan leads the charge that ends the civil war and kills Barin the Usurper in hand-to-hand combat at Gassima.
550		A severe drought afflicts the southeastern nations of Cadia, Matapesh, and Panthia. Panthia is especially hard hit, with many thousands of people dying.
551		Okai of the Wolfshead tribe is born somewhere on the Nadir Steppes.
552		Bress marries Patica.
555		Druss, Bress, and Patica move to a village in the Skoda Mountains. Druss meets and falls in love with Rowena, a local maiden.
556		Druss marries Rowena in a wedding at the great oak.
Early 557	Birth of a Legend	Raiders kill Bress and Patica, Rowena and the village's young women are taken to be sold as slaves. Druss, taking up Snaga, follows their trail to Mashrapur, meeting Sieben the Poet along the way. Rowena is sold to Kabuchek and they sail to Ventria. Druss is injured and spends several months recovering in Mashrapur.
Late 557 to 558	The Demon in the Axe	Druss sails to Ventria and discovers that Rowena has supposedly died in a shipwreck. He joins the Ventrian Emperor Gorben in his defense of Capalis. Druss fights in Gorben's civil war for a little over a year's time, earning a reputation as "The Silver Slayer". He finds out that Rowena is still alive and leaves Sieben in Ectanis to find her.
559 to 562		Druss travels north to occupied Reshia, finds Rowena's owner has moved to the Naashanite city of Pieropolis (Perapolis). It is in Pieropolis that Druss loses Rowena's trail. Unknown to him, Kabuchek has sold Rowena to Lord Michanek, The Naashanite general. He travels back to Reshia, and along the way loses Snaga, his double-bladed axe, by falling from a cliff into a raging torrent. He arrives at Reshia only to discover that Kabuchek has sold his palace and has disappeared. Wandering to the fallen capital of Nusa, out of funds and supplies, Druss takes work to help rebuild the walls of the city. In four months he had made enough money to head south once again, and travels toward Lania.
563	The Chaos Warrior	In a village east of Lania, a priest of Pashtar Sen relates to Druss how his axe, Snaga, has turned up in the hands of Cajivak, a local brigand-lord, who lives in the fortress of Valia. As he travels toward Valia to retrieve Snaga, Druss runs afoul of Cajivak's brigands, who capture him, savagely beat him, and finally throw him into the dungeon beneath the fortress. Rowena, her memories taken from her by illness, marries Lord Michanek. Okai of the Wolfshead, now 12, is taken to the Gothir city of Bodacus to be trained for five years as a janizary in the Bodacus Academy.
564	The Chaos Warrior	Druss remains a prisoner in the Valia dungeon for over a year before he manages to escape, kill Cajivak and retrieve Snaga. He learns Rowena is in Reshia and travels there to join Gorben's final assault on the city. Druss adds to his legend by defeating a colossal bear-demon called the Chaos Beast, thus saving Gorben's life. Michanek dies defending Reshia, one year to the day of his marriage to Rowena. Druss manages to exorcise the demon from his axe. He and Rowena are reunited and return back home to the Skoda Mountains.
565		Druss tries to remake his life into that of a farmer, but finds he no longer enjoys it. Olek Skilgannon and Princess Jianna are born in Naashan.
566		Druss journeys to Dros Delnoch, joining a militia formed to counter Sathuli raids. Six months later, the Sathuli are forced back into the mountains and he returns home.
568		Okai graduates with honors from the Bodacus Academy and returns to his tribe.
569		Abalayn is elected to head the Drenai council.
570	The Legend of Deathwalker	Druss travels to Gulgothir to participate in the Fellowship Games. He is 30 years old. Events compel Druss to travel east with Sieben to the Shrine of Oshikai Demon-bane, where Nadir forces, led by Okai (Talisman), have come under attack by the Gothir army. Druss is given the name "Deathwalker" by the Nadir. The Gothir Lord Gargan is killed in the battle. The Gothir God-King is assassinated by his Royal Guard, and a new emperor is installed. Okai (Talisman) takes his Nadir name. He is henceforth known as Ulric of the Wolfshead. Druss, Sieben, and his Nadir wife Niobe return to their homes the Skoda Mountains. Late in the year, the Third Vagrian War begins.
571		Ulric of the Wolfshead begins a decades-long campaign to unite all of the Nadir tribes under one leader.
577		Naashanite Lord Bokram is stripped of his titles and banished by the Emperor. He flees to Ventria and enters Gorben's service. Late in the year, Ventria invades western Naashan.
579		Skilgannon's father, Decado Firefist, dies in Panthia on a suicide charge against the king and his bodyguard. The Panthians honor him for his courage by strapping his corpse to his horse with a gold coin in his hand.
580		Naashan's Emperor is killed in battle with Gorben's Immortals. Late in the year Bokram is crowned king of Naashan by the Ventrians. Abbot Magnar's "Thirty" are killed in battle, Abbot Vintar founds a new "Thirty" on the southern edge of Graven Forest.
581		Bokram the Usurper decides to kill Princess Jianna to consolidate his hold on Naashan's throne, and the 16 year old Skillgannon smuggles her out of the capital with the help of an old witch. They flee into Delian Forest and for the next several years attempt to raise an army by appealing to tribal leaders and the nobles opposed to King Bokram.
583		Jianna's rebellion against King Bokram begins. A few outlying forts are taken, several caravans are seized. The attacks are hit and run and small in scale.
584		Jianna's rebellion continues to grow. Two more tribal leaders join her army and the rebels manage to block the mountain passes in the west of Naashan, effectively liberating two cities and a score of silver mines.
585	Druss the Legend	Gorben turns his attention toward an invasion of Drenai territory. Druss helps repel the Ventrian invasion at the Battle of Skeln Pass. Sieben the poet is killed during the fierce fighting with Gorben's Immortals. Gorben dies in the aftermath of the battle. Abalayn showers Druss with jewels following the victory at Skeln. The next day he leaves Drenan and returns to his home high in the Skoda Mountains, only to discover that Rowena had passed away while he was off fighting. Druss is 45 years old. Naashan falls into chaos following the death of Gorben. Jianna's rebellion turns into open revolt against the rule of King Bokram, thus beginning the Naashanite Insurrection.
586		Jianna's's army nearly falls to the forces of Bokram at Castran, but due entirely to Skilgannon's charisma, they regroup, winning the battle. Jianna promotes Skilgannon to General of the Naashanite army, gifting him with a set of magical swords; the Swords of Day and Night. They defeat and behead Bokram the Usurper in the battle of Carsis. Jianna is declared queen and Skilgannon, realizing that he can never have her, marries Dayan, a Naashanite noble. He leaves Dayan to pursue the conclusion of the Insurrection. Skilgannon's army takes to the field against Naashanite cities containing Ventrian garrisons.
587		The Naashanite cities held by Ventrian supporters are taken or surrender without a fight. During this phase of the war, Jianna becomes known as the Witch Queen by using the Old Woman to cast demonic spells against several enemies. Shortly after the Battle at the Ford, Skilgannon wins a duel with the legendary swordsman, Agasarsis. The Naashanite Insurrection ends with the complete eradication of the citizenry of Perapolis. This action earns Skilgannon the name "The Damned".
588		Skilgannon returns to Dayan, but loses her to the Black Plague. Heartsick, he flees Naashan against Queen Jianna's express command, eventually joining a monastery in Skepthia. Late in the year, Naashan invades and conquers the land of Matapesh.
589		Druss is paid to guard a northern village against bandit raids. The nation of Tantria invades the eastern realms of Dospilis and Datia. Naashan invades Panthia and Opal.
590	White Wolf	Druss spends three months searching the Tantrian countryside for Orastes, the missing Earl of Dros Purdol. His quest leads him into the mountains of Pelucid, where he joins forces with Skilgannon to rescue Elanin, Orastes' daughter, from a renegade Naashanite warrior named Ironmask. Ulric is successful in uniting the Nadir tribes. He takes the name Ulric Khan and turns his attention to conquering the northern kingdoms, starting with Gothir. The Nadir also sweep into Pelucid, plundering the country and razing its cities. The allied nations of Datia and Dospilis counterattack Tantria and conquer it in short order. Later in the year, Tantria is invaded by the armed forces of Naashan.
591		Over the next ten years, Druss will wander various lands, leading battle companies for minor princelings. Ulric has his brother Gat-sun executed for trying to lead a rebellion.
592		The Gothir surrender their sovereignty to Nadir control.
595		A series on inconclusive skirmishes are fought between the Drenai army and the Sathuli tribesmen.
598		The Sathuli skirmishes have become a border war. The war winds down when Gan Hogun routs the Sathuli at Corteswain. The sea-kingdom of Manea surrenders to Ulric. He now controls all of the northern kingdoms and many of the eastern ones. The Nadir have built an empire stretching across a dozen lands and five score cities.
599		Druss retires back to his Skoda mountain home shortly before winter begins. The Gothir city of Gulgothir attempts rebellion against its Nadir overlords. The rebellion is crushed, and the city is practically destroyed, its people put to the sword.
600	Legend	(The Year of the Leopard) The Battle of Dros Delnoch is fought between the Drenai and Ulric's Nadir horde. Druss is 60 years old when he falls at Delnoch. Ulric ends the siege of Dros Delnoch when he learns that his nephew Jahingir has slain Tsubodi (Ulric's brother) and declared himself overlord of the northlands. Ulric defeats Jahingir in pitched battle at Gulgothir Plain and then takes his army to invade Ventria.
601		During the Ventrian campaign, Ulric collapses and dies of a heart spasm. The Nadir tribes flee back to the north; without Ulric their unity is broken. Civil war comes once again to the northlands. Abalayn retires from public life and Magnus Woundweaver is elected to lead the Drenai Council. Arbedark founds a new Monastery of the Thirty in Ventria.
605		Magnus Woundweaver forms the Dragon, an elite regiment of warriors that are to be the Drenai weapon against future Nadir invasions.
661		The Second Nadir War. The Dragon decimates Jongir Khan's army.
663		As part of the Drenai/Nadir peace treaty, Orrin, the Earl of Bronze, forces his son Hogun to wed Shillat, Jongir's daughter in a loveless, political marriage.
664		The fortress of Dros Corteswain is abandoned by the Drenai.
665		Tenaka Khan is born to Hogun and Shillat at Dros Delnoch.
667		Hogun is killed in a riding accident and Shillat and Tenaka return home to the Nadir.
681		Honoring the peace agreement, Jongir Khan sends Tenaka to Dros Delnoch since his Drenai grandfather, Orrin, has arranged him a commission in the Dragon. Three months later, he joins them at the age of seventeen.
682		The lands of the Drenai suffer from a terrible drought.
685		Ceska is elected to head the Drenai Council.
690		Ceska successfully disbands the Dragon in a move to strengthen his rule. Tenaka Khan travels to Ventria and buys a villa in one of its desert cities.
694		Tenaka Khan purchases a woman named Illae in a Ventrian slave-market for 2000 pieces of silver and marries her two weeks later.
704		Tenaka Khan is devastated by grief when Illae dies of lung blight. Tenaka returns to Drenai at the end of the year, seeking to assassinate the tyrant Ceska..
705	The King Beyond the Gate	The Ceska Wars. The tyrant Ceska is killed and Rayvan becomes head of the Drenai Council. Lake reforms the Dragon. Tenaka Khan and his new wife Renya return to the Nadir Steppes in an attempt to mold the Nadir into a nation again. Katan founds a new Monastery of the Thirty in Vagria.
707		Renya give birth to Jungir, the first of Tenaka Khan's three sons.
715		Renya dies giving birth to Tenaki, Tenaka Khan's only daughter.
716		Tenaka Khan spends the next two years gathering his army around him and finally marches south to assault Dros Delnoch.
718		Dros Delnoch falls to Tenaka Khan and the Nadir hordes pour into Drenai lands. The republic of Drenai dissolves in blood and flame.
719		The Nadir armies invade Vagria, then sweep to the sea at Mashrapur, and finally heading along the coast into Lentria. The spoils taken from the Nadir conquests of Drenai, Vagria, and Lentria make them rich beyond imagination.
725		Tenaka Khan commissions the building of the Nadir capital of Ulrickham.
728		A Gothir nobleman named Carsis leads a small force into the Valley of the Gateway; their shrunken heads were later found, left on spears at the entrance. For ten years whenever a traveller would pass by, the heads would shriek warnings. Tenaka Khan turns his attention to the northern Gothir nation. At the siege of Bel-azar he loses the only battle in his conquest of the world.
740?		Tenaka Khan is poisoned by his son, Jungir, and dies in his palace in Ulrickham. He is buried in the Tomb of Ulric. After Tenaka's funeral, Jungir kills all of his brothers and becomes Khan of the Nadir.
748	Quest for Lost Heroes	Jungir Khan dies at the Gothir fortress of Bel-azar. Twin sons of Jungir Khan are born to Ravenna. The Nadir take one to make him Khan, the other is secretly raised by Chareos and Ravenna.
762		The son of Jungir Khan raised by Chareos visits Castle Tenaka (Dros Delnoch) at age 14.
788?		The War of the Twins. All of the Thirty die at this time; no one is left to start a new temple.
798		Banelion is born in Drenan.
816		Banelion joins the Drenai army at a time when the "old king" (Skanda's father) is a young prince.
825		Drenan begins a war to free itself from foreign masters.
827		Beset by its enemies on all sides, the beleaguered army, led by General Banelion, regains the independence of the Drenai nation.
835		Prince Skanda is born in Drenan.
850		The fifteen year old Prince Skanda becomes the king of the Drenai.
865		Skanda's Drenai have conquered most of the world.
866		The Ventrians begin the Great Expedition; the invasion of Drenai.
867		The first Drenai victory comes at the Battle of Purdol.
868		After Purdol, the war goes badly for the Ventrians and they retire to their homelands. Anharat, the Demon-Lord returns to the earth and begins to cast the Spell of the Three Kings in an attempt to bring the Illohir back from their banishment in the Void.
869		The Drenai begin a winter invasion of Ventria and defeat the Ventrian army in the Battle of the River at Mellicane. The Ventrian emperor dies shortly after the battle ends. The Drenai go on to take the capital of Usa. Skanda weds Axiana, the Ventrian princess, in an attempt to weld Drenai and Ventria into one united nation.
870	Winter Warriors	Skanda dismisses General Banelion and 1500 of his Drenai warriors because of their advanced age, and bids them to return to Drenai. The combined Drenai-Ventrian army marches to conquer Cadia. Skanda is killed when the Ventrians betray him during the battle. Skanda's son is born to Axiana and becomes king of the combined Drenai-Ventrian Empire. The demon-lord Anharat becomes the third king to die and the Illohir depart from the earth forever.

*Notes on the Timeline*

The single biggest obstacle in the construction of this timeline is the placement of the Waylander stories. In all the Drenai books I've not found a single instance where it states EXACTLY how far in the past the Waylander stories lie from the Druss/Tenaka Khan books.

For the most part, they are described as having happened "centuries ago" or "across the centuries", which I interpreted as meaning 200-400 years prior to LEGEND. There is a line in LEGEND that states Dros Delnoch was last besieged 2 centuries ago, which would indicated that the Waylander stories would need to be placed before that time. Also, since King Orien was the FIRST battle-king of the Drenai, and the father of Niallad, the King Waylander assassinated, this would seem to place WAYLANDER fairly early in the history of the Drenai nation, a history that is 600 years old by the time of LEGEND. Once more we are looking at 200-400 or more years prior to the seige of Dros Delnoch.

Yet at the end of IN THE REALM OF THE WOLF (WAYLANDER 2) in a conversation between Kesa Khan and Dardalion about the Uniter (Ulric) reads as follows: "I have followed the path that leads from Kar-Barzac and the child to be conceived here (by Ekodas and Shia). A girl, a beautiful girl, who will wed a young warlord. Their son will be mighty, their grandson mightier still." The grandson is implied to be Ulric Khan. Now it will only be three or four generations between the end of the Waylander books and the birth of Ulric. At most this makes IN THE REALM OF THE WOLF take place about 65-80 years prior to the birth of Ulric and thus about a hundred fifteen years or so prior to LEGEND (when Ulric is 49). There is a big difference between something happening a bit over a 100 years ago and something happening "centuries ago". Further support for the later placement of the Waylander stories came from a line in THE LEGEND OF DEATHWALKER wherein Nosta Khan relates to Druss that Angel helped his grandfather in a great battle against the Gothir (referring to REALM OF THE WOLF). This places the seige at Kar-Barzac at a relatively recent dating compared to the seige in DEATHWALKER. In a recent question and answer, David Gemmell confirmed that he intended Angel's child to be Druss's great grandfather, and, thus, the father of Bardan. This works out well to the 80 year figure.

So how did I come up with 80 years between IN THE REALM OF THE WOLF and the birth of Okai (Ulric)? Okai was born 49 years prior to LEGEND in the year 551. This was my fixed point on the timeline. I also needed to get the founding of Dros Delnoch as far back in history as I could to not violate the spirit of the earlier stories. Ekodas and Shia's girl, from her conception, to her wedding the young warlord, to her giving birth to a "mighty son", I would guess would cover about 35 years (This son was most likely not their oldest child). This son (Okai's father) is described in DEATHWALKER as the strongest and bravest of the Nadir chieftains and had fought in a hundred battles. Since Okai had other brothers and this chieftain was spending so much time in battle, it is not unreasonable to speculate that he may have been around 45 years of age when Okai was conceived. Add the 45 years for Okai's father and the 35 years for Shia's daughter and you can see that 80 years separate the events of REALM OF THE WOLF from the conception of Okai in 550. Thus, REALM OF THE WOLF takes place in 470.

The fortress of Dros Delnoch began construction in 461 and the earliest a seige could have taken place is shortly after Karnak's assassination, since it isn't mentioned before that time and it would be logical for someone to attack it during the vacuum in leadership following his death. Not even close to two centuries, but at least I got it up over a hundred years prior to LEGEND. Also understand that all of this could change when the next Waylander book comes out (it didn't!).

Bardan the Slayer's history is laid out in bits and pieces in THE FIRST CHRONICLES OF DRUSS THE LEGEND. There is no real dating linking him to the timeline other than his death in 533 (at the time he was described as an "old wolf"). I have attempted to place his history where logic dictates that it fits. It would be supremely cool to link the first seige of Dros Delnoch and Bardan's killing of King Pasia as pieces of the same event, but it is pretty obvious by the datings that they are not.

The reason I indicate that it took Tenaka two years to prepare for the Seige of Dros Delnoch in 716 is so that Chareos would be twelve years old as is stated in QUEST FOR LOST HEROES.

The War of the Twins could literally be 15-20 years in either direction. I simply dated the average as year 788.

In the excellent WINTER WARRIORS it is stated that Bodasen died 350 years prior to the story. There is also a statement to the effect that Gorben built a barracks for the Immortals 300 years prior to the story. At face value this seems to imply that Gorben had the barracks built 50 years AFTER he died, since he died about a week after Bodasen. I've decided to use the 300-year benchmark as the more accurate of the two dates, but this too could be subject to change.

Note on the 2.2 timeline update: - (Special thanks to Phil Shean for his imput) There is a gap of time between the events of WAYLANDER and HERO IN THE SHADOWS that is at odds with the statement in HITS claiming the story takes place "eighteen years" after the First Vagrian War. All of the supporting evidence shows that 28 to 30 years would be a far more accurate assessment. The timeline changed to reflect this.

Notes on the 3.0 timeline update: - A couple of WHITE WOLF nitpicks: At the start of chapter Ten in WHITE WOLF it states: "Though none now living could recall the Vagrian-Drenai wars the ancient enmity between the peoples continued. Occasionally there were even border skirmishes." Compare this to: Page 233, ninth paragraph of the Del Rey edition of LEGEND: "Thirty years ago we were at war with Vagria. Now we are friends." This war refers to the time that Serbitar's father resumed being the lord of Dros Segril and is presumably the Third Vagrian-Drenai War. This would mean that the last Vagrian-Drenai war was only twenty years prior to the events of WHITE WOLF. Now I could believe that no one living could remember the reasons for the start of the First war between the two nations, but there would scarcely been enough time passed for everyone to forget about the most recent war.

On page 249 of the US edition of WHITE WOLF, Druss states that: "Are any of us innocent? I was here twenty-five years ago. I took part in attacks on cities. I killed men who where defending their lands and their loved ones. Warriors are never innocent, laddie." Ok, now Druss is fifty years old in WHITE WOLF (45 at Skeln plus five). Twenty five years ago his age would have been twenty five. Druss was 17 when Rowena was kidnapped and it took him seven years to get her back (at age 24). He was farming up until he joined a campaign against the Sathuli, then went back to farming until shortly before the events of DEATHWALKER (at 30). So according to the series, he couldn't have been doing what he stated in WHITE WOLF. However its pretty easy to read what Gemmell was getting at. "I was here (meaning the Eastern lands) twenty-five years ago. I took part in attacks on cities. I killed men who where defending their lands and their loved ones." The last two sentences refer to his time in Ventria fighting with Gorben and Bodasen. So in actuality, Druss should have said "I was here thirty years ago."

04/10/03 02:27 PM