Timeline

[Goathill]

In AMoL its stated thats its been 2 years since the story started. In the LoC Nyn states she hasn't seen Rand in a year +/- when being questioned by one of the AS at Salidar. They were last together at the Stone which was a year after the story started. So did the timeline change somewhere in the process? Trying to keep track of time in this series can be confusing to say the least. TEotW starts in the spring, in TDR the Stone falls in the spring/early summer so 1 year gone. Now jump ahead to LoC its been another year this seems ok to me alot has happened from TDR to LoC. But after this point time gets very hard to keep track of in WH Rand knocks up Elayne by AMoL she is getting very close to term so lets say at least 6 months if not more have passed. 2 Years seems quite a bit off.  IMO the story covers 4-5 years what do you guys think? 

[Rhienne]

The best chronology for the Wheel of Time is found here: http://www.sevenspokes.com

 

I think the time frame of the series is 2-3 years, not as much as 4-5.  

 

TEotW starts on Winternight (i.e. the beginning of Spring) in 998 NE.  TDR ends in Spring 999 NE, so yes, a year passes during the first three books.  

 

Nynaeve and Elayne are in Salidar in late Autumn/early Winter 999 NE, so Nynaeve's statement that she hadn't seen Rand for a year may have been a bit of an exaggeration (I don't recall the exact statement you are referring to).  From LoC onwards there is a lot of overlap with many of the plotlines happening simultaneously.  

 

Winter's Heart starts in late Winter/early Spring 1000 NE, so about 2 years from the start of TEotW.  From ToM the timeline becomes very mixed up and is very difficult to follow but Elayne's pregnancy would suggest that the final battle takes place about 2.5 years after the start of the series.

[MasterAblar]

Like Rhienne said Seven Spokes is a very useful website. You also have Steven Cooper's timeline.

[Goathill]

I guess I should have asked this question. Did it seem like RJ started with a longer timeline in mind then changed somewhere in the middle of the series?

[Rhienne]

I guess I should have asked this question. Did it seem like RJ started with a longer timeline in mind then changed somewhere in the middle of the series?

As far as I'm aware there is nothing to indicate this in the interviews.  I could be wrong though!  

 

The books varied quite considerably in how much time they covered, e.g.:

 

TEotW ~ 2.5 months

tGH ~ 8.5 months

tDR ~ 3 months

tSR ~ 2 months

tFoH ~ 2 months

LoC ~ 3 months

ACoS ~ 1 week

PoD ~ 1 month

WH ~ 1 month

CoT ~ 3 weeks

KoD ~ 3 weeks

tGS ~ 1.5 months

 

ToM-AMoL is left to cover approximately maybe around 3-4 months but it becomes really difficult to pin down timings as BS was a lot less precise with dates.

 

I think part of the reason some of the later books covered less time is because travelling and communicating becomes much faster so characters can get to where they need to be much quicker, or get the next piece of information they need faster (e.g. Travelling is rediscovered, several of the characters gain access to TAR for finding information and communicating with each other, the Seafolk ships come into play).  

[Goathill]

Ok I looked over Cooper's timeline its good but he is shaving a good bit off the travel times. For example : Jun 16 - Rand and the Aiel leave Rhuidean for Cold Rocks Hold. Jul 1 -Rand arrives at Alcair Dal.  It is stated plainly that the trip will take a month at the fastest. They then pick up the wagons which slow them down but even without the wagons he has them making the trip in less than half the time stated. On the timeline Rand is only in the Waste Jun 15 through Aug 31 this barely covers the time needed to go from Rhuidean to Alcar Dal then back to Rhuidean. A couple of weeks were spent camped at Alcar Dal then back at Rhuidean after which they start the trip out of the Waste from Rhuidean which is very deep in the Waste. The timeline has the whole Waste to Cairhien arc as just under 3 months when it should be twice that atleast.

[DanFVLaw]

Why haven't Cooper or Seven Spokes tackles Towers of Midnight or A Memory of Light yet?  It's been a while, especially for ToM, but we still don't have anything????

[Suttree]

Why haven't Cooper or Seven Spokes tackles Towers of Midnight or A Memory of Light yet?  It's been a while, especially for ToM, but we still don't have anything????

 

Steven Cooper gave up on the project after ToM do to the timeline issues and mistakes.

[DanFVLaw]

It looks like there is already a pretty major mistake back in TSR.  Not sure why ToM would be that much harder.  It's not hard to sync things up once Perrin sees Rand on Dragonmount.

[Suttree]

 It's not hard to sync things up once Perrin sees Rand on Dragonmount.

 

Well the person who dedicated years of his life to the project disagrees. Perhaps you would care to take a stab at it?

[DanFVLaw]

If only I had the time....if only.  But it certainly seems doable.

[Goathill]

I can understand why he is having trouble with the timeline. The story and times stated do not add up another example in TEotW it only takes a bit over a month for Rand to get from The Two Rivers to Caemlyn on the timeline.  Most of that time is Rand and Mat are walking and both injured or sick at times. But there has not been a soldier or taxman visit the Two Rivers in a hundred years and the people don't even know they live in Andor. The story and the passage of time and distances just don't add up.

[DanFVLaw]

Considering that there are already numerous mistakes and guesswork in Cooper's timeline already, I think he could handle giving everyone his "best estimate" of the timeline in ToM and AMoL.

[Suttree]

Steven Cooper has been lauded by Team Jordan for his work and accuracy. Curious to hear more about these "numerous mistakes"? Maybe people sourcing the things they think are off with the relevant quote from the books would help us get to the bottom of the issues.

[GERand26]

I didn't have much trouble understanding the order of events in the last three books. A few people have complained about being a little confused, but most of the people that I know who have finished the series did not feel it was a major issue, nor did it detract from their enjoyment of the book. Brandon's retrospective that he has recently been posting said they have a very clear sense if the timeline. It's such a minor issue that I almost can't believe the extent to which it has been blown out of proportion.

[Suttree]

Brandon:
 

The Wheel of Time, however, does jump around a lot—you just don’t notice it, as Robert Jordan juggled the timelines quite well. Mat could be progressing at one rate, and when you jumped to Perrin, you’d jump forward or back in time. Those who wanted to look for the clues could find out and build a timeline using the phases of the moon or other hints. Those who didn’t want to notice, however, were never thrown out by perceived incongruities.

When we split the books, some of the timeline things I’d done got too far out of sync. At the end of Knife of Dreams, the character viewpoints were somewhat out of sync, as Robert Jordan often wrote them. I didn’t have any experience juggling something like this, and in Towers of Midnight I flubbed it.

[GERand26]

Brandon: "Not that the timeline is messed up—it’s actually pretty good, all things considered. However, the perception of it brought us troubles. Because characters interacted across timelines, it felt like they were in two places at once (Tam is an example) even though it all worked narratively."

 

I agree with Brandon that the timeline is pretty good and works well narratively. It definitely did not detract at all from my enjoyment of the book.

[Cybertrolloc]

Both of those could be true. TJ could have been impressed by his handling of chronology but us readers don't have the hints (moon phases, weather, etc) that RJ provided and BS doesn't (damn you forever cloudy skies).

[Suttree]

It is rather telling when you combine Steven Cooper throwing up his hands after dedicating so much time to the project with Brandon also stating that he "flubbed it". One also needs to take into account that changes were made to fix pieces of the ToM timeline in later editions.

 

Regardless someone should step up and take a shot at the last two books, until they do as George Martin would say "words are wind".

[Goathill]

Elaynes pregnancy is a major problem in the stated 2 year timeline working. There are a few references that she is very close to term by AMoL which blows the 2 year timeline by a good bit since even by Cooper's timeline WH is 2 years from the start of the story.    

[Barid Bel Medar]

At the beginning of aMoL, Elayne is 4 months pregnant, not nearly due. At least, not in a normal pregnancy. It may be different for people who wield the OP,

 

INTERVIEW: Nov 16th, 2010

Paris Signing Report - Jonathan B (Paraphrased)

BRANDON SANDERSON

He said well, Elayne is like four months pregnant at this point... Lots of things are possible with the One Power though.

 

 

I can't speak for the rest of aMoL due to the time distortion in various parts of the world. 

 

The overall story would be around 3-4 years going from things RJ and Brandon have 

 

 

INTERVIEW: May, 2001

Marcon Report - Sorilea (Paraphrased)

QUESTION

About how much time has elapsed in the course of the books so far?

ROBERT JORDAN

"Depending on how you look at it, either two or three years."

The kids left Emond's Field in the Spring of 998. Winter's Heart takes place during the winter of 999-1000.

 

 

 

INTERVIEW: Nov 9th, 2009

TGS Signing Report - Old (Peter) Salt (Paraphrased)

  BRANDON SANDERSON

When asked about the number of years between the Breaking and current day Brandon replied that it was well known and referred us to Encyclopaedia WoT, which is accurate except for a year here or there.

 

 

 

 

[Suttree]

@Goat

 

Please start providing quotes from the books, you've been off on a few of your claims now.

[GERand26]

You are misunderstanding Brandon's quote. He is saying that he flubbed the presentation of the timeline by not including enough contextual clues, not that there are any inherent problems with the timeline itself. He says the timeline is actually quite good.

[Suttree]

Quite good...which is why they had to fix problems in later editions of ToM I guess.

[GERand26]

Everybody makes mistakes, the question is how severe and whether people are being reasonable about how much they claim it detracts from the book. In my experience, the most vocal critics on this point tend to have a serious axe to grind with Brandon.