Continuity/Timeline of Ispar

The timeline of Ispar has changed greatly over the course of the game. In this article, we will attempt to construct the timeline of Ispar as it existed at various points in the game's history. We will also examine how the Roulean Calendar system from Ispar relates to the Portal Year Calendar on Dereth.

Asheron's Call

This is the period of time from beta leading up to Dark Majesty. The most notable sources of information from this time are Zogblaster Archive: Heritage Groups (from Turbine's Beta website), The Reign of Alfrega, The Silifi of the Crimson Stars, and Stormwaltz Quotes: On Aluvian Rulers. Although this quote from Stormwaltz was first posted in March 2002, after the release of Dark Majesty, he states that he wrote the timeline of Aluvian rulers during Beta while writing the Reign of Alfrega.

Based on Stormwaltz' quote on Aluvian rulers, and the Aluvian heritage introduction from Turbine's beta website, we can determine that 10 PY and 1321 RC occur at the same time. With that in mind, we can construct the following timeline:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
		Sho The most ancient legends tell how the Sho warred with the Dragon and were driven to the edge of the sea.
-990 PY	321 RC	Sho Ryu Jou Gai, the Order of the Dragon Temple, is founded. [This event is said to occur over 1,000 years ago.]
-790 PY	521 RC	Sho The prophet Jojii receives revelations from the Unicorn of Grace on how to reach Paradise. Jojiism established. [This event is said to occur around 800 years ago.]
-524 PY	787 RC	Aluvia Reign of Pwyll II begins in Aluvia. It lasts 17 years.
-507 PY	804 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Viamont invades Aluvia, reign of Pwyll II ends. Reign of Alfric begins in Aluvia. Alfric is the Viamontian invader that is ruling Aluvia. His reign lasts 20 years.
-487 PY	824 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Alfric ends. Reign of Theolaud, son of Alfric, begins. It lasts 30 years.
-457 PY	854 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Theolaud Ends. It is said that during this time, King Elous VIII rules in Viamont, and that Theolaud was killed during a duel with the Viamontian king. Reign of Alfrega, daughter of Theolaud, begins. It lasts 14 years.
-443 PY	868 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Alfrega ends. Reign of Osric, son of Alfrega, begins. It lasts 31 years. Osric is Viamontian, but begins to mend the Aluvian culture.
-412 PY	899 RC	Aluvia Reign on Osric ends. Reign of Pwyll III, son of Osric, begins. It lasts 25 years. Pwyll III is killed by an ambassador from Viamont on what is described as the eve of war between the two nations, and it is said that knights and commoners alike fell upon their enemies and destroyed them.
-387 PY	924 RC	Aluvia Reign of Pwyll III ends. Reign of Cellric II begins. It is not known how long it lasts.
-339 PY	972 RC	Gharu'n One of the five Crimson Stars, Al-Ghul, is renamed Al-Khur in honor of Rakhil al-Khur, after the great victory won at the salt mines to the east of Tirethas. [This event is said to occur some 300 years ago. The book describing this was written in 11 PY, which would be 1322 RC. Some 300 years could be, at the extremes, from 300 to 399 years ago, placing this event in the range of 923 RC to 1022 RC. However, this event had to occur prior to the conquest of Tirethas, because Rakhil is killed then. Given that Yasif died around 1002, this event cannot occur after then. Also, as seen in our conclusions in Gharu'ndim History, the events described in To Be A Shadow (The time from the founding of Gharu'n to the death of Yasif) require at least 15 to 30 years to occur. So this event must occur at least 15 to 30 years prior to 1002. This narrows the range to between 399 to 350 years ago if the above events took 30 years, or 335 years ago if the above events took 15 years. Since 350 years ago is right in the middle of the 399-300 range, we will use that as our estimate.]
-339 PY or later	972 RC or later	Gharu'n Gharu'n armies seige the Roulean city of Tirethas. Rakhil makes the mistake of threatening to burn the books within her walls, and Yasif strikes him down in rage. With that, the conquest of Roulea ends and the nation of Gharu'n is born. In all, half of Roulea's lands are lost to the new nation of Gharu'n. Rakhil al-Khur's son, Amul ibn Rakhil becomes the new Malik and Yasif becomes his adviser.
-319 PY	992 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is born. Her father is a minor Mu'allim in the court of Malik Amul ibn Rakhil.
-307 PY	1002 RC	Gharu'n Yasif ibn Salayyar dies. The people of Gharu'n mourn for a full year.
-308 PY	1003 RC	Gharu'n Soon after the death of Yasif, Amul ibn Rakhil also dies, heirless, poisoned at his own birthday celebration. The Century of Storms begins. During this time of chaos in Gharu'n no fewer than twenty-five different would-be Maliks and Malikas will rule the Gharu'ndim people.
-303 PY	1008 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is 16 when she is orphaned by the death of her father.
-293 PY	1018 RC	Gharu'n After some 15 years of chaos in Gharu'n, Ladriya bint Daum decides to leave Tirethas and return to her home in Taban. Ladriya is 26 at the time. Halfway through her journey, Ladriya's caravan is attacked at night by band of nomads sent by the renegade Shayk Ridqidh. Ladriya is wounded badly but is saved by Tamsah ibn Jaidah, who carries her away on his stallion. After riding for six days, Tamsah and Ladriya the oasis of Shiryaz. They stay there for almost two months while Ladriya recovers. On 6th of Solclaim, 1018 RC, Tamsah and Ladriya return to the court of Taban at Nishadina. Ladriya orders the forging of the Silifi of Crimson Stars, to be wielded by Tamsah. Ladriya goes on to be become Malika.
-290 PY	1021 RC	Sho Chiran Jishui Dan, The Ranks of the Unicorn's Battle, splits off from Chiran Jou Gai, Order of the Unicorn Temple [This event is said to occur 300 years ago.]
-208 PY or earlier	1103 RC or earlier	Gharu'n, Viamont During Century of Storms, Viamont sends armies to Gharu'n to invade. The Viamontians install Zahir ibn Ma'mun as a puppet leader, while they rule Gharu'n from afar. During his rule, Zahir ibn Ma'mun murdered all his rivals, except for a young lord named Jawhar al-Shamshir. Seeing what has become of his homeland, Jawhar travels the desert in secret, banding together the people. Jawhar defeats Zahir ibn Ma'mun and drives the Viamontians from the shores of Gharu'n. He becomes the new Malik, and returns Gharu'n to the glory it had known in Yasif's time.
-190 PY	1121 RC	Sho Emperor Kou rises to power in Sho. [This event is said to occur 200 years ago.]
-40 PY or later	1271 RC or later	Gharu'n The al-Khuraqa, Children of the Eagle, form as a splinter faction from from the much older Jaladh, The Warriors' Brotherhood [This event is said to occur within the last 50 years.]
0 PY	1311 RC	Aluvia After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II had begun (387 to be exact), the reign of Cedraic III begins. It is listed as having an unknown end date, but lasting 10 years, implying it is the current reign.
10 PY	1321 RC	Aluvia, Gharu'n, Sho, Viamont King Cedraic reigns in Aluvia during this time. Cedraic opens trade with nations across the sea, including Gharu'n and Sho. Some Aluvians believe it is only a matter of time before Aluvia and Viamont are at war again. The Sho still enjoy the stability brought by the Kou Dynasty. Meanwhile, trade has begun in earnest with the Gharu’ndim and the Milantos, the two nearest kingdoms, and the Sho are growing increasingly aware of the vast lands beyond their borders. The Malika Qadira bint Balj reigns in Gharu'n. There is always the threat of war, from both Viamont and Milantos, but the desert kingdom is once again a place where the sharpness of a man's mind is far more valuable than that of his sword.

AC:DM

With the release of Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty, players were given the AC:DM CD Lore. Among these files was the Ages of the Empyrean, which outlined the history of Auberean. It also contains a few valuable pieces of information regarding the Roulean Calendar:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-15 PY*	1261 RC	Humans arrive on Dereth.
0 PY	1276 RC	Olthoi Queen is defeated.
12 PY	1284 RC	Marae Lassel opens.
*Stated in numerous other sources.

We start running into issues here:

First, our theory about the timeline's present day being 1321 RC being 10 PY is invalidated - that date has yet to occur according to this new timeline. At the very least, this pushes back the time-frame for Cedraic III's reign, and the other "present day" rulers.

Second, we have inconsistencies in the amount of time that is passing on each calendar. Between the first two events, humans arriving and humans defeating the Olthoi Queen, 15 years pass on each calendar. However, between the second and third events, 12 years pass on the Portal Year calendar, but only 8 years pass on the Roulean calendar.

Our options are:

1. Ispar years and Auberean years are at a 1:1 ratio, and the last date is incorrect - it should be 1288 RC when Marae Lassel opens.
2. Ispar years and Auberean years are at a 2:3 ratio, and the first date is incorrect - it should 1266 RC when humans first arrive on Dereth.

With only these three dates to work from, we can't really draw any conclusions. The easiest assumption is that the writers created a 1:1 ratio for Ispar:Auberean years, because it would be very easy to convert dates. With that in mind, we can create a new timeline. Dates that have been changed have been highlighted.

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
		Sho The most ancient legends tell how the Sho warred with the Dragon and were driven to the edge of the sea.
-990 PY	286 RC	Sho Ryu Jou Gai, the Order of the Dragon Temple, is founded. [This event is said to occur over 1,000 years ago.]
-790 PY	486 RC	Sho The prophet Jojii receives revelations from the Unicorn of Grace on how to reach Paradise. Jojiism established. [This event is said to occur around 800 years ago.]
-524 PY	787 RC	Aluvia Reign of Pwyll II begins in Aluvia. It lasts 17 years.
-507 PY	804 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Viamont invades Aluvia, reign of Pwyll II ends. Reign of Alfric begins in Aluvia. Alfric is the Viamontian invader that is ruling Aluvia. His reign lasts 20 years.
-487 PY	824 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Alfric ends. Reign of Theolaud, son of Alfric, begins. It lasts 30 years.
-457 PY	854 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Theolaud Ends. It is said that during this time, King Elous VIII rules in Viamont, and that Theolaud was killed during a duel with the Viamontian king. Reign of Alfrega, daughter of Theolaud, begins. It lasts 14 years.
-443 PY	868 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Alfrega ends. Reign of Osric, son of Alfrega, begins. It lasts 31 years. Osric is Viamontian, but begins to mend the Aluvian culture.
-412 PY	899 RC	Aluvia Reign on Osric ends. Reign of Pwyll III, son of Osric, begins. It lasts 25 years. Pwyll III is killed by an ambassador from Viamont on what is described as the eve of war between the two nations, and it is said that knights and commoners alike fell upon their enemies and destroyed them.
-387 PY	924 RC	Aluvia Reign of Pwyll III ends. Reign of Cellric II begins. It is not known how long it lasts.
-339 PY	937 RC	Gharu'n One of the five Crimson Stars, Al-Ghul, is renamed Al-Khur in honor of Rakhil al-Khur, after the great victory won at the salt mines to the east of Tirethas. [This event is said to occur some 300 years ago. The book describing this was written in 11 PY, which would be 1287 RC. Some 300 years could be, at the extremes, from 300 to 399 years ago, placing this event in the range of 888 RC to 987 RC. As seen in our conclusions in Gharu'ndim History, the events described in To Be A Shadow (The time from the founding of Gharu'n to the death of Yasif) require at least 15 to 30 years to occur. So this event must occur at least 15 to 30 years prior to 1002. This narrows the range to between 399 to 315 years ago if the above events took 30 years, or 300 years ago if the above events took 15 years. Since 350 years ago is right in the middle of the 399-300 range, we will use that as our estimate.]
-339 PY or later	937 RC or later	Gharu'n Gharu'n armies seige the Roulean city of Tirethas. Rakhil makes the mistake of threatening to burn the books within her walls, and Yasif strikes him down in rage. With that, the conquest of Roulea ends and the nation of Gharu'n is born. In all, half of Roulea's lands are lost to the new nation of Gharu'n. Rakhil al-Khur's son, Amul ibn Rakhil becomes the new Malik and Yasif becomes his adviser.
-290 PY	986 RC	Sho Chiran Jishui Dan, The Ranks of the Unicorn's Battle, splits off from Chiran Jou Gai, Order of the Unicorn Temple [This event is said to occur 300 years ago.]
-319 PY	992 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is born. Her father is a minor Mu'allim in the court of Malik Amul ibn Rakhil.
-307 PY	1002 RC	Gharu'n Yasif ibn Salayyar dies. The people of Gharu'n mourn for a full year.
-308 PY	1003 RC	Gharu'n Soon after the death of Yasif, Amul ibn Rakhil also dies, heirless, poisoned at his own birthday celebration. The Century of Storms begins. During this time of chaos in Gharu'n no fewer than twenty-five different would-be Maliks and Malikas will rule the Gharu'ndim people.
-303 PY	1008 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is 16 when she is orphaned by the death of her father.
-293 PY	1018 RC	Gharu'n After some 15 years of chaos in Gharu'n, Ladriya bint Daum decides to leave Tirethas and return to her home in Taban. Ladriya is 26 at the time. Halfway through her journey, Ladriya's caravan is attacked at night by band of nomads sent by the renegade Shayk Ridqidh. Ladriya is wounded badly but is saved by Tamsah ibn Jaidah, who carries her away on his stallion. After riding for six days, Tamsah and Ladriya the oasis of Shiryaz. They stay there for almost two months while Ladriya recovers. On 6th of Solclaim, 1018 RC, Tamsah and Ladriya return to the court of Taban at Nishadina. Ladriya orders the forging of the Silifi of Crimson Stars, to be wielded by Tamsah. Ladriya goes on to be become Malika.
-190 PY	1086 RC	Sho Emperor Kou rises to power in Sho. [This event is said to occur 200 years ago.]
-208 PY or earlier	1103 RC or earlier	Gharu'n, Viamont During Century of Storms, Viamont sends armies to Gharu'n to invade. The Viamontians install Zahir ibn Ma'mun as a puppet leader, while they rule Gharu'n from afar. During his rule, Zahir ibn Ma'mun murdered all his rivals, except for a young lord named Jawhar al-Shamshir. Seeing what has become of his homeland, Jawhar travels the desert in secret, banding together the people. Jawhar defeats Zahir ibn Ma'mun and drives the Viamontians from the shores of Gharu'n. He becomes the new Malik, and returns Gharu'n to the glory it had known in Yasif's time.
-40 PY or later	1236 RC or later	Gharu'n The al-Khuraqa, Children of the Eagle, form as a splinter faction from from the much older Jaladh, The Warriors' Brotherhood [This event is said to occur within the last 50 years.]
0 PY	1276 RC	Aluvia After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II had begun (352 to be exact), the reign of Cedraic III begins. It is listed as having an unknown end date, but lasting 10 years, implying it is the current reign.
10 PY	1286 RC	Aluvia, Gharu'n, Sho, Viamont King Cedraic reigns in Aluvia during this time. Cedraic opens trade with nations across the sea, including Gharu'n and Sho. Some Aluvians believe it is only a matter of time before Aluvia and Viamont are at war again.

The History of Auberean

In early 2003, Turbine released another timeline called The History of Auberean. We are presented new information:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-1441 PY	324 RC	Jojiism founded.
-874 PY		The Yalaini open the first portal to Ispar. It goes to Aluvian lands.
-869 PY	704 RC	Viamont invades Aluvia. The reign of Pwyll II ends and the reign of Alfric begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Reign of Alfrega begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Harlune stays behind on Ispar during an expedition.
-758 PY	779 RC	Reign of Osric begins.
-540 PY	924 RC	Gharu'n armies seige the Roulean capital of Tirethas.
-358 PY	1046 RC	Emperor Kou unites the Sho under his rule.
-15 PY		The portals created by the Sundering begin to appear on Ispar in the Aluvian lands, and the first humans begin to arrive on Dereth.

A quick look at this information reveals the following:

• the dates created by Stormwaltz in the beta regarding Aluvian history have been retconned. Aluvia was no longer invaded in 804 RC, it was invaded in 704 RC, for example.
• Some events have had their dates solidified. Rather than having a rough estimate of some hundreds of years ago, we have exact dates for the founding of Jojiism and when Emperor Kou unites Sho.
• We have a concrete date for the founding of Gharu'n, rather than an extremely rough estimate based on the renaming of Al-Ghul and the events of To Be A Shadow.

By examining these dates, another thing is immediately clear: Ispar years to Auberean years are not at a 1:1 ratio, they are at a 2:3 ratio. For every year that passes on Ispar, one and a half years pass on Auberean, and for every year that passes on Auberean, two-thirds of a year passes on Ispar.

For more information on this topic, see Roulean Calendar and Portal Years. Based on our conclusions from that article, the formulas for converting between PY and RC are:

RC = (2/3) * PY + 1284

PY = (3/2) * RC - 1926

With all that in mind, we once again have to reconstruct the timeline:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
		Sho The most ancient legends tell how the Sho warred with the Dragon and were driven to the edge of the sea.
-1490 PY	290 RC	Sho Ryu Jou Gai, the Order of the Dragon Temple, is founded. [This event is said to occur over 1,000 years ago.]
-1441 PY	324 RC	Sho The prophet Jojii receives revelations from the Unicorn of Grace on how to reach Paradise. Jojiism established. [This event was said to occur around 800 years ago. In actuality, it occurred 966 years ago.]
-869 PY	704 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Viamont invades Aluvia. The reign of Pwyll II ends and the reign of Alfric begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Aluvia, Viamont Reign of Alfrega begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Aluvia Harlune stays behind on Ispar during an expedition.
-758 PY	779 RC	Reign of Osric begins.
-540 PY or earlier	924 RC or earlier	Gharu'n One of the five Crimson Stars, Al-Ghul, is renamed Al-Khur in honor of Rakhil al-Khur, after the great victory won at the salt mines to the east of Tirethas. [This event is said to occur some 300 years ago. It must happen prior to 924, so in actuality, it occurred 366 years ago or more.]
-540 PY	924 RC	Gharu'n Gharu'n armies seige the Roulean city of Tirethas. Rakhil makes the mistake of threatening to burn the books within her walls, and Yasif strikes him down in rage. With that, the conquest of Roulea ends and the nation of Gharu'n is born. In all, half of Roulea's lands are lost to the new nation of Gharu'n. Rakhil al-Khur's son, Amul ibn Rakhil becomes the new Malik and Yasif becomes his adviser.
-440 PY	990 RC	Sho Chiran Jishui Dan, The Ranks of the Unicorn's Battle, splits off from Chiran Jou Gai, Order of the Unicorn Temple [This event is said to occur 300 years ago.]
-438 PY	992 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is born. Her father is a minor Mu'allim in the court of Malik Amul ibn Rakhil.
-423 PY	1002 RC	Gharu'n Yasif ibn Salayyar dies. The people of Gharu'n mourn for a full year.
-421 PY	1003 RC	Gharu'n Soon after the death of Yasif, Amul ibn Rakhil also dies, heirless, poisoned at his own birthday celebration. The Century of Storms begins. During this time of chaos in Gharu'n no fewer than twenty-five different would-be Maliks and Malikas will rule the Gharu'ndim people.
-414 PY	1008 RC	Gharu'n Ladriya bint Daum is 16 when she is orphaned by the death of her father.
-399 PY	1018 RC	Gharu'n After some 15 years of chaos in Gharu'n, Ladriya bint Daum decides to leave Tirethas and return to her home in Taban. Ladriya is 26 at the time. Halfway through her journey, Ladriya's caravan is attacked at night by band of nomads sent by the renegade Shayk Ridqidh. Ladriya is wounded badly but is saved by Tamsah ibn Jaidah, who carries her away on his stallion. After riding for six days, Tamsah and Ladriya the oasis of Shiryaz. They stay there for almost two months while Ladriya recovers. On 6th of Solclaim, 1018 RC, Tamsah and Ladriya return to the court of Taban at Nishadina. Ladriya orders the forging of the Silifi of Crimson Stars, to be wielded by Tamsah. Ladriya goes on to be become Malika.
-358 PY	1046 RC	Sho Emperor Kou rises to power in Sho. He unites the Sho under his rule. [This event is said to occur 200 years ago. In actuality, it occurred 245 year ago.]
-271 PY or earlier	1103 RC or earlier	Gharu'n, Viamont During Century of Storms, Viamont sends armies to Gharu'n to invade. The Viamontians install Zahir ibn Ma'mun as a puppet leader, while they rule Gharu'n from afar. During his rule, Zahir ibn Ma'mun murdered all his rivals, except for a young lord named Jawhar al-Shamshir. Seeing what has become of his homeland, Jawhar travels the desert in secret, banding together the people. Jawhar defeats Zahir ibn Ma'mun and drives the Viamontians from the shores of Gharu'n. He becomes the new Malik, and returns Gharu'n to the glory it had known in Yasif's time.
-65 PY or later	1240 RC or later	Gharu'n The al-Khuraqa, Children of the Eagle, form as a splinter faction from from the much older Jaladh, The Warriors' Brotherhood [This event is said to occur within the last 50 years.]
-5 PY	1280 RC	Aluvia After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II had begun, the reign of Cedraic III begins. It is listed as having an unknown end date, but lasting 10 years, implying it is the current reign.
10 PY	1290 RC	Aluvia, Gharu'n, Sho, Viamont King Cedraic reigns in Aluvia during this time. Cedraic opens trade with nations across the sea, including Gharu'n and Sho. Some Aluvians believe it is only a matter of time before Aluvia and Viamont are at war again.