Starcraft Timeline in Heaven's Devils

[l33telboi]

I've recently learned that there's a timeline spanning from 1500 to 2504 in the upcoming novel Heaven's Devils. I've also seen on the wiki that there are errors in this timeline. Is there any chance we could get a more detailed analysis and some discussion on where and what the problems are?

[Hawki]

Well, it looks like I've stirred up the hornet's nest. I know that Medievaldragon of Blizzplanet has sent Metzen a message regarding the discrepencies. Or, as they may turn out to be, retcons. However, I'm more inclined to see them as errors, for the following reasons:

-According to the timeline, terrans arrived in the K-sector in 2259. While this gives them more time to develop to the level we see today, it's still iffy. For starters, it would mean that they would have had to have left Earth in 2231 (28 year journey), which is two years after the UPL came to power. So, in two years, the UPL develops warp travel, completes Project Purification in that time (wouldn't they establish their rule and ideology first?) and decides to endorse extra-solar colonization before the Solar System has been colonized? Also, it's mentioned in the manual how the protoss spent two centuries observing the terrans-the wording in the manual could imply it took them two centuries to formulate an opinion, or by this logic, they stopped after two centuries. However, it appears that the protoss were always watching humans, the "foo fighters" mentioned in Liberty's Crusade being an example.

-Tychus's DOB is given on his statue profile page as 2468, October 20, while the timeline gives it as 2464. Minor discrepency, but a discrepency nonetheless.

-Timeline mentions how the KMC was founded in 2485, just prior to the Guild Wars. However, sources such as I, Mengsk and the original game's manual establish its formation much earlier, and a billboard in StarCraft II lists its founding as being in 2376.

-Battle of Bhekar Ro...Shadow of the Xel'naga made it clear it occurred after the fall of the Overmind and before the Brood War. I attribute this to poor placing in the timeline rather than an outright error, but still, it's off regardless.

-The Great War and Brood War period is the main issue, the one that really throws things awry. The ultimate source that has the BW at least ending in 2501 is the double six months figure from Nova and I, Mengsk-six months between Duke's defection and the Fall of Tarsonis, and another six between the formation of the Dominion and the assassination attempt on Mengsk (which occurs just after the fall of Braxis to the UED. That's a whole year. It's technically possible for the BW to have started in 2500, but the timing between Duke being stranded on Bhekar Ro and being rescued and the time taken for Kerrigan to take control of Razagal (had worked on it for "some time") pushes this into 2501. Stukov's age in the BW manual correlates with his age at his time of death (which is listed as April 23 in the UED cinematic-actually translates to the capture of the Overmind as per propaganda).

The BW and Great War period has many sources that trail on through time and it would take for ages to go through them all. However, compressing both into one year contradicts the former timeframe drastically.

-According to the novel timeline, the events of the DTS and Ghost occur in 2503. At the least, that contradicts the four years after BW for both of them. Ghost, or Spectres as the case is now, could have been moved down, but there's no reason to suppose the DTS was. Going by the BW in 2501 theory, they should both be in 2505 and are listed as such.

So yeah, these are the major issues. And if they are indeed retcons...well, that'll require a llot of editing.

[Medievaldragon]

I'll be monitoring this thread from time to time. I can either forward some of the concerns, or bring them up in a future interview.

[Roland]

Bam! Finally a reason to post that, created for This article. Dates may only be relative to each other in some cases.

Green is speculative, red is Zerg, blue is Terran, gold is Protoss, black is neutral. Very convoluted, but as far as I know, the one and only full visual timeline of the SC universe. Though you may be interested, I'm really interested in the upcoming timeline, it could have a huge impact on the lore. The data I used in making that timeline was all taken from wiki.

[Kimera757]

The data I used in making that timeline was all taken from wiki.

Which, incidentally, will change once Heaven's Devils actually comes out. The new timeline makes some things (eg Ghost Academy) make a lot of sense, but some things (eg the timing of the ghost purge) make no sense.

[Roland]

Which is why I mentioned my source, I'm excited about the inevitable update of something I'm clearly interested in... I was pointing my timeline out as a visual "before" picture to compare to the coming "after."

[Kimera757]

I see. There will be so many timeline edits, I have to wonder if that'll be more work than updating Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay's page

[Hawki]

Probably. Assuming the HD one is correct, it would require copying and pasting all '01 points into the 2500 article and removing any absolute dates from it, as it's discarded the original six month timeframes seemingly. That in turn forces us to remove month/day dates from every character that appears in this timeframe and every other page that mentions them. And from '05 to '04/'03, that in turn forces us to push back everything else that uses this point for relative dating back 1-2 years, applying the same to other articles.

Basically that the Uprising shifts and multiply it exponensially.

[l33telboi]

So, just to make things clear, how long is the first war and broodwar supposed to be?

My understanding was that the first war starts around 2499 with broodwar endinging some time in 2501. But now they've condensed it all so that everything in the first game and the expansion happens in 2499 and 2500?

[Visions of Khas]

I had originally estimated that Brood War ended in late 2500/early 2501.