Chronology of the Schlockiverse
The Last Million Years
The F'Sherl-Ganni, the Pa'anuri, and others have been around at least that long. In-strip references to ancient dates should be linked in this section.
The Last Thousand Years
Schlock Mercenary is set in the late 31st century. Late-late, like the 3090's. There are plenty of footnotes with dates in them. Those should be linked here so we have some idea of what the previous millennium looked like.
- 2010: the name "J-Lo" had supplanted "Bessie" as the most popular name for milk cows, 2003-12-17
- The Tinth-Philkra Rosette was built 500 years before humans burst onto the galactic scene, 2003-03-30
- February 29, 2068: First Contact for the human race occurred, when representatives of the Wormgate Corporation landed in Brazil [2001-04-09, footnote].
- The government of Luna was first organized in 2102 CE, 2000-12-03
- 2127: "Luna" became the popularly accepted name for the Earth's moon 2000-12-03.
The Last Five Years
This whole section needs to be carefully documented and refined. Any in-strip reference to the passage of time should be noted here.
According to notes from Howard's private Wikidpad, Tagon was 45 when his company was purchased by Breya and Kevyn. Kaff turned 49 during the Longshoreman of The Apocalypse.
According to the footnote, the comic appearing on 2001-04-09 takes place on Sevensday, June 32, 3096.
The Sharp End of the Stick covers at least 63 days of Kevyn regenerating 2006-10-03 and enough time for Elf's group to walk 1300 km 2007-04-10 which even at a crazy 100km a day (a marathon takes about 43 km) results in 13 days of walking, making that book 76 days or longer.
December 29th, 3099 was observed in the strip we saw on July 21st, 2014 07-21-14, footnote.
Note from Howard's Private Wikipad
- The following are some unformatted notes from Howard's private Wikidpad. They establish the fact that between the end of The Blackness Between and the beginning of Force Multiplication we have seen the passage of one Yoming year, plus three months and two weeks.**
The Blackness Between Tunguska was destroyed
Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance Xinchub sold to Yoming. One Yoming year later General Xinchub was king. SIA, RMS, EPD, and SES put together take one Yoming Year.
Resident Mad Scientist Timeline reset. Book spans about eight weeks, but probably begins at least three months into the Toughs service for Petey.
Emperor Pius Dei
The Sharp End of the Stick
The Body Politic spans roughly two weeks, and begins One Yoming Year after the beginning of SIA.
Longshoreman of the Apocalypse begins about a month later and spans another two weeks.
Massively Parallel begins two weeks after that, and spans just over one month.
Force Multiplication begins very shortly after the end of MP. Therefore, Tunguska was destroyed one Yoming year + 3 months + 2 weeks ago.
Per the Challenge Coins (for which Howard carefully locked in some dates):
- Kitesfear was recommissioned to Tagon's Toughs January 27, 3093, and was destroyed on April 2nd, 3096
- The PDCL was commissioned to them on May 15th of 3096, and was destroyed on February 30, 3097.
- The Serial Peacemaker was commissioned on March 22nd, 3097, and was destroyed in the Core War on June 12, 3098.
- The Touch-and-Go was Commissioned on August 5th of 3098, and was dismantled on August 26th of 3099.
This means that Book 14 ends just prior to the year 3100, and Book 15 is almost certainly going to cross that mark.
Pasted from Howard's Continuity spreadsheet. CONTAINS SPOILERS
Also contains non-canonical bits that might or might not get locked down. Notes on the table: YEAR - Ordinal - Event - Location - Ramifications & character ages (Ordinal) is for sorting the table. It allows me, in the source document, to hammer out stuff quickly without inserting cells, and then sort by year, then ordinal, and have everything listed chronologically.
| 2068 | 29 February, 1st Contact, Gatekeepers arrive in Brazil. | Earth | This screws up the Ringo books completely. Not my fault. The footnote establishing this predates his books. | |
| 2099 | 2 | 9 October, Strohl Munitions Founded | ||
| 3009 | 1 | "RISK ASSESSMENT" in FORCE MULTIPLICATION
Allen Tagon meets Karla Klingbo |
Xandarosa | The Tagon family |
| 3014 | 1 | Allen and Karla are allowed to OFFICIALLY meet | ||
| 3016 | 2 | Karl Tagon born | ||
| 3035 | 2 | Karl is given the 70MoMEM book by Sgt Edwards | Celeschul | Karl is 19. Sgt Edwards is 28 |
| 3037 | 1 | Alexia Murtaugh is born | Celeschul | |
| 3050 | 1 | Kaff Tagon born to Karl & (name?) Tagon (Probably Februrary to make time for his 49th birthday AND 5 Schlock books all in 3099) | Karl is 34 | |
| 3067 | Kaff enlists w/ Celeschul Infantry | |||
| 3068 | 1 | Kaff excels, joins Oatmeal Peacekeepers? The OP stuff might come after the war, though. | ||
| 3069 | 5 | |||
| 3069 | 6 | NOVEMBER? Terran Formation Front (TFF) assassinates 90% of Continuance-friendly senior officers, including the family of Karl & Kaff Tagon. PLANET MERCENARY, RANDOM ACCESS MEMORABILIA | Karl is 53
Kaff is 21. Named chars Karla & Allen killed. Unnamed younger sibs of Kaff killed. Unnamed spouse of Karl killed | |
| 3069 | 7 | Terraforming War begins between the Terran Formation Front (TFF) and the Celeschul Continuance Coalition (CCC, or "Continuance") | Celeschul | Colonel Karl Tagon, 53, promoted to General
Kaff Tagon, 21, promoted Captain (infantry) Alexia Murtaugh, 32, a 10-year veteran of Celeschul PD, is drafted into Ship-Based Infantry (boarding parties) by the TFF. |
| 3069 | Ret Major Edwards, 62, was aboard a TFF-friendly ship as a guest of a friend when the assassinations took place. He pretends to be TFF-sympathetic. Six weeks later he grabs a small group of Continuance sympathizers and sweeps the warship. Then takes command, and declares loyalty to the Continuance. He is never given an official space-navy rank, so he names himself "Banneret Commodore." The title gets applied to numerous merchanter fleet leaders in the Continuance. | Celeschul. This event is just flavor. | Edwards
Murtaugh (she is captured by Edwards forces and spared. She's never been a TFF believer, and the Continuance feels more like justice to her. Enlists under Edwards. | |
| 3070 | Murtaugh, now a Captain, infantry, leading Continuance Boarding parties, is separated from the 3rd fleet during a boarding action. Backstory Flavor | Murtaugh | ||
| 3071 | 3 | March. TFF Rockfall attack thwarted by the Continuance 3rd Fleet under Banneret Commodore Edwards. Edwards loses all but 6 vessels, and is killed. This event turns Schuul opinion of humans around, and the pacifist Schuul side with the Continuance.PLANET MERCENARY, 70MoMEM | Celeschul | Karl knew Edwards personally. Edwards was the one who gave Karl the 70MoMEM book. |
| 3073 | 3 | A little less than halfway through the year (3 years and 6 months from the inception events of 3069)
Continuance Admiral accepts surrender, ending the Terraforming War (PLANET MERCENARY) |
Kaff Tagon is 25, and has fought for the entire conflict. He is a decorated infantry captain.
Karl Tagon is a General, and is one of the 20 highest-ranked officials in the reunified military. He is 56 or 57 | |
| 3073 | 4 | General Karl Tagon comes up with money somehow and donates a thousand cubic meters of titanium for the creation of a memorial known as The Titan Wall. The wall is inscribed with the names of Continuance soldiers lost during the Terraforming War. | Celeschul | Karl is 57. |
| 3083 | 4 | 7 September, Kitesfear commissioned, Celeschul Reserve Shipstead Merchanter at ARms | ||
| 3093 | 1 | 27 January, Kitesfear recommissioned for Tagon's Toughs | Tagon and company | |
| 3093 | ||||
| 3096 | 2 | 3 April, Kitesfear destroyed by Partnership Collective sabotage. Hellevator also destroyed. | Luna | Tagon & company |
| 3096 | 3 | 15 May, PDCL Commissioned | Tagon & company | |
| 3096 | 7 | Teraport is Open-Sourced and unlicensed. Teraport Area Denial is released. Andreasyn IIE loses all market value. The "Teraport Wars" begin with Creeth/Golbwer conflicts, and Creeth terapedo threats to everyone. Strohl releases household TAD defenses. All this happens within a day. TUB OF HAPPINESS | Aboard PDCL | |
| 3096 | 8 | Beginning of "The Teraport Wars" (the event, not the book.) | Galaxy-wide | |
| 3096 | 9 | Breya booted off the PDCL, leaves in "Toenail 1" with Haban. | PDCL | Breya, Haban, Tagon & Company |
| 3097 | 2 | 30 February, PDCL Destroyed | ||
| 3097 | 3 | 22 March, Serial Peacemaker commissioned
THE TERAPORT WARS |
||
| 3098 | 5 | 12 June, 3098, Serial Peacemaker destroyed.
RESIDENT MAD SCIENTIST |
||
| 3098 | 6 | EMPEROR PIUS DEI
Touch and Go salvaged from Prangers Bangers at the House Phica crash site by Chibi-Schlock. Commissioned to Tagons Toughs August 5th, 3098 |
Coin-Locked | |
| 3098 | 7 | SHARP END OF THE STICK | ||
| 8 | BODY POLITIC (spans about 2 weeks)
End of one Yoming Year since the events of The Blackness Between. Toughs have their minds reprogrammed. Vog leaves and joins UNSI. Schlock "assassineats" Colonel DeHaans. |
|||
| 3098 | 9 | LONGSHOREMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE begins | ||
| 3099 | 1 | Captain Tagon turns 49, receives Tailor as a gift from Karl. LONGSHOREMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE | Credomar, Book 10 | Kaff is 49
Karl is 83, Tailor and Ventura join the cast |
| 3099 | 2 | LONGSHOREMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE. Brad dies | Credomar, Book 10 | |
| 3099 | 3 | MASSIVELY PARALLEL,
Touch and Go refitted at High Olympus. Tagon relaxes at Old Melone. Kevyn from old universe and Karl kidnapped. Kathryn hijacked, joins cast. |
||
| 3099 | 5 | FORCE MULTIPLICATION
UNSI's project Lazarus begins unraveling at the end of this book. Murtaugh introduced, and booted out of Sanctum Adroit |
Haven Hive | Schlock, Bunni, Rev, Legs, Para, Kathryn, Tailor, Shep |
| 3099 | 6 | RANDOM ACCESS MEMORABILIA
Bristlecone goes to Sol w/ Kathryn, Nick, and Karl. Karl tells the story of the 3069 attack on his family. That was 30 years ago. Morokweng destroyed, Tagii driven mad and into Ennesby's head, Para Ventura outed as an Int-Aff-Int spy ("Usar"), Thurl seriously injured. Murtaugh briefly visible in Barad Mellon in Parnassus Dom (I think) Gavcorps DEI destroyed. 2500 diversified Gavs lost, at least. Gasca ("Manos") refuses promotion into Colonel Krum's post. |
Parnassus Dom, Oisri | |
| 3099 | 7 | 26 August, Touch And Go dismantled | Plenipotent Dominion | Coin-locked |
| 3099 | 8 | September-December: Events of BROKEN WIND. Eina-Afa discovered. Bristlecone dismantled. Cindercone, Neosynchronicity, and Broken Wind commissioned. Int-Aff-Int given a bunch of hulls. Para Ventura and Murtaugh rejoin the cast. Challenge Coins introduced to the company. | Parnassus Dom, Old Melone Station, Eina-Afa | |
| 3099 | 9 | 29 December, DELEGATES & DELEGATION. Earth loses its ring. Schuul faction plot to disrupt/destroy UNS is uncovered. Admiral Emm unseated and killed. Kowalski captured. Sorlie promoted. Breya becomes interim UNS SecGen | Sol System, Dom Atlantis | Entire cast. Linchpin moment.
Murtaugh states that she's got more xperience than anyone other than Thurl and the Commodore. She's therefore at least 60. |
| 3100 | 1 | BIG DUMB OBJECTS
Murtaugh killed by a bomb. Brought back 10 days later. Landon loses arm. Tenzy unleashed a little. Jumpstar Prime founded in Eina-Afa. Coordinated pirate attack in Celeschul's Celgate area. |
Near Europa
Eina-Afa Celgate, Celeschul |
Entire cast |
| 3100 | 2 | BIG DUMB OBJECTS
6 weeks of travel and adventure, Toughs capture The Archive Ebby killed and brought back, but has lost language skills |
Buuthandi wreckage, Cindercone, Broken Wind | Entire cast, rolling calendar forward
Kaff turns 50. This did not appear in the book. Karl is 83, almost 84. |