D&D Timeline Discrepancies

Some of the older Gazetteers and other sources have different dates and events given in their timelines.  Where a decision has been made between two sources, it has been noted below.

GAZ1 - The Grand Duchy of Karameikos

GAZ1 places the rise and eventual destruction of Blackmoor 1000 years later than more recent sources (everything from GAZ2 to CoM).  There is also the first occurrence of an erroneous reference to module X1 in relation to the leftover Blackmoor device in the Borken Lands.  This reference is repeated in many other sources, including the Hollow World set.

The progression of the Nithians from Bronze Age to Iron Age is also placed earlier, but this time only by 250 years.  The actual progression is later documented as taking place BC 1750-BC 1500.  (HW)

Finally, a note for AC 1200 on the setting of the X4, X5 and X10 modules conflicts with WotI and PWA events: "Though X10 indicates Duke Stefan III is still on the throne and Ludwig "Black Eagle" von Hendriks still his enemy at this time, this is an error.  In actuality the ruler of the Duchy is now Archduke Stefan Karameikos VI, and the Black Eagle Barony is ruled by Ludwig's linear and temperamentally similar descendent Wilhelm von Hendriks."  This is especially interesting in light of the ascension of Duke Stefan III to King and the deposition of the Black Eagle Baron.

GAZ4 - The Kingdom of Ierendi

The local cataclysms which form the isles to the south of Karameikos and the Five Shires are said to happen circa 1700 BC, placing them concurrent with the explosion in the Broken Lands.  However, later sources (Hollow World, Champions of Mystara) move this date back to 1750, thus separating the two events.  This incongruity is repeated in GAZ9.

The land masses split further circa 1720 BC, according to GAZ4, but this is before they split at all according to the 1700 date for the cataclysms.  It should be noted that there is a similar entry in GAZ9 regarding the Verdier elves sailing to "join their cousins".  Clearly the writers either intended for this to be 20 years after the cataclysm, or the cataclysm date was erroneously placed in 1700 from GAZ4 onwards, and the error was fixed in later sources.  Personally I am more inclined to the latter, which allows the 1720 date to remain fixed while only the cataclysm date is moved.

The text says "Thyatian explorers discovered the islands around 600 AC."  The actual date is c. 570/571 according to the timeline in GAZ4.  I took it to be 570, since the very next year the Thyatians set up their prisons.

Black Toes' establishment of the Council of Lords is said in the text to happen "three years after [he] assumed the throne".  However, the timeline says it is in fact five years after.  I have followed the timeline over the text, as I did with the last point.

The whole Kikiana Caldera part in the Geography section seems to conflict with what we know of the Ierendi area at that time (ie it was not islands but in fact dry land proper).  It is conflicted right there in the same chapter by the section on mermen.  Nevertheless I included it in the timeline since it is certainly of interest, and it is possible that it does not actually conflict - the sources are vague, and later sources support the possibility.

GAZ5 - The Elves of Alfheim

A number of mistakes in the textual history reference a number of "years ago" when they really mean "years BC" - this is bourne out in the timeline, and thus isn't really an issue.

Of more importance is a little comment about Mealiden's arrival in Thyatis - it says that the philosophies that would eventually make an empire were already in place - 800 years before the crowning of the first Thyatian Emperor (AC 0).  Trouble is, according to Dawn of the Emperors the Thyatian, Kerendan and Hattian tribes only arrive in 600 BC...  This is glossed over in the Hollow World description of events, so it is most probably an error.

CoM - Champions of Mystara

I have taken CoM as the most authoritative source on Sind, the Serpent Peninsula and Graakhalia.  There are a very few continuity problems fitting the CoM histories into the overall timeline, mainly small details.

Ilsundal's migration is described in a small amount of geographic detail.  A (the?) second migration of elves is said to have gone north by a different route before joining Ilsundal.  The principal point of interest is a small comment on the Meditor and Verdier clans.  It seems to associate them with the Sheyallia clan (factions which split away, like Erewan did from Erendyl?), implying that they also went to the Serpent Peninsula but found it too hot and wet, and so sailed east: "The Sheyallia clan turned south, onto the Serpent Peninsula, and settled in the forest.  The Meditor and Verdier clans, disliking the increasingly rainy and hot climate, sailed east in search of better lands... Ilsundal and the other clans moved across the Great Waste to Glantri, then northwest to the Sylvan Lands."  Now, this could mean that the Meditor and Verdier clans left *Ilsundal's* group due to the climate, but that doesn't make sense.  Ilsundal is moving due east, near the dry, hot lands of the Great Waste.  However, the Serpent Peninsula is hot and wet, fitting the description nicely.  It is my contention that the Meditor and Verdier clans were either factions of the Sheyallia clan or turned south onto the peninsula with them; finding it too hot and wet, they sailed west to Karameikos.  This doesn't really create any problems, except for the previous information (in GAZ9 for instance) suggesting that these clans left Ilsundal's migration about a century later.  But dates for the elven migration have always been a little vague...  It is certainly an interesting matter.

There is some confusion as to the date of the stabilization of the Serpent Peninsula after the BC 1750 cataclysm.  The problem is that there is a paragraph inserted between the two parts of the description, dealing with halflings in BC 1500.  The second part begins "After nearly a century..."  This either means c. 1400 or c. 1650.  I took it to mean 1650 as this seems more reasonable in terms of the events, and in relation to the length of the cataclysm's stabilization elsewhere.