Timeline question - Elan

Setting
#1

I have been looking at various mentions when events happen in many of the Dark Sun products and trying to resolve some of the discrepancies. I thought I would post some of the problems in the arena here to see if we can discuss and come to a consensus. Note that by timeline, I am not referring to the Timeline of Athas that appears on athas.org, but just use the term in general.

So my first question is from the 3E magazine articles. When were the Elan created?
FY 352 is the current year for the 3e articles.

Du 110 pg 71 states that the Elan appeared almost 300 years ago in Nibenay. When the Order was splintered, one faction released their research project, the elan race. So FY 52 approximately.

Dr 319 pg 21 says The Order was factionalized and driven underground after a failed plot, 100 years ago. Was this the factionalization that lead to the Elan being released? So FY 252 approximately.

Dr 319 pg 22 Says there are no Elan older than 25 years old, because that was when the Order first created them. So FY 327 approximately.

Or a fourth option. Is the splintering of the Order referring to the Dragon Crown event, which would put this at 348 years ago? FY 4.

#2

Couple things. The 3E magazine (Dungeon 110, “D110”) says that the “current” date is 20 years into the 194th King’s Age. The original campaign setting states that the “current” year is the 26th year of the 190th king’s age. That’s 314 year’s difference. Referred to in D110 as “about 300 years ago.”

Dragon’s Crown took place in the 30th year of the 190th king’s age (according to beyond the prism pentad, although according to dragon’s crown itself, all 5 adventures in that “path” occurred in the same year of Tyr’s liberation).

In D110 in the Nibenay section, the élan are said to have appeared “about 300 years ago” when the Order’s leadership was wiped out. It seems to be a pretty obvious reference to the Dragon’s Crown path.

In Dragon 319 it doesn’t say that the élan were created 100 years ago, it says that some élan still owe allegiance to the Order even though the Order was factionalized and driven underground after a failed plot 100 years ago, and says that Elan enclaves are a recent thing, so no KNOWN Elans have been élan for more than 25 years (not counting their prior lives as humans).

My take on this? They were created around the time of the original setting by one of the splintered groups of the Order. ~200 years later the Order did something ELSE on the order (haha) of their Psionatrix plot, and were AGAIN splintered. More recently (within the past 3 decades), the élan themselves (“a special élan council”) have begun making more of their kind (of the youthful red-haired variety), INDEPENDENT of the Order as a whole, which is why the typical “known” élan that people come across have all been élan for less than 25 years.

tl;dr the élan were originally created shortly after dragon’s crown. At some point 200-ish years later the Order does something else and gets all but wiped out. About 270 years after Dragon’s Crown the élan themselves basically go rampant (in the AI sense) and begin “procreating” on their own terms, rather than according to the wishes of the (now all-but defunct) Order.

1 Like
#3

[quote=“Naggaramakam, post:2, topic:1640, full:true”]
The 3E magazine (Dungeon 110, “D110”) says that the “current” date is 20 years into the 194th King’s Age. [/quote]

I could not find that reference. Page 62 of Du 110 states “It’s currently the Year of Desert’s Reverence in the 194th King’s Age.” That is FY 352, or the 69 year of the 194 King’s Age.

Your take on the Elan could work. We know that the Order in some form is still around after Dragon Crown, so they could have done something else 200 years later that splintered it.
The most important thing to me would be when did the Elan become independent of the Order. Would it be 100 years ago or 25 years ago?

Note that I am not considering the number of years ago to be precise. So 300 years ago could still be the Dragon Crown.

#4

Ugh, I’m an idiot and was counting years wrong (49 years off is more than a typo!). Sorry.

To answer your question, I would say that the élan started to become independent of the Order 100 years ago, after whatever the Order’s second plot was. Figure that they were stopped, shattered, and began to lose control over their élan agents. Over the following 75 years the élan gradually came together and organized, ultimately starting to spread in earnest ~25 years ago.

#5

I am tempted to ignore the quote from Dr 319 regarding the 25 years, because I do not think it makes sense. How could the Order that has been driven underground 100 years before create Known enclaves of Elan?
I think I would go with your suggestion that the Elan became independent of the Order 100 years ago.