Dresden Files: Series Timeline

[Praeceps]

Updated based on a read through of the entire timeline thread for any neglected information.

I would question the original date given since we don't know if that is the actual date of his birth in the dresdenverse. he could have been born a thousand years before but just told that as his birth date to the mortals.

I agree. I would probably say something like "The date mortal history says Dracula is born" if I was writing the timeline.

Edit: Do we have a date for the Camp Kaboom segment?

[cass]

Other than a vague notion of sometime between Dead Bead and White Night, no.
(There's nothing to indicate that it didn't happen before Proven Guilty, but if I had to guess, I'd say that the lack of commentary on it in PG-- especially in light of the Rampire ambush on a warden training camp-- means that it happened somewhere between PG and WN.  And, what with the mentions of heat, it happened in the summer-- north of Albuquerque simply isn't all that warm in the winter months.)

[Praeceps]

Booyah! I finally found out when the Camp Kaboom segment took place.

"I went out to New Mexico this spring."
"Why?"
Helping Luccio train baby Wardens,"

And on the next page:

"So we spent about two days turning thirty acres of sand and scrub into glass. Then a couple of the Read Court's ghouls showed up and killed two kids."

[Praeceps]

New Update:
I've been reading over the timeline closely and the individual timelines need to be updated from the information in the main timeline. For example, Harry and Murphy's ages have been established for Storm Front but their timelines don't reflect that. Also Harry's exact day of birth needs to be added to his timeline.

Also, if Harry was born in 1972 then we know the exact dates that everything happened since we have his exact age (25) when Storm Front took place. That puts Storm Front in 1998 (taking Harry's birthday into account) which is a little strange given that in the first chapter Harry spoke of the turn of the Millennium in the past tense.

[Praeceps]

Correction: I was looking up where Harry's birth year was given and realized that it is based off Jim's comment that Harry is about nine months younger than he is. That doesn't necessarily mean Harry's was born nine months after Jim. It could simply mean that Harry is Jim's current age minus nine months during Changes. Since we don't know the exact date of the books that doesn't tell us much since a variable minus a constant is still a variable. For example if a book was set in the Forgotten Realms, both the character and the writer could be the same age (both being 29) even if the character was born in 1374 DR and the writer in 1982 C.E..

[lovejoy69]

IIRC, Jim has said a few times that Dresden is several months younger than himself, or has said he's almost a year younger.
JB's birthdate is 26 October 1971. Harry Dresden's birthday is 31 October, so that would most probably put it at 1972. It places Dresden just a few days off from one year younger than Jim himself.
With other info, that Dresden was twenty-five in Storm Front, then IRL that would come out to 1997 if Dresden were twenty-five just about to turn twenty-six, or 1996 if he were twenty-four turning twenty-five, if I counted right.

Storm Front was released in the spring of 2000. Jim had already written the next couple of books by the time SF was sold and was engaged in seeking an agent and a publisher during the late 1990's. The timeline for Dresden's age compared to roughly when Jim was writing those early novels and the corresponding RL dates seem IMO to meld moderately well.

Disagreements? Info I've missed? RL info which I've used is wrong?
(If discussing this is inappropriate for the purpose of this particular Timeline additions thread, I could snip it out into a different thread instead.)

[Praeceps]

IIRC, Jim has said a few times that Dresden is several months younger than himself, or has said he's almost a year younger.
JB's birthdate is 26 October 1971. Harry Dresden's birthday is 31 October, so that would most probably put it at 1972. It places Dresden just a few days off from one year younger than Jim himself.
With other info, that Dresden was twenty-five in Storm Front, then IRL that would come out to 1997 if Dresden were twenty-five just about to turn twenty-six, or 1996 if he were twenty-four turning twenty-five, if I counted right.

Storm Front was released in the spring of 2000. Jim had already written the next couple of books by the time SF was sold and was engaged in seeking an agent and a publisher during the late 1990's. The timeline for Dresden's age compared to roughly when Jim was writing those early novels and the corresponding RL dates seem IMO to meld moderately well.

Disagreements? Info I've missed? RL info which I've used is wrong?
(If discussing this is inappropriate for the purpose of this particular Timeline additions thread, I could snip it out into a different thread instead.)

I think you missed the point of my post. Harry could be a year younger than Jim and still not have a birth date anywhere near Jim's. That's because we don't know when the books occur. Harry could be born in 1980 for example and still be 25 in Storm Front (and thus of an age with Jim when he wrote it) because of that lack of knowledge.

[Praeceps]

Anyways, things that indicate a specific time for The Warrior:

Main Identifiers
-It is softball season.
-It takes place between Small Favor and Turn Coat (and before Last Call)
-Harry gives the time between it and the end of Small Favor to be a year (Side Jobs 217) that could be rounding of course.

Other Possible Identifiers
-Charity is old enough that "her golden hair hid fairly well any strands of silver that might have shown."
-It is warm enough to be playing with a soccer ball outside and moderately temperatured enough for Dresden to not mention the temperature except to mention that during the night it grew cold enough for the water (on the grass that was from the rain) to make his socks uncomfortable.
-Harry is old enough and familiar enough with Harry to climb on him.  
-The girls in Alicia's age group are of an age where Harry calls them girls and then corrects himself and calls them young women (he guesses).
-It's construction season and they are just putting up the house's frame.
-It is warm enough to be wearing shorts (Side Jobs 244)

[itari]

Correction: I was looking up where Harry's birth year was given and realized that it is based off Jim's comment that Harry is about nine months younger than he is. That doesn't necessarily mean Harry's was born nine months after Jim. It could simply mean that Harry is Jim's current age minus nine months during Changes. Since we don't know the exact date of the books that doesn't tell us much since a variable minus a constant is still a variable. For example if a book was set in the Forgotten Realms, both the character and the writer could be the same age (both being 29) even if the character was born in 1374 DR and the writer in 1982 C.E..

Well, you can always use pop-culture For example,

(click to show/hide)

Harry must have died after July 9, 2003, because in GS sample chapter he asks Captain Jack if he could call him "Sparrow"

.

[Praeceps]

Well, you can always use pop-culture For example,

(click to show/hide)

Harry must have died after July 9, 2003, because in GS sample chapter he asks Captain Jack if he could call him "Sparrow"

.

They have been used in the past, they just don't generally narrow it down enough. Thank you for that though.

Edit: added two items to the timeline additions.

[Praeceps]

This is my attempt to make so some of the changes are ready for the timeline:

Approximately 2000 B.C.E.: The Red King is born or possibly reborn.

~1393: The date mortal history says Vlad Drakul was born on. He is a half-mortal like Kincaid, and he is formidable, dangerous, and cruel.  Kincaid, called the "Hound of Hell" or the "Hellhound," serves as his right arm for centuries.

~1436: The date mortal history says Vlad Tepes, also known as Dracula, was born on.

1500s: The last major loup-garou rampage  before Fool Moon happened around Gevaudan, France.

Mid 1500s: The White Council moved their headquarters to Edinburgh.

1959: The last time the official rate of pay for wardens was set.

At least 25 BSF: Susan Rodriguez is born.

1 ASF, approximately March: Thomas's last involvement with the Oblivion War before Backup.

June 18 -- A rain of toads, Harry makes his deal with Mab, the Council meeting is held, and Elaine returns.

4ASF: Murphy begins teaching Harry to stick fight.

5 ASF, October 29: Dead Beat.  Georgia is now in Grad School, which makes sense now that we know she was in college in FM.  We're not sure when they started grad school, but we do know that she and the rest of the Alphas are going to graduate in a year and a half.  Ramirez is 20, according to Word of God.
October 31: The Darkhallow

7 ASF, Spring (before May): Ghouls attack the Warden training camp known by Harry as Camp Kaboom.

9 ASF, May/June: The Warrior, the short story from Mean Streets. (the reason I say May/June is that they are at the end of their Softball season and are playing in the finals soon.)

11 ASF, October: Changes
And an hour or two later: Aftermath, a novelette from Murphy's POV, published exclusively in Side Jobs.

AGE 24-25:  Storm Front

[cass]

I know I'm nitpicking, but 1393 and 1436 are years, not dates.  Especially considering the uncertainty of the exact timing of these events, may I suggest changing these entries (or at least their first sentences) to something like:

'The (approximate) year in which mortal history says Vlad Drakul was born.'
and
'The (approximate) year in which mortal history says Vlad Tepes, a.k.a Dracula, son of Vlad Drakul, was born.'

A further note on the timing here: we have to assume some number of years (between Drakul's birth and his rise to power (and hence, his employment of Kincaid).  The birth of Vlad Tepes(h)/Dracula, however, is a pretty definite time by which Drakul had consolidated power, if Vlad-the-younger went to the Black Court as a way to rebel against his father.  (We can also assume that Tepes was fairly young when he did so, if his turning is referred to as a 'teenage rebellion thing'--though I don't think we can necessarily interpret 'teenage' literally.) 

[Praeceps]

I know I'm nitpicking, but 1393 and 1436 are years, not dates.  Especially considering the uncertainty of the exact timing of these events, may I suggest changing these entries (or at least their first sentences) to something like:

'The (approximate) year in which mortal history says Vlad Drakul was born.'
and
'The (approximate) year in which mortal history says Vlad Tepes, a.k.a Dracula, son of Vlad Drakul, was born.'

A further note on the timing here: we have to assume some number of years (between Drakul's birth and his rise to power (and hence, his employment of Kincaid).  The birth of Vlad Tepes(h)/Dracula, however, is a pretty definite time by which Drakul had consolidated power, if Vlad-the-younger went to the Black Court as a way to rebel against his father.  (We can also assume that Tepes was fairly young when he did so, if his turning is referred to as a 'teenage rebellion thing'--though I don't think we can necessarily interpret 'teenage' literally.)  

The tilde is what indicates that they are approximate. As for the content of the further note on timing, it is too vague and based on assumptions to be addable to the timeline.

[cass]

The timing of the events, perhaps-- but I think it's fairly safe to say that Baby!Drakul did not begin his existence with a fully formed power base, but acquired it in the fifty or so years between his birth and the birth of his son.

Likewise, Baby!Tepes was not born a Blampire--Blampires are made, not born-- he decided to be turned, and did so, per Eb, in some sort of backlash to his father some years (on the order of one to a few decades, even) after his birth.  Given the approximate nature of the years you posted, I don't think the accuracy of the timeline would be damaged by notes on the timing of Drakul's rise to power and the turning of his son to the Black Court. The point is, neither event is immediate to their respective births.

[Praeceps]

The timing of the events, perhaps-- but I think it's fairly safe to say that Baby!Drakul did not begin his existence with a fully formed power base, but acquired it in the fifty or so years between his birth and the birth of his son.

Likewise, Baby!Tepes was not born a Blampire--Blampires are made, not born-- he decided to be turned, and did so, per Eb, in some sort of backlash to his father some years (on the order of one to a few decades, even) after his birth.  Given the approximate nature of the years you posted, I don't think the accuracy of the timeline would be damaged by notes on the timing of Drakul's rise to power and the turning of his son to the Black Court. The point is, neither event is immediate to their respective births.

But the problem is that we have absolute no clue when either of those things happened beyond just guessing. It is reasonable to say that Drukul wasn't born with a fully formed power base but considering he is Vlad II (and Dracula is Vlad III), it is also reasonable to say the opposite. That is an example of why speculation does not go in a definitive timeline.