Dresden Files: Series Timeline

[Bdubs8807]

Series (After Storm Front)
11 ASF, October: Changes
And 45 minutes later: Aftermath, a novelette from Murphy's POV, published exclusively in Side Jobs.

12 ASF, May 9th: Ghost Story

Changes happens in October of 11ASF.
Ghost Story Starts May 9th 12ASF.
In GS Harry is told he’s been “gone” 6 months (May to October is only 5 months). Are we a month off here, or did Changes happen late enough in October (very near the 31st) that “Early May to Late October” is considered “close enough” (whole of May thru Oct inclusive is 6 months).

Maybe it's just me, and maybe the rest of this thread is TL; DR to check, but I always thought that Changes was set in November, it being six months before May and all... There would DEFINITELY have been some sort of mention about Harry's b-day coming up in Changes had it been in October, especially if it was so late in the month...

[Priscellie]

Maybe it's just me, and maybe the rest of this thread is TL; DR to check, but I always thought that Changes was set in November, it being six months before May and all... There would DEFINITELY have been some sort of mention about Harry's b-day coming up in Changes had it been in October, especially if it was so late in the month...

From chapter 18: "She wore a soft blue nightgown and a shawl to ward against the October chill in the night, and her bright blue eyes flicked around alertly."

Chapter 28: "I felt myself grinning fiercely as he vanished through the broken window and into the cool air of the October night."

and Chapter 33: "“Yes, my liege!” Toot said. He brandished his sword with a flourish, sheathed it, and zipped straight up into the October sky."

[Tami Seven]

7 ASF, May:  White Night.  Marcone becomes the first vanilla human freeholding lord under the Unseelie Accords.  Molly is 19, somehow having celebrated two birthdays in the ten months between this book and Proven Guilty, in which she was 17.

First Issue of Down Town. Harry says White Night was a few months ago, yet he also says that Molly is 20 and there is snow on the ground [at least near Harry's house]. Snow or not, it is clearly cold.

For Molly to be 20, it would have to be 2008 (8 ASF). Is this set in January 2008? Does this mean that Mollys' Birthday is in January?

[Priscellie]

First Issue of Down Town. Harry says White Night was a few months ago, yet he also says that Molly is 20 and there is snow on the ground [at least near Harry's house]. Snow or not, it is clearly cold.

For Molly to be 20, it would have to be 2008 (8 ASF). Is this set in January 2008? Does this mean that Mollys' Birthday is in January?

It's set in February, in the days before the short story "It's My Birthday Too," which takes place on Valentine's Day.  In that story, Molly is referred to as being "just out of her teens."

[Tami Seven]

It's set in February, in the days before the short story "It's My Birthday Too," which takes place on Valentine's Day.  In that story, Molly is referred to as being "just out of her teens."

So, right around this time of year. That's neat. Still, if Molly is described as being 20, that implies that her birthday was in January. Based on the Timeline estimates for the year of her birth.

[draxius]

Sorry to rehash this point - I've been away a while - but I think Beamer is correct.

There seems to be a math error in this:

Still, there is compelling data that suggests "Storm Front" takes place in 1999, putting Harry's birth in 1974:
 
IF 3 ASF is 2003 then 0 ASF would be 2000, and if Harry was 25 in March of 2000 then he would have been born in 1974.(remember his birthday is October 31)

Harry being born in '74 does not conflict with Copperfield because Copperfield's first big job in show business was starring in the musical "The Magic Man" which opened in Chicago in March of 1974

I'm not sure where you're getting your "If 3 ASF is 2003" supposition.

Actually, I think it's from your own timeline:

0 ASF, March: Storm Front.  Harry is 25, according to Jim, and he's been wizarding professionally for two years.  We can reasonably place the year 0 in the timeline within a year or two of 2000, and there's a fair amount of evidence indicating that it could be 2000.
 ...
3 ASF, late February: Death Masks.  Susan has been gone about a year and a half.
Note that we can place this book "a few years" after 1997, when the Shroud was nearly destroyed in a mysterious fire.  [DM 28]
Also, this is a mayoral election year, so we can assume with confidence that this book takes place in 2003. (thanks, Katarn!)

For what it's worth, I happen to agree with the logic here (both Beamer's, and that used in the "canonical" timeline). If Death Masks is just shy of 3 years after Storm Front (which I don't think anyone is disagreeing with), and we're confident that Death Masks takes place in 2003, we should be equally confident that Storm Front takes place in 2000. This is the stance of the actual posted timeline, and has been for quite a while. I've always agreed with that stance, and haven't seen anything that actually contradicts that in the timeline itself - the 1999 date that I've seen tossed around seems to be based on a misreading of the above data, not anything new that's been introduced.

As I've said before - I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong on this provided someone can explain it to me. I'm looking for accuracy, not "being right".

[Lawgiver]

Sorry to rehash this point - I've been away a while - but I think Beamer is correct.

I covered this in a post on the previous page but...

What year was Dresden born?
Q&A at Wyrd Con 5, May 8, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyAKU7sNWYI
Timestamp.31:28
While talking with a Q&A fan, Butcher verifies that SF occurs in 2000, and that Harry is 25 in that book. Both comments are definitive, w/o quibble. Thus, unarguable WoJ.

Ipso Facto, Harry was born Oct 31, 1974. Period.

A great many things fall into place with that.

[Tami Seven]

And since Harry is 6yrs 9months younger than Thomas,  that confirms that Thomas was born on February 14, 1968.

[Sharlee]

From War Cry:

3291 BC - The Akkadians are decimated by a colossal shoggoth.  A surviving warrior seeks to warn his nation's prior enemy, but King Hammurabi of Babylon doubts his word and is powerless when the creature attacks his own city.

The date for this event seems to be about 1140 years off, if JB is suggesting the actual Akkadian Empire was finished off by this thing, and 1541 years off if this is supposed to be the real Hammurabi.  If we assume the cultural and personal names are a translation-convention to preserve the Mesopotamian "feel" of the historical flashback, and that the characters involved are from a couple of forgotten cultures of which the shoggoth left no trace for archeologists to unearth, then the captioned date could be accurate in the Dresdenverse. 

Either way, this one's date in the Timeline may have to read "Ancient Mesopotamia (3291 BC?)" until we hear from Jim if it's just a flub from his misreading "3rd millennium BC" in a history book as the 3000s, not the 2000s.


The events of War Cry itself are in late January or early February, four months after Yoshimo's leg was broken in Dead Beat.

[Sharlee]

We have no information whether Victor had ever demonstrated talent previously. We would probably have to accept this as a “retcon”, as it is later established that unused talents atrophy. Mort Lindquist is one example. He never completely lost it and worked his way back into it. Charity Carpenter is another. We’ve been lead to believe that she could, theoretically, recover her talent but it would be a long, difficult process. Regardless, Victor is a “natural” who “found” his magic – or, as we’ve come to believe, was likely introduced to it… at about age 30-35...and likely coached to some degree. A question is, when did this happen in the story timeline?

We know from the FBI agent in Changes that some people with magical talent can make use of it unconsciously, without actually knowing that talent exists.  Agent Tilly was able to tell if people were lying to him, retaining that knack and even putting it to use professionally, without knowing where his insights came from.  Possibly Sells' talent had a similarly low-key manifestation that he didn't recognize as such, or just didn't opt to tell his wife about, until something convinced him to investigate whether it had a supernatural basis.

[Quantus]

We know from the FBI agent in Changes that some people with magical talent can make use of it unconsciously, without actually knowing that talent exists.  Agent Tilly was able to tell if people were lying to him, retaining that knack and even putting it to use professionally, without knowing where his insights came from.  Possibly Sells' talent had a similarly low-key manifestation that he didn't recognize as such, or just didn't opt to tell his wife about, until something convinced him to investigate whether it had a supernatural basis.

Agreed.  The key difference seems to be that Tilly is activly, if unconsciously, exercising his power, whereas Charity was very consciously avoiding anything close.   

[Serack]

Omg, isn't there a WoJ or canon reference somewhere that says Mac opened his Bar around the same time Harry moved to Chicago?

[Priscellie]

Omg, isn't there a WoJ or canon reference somewhere that says Mac opened his Bar around the same time Harry moved to Chicago?

Not that I've heard...

[Lash Dresden]

I seem to recall having heard this before - but I don't remember whether it was someone stating - or speculating - that it was so, or inquiring if it was so.  (I'm not finding anything about how long Mac's has been open in any of the mentions of it in Side Jobs.  And Google isn't helping, either.)

[Serack]

I'll scour the more recent WoJs to be sure