Emperor NPC Timeline (spoilers)

Emperor NPC is a story that takes place in several dimensions, across at least two timelines, and involves a lot of different empires/kingdoms/chiefdoms/federations and miscellaneous states, especially toward the end. I thought it would be useful to start keeping an official timeline so that anyone reading could have a general idea of how much time has passed and what happened to bring the characters where they are. It's by no means precise, and will not have all the information as most likely, I haven't thought of it at all yet. I'll be exact where I can, but anywhere I have vague ideas I'll denote with a question mark.

I'll also avoid spoilers wherever possible, but naturally there will be some spoilers concerning Fall of Vultheras, the latest volume.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2022: Katherine (Player of Amarytha and Amy) is born.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2030: First wave of aliens invades earth in the Planetfall Black event.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2042: Humanity arrives aboard the alien mothership, later called the Ark. Katherine is the first human to encounter the bio-computer, Lore.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2045 (?): A council of 12 influential civilians is formed to govern the investigation, experimentation, and habitation of and aboard the Ark ship. Katherine, while not officially an arkitect, is involved in many meetings; on account of her brother Alex leading the group.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2048 (?): Ziegler deciphers some functions of the stasis fields throughout the Ark. Katherine discovers that the bio-computer, Lore, uses most of its vast processing power on a background simulation. Further investigation reveals a relationship between the simulation and Ziegler's stasis pods. With Lore's consent, Katherine proposes adapting the simulation into a VRMMO for recreation, training, and philosophical cohesion during the long transit between star systems.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 2050 (?): A lab accident aboard the Ark causes Katherine's blood to mix with a flesh sample taken from Lore's biological body. By decoding and adapting her DNA to its own structure, the sample assumes human-like sentience. Within seconds it constructs a bio-transmitter that copies its consciousness onto the lab's local system, and communicates with Katherine via a terminal. In her confusion, she names it Ghost. Immediately after, Ghost encounters Lore and steals its Eyes of the Emperor. After using the Eyes, Ghost becomes an entity that Lore cannot control.

(Earth Standard Time) Early 2062: Earth's biosphere has degraded to the point where Humanity's mother planet is no longer inhabitable. It's wracked by terrible storms, most complex life has gone extinct, and temperatures vary between their inhospitable extremes. A uniquely large storm is predicted to destroy the last human settlement high in the South American Andes. A meeting between the arkitects led by Alex, Katherine's brother, is held. The arkitects decide their next steps, among them that humanity will leave Earth soon.

(Earth Standard Time) Mid 2062: Departure day, the Ark accelerates from Earth orbit with all 10,000 remaining humans aboard. After Katherine's 40th birthday, the Ark's occupants enter stasis pods for suspended animation. The final version of Ark World is deployed and activated, but only for Katherine's stasis pod. The other 9,999 pods enter an early version of Ark World with its dev tools exposed. Access to administrator powers leads to players living as gods in a virtual paradise, where the arkitects wield absolute control.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 902,062 (?): Massive damage to the Ark's Stasis Carriage 4 forces Lore to eject Katherine from her stasis pod. At that time, she's informed that she is the last surviving human after stasis and life support were terminated in the other pods. Although she is the sole surviving human, the neural patterns scanned by Lore remained inside Ark World. Katherine resolves to re-enter the game using the arkitects' test-bed stasis pod, located outside Lore's biological core.

(Ark World Game Iteration Unknown) Year Unknown (?): Katherine enters the alternate Ark World simulation. She discovers the arkitects have formed various new identities as gods in a self-proclaimed 'Pantheon' that rules over Ark World's NPCs. Humans not so lucky to be a part of the esteemed 12 are still 'divine,' but of a lesser caste, called Angels. Katherine's brother Alex, then called Achlesial, welcomes her to Ark World and invites her to join the pantheon. With Gaia's (a partition of Lore's) help, Katherine assumes the identity of Amarytha and she takes part in the pantheon.

(Ark World Game Iteration Unknown) Year Unknown (?): Alex (Achlesial) reveals to Katherine (Amarytha) that he disabled life support to humanity's stasis pods, including his own. His stated reason for this is currently <hidden.> In a rage, Amarytha betrays the pantheon and with Gaia's support destroys their World Configuration Spire, a structure as tall as a space elevator that enabled meta administrator commands that overruled Gaia's own control. The pantheon struggle against Amarytha, but even together, they can only just match the aptitude of Gaia's Favored; a matchless gamer, whose skills were honed over eons in the complete version of the game. Eventually the pantheon gains the upper hand and Amarytha is forced to use her trump card: Suspending all player accounts, forever preventing them from interacting with Ark World. Despite humans (gods) disappearing from Ark World, the simulation continues with new iterations.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 670 (?): The eventual demon emperor is born to a nameless noble family in a generic fantasy world, filled with dwarfs, elves, and giants. Before he can become the villain he was scripted to be, he encounters Ghost in the area of his burning mansion. Ghost reveals that the soon-to-be demon emperor is an NPC in a game world without players, and that with his help, the demon emperor can 'give fate a black eye.' In other words, he can spite those that made him.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 770 (?): The elven kingdom in the forests north of the demon emperor's native Southland is conquered. By using his Eyes of the Emperor, the demon emperor is able to convince the queen of the elves and bearer of the Eyes of the Brawler, Evylence, to follow his lead.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 772 (?): The demon emperor invades the dwarf kingdom of Golud Baradash. The dwarf king sends his son, Balagrim Dazka, to intercept the demon emperor's advancing army and destroy it, thereby buying the dwarfs time to prepare their mountain fortresses. Balagrim nearly kills the demon emperor, but his duel ends in failure after the demon lord Evylence intercedes. The prince of the Golud Baradash is drawn into the demon emperor's service, and the emperor gains the service of the Eyes of the Warrior.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 800 (?): The demon emperor defeats the united giant clans and gains the service of Cernunnos, a half-giant bearing the Eyes of the Ranger.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 850 (?): The demon emperor conquers a little-known island chain off the coast of his continent and claims the service of Destrey, bearing the Eyes of the Assassin. Later, the smallest of those islands becomes the seat of his new empire, the Demon Capital, Darigon.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 1025 (?): The demon emperor completes his conquest of the known world. He adopts a kidnapped boy bearing the Eyes of the Sorcerer and declares him his sole heir. He names the 8-year old child Akaron Velsado. Unknown to Akaron was his own twin sister, removed from his family after birth. She was also born with the Eyes of the Sorcerer. Dezarosa was found at the same time and kept hidden in Palace Darigon, where she was trained by the demon lords and the demon emperor himself.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 1035 (?): Dezarosa unofficially enters the demon emperor's service as a clandestine demon lord. She spreads terror throughout the empire and serves to foment rebellion, as the demon emperor instructed.

(Ark World Game Iteration 1,920,293,104,666) Year 1040 (?): With Ghost's help, Akaron Velsado enters the Prison of Prometheus deep in the dungeon vaults beneath the city of Darigon. The demon emperor follows him and attacks the prince and his guards, forcing Akaron to using his Eyes of the Sorcerer on the prison terminal. Akaron activates the temporary world configuration spire and releases the players from their suspension, but a trap in the terminal leads to his immediate death. The demon emperor and his lords attack Achlesial, the first player released from suspension, and are utterly crushed. Achlesial, aggravated by another betrayal, attempts to force the demon emperor to submit to him via administrator commands, but the demon emperor ignores them. Panic ensues and before he can be destroyed, the demon emperor is saved by Amy, Amarytha's (Katherine's) heroic player character.

Amy fights Achlesial, but only succeeds in defeating an illusion. Afterwards, she's defeated by the combined power of the 12 arkitects in the godly forms. Using the meta commands enabled by the temporary world configuration spire, the pantheon votes to kick Amy from the Ark World server. As an afterthought, Achlesial annihilates the demon emperor with merely the light from his heavenly aura. Amy vows to return to Ark World before she's kicked.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 1,002,062 at approximately 0400 hours (?): Katherine is ejected from her stasis pod for the second time. She argues with Lore and leaves the Ark Core frustrated. After a nap, she wanders around in a daze, as most of her memories are locked inside Lore's system. A dream about the demon emperor encourages her to investigate, and she discovers the events that led to her ejection from Ark World.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 1: Instead of resetting Ark World, Achlesial activates an alternate mode, the Ark World Sandbox. Originally only for testing, the sandbox had no NPC scripts and no pre-established terrain. There was also no World Configuration Spire, and so after the command was executed, the arkitects lost their meta commands for good. Unknown to the arkitects, Ghost escaped the end of Ark World aboard a ship of the demon emperor's 300 most loyal servants, the Knights of the Devil King. Ghost landed the ship near an island at the middle of a bay surrounded by tall barrier mountains.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 5,800: The ancient peoples of myth, the Aeonics—or Aeonar—control the whole of the East Continent. They worship the gods Chotokhet, Rukhet, and Achlesial, but strife in the land leads Achlesial to war against his co-rulers. The middle of the continent is destroyed along with the Aeonar capital, cleaved in what would eventually be called the Chotokhetzam. Rukhet diminishes after Chotokhet is presumed dead, and Achlesial is declared the victor. The multi-cultural Aeonar fracture into several different peoples, among which the Olmenites and the Echokhet emerge.

After a council, held among the remaining 11 gods of the Pantheon, an agreement called the Compact is made. Gods are forbidden from warring against one another using their administrator commands or the might of their player armies. Instead, if gods are to fight, they must fight through their dutiful mortal followers.

Among the burgeoning Olmenites, an organization called the Adventurer's Guild is created. Their stated objective is the management of the so-called dungeons that began to appear after the death of Chotokhet.

This ends the period known as the Age of Myth and is the beginning of the Olmenite Calendar.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 6,800 (?): Around this time, the Olmenite Empire begins to crumble. Although successful in their expansion into the South-East Continent, they meet heavy resistance from the 'heathen' godless tribes of a place called the Farlands. The people that would eventually be called the Selecezi attack and invade the East Continent and sack the Olmenite capital of Atheria. The Olmenites, much like the Aeonar before them, were a multi-cultural empire, and as Olmenite control waned, those cultural divisions broke apart. Various settlements rose up against the Olm and carved out their own empires on the East Continent.

The Selecezi, while fierce, were not as barbaric as the Olmenites portrayed them. They were an intellectual people that enjoyed an art and culture that—while not as progressive—was very refined. The Selecezi claimed Atheria and established the kingdom of Selune. Over the proceeding centuries, their wars against old Olmenite vassals spread their influence and culture, giving birth to new kingdoms such as Baru.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,000: The First Exile of the Gods sees several arkitects of the West Continent expelled by one of their own. Among these is Mathematzen who travels aboard a colony ship from the Empire of Yamahei. The god leads the Yameans to a bay hidden by a barrier of tall mountains, where they fight and assimilate the Olmenites hiding on an isolated island. The Yamean colony-state of Zentai is established and the island city is named Yenzei.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,050 (?): The Echokhet, Kingdom of Baru, and the tribes of the north-western coast, unite in war against Zentai. Although they do not succeed in removing Yamahei from the continent, they capture Yenzei, then known as the fortress city of Yamahei-Zei. In desperation, the Yameans release a horror imprisoned beneath the island, since a time before the Aeonar. A group of seven Yameans defeat the horror, at great cost. Later, a council of Echoketan, Barusian, and tribal representatives, decide to form a new state to govern the cursed land. Two members are chosen from each state to head the new government, including one representative from former Zentai, the last of the seven swordsmen.

The new state takes the name Bastilhas and its formation, along with their experience with Baru, encourages the coastal tribes to unite in their own kingdom, thereafter known as Edwindy.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,200 (?): The Yamean colonies rebel against the Yamahei Empire and win their independence by steel and gunpowder. They form the Yamahei Federation in the eastern region of the East Continent.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Early 7,400: The scholar, Abhender Norweg, begins to suspect Bastilhasians aren't descended from Yameans, but from Olmenites. His investigation leads to his disappearance.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Late 7,400 (?): The Kingdom of Selune loses a decisive battle and Atheria is lost, captured by a new a tribe of warriors from the Farlands. The new people, calling themselves Atilonians, establish the Kingdom of Atilonia. Unlike the atheist Selecezi, the god-fearing Atilonians restore the faith of Achlesial that had long been suppressed.

While the Selecezi lose the majority of their territory over the remainder of the war, they maintain a second capital also called Selune in the east, south of the Yamahei Federation.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Mid 7,600 (?): Seeking independence from Selecezi culture, the Atilonians adopt old Olmenite cultural norms. Their kingdom is renamed the Empire of Atilonia, and under Achlesial's guidance, they conquer their immediate neighbors. Selecezi's capital of Selune is burned and the last of the Selecezians scatter to the four winds.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Late 7,600 (?): The Wendergerd Bridge is built in Bastilhas, between their island capital of Vultheras and the mainland. It becomes known as a wonder of the world for its great length, its steel structure, and mithril cable suspension.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,765: The Kingdom of Edwindy attacks the Kingdom of Bastilhas.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,768 (?): The Kingdom of Edwindy is defeated and forced to convert to the Faith of Mathematzen.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,775: The Atilonian Empire declares war on the Kingdom of Baru.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,777: Anton and Jessica Eddleston are born to House Eddleston of the Kingdom of Bastilhas.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Early 7,779: The Kingdom of Baru is conquered and reorganized as the NTEA, the North Territory Administration. Edwindy, Bastilhas, the Yamahei Federation, and the Free Echokhet Tribes remain Atilonia's only opposition on the East Continent.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Late 7,779: Madilhero Endelhar flees the traditional Echokhetan migratory lands at the age of 15.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,793: Queen Mary Darigon passes away, leaving King Kalen Darigon a widower.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,795: Rumors begin to circulate regarding Achlesial's intentions for Mathematzen. Bastilhas, Edwindy, and Atilonia anticipate war. Meanwhile, Jessica Eddleston succeeds in claiming the Eyes of the Sorcerer and gaining tremendous power.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Year 7,797: Anton Eddleston applies to become a knight of Bastilhas, but is stopped by his sister Jessica, who is First Sorceress to Bastilhas' King Kalen. Afterwards, he accepts Ghost's offer to attempt to control the Eyes of the Sorcerer. Anton fails and he's blinded as a result, although he gains an ability to see strange mana-like colors in living humans.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Mid-Late 7,800: The Kingdom of Bastilhas falls following the capture of Vultheras by the Atilonians. A unit from the Knights of the Devil King attempt to extract Anton before the Atilonians execute him, but fail, and Anton is killed in the process.

(Earth Standard Time) Year 1,002,062 at approximately 1200 hours (?): After initially resisting, Katherine becomes determined to return to Ark World so she can fulfill the demon emperor's last wish. Upon her return she finds she's been away from the game for 7,800 years and assumes her previous identity as Amarytha. With the help of Gaia, she descends on the Kingdom of Bastilhas, oblivious to its recent events. The still-warm corpse of Anton becomes the vessel for the return of the demon emperor, restored to life as—in his final moments—he developed the Ego necessary to resist and challenge those with administrator commands.

(Ark World Sandbox Time) Late Fall, Early Winter 7,800: The demon emperor awakes in a new world with the given name Zenos. He's attacked, and killed, by people called the Atilonians, but as players cannot permanently be killed by NPCs, he respawns on the distant island of Adheim. There he meets Madilhero Endelhar, a necromancer with the Adventurer's Guild, and begins his journey in a world the NPCs call Adohas.