Timelines

The game never gives a calendar. It has no year numbers, and the only time words are phrases such as "more than a decade ago" or "a few months ago". What it does give is hundreds of overheard remarks, diary entries and letters (see Documents) that can be put in order. This article does that, and marks each step as stated by the text, or as (inferred) when the order is only the most natural reading. For the wider setting see Lore, The Dark Mist and Sendrils, Colossi and Factions.

The big picture#

The deep past#

• The earliest event any text mentions is a "last words" scrap (30908) written by a drifting soul that remembers giants falling, the first life untouched by corruption, and a great bang. The writer cannot escape the cycle of reincarnation. It reads as a vision of the origin of the Colossi and the world (inferred).
• The text from the Ichthyosauria DLC says that Ichthyosauria is an ancient creature long extinct, and that its people followed Lord Ebbinghaus there to escape the mist (dialog 91034). The log describes it as a sleeping beast of the deep sea whose river of souls brings peace and makes people forget the curse.
• Colossi are described in the Heggem region text as giants too lofty to look at, which humble humans chase day and night (log 30101). Each is also followed by a population of Disciples of Solas. When a Colossus falters, its Disciples are driven from home, although the quest text calls migration because of a Colossus's decline very rare (quest 10103). A legend heard at Heggem says a weak Colossus is preparing for its journey to the Grave (StoryDialog story 1 row 30). More in Colossi.

The Marcions and the Seals of Yekub#

• Katib was the Marcion homeland (Teresa also calls it her hometown, doc 30508). The quest log says a "mysterious Marcion civilization vanished overnight" (quest 10502).
• The Marcions believed that life changes constantly. A talking plant that claims to be a former Church priest tells Terrence that the toxic mist around Katib was one of their tricks, and that crossing it demands experiencing the past, present and future, which is why the three Time Stones (Past, Present and Future) must be found (quests 10503 to 10505).
• Three Seals of Yekub existed. The "Erosion Scroll" (30918) says they were stolen to found Samarosa and that the theft brought massacre (see the Ichthyosauria section). The Church later holds a Seal as its Halidom (quest 10305 says the Halidom is the Yekub Seal), believing it is the key to the Colossal Grave. What each Seal is and where they lie is in Seals of Yekub.
• A letter hidden in a Marcion village (30505) warns that a western army will arrive asking for help, and that what it seeks holds the secret of Katib's old prosperity. The Marcions are depicted as calm in the face of the invaders (30502) and holding secret talks of patriarchs (30503).

The Blessedland#

• Proxy founded the Blessedland around four pillars named YOG (time and space), SHUB (life), XADA (chaos) and NYA (the word of God), according to the Library Documents (30609).
• A "Gilded Treasure Record" (30926) gives a short myth: the first banner was planted, an emblem was added, and "God was born". It adds that heresy only disturbs the peace.
• Proxy withdrew into a hidden chamber and has not been seen by his guards for years (doc 30603, quest 10605). Two sentinels were hanged for gossiping about him (30605).
• The meetings (30612 to 30615) record the key policy decisions in order: (1) after the fall of the Exilium Colossus and the Scarlet Meteor, Couriers are sent to Exilium and the Church argues about admitting pilgrims; (2) Proxy sends the Knights to Katib after meeting the Demiurge High Priest, the first expedition out of the Blessedland; (3) the High Priest objects and storms out, Proxy goes anyway, and days after he returns the High Priest is sentenced to death; (4) ten researchers leave on Proxy's secret order.
• A hidden bloodletting programme worsens the health of Lord Higgins, whom the secret records (30617 to 30619, 30621) show speaking as Proxy. His skin ulcerates, black smoke like Sendrils rises from him, and in the end the quest log describes the withering figure in the chamber as "Proxy's Servant" (quest 10607). A later dialog says Norwood's master is the oldest Overseer and has seen three Proxies, including Higgins (dialog 71088). The Church's structure is in Church of the Blessedland.

Katib falls#

The Katib documents (30502 to 30519) can be arranged in this order:

1. The Church occupies Katib. Soldiers find the Marcions unsurprised (30502), the patriarchs confer secretly (30503), then stop answering (30504). A bored soldier writes of Marcion rituals (30506) and powerful but fragile spellcasters (30507).
2. A bishop (named Sprenger) returns to ruined Katib. Couriers go down into the underground with a Seal (30511). The Seal gives no response. Couriers fall ill, their skin dissolves, and they hear a sound from below (30512 to 30514).
3. The experiments conclude that the Seal needs Marcion blood, yet all Marcions are dead. The Couriers are burned and the underground is sealed (30515). Members of the Church begin to soften and turn transparent (30516), and the bishop restarts the work anyway.
4. A Witch claiming to be the last Marcion offers to open the Seal of Yekub (30517), then steals it. The Colossus of Katib is drawn in and grows into the Sacred Tower, merging everything (30518). A Courier on top sees no living thing left (30519).
5. A church order is issued for the arrest of a red-haired heretic Witch who stole the Halidom (30509).

The quest log adds that the Witch's hut is hidden in the mist, and that Terrence finds a parchment Teresa wrote: fear and hatred for her old home, a plan to gain trust at the Tower, and a voice calling her there (30508). At the bottom of the tower is the Courier Drake (quest 10509), and from the altar Terrence learns that Teresa took the Seal. The log states her goal was not to open the grave but to destroy the Blessedland and turn it into the next Katib (quest 10510).

The Demiurges, Edith and Vaillant#

• Demiurges were a group within the Church. The documents say the Church punished them by banishing them to the dark town of Edith "more than a decade ago" (quest 10511; diary 30402).
• The meeting minutes link this to the failed riot of Edith (30615) and the sentencing of the High Priest (30614). Interrogations of Demiurge prisoners reveal Vaillant's plot against Proxy and his daughter's location (30616). That daughter is probably Viola (inferred). In her prologue the other Church members call her the daughter of a traitor whose father "made a deal with the Devil" and whose mother vanished (story 302 timelines 2003 and 2004).
• The texts never say outright that Vaillant is the Demiurge High Priest, but they point one way: doc 30617 has Higgins shouting "Vaillant" and asks whether "this Demiurge High Priest" was not already dead, the Edith diary (30404) says the High Priest will return, and Frollo says the Demiurges' suffering was caused by their former leader Vaillant (quest 10408). The High Priest is Vaillant (inferred).
• In Edith the Colossus produces White Dust. A Witch (the red-haired Marcion woman) hosts a Marcion ritual in which the Demiurges combine themselves with the dust, gaining strength at the cost of their minds (docs 30409 to 30414, quest 10413). Their leader Elena calls them to return to the Blessedland and expose Proxy's lies (30408). Frollo, who rings the bells that disperse the dust, opposes her (Frollo (character)). The group calls itself Envoys of Vengeance (30412).
• Elena has an opening scene of her own: in story 301 a voice that Elena recognises as Vaillant calls "Elena... Wake up" and urges her to seek the three lost Seals of Yekub, even at the price of the whole Demiurge people (story 301 movie 1001).

Karst Cave: Vaillant and Eckhart#

• Karst Cave is an underground world that holds a Church prison (SiteInfo 700; StoryDialog story 7 rows 1871-1873). Documents 30702 to 30708 show guards watching prisoners who were condemned by Proxy yet secretly kept alive. Researchers feed prisoners strange berries, and their limbs thicken and their necks glow. Vaillant's blood is found to contain Sendril-like parts although he is not sick, possibly because he entered the Colossal Grave.
• Eckhart's diary (30709 to 30711) is the voice of the man who found the Colossal Grave, he claims, but was robbed of his credit by Vaillant and the "shameful Proxy". With Higgins a living corpse, he believes he is destined to lead the Church. In the final act he says he will "remold our faith" (story 7 movie 1001).
• Eckhart sacrifices Teresa to open the Colossal Grave (dialog 71195). Norwood, who has a Marcion bloodline, confesses he was seeking the murderer of the Marcions and that this terrible choice was the only one (dialogs 71141 to 71144).
• Teresa's last words in story 7 (movie 1003): her mission is complete, she was only an empty shell that does not belong to this world, and she asks to be forgotten.

The campaign in chapter order#

Notes on order: the quest log and the sort numbers put Katib before Edith, but the game's internal story ids are Edith = 4 and Katib = 5. The quest log is ordered by progress (Exilium, then Katib, then Edith, then Blessedland; Chapters#Order of the chapters).

Several characters have their own shorter flashback chains outside the main story:

• Story 301 (which also holds Elena's opening scene) has a timeline sequence in which voices cry "Liar!", call out "Teresa?" and tell Terrence he has never failed God (timelines 2001 to 2005). Whose vision it is is not stated in the data.
• Story 302 (Viola): she is a child accused as a traitor's daughter, threatened by an unknown speaker who promises to take her to her father, and later comforted by Norwood ("the lonely night is now over").
• The Wedding Dress Woman and the Headless Knight Patrick, from side quests, add the personal side of Exilium (log 20401, 20402, 20403).

Ichthyosauria#

The DLC documents (30902 to 30931) tell a second history that can be arranged as follows (inferred from reading order and the cross-references):

1. A traveller leaves the Blessedland, rejecting it as only a shelter, and sets out to cross the thickest mist (30903). Several parties sail, among them the Duke's expedition (a nobleman called Handel in the texts, and the diaries of Leeb, 30904, 30915 and 30928).
2. A storm breaks the fleet. The Duke is reported lost, the minister dies, and a Sendril spreads on the ship (30906). Survivors are pulled from the sea and recover unnaturally fast (30910). The Duke is found alive, feverish and with hard scales on his wounds (30909).
3. A group from the ship, including a priest named Guderian, comes under the protection of Lord Ebbinghaus, the keeper of the Soul River (30911 to 30913, 30917). Others become "Scavengers" and grow hostile (30915 to 30916, 30927).
4. A quiet wall appears, the Wall of Silence, behind which nothing can be heard. The Soul River water is both a medicine and a trap that controls those who drink it (30907, 30924, 30928). A decree forbids drinking contaminated water (30925).
5. A penitent's scroll (30918) says three Seals of Yekub were stolen to found Samarosa, that this brought a massacre, and that the broken Seal keeps the shadow and reincarnation going. A dialog says Lord Ebbinghaus took in a group of "nasty pirates" more than ten years earlier (dialog 91067).
6. In the story, Jerold takes Terrence and companions back to his birthplace, which sits inside the abdomen of the beast. The river is dry and full of miasma. They climb the Tower of Origin at the end of the wall (quest log 10904 to 10907).

The game's own "Timeline" data#

In the game files "TimeLine" means something different from lore. The StoryTimeLine table has 83 rows of in-engine scripted sequences (as opposed to the 157 full cutscenes in StoryMovie). Each row ties a TimeLineId inside a scene to the quests that start, hide and complete it, plus the area the player is taken to. Rows by story id: Heggem 3, Adamina 1, Edith 5, Katib 12, Blessedland 9, Karst Cave 5, Colossal Grave 1, Ichthyosauria 19, story 301 (Elena's and Terrence's extra scenes) 5, story 302 (Viola's extra scenes) 13, and a handful for special challenge stages (1002, 1005, 1006). The quest action "OpenTimeLine" (type 25) starts one; the game then checks whether the sequence takes control of the player.

Movies are numbered per story: Heggem 14, Adamina 12, Exilium 16, Edith 18, Katib 12, Blessedland 13, Karst Cave 9, Colossal Grave 13, Ichthyosauria 10, hub 4, plus maze and challenge stories.

Hidden mechanics#

• Story ids do not follow the visible chapter order. Edith is story 4 and Katib story 5, but you reach Katib first. Everything keyed by story id, including the Documents log, therefore behaves in a slightly surprising order (see Documents#hm-the-log-lists-regions-in-campaign-order-but).
• There is no clock. The only time phrases (a few months, more than a decade) come from dialog and quest text. Ranges used above are what the text states, not data fields.
• The campaign order is enforced by quest flags, not by maps. For example Edith's gate to the Blessedland opens with the Gate key that the Demiurges made in secret and that you hand to Frollo (item 10042, quest 45063; Demiurges#hm-frollo-s-key-and-the-gate-the-route), and this is why the ending of the Edith chapter is the beginning of the Blessedland chapter in the quest chain (10415 shows 45038 and completes 65001).
• Region blurbs. The poetic intro for Ichthyosauria in the Documents log (30901) was left in Chinese in the English texts. Every other region blurb is translated.

Sources#

• Quest log: UIQuest rows QuestType 2 (ids 10102 to 10907); English text in text/UIQuest.jsonl; gamedata/structdata/exportdata/es_uiquest.lua.
• Documents: UIQuest rows QuestType 6 and headers QuestType 5 (see Documents).
• Dialog: StoryDialog rows for stories 1 to 9, 99, 301 and 302 (for example DialogId 71088, 71141 to 71144, 71195, 91034, 91067, 99307 to 99315; the other citations that say "rows" use the _id column); UIQuest 10303 and 30617; StoryQuest 45063; ItemData 10042; SiteInfo 700.
• Movie subtitles: StorySubtitle rows (story 1 to 9, 99, 301) and StoryTimeLineSubtitle rows (stories 1, 6, 99, 301, 302).
• Timeline data: StoryTimeLine (83 rows, es_storytimeline.lua), StoryMovie (157 rows, es_storymovie.lua); luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua lines 94 to 134 (QuestActionType) and 8012 to 8030 (OpenTimeLine).
• Story ids: StoryData rows 1 to 9 (Chinese names Heggem, Adamina, Exilium, Edith, Katib, Blessedland, Karst Cave, Colossal Grave, DLC).