[D'rek]

For those who don't know, I have an on-going Malaz timeline project that hasn't seen an official update for a while, and the latest released version of which does not go much beyond TtH, because as we all know things get a bit murky there. Some work has been done since the last 2010 update, but I kept muddling myself and worked on my map project, instead.

Now, I want to pick the timeline project back up but do something new with it: rather than a traditional timeline format, I intend to make a flow-chart depicting basic causality between scenes and all time references. The goal is to complete this, make it look nice and release it, and then to use it to create an updated, more accurate version of the original timeline project, as well.

Here's a preview of what it would look like:

Spoiler

 Causality Plot Preview.jpg (157.72K)
Number of downloads: 15

All scene summaries come courtesy of Bill at the Tor Malazan re-read project

I want to do the above for the entire series, with additional links added from scenes to events that are not directly related, quoting them in the arrows so you can see, where it is stated, the passage of time between events.

That will take A LOT of work. Essentially, I would need to re-read the whole series and make note of each and every time reference. And while I am willing to do that, I'm at a point in my life right now where it would take so long to do that no one will care when it is finally done.

So, I am asking for help from anyone out there who is re-reading or planning to do a re-read and would like to contribute to this. All you have to do is re-read a scene, and if/when you note any references of time or to past events, type up the reference (with whatever context you feel is necessary) and post it here indicating what scene you have covered (or PM it to me, or tell me in chat, whatever).

As an example, this is what I would note for Chapter 3, Scene 4 of Night of Knives:

Spoiler

Seal gives armour to Temper, gives info about the Girst-Khemst border wars = generations long:

Quote

'My great-uncle's. From the Grist-Khemst border wars. Long time ago.'
[...]
'It was all hack-and-slash in the north back then.'
[...]
generations of internecine warfare between the Girstan minor nobles and their confusion of principates, protectorates, barnoies, and free-holds. He'd joined up long after the Emperor had pocketed them

Annihilation of the Iron Legion being during Kellanved's invasion of Unta:

Quote

while the Iron Legion had been an elite heavy infantry regiment, it had been annihilated during Kellanved's invasion of the once independent kingdom of Unta.

Seal's arrival in Malaz City - at least as early as Temper's:

Quote

When Temper had first arrived, he'd met [Seal] at the Hanged Man

Whether you're wonderfully insane and want to do this for a whole book, or just one scene, I would appreciate any and all contributions and will be sure to give credit in the final project!

This post has been edited by D'rek: 11 September 2012 - 03:07 AM

[amphibian]

I really appreciate the work you put into the timeline before - even if the actual file broke every viewing program I initially had. I can't help you right now, but I hope you find someone as obsessed. Perhaps the Malazan Facebook/Twitter crowd would yield some results too? A search through other big forums for really detail-oriented Malazan/GoT fans?

[Salt-Man Z]

Ambition, thy name is D'rek. I wish you luck, madam.

[worry]

Didn't have time to read past the thread title so I don't know why you'd want it, but here's what I've got:

all times PST
10:00 AM woke up
10:15 AM showered
10:30 AM started work
12:00 PM ate breakfast
03:30 PM drove my uncle to his doctor's appointment
06:00 PM got home
08:00 PM ate dinner
09:20 PM contributed to timeline project

Okay, you're welcome for this D'rek, good luck with whatever you are doing, and I'll go back and read the OP whenever I can fit that in my busy schedule.

[Gnaw]

 D, on 11 September 2012 - 03:04 AM, said:

For those who don't know, I have an on-going Malaz timeline project that hasn't seen an official update for a while, and the latest released version of which does not go much beyond TtH, because as we all know things get a bit murky there. Some work has been done since the last 2010 update, but I kept muddling myself and worked on my map project, instead.

Now, I want to pick the timeline project back up but do something new with it: rather than a traditional timeline format, I intend to make a flow-chart depicting basic causality between scenes and all time references. The goal is to complete this, make it look nice and release it, and then to use it to create an updated, more accurate version of the original timeline project, as well.



Whether you're wonderfully insane and want to do this for a whole book, or just one scene, I would appreciate any and all contributions and will be sure to give credit in the final project!

I do believe that I would be delighted to help. I'm disabled so have a bit more time than the average folk. And I desperately need something to keep my mind off the current US clusterfuck circle jerk that is our national elections.
Seriously though, this sounds cool. My last three read I made several notes but they were more concerned with character timelines, but should be usable anyway. And a four read with a purpose strikes me as worthwhile.
Are we going to pretend that SE and ICE are writing in the same universe? Alternate Wus solves lots of tricky issues. . *ducks*

[D'rek]

That`s so great Gnaw! Thanks so much!

 Gnaw, on 14 September 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

Are we going to pretend that SE and ICE are writing in the same universe? Alternate Wus solves lots of tricky issues. . *ducks*

In for a penny, in for a pound? :laugh: Might as well do the whole thing, there'll be plenty of tricksy-ness no matter what.

No prequels, though - Gotta draw the line somewhere!

I think I am going to start with a complete timeline-note-taking re-read of TtH.

[Gnaw]

 D, on 14 September 2012 - 06:57 PM, said:

I think I am going to start with a complete timeline-note-taking re-read of TtH.

If you're doing TTH, I should probably go with GotM or MoI. That choice comes down to how do we want to handle the GotMisms?

• MoI would give us a fairly even baseline but means we'd have to later modify our work to fit GotM data.
• GotM first would give us a less realiable timeline but more initial data.

I don't have a preference either way other than to note that I tend to get caught up in the story fairly easily and quit looking at the actual craft. But I also can be quite pedantic about inconsistencies.
Your project, your choice ma'am.

[D'rek]

 Gnaw, on 16 September 2012 - 08:34 PM, said:

 D, on 14 September 2012 - 06:57 PM, said:

I think I am going to start with a complete timeline-note-taking re-read of TtH.

If you're doing TTH, I should probably go with GotM or MoI. That choice comes down to how do we want to handle the GotMisms?

• MoI would give us a fairly even baseline but means we'd have to later modify our work to fit GotM data.
• GotM first would give us a less realiable timeline but more initial data.

I don't have a preference either way other than to note that I tend to get caught up in the story fairly easily and quit looking at the actual craft. But I also can be quite pedantic about inconsistencies.
Your project, your choice ma'am.

We keep track of all the references, no matter how little sense they make, and then we figure out how to deal with them later when putting it all together. For GotM-DG-MoI, I previously used hemispheres - Darujhistan having summer while Quon Tali has winter - to make the seasonal references line up okay with events, can probably re-use that. RG and TtH are going to be the tough ones, but we don't need to worry about that for a while!

[D'rek]

NoK

Prologue - Nothing except the notations at the start:

Quote

Season of Osserc
1154th year of Burn's Sleep
96th year of the Malazan Empire
Last Year of Emperor Kellanved's Reign

A Path Within Shadow (Prologue part 2):

Quote

Jhedel: "Poor Edgewalker. Moaning his enslavement. Yet here you were long before the ones I slew to take the Throne."

Chapter 1, Scene 1:

Quote

[Temper] nearly jumped the first ship out when [Laseen] arrived on the island three days ago.

Quote

Just three days ago he'd stood with hundreds of other at the harbour wall to watch the Imperial official disembark.

Quote

Korel campaign: Word from the south was one of [...] almost no advances made since the initial landings half a decade ago.

Chapter 1, Scene 2:

Quote

[Temper]'d been there when they took Ubaryd. [Claws tortured the Holy Falah'd, Dassem intervened and killed her cleanly.] Thus the end of the last Holy Falah'd of Ubaryd.

This post has been edited by D'rek: 21 September 2012 - 02:40 AM

[Gnaw]

There was a Captain Yojimbo on the wiki who was doing some of this type updating week before last D'rek. S/he added a bunch of stuff from the first couple of chapters of GotM. Hasn't done so lately (or I turned off notifications, I'm not sure atm).

On my side I've been pretty stressed out with RL issues to actually focus much on reading. I did very unhappily discover that all of my existing notes, highlights, and such are tied to my iPad Kindle app. Cannot copy them to paste into a word processor. I used Calibre to strip the DRM but that also stripped all the notes. Which leaves me a very unhappy camper.

[D'rek]

 Gnaw, on 17 October 2012 - 08:34 PM, said:

There was a Captain Yojimbo on the wiki who was doing some of this type updating week before last D'rek. S/he added a bunch of stuff from the first couple of chapters of GotM. Hasn't done so lately (or I turned off notifications, I'm not sure atm).

On my side I've been pretty stressed out with RL issues to actually focus much on reading. I did very unhappily discover that all of my existing notes, highlights, and such are tied to my iPad Kindle app. Cannot copy them to paste into a word processor. I used Calibre to strip the DRM but that also stripped all the notes. Which leaves me a very unhappy camper.

Yeah, I'm not getting nearly as much time to put into this as I'd hoped, either, but that doesn't matter. Whether it takes three years or thirty, it'll be done someday

[Egwene]

You did say three years or thirty, lol...

Just saw this thread in my hunt for info on timeline. Did you get any further with this, D'rek? Why don't you dump everything onto the Wikia timeline thread?! http://malazan.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline


I am doing a detailed re-read and Wikia editing of tCG at the moment and was trying to add something when I realised that the basic time references I need to slot the info in, isn't there. Maybe we could bounce info off each other...

Help with even a very rough updating of the whole thing would be greatly appreciated