Series time line.

[Jundra]

Hello, I looked about on the forums for possible answers but I feared reading any of the threads. They all seem to contain spoilers. My question is, what is the TIME difference between the Farseer trilogy and the Liveship Traders? Also the difference between LST and Tawny man? I don't want any spoilers because I haven't read all the Novels yet. I hope someone can answer this. Thank you!

['thul]

It is not specified clearly, but there's not much time passing between the farseer and the liveship books. maybe a year or two.

There's a similarly short gap between liveship and tawny man. The same counts for between tawny man and Dragon Keepers. After that, there is no gap to speak of. Dragon Haven & City of Dragons both continue virtually instantly after their predecessors. 'thul cannot speak of time difference between CoD & Blood of Dragons, as the latter remains unread.

Farseer, can you verify numbers?

[mmmmmmm]

Difficult to answer this one without spoilers. There are 15(ish) years between the end of the farseer trilogy and the beginning of the tawny man. LT ends towards the end of that gap (perhaps 2 or 3 years?) but I am not sure off the top of my head how much time LT covers. Dragon Keeper takes place about 6 years after the end of LT.

[Farseer]

Yes, extremely difficult to answer without spoilers but, WELCOME to thePlenty, Jundra.

An instance where three characters chance to indirectly meet up with each other in Rain Wild Street, in the first half of Ship of Magic, tells us that at least two years have lapsed since the new arrival of one of those characters to Bingtown. This then equates to at least two years having elapsed since the final events that comprise the ending of Assassin's Quest and that moment in time of Ship of Magic.

Having just finished bookwork that near drove me mad (so I have numbers swilling about in my head and so am likely to be way off here!)...with fifteen years being the gap between Farseer and Tawny Man, it only stands to reason that LST also loosely spans that timeframe also, give or take the events of those two years where the character settles in to life on the Cursed Shores but the details of which we are not privy to? So, more likely thirteen years-ish by this thinking? Will think on this some more.

While elements of Tawny Man and RWC overlap, this is not the case with LST and TM. Of course, a number of events spoken of in TM have taken place since the end of LST (a certain purchase of a certain animal on the return trip to the north by a certain character and also a gifting of certain items to that same character by a much larger character etc) but these would likely have been brief moments in time and would be a part of the fifteen years of separation of two characters in Tawny Man anyway. Can't discuss this much more without spoilers (think I'm walking a fine line already! ) but am happy to come back and discuss behind spoiler tags so we make sure that we have our facts right? Will have to look back over other threads too, at some stage, where we have discussed such things previously.

['thul]

so, it seems we've fairly well placed both the Farseer trilogy, the tawny man books and the rain wild books.

Farseer would be first, with tawny man being placed some 15 or so years after it. for the most part, about 5-6 years pass before rain wild.

It would not be all that unlikely that the Liveship books are several years after the Farseer books, considering that (spoiler)
[spoiler="tawny man & liveship class spoiler"]Fitz not only visited the rain wilds, but also went to bingtown, without encountering the fool. This means that the fool would not have gone to the rain wilds instantly.

put say, 4 years into that part. Then add in a small break between his leaving and the fool, a.k.a. amber coming south. Add a couple of years for amber to settle in before books start. That makes about 7 years. The liveship books take a few years to pass, say three. That brings the total to 10 years. This would indicate that tawny man starts 5 years after liveship ends. This seems a bit odd, as the information spread to the duchies about the rain wilders work with dragons is neither correct nor reliable. Even in a society as disconnected as RotE, at least some reliable information ought to have filtered north in a span of five years. perhaps shifting liveship ahead a year or two would be more likely.

perhaps asking the tangle leader is the solution?[/spoiler]

given information in the above spoiler, we'd say that liveship books are 7-9 years after farseer, with tawny man being 8-6 years after that again, and rain wilds books 6ish years after those again.

[Farseer]

so, it seems we've fairly well placed both the Farseer trilogy, the tawny man books and the rain wild books.

Farseer would be first, with tawny man being placed some 15 or so years after it. for the most part, about 5-6 years pass before rain wild.

I am disagreeing with you beings on this one, and a few below, as some events in TM happened concurrently with events in the Rain Wilds, and even previous to the commencement of the RWC (we share at least one significant event with the RWC characters that we know has already taken place at the very beginning of TM. Will have to revisit this to back up my answer.

It would not be all that unlikely that the Liveship books are several years after the Farseer books, considering that (spoiler)
[spoiler="tawny man & liveship class spoiler"]Fitz not only visited the rain wilds, but also went to bingtown, without encountering the fool. This means that the fool would not have gone to the rain wilds instantly.

put say, 4 years into that part. Then add in a small break between his leaving and the fool, a.k.a. amber coming south. Add a couple of years for amber to settle in before books start. That makes about 7 years. The liveship books take a few years to pass, say three. That brings the total to 10 years. This would indicate that tawny man starts 5 years after liveship ends. This seems a bit odd, as the information spread to the duchies about the rain wilders work with dragons is neither correct nor reliable. Even in a society as disconnected as RotE, at least some reliable information ought to have filtered north in a span of five years. perhaps shifting liveship ahead a year or two would be more likely.

perhaps asking the tangle leader is the solution?[/spoiler]

I actually got the feeling that *major Farseer, LST and TM spoiler*

Spoiler

Fitz was drawn to Bingtown and particularly Rain Wild Street as this is the region where Fool was at the time. It was only the magic of the street that prevented him from actually venturing down it...much the same as how he avoided the path of Others' Island. Fitz was also drawn back by the land which was calling him, namely Kelsingra etc, and this calling saw he and Nighteyes attempt their trip up the Rain River, but I think Fool's presence there was also drawing him, given their (by then) well-established Skill link/bond.

The two years I previously spoke of, from the end of the Red Ships War to the indirect meeting up of Brashen, Althea and Amber outside Amber's shop, was the two years that it took for Amber to find her feet in Bingtown, selling her wares in the small shop before relocating to Rain Wild Street. We are not privy to what took place in those two years but Brashen had noted that, up to that point where he and Althea had seen her in her shop window, Amber had been settled in Bingtown for two years. Likely she fled there after Regal had attempted to confer lands and a title on Fool following his actions in leading the simulacra back to Buckkeep etc.

I could wallow like a pig in this forever but life calls. Hopefully it will not be long before I can wallow some more...and maybe do some more disagreeing with those beings known as 'thul. Fun that.

['thul]

the part about 15 years wasn't something 'thul thought up. It strikes these beings as a bit odd too. Seems too long.

The entire post above was based on that "15 year gap between Farseer&tawny = true". If that is incorrect, then the numbers would have to be modified. Mostly by shortening gap on each side of liveship books.

[mmmmmmm]

You can't answer this one without spoilers

Spoiler

Dutiful is presumably born approx 9 months (unless fitz is completely wrong about his paternity!) after the end of the farseer trilogy and is 14 at the beginning of fool's errand therefore the gap is 15 years give or take a few months.

The fool states in golden fool (when discussing the Bingtown delegates with fitz) it is two years since he was on the rain wild river and this is after the dragons are hatched so that would perhaps indicate TM starts a couple of years after LT ends given that GF probably covers several months (there is a line in which Fitz says something about spending 6 months teaching Dutiful & being Lord Golden's servant)

The reason I think there is a 6 year gap between LT and dragon keeper is because Thymara saw the dragons emerge from their cocoon and she says this occurs five years earlier when she was almost 11

['thul]

hmm... knew there was a number we'd forgotten. That fifteen does ring correct.

However:
[spoiler=liveship/tawny man class spoiler]you left out a bit in the second paragraph. The fool spoke of two years since he was on rain wild river yes, but that was after hatching. It might have been a year or so after, when last liveship book ended with the cocooning, i.e. before hatching. still, the numbers for meshing liveship/dragon keeper with farseer/tawny man in time is a bit vague. There's a few too many uncertainties. 'thul still believe that the best solution would be for someone *looks at farseer* to ask the tangle leader over on the newsgroup.[/spoiler]

[Farseer]

the part about 15 years wasn't something 'thul thought up. It strikes these beings as a bit odd too. Seems too long.

The entire post above was based on that "15 year gap between Farseer&tawny = true". If that is incorrect, then the numbers would have to be modified. Mostly by shortening gap on each side of liveship books.

Sorry, I think I've confused the issue (or am I confusing it further here?? ) by quoting too much in my previous email. I agreed with the fifteen years (that is a certain period of time between Farseer and TM as it is a time frame written clearly as such in a number of places within the text)...it is the 5-6 years from TM to RWC that I disagree with. Some events in TM run concurrently with those in TM and even after events that are noted in TM (one major event I am thinking of confirms the latter) so, in many cases, there is no time between events between those two series. Sorry to dump and run , Chiv-like!