Even More Comprehensive BG3 Timeline
(Now with citations!)
Years in (paren) are confirmed, all other lines are approximations.
For my own sanity this timeline is based on available in-game information and not the Forgotten Realms at large.
1450s
Enver Flymm born
Gale Dekarios born (1457)
Enver Flymm sold to Raphael by his parents, renamed Gortash
Gortash learns about Crown of Karsus while a prisoner of Raphael
1460s
Karlach Cliffgate born
Gortash escapes the House of Hope
Gale Dekarios summons Tara the Tressym (1467)
Wyll Ravengard born (1468)
1470s
Lae’zel of K’liir born (1470)
Gortash in his Heapside Reavers period
Gortash rebrands as a black market arms dealer
Orin the Red born to Helena and Sarevok Anchev
Durge begins their serial killing spree in Baldur’s Gate (1477)
The Emperor dominates Duke Belynne Stelmane (1479)
1480s
Elminster resurrects Mystra (1480)
Gortash trades Karlach to Zariel for infernal machines & iron (1482)
Baldur’s Gate’s Beloved Ranger statue goes missing (1482)
Duke Abdel Adrian murdered during Returning Day speech (1482)
- Bhaal resurrected
- Ulder Ravengard replaces Adrian as Grand Duke
Orin kills her mother Helena in self-defense
Gortash recruits Franc Peartree to distribute infernal iron weapons
Gortash establishes a cult of Bane in Baldur’s Gate
Gortash approaches Durge about an alliance
Gortash moves against the Zhentarim & Knights of the Shield
Wyll Ravengard pact with Mizora, leaves Baldur’s Gate (1485)
Dead Three made aware of the Crown of Karsus (most likely informed by Gortash)*
- Gortash becomes Bane’s Chosen
- Durge becomes Bhaal’s chosen
- Gortash & Durge are instructed to recruit Ketheric
Gortash tells Durge about Crown of Karsus (via correspondence)
Hall of Wonders test mission*
- Durge gets Bhaalist memorabilia
- Gortash gets a bunch of Gondian designs
- Durge & Gortash get companionship
1490s
The Chosen visit Ketheric at Moonrise, learn about Illithid colony
Gortash & Durge visit the House of Hope (for intel on Mephistar?)
Gortash & Durge raid Mephistar
- They get the Crown of Karsus
- They get the book on the accelerated grand design
Gortash captures the Emperor
Gortash & Durge return to Moonrise
- Their identities are kept secret from Ketheric’s people
- Durge impresses the Moonrise Gnolls, but not Steelclaw
- Ketheric yells at Durge in the throne room for an unknown reason
Durge proposes their plan to the Elder Brain who accepts
Raid on the illithid colony (1491)
- Durge puts the Crown on the Elder Brain
- Orin gets Durge alone during the raid & stabs them in the head
- Orin tadpoles Durge, making them the first True Soul
- Orin leave Durge in a pod
- Orin declares herself the Chosen of Bhaal
1492
Durge breaks out of the pod & is found by Kressa Bonedaughter
Minsc captured by Absolutists at a recruitment rally in the Undercity
Gortash gets weird and intense with unethical experiments
- Some futzing to get the tadpoles to consistently remain in stasis
- This is when the name ‘True Souls’ gets coined
- Extremely questionable fun with brains
- Getting the Absolute’s voice sorted out
- Tadpoling his parents
- Poorly conceived experiments on children & their parents
Gortash has Iron Throne converted to hold hostages
Gortash presents prototype Steel Watcher to the city council
Jaheira tracks cult to shadow-cursed land, meets Isobel
Minthara Baenre is recruited by Orin and Ketheric
The Descent, Elturel falls into Avernus happens
Guild Bursar Uktar launders money for Gortash’s Campaign funds
Isobel is resurrected by the Dead Three
The Elder Brain sends the Chosen dreams about the Astral Prism
Gortash researches the Prism, finds out that Vlaakith has it
Gortash tasks Ketheric with sending a team to get the Astral Prism
- They send a nautiloid piloted by the Emperor and other illithid
- The Elder Brain lets the Emperor slip its leash
- Magthew Budj arranges for Durge to be on the nautiloid as well
Gortash deploys Steel Watch in Lower/Outer City
At this point Elturel is no longer in Avernus
First Druid Halsin captured by goblins
Nautiloid picks up Shadowheart & the Prism from Astral Plane
Nautiloid picks up Lae’zel
Nautiloid goes to Baldur’s Gate, picks up Gale & Astarion
Nautiloid goes to Avernus, picks up Karlach & Wyll
Nautiloid crashes, (20 Eleasis, 1492)
Some helpful links:
A page from Sarevok’s book: Sarevok - (Murder tribunal)
Accelerated Grand Design: Gortash -
An Offer: Gortash - (Peartree basement)
Aquatic Labor: Gortash - (Flymm’s Cargo Basement)
Baldur’s Gate Temple of Bhaal: Yanthus - (Gortash’s Office)
Balthazar’s Notes: Balthazar - (Necrotic laboratory)
Clasped Book: Balthazar - (Balthazar’s chambers)
Devil’s Fee Observer’s Report**: Himberloo - (Nine-Fingers’ office)
Elder Brain Domination: Ketheric/Yanthus - (Ketheric’s Room)
Enhanced Weapons - Sales Ledger: Peartree - (Peartree basement)
Experiment on Cruor: Orin - (Temple of Bhaal)
How To Build a Watcher: deceased Gondian - (Steel Watch foundry)
Journal of Enver Gortash: Gortash - (Gortash’s Office)
Magical Histories: Volume 2: The Spellplague: unknown - (Sorcerous Sundries)
Memoir Notes with Recent Addenda: Gortash - (Gortash’s office)
Missive from Gortash: Gortash - (Ketheric’s room)
Missive from Ketheric: Ketheric - (Moonrise, 2nd floor)
Mistress of Souls’ Research Log: Kressa - (Mind flayer barracks)
My Gratitude: Gortash - To Peartree (Peartree basement)
Next Steps: Gortash - (Gortash’s office)
Prayer for Forgiveness: Durge - (Necrotic laboratory)
Scrapbook of Letters: Gortash/Durge - (Flymm’s Cobblers)
Special Operations - Infernal Arms: Uktar -
Studies of the Elder Brains: Gortash/Yanthus - (Gortash’s Office)
Suspended Ceremorphosis: Gortash/Yanthus - (Tadpoling center)
Test Mission with Gortash: Durge - (Temple of Bhaal)
The Astral Prism Heist: Gortash - (Gortash’s office)
The Dukes of Baldur’s Gate: unknown - (Baldur’s Mouth/Peartree’s house)
The Grand Design: Gortash/Yanthus - (Mind flayer colony)
The True Life of ‘Lord’ Gortash: a skeleton - (Wyrm’s Rock Prison)
The Ultimate State: Gortash - (Gortash’s office/Flymm’s Cobblers)
*an in-game contradiction between Gortash and Durge. See: ‘Test Mission with Gortash’ and ‘Memoir Notes with Recent Addenda’. I’ve placed it after, but there’s also a legitimate argument to be made that Gortash and Durge met and became allies much earlier, possibly around the same time as Gortash’s betrayal of Karlach
**no link cuz the bg3.wiki doesn’t have it??
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"At HarperCollins, a lot of attention and thought is given to deciding exactly what combinations of margin measurements, font, and layout feel most appropriate for the genre, and writing style.
But in a case of do-your-part environmentalism, designers at the publishing house have now standardized a series of subtle and imperceptible alterations to normal font style, layouts, and ink that have so far removed the need for 245 million book pages, totaling 5,618 trees.
Telling the story in Fast Company, representatives from HarperCollins, one of the four largest publishing houses in the world, explained that the idea first arose in Zondervan Bibles, HarperCollins’ Christian publishing division. Being that the Bible is 2,500 pages or sometimes more, saving ink and pages was not just an environmental consideration, but one of production costs.
A new typeface called NIV Comfort Print allowed Zondervan to shave 350 pages off of every Bible, which by 2017 had amounted to 100 million pages, and which, as Fast Company points out, would be four times higher than the Empire State Building if stacked.
The production and design teams then wondered how much they could save if they applied the same concepts to other genres like romance and fiction. Aside from the invention of the eBook, publishing hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years, and the challenge was a totally novel one for the teams—to alter all their preconceived ideas and try and find a font and typeface that resulted in fewer pages without being harder to read.
They eventually standardized 14 different combinations their tests determined were the most environmentally friendly, and which delivered an unchanged reading experience.
But the challenge didn’t stop there. Printed books, one might not know, are printed in large sheets which are then folded into sections of sixteen pages, meaning that Leah Carlson-Stanisic, associate director of design at HarperCollins, has to calculate the savings of space, words, and ultimately pages with the help of her team to fall in multiples of sixteen.
Nevertheless, they have been successful with it so far, and in the recent print run of one popular book, 1 million pages (or a number near 1 million that coincides with the 16 times tables) were saved.
“We want to make sure our big titles, by prominent authors, are using these eco-fonts,” Carlson-Stanisic said. “It adds up a little bit at a time, saving more and more trees.”"
-via Good News Network, April 4, 2024
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Note: Great! Waiting to see this on the rest of their books and at the other big publishers!
Actually, though, it's worth noting that this may not come quickly to the other large publishers, because Harper Collins almost certainly owns that font - meaning that other publishers would have to pay HarperCollins in order to use it, on an ongoing basis.
More on publishing shit and more realistic solutions here below the cut!
What I'm hoping for and think is more likely is that this will inspire the development of open source eco-friendly fonts, which would be free for anyone to use. That would make it far more likely other publishers would adopt eco-friendly fonts.
I'm also hoping it would inspire other publishers to create similar eco-friendly fonts of their own.
Ideally, there would be a whole new landscape of (hopefully mostly open source) eco-friendly fonts. And/or to see calculations of the eco-friendliness of popular existing fonts, compared to each other.
If we could have a publicly accessible list of calculations for different fonts, including fonts designed to maximize eco-friendliness, I really do think that it would affect which fonts publishers choose to use. Here's why:
Most people in publishing are on the left (notoriously, actually) and really do care about the environment
People in publishing are plenty aware of these issues re: paper and trees, I promise
Shorter books means smaller production costs - and possibly smaller shipping costs as well, over time! So it would save them money too.
Eco-friendly fonts could also be combined with other measures for greater effect, such as bamboo paper (already in use for a lot of projects where page color/quality is more flexible) and thinner paper (aka paper with a lower weight) that uses less trees.
Don't expect books to all move to just one or two different fonts, though. Publishers and typesetters and font designers will innovate to create more options instead, though it will take longer. This is because different books really do use different fonts for various different reasons - one new font to rule them all isn't really a solution here.
"Every book is in the same font" may sound like a "whatever" deal to a lot of people, but as someone who works in publishing - trust me, it would actually make your reading experience worse, even if you could never quite put your finger on why.
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More character designs - this time, every kid sidekick to work with or for Batman ever, because I got massively carried away. In order:
Dick Grayson, 28 (Robin I / Nightwing)
Barbara Gordon, 30 (Batgirl I / Oracle)
Jason Todd, 22 (physically 20) (Robin II / Red Hood)
Tim Drake, 17 (Robin III / Red Robin)
Stephanie Brown, 17 (Robin IV / Batgirl III)
Cassandra Cain, 19 (Batgirl II / Black Bat)
Damian Wayne, 10 (Robin V)
Duke Thomas, 15 (Signal)
Carrie Kelly, 13 (Robin ??? Look I love her too much to leave her off a list like this but I'll be the first to admit I've got no clue where she would actually fall)
Harper Row, 18 (Blue Bird)
Cullen Row, 12
Terry McGuiness, 3? (a baby, I guess? In this timeline at least?)
Jarro the Starro in a Jar, 0 (Best Robin by far)
Tiffany Fox, 14 (Batgirl IV?)
Bette Kane, 25 (Batgirl / Flamebird / Snuck in without being noticed)
I don't know if I'll ever add to this in terms of a story, but it was a lot of fun to come up with different faces for everyone, trying to account for things like age, face shape, life experiences, in one case species (still can't believe we were blessed with starfish-robin from space, 10/10 no notes)
Some poor Justice Leaguer: "So, how many kids ya got?"
Batman: *screaming*
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