Timeline
The history of the Lightspire world in order. Years are counted Before Light (BL) and After Light (AL).
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| [Book 1 spoiler]Before memory | [Book 1 spoiler]Stars fall; luminarite, 'shards of fallen stars', enters the world |
| Before memory | Charon becomes the First Witness, who refused to let the dead pass unnamed |
| [Book 2 spoiler]Before memory | [Book 2 spoiler]Inaris feasts at Hush-falls; Mora kicks him in the teeth |
| [Book 1 spoiler]Before memory | [Book 1 spoiler]Eldanarë, 'the old forests, the first light': the oldest elven land |
| c. 1100–800 BL | Artorin, the Oathdrawer, draws the sword from the stone by an oath and becomes Luna's first king; the oath powers begin; Old Speak is the everyday tongue of Luna's humans and dwarves |
| c. 1100–800 BL | Dwarves come east from Grimsward's deeps along the Iron Road, builders sworn to the knights |
| c. 1100–800 BL | Elves spread from Eldanarë: Surin settled; elven Grimsward rules the western deeps |
| c. 705 BL | The Fall of Luna: the Solastis conquest breaks an unready city; the oath-sword is broken on its stone; Luna's army flees north-east |
| c. 705 BL | The Sufferance: those who stay (for the hill's faith) receive 'protection' that is slavery and the slums; their faith and tongue are allowed until 0 AL |
| c. 702 BL | Exiles (humans, dwarves and dissenting elves, divided from the stayers by belief) cross the Outer Reach on blood magic and found Crowbrook |
| c. 690–680 BL | The Great War: Valerius's purity push meets Crowbrook's blood-sworn armies on the north-east plain; the Highlanders and Luminglade take no side |
| c. 680–0 BL | Elven rule under King Aurelion; ledger houses (Strom) and dwarven guild houses (Jadebane) rise in the rebuilding |
| [After the books spoiler]c. 222 BL | [After the books spoiler]Lyrielle secretly has the oath-sword's shards reforged as Velorith ('of Avelor') for Edrin |
| [After the books spoiler]0 AL | [After the books spoiler]Aiduin, the Arch Luminar, lights the Spire over the oath-stone, founds the Creed, makes High Elvish mandatory and bans Old Speak, breaking the Sufferance's one promise |
| c. 0–40 AL | The Creed builds Luna's cathedral on an older human temple, whose undercroft becomes the crypt; the old burial niches are emptied and sealed |
| c. 0–187 AL | The Gilded Guard reform under Aurelion opens the royal guard to Creed-sworn humans and dwarves; Captain Astarion recruits |
| [Book 2 spoiler]171 AL | [Book 2 spoiler]Scar-Birth: Elias's brand burns a hollowborn pack |
| [Book 1 spoiler]187 AL | [Book 1 spoiler]Alerion replaces Astarion as captain; Harlen's trial; Fi, Usso and Oakren in the hole find the oath scratched in the walls; the forced tournament; Oakren dies wielding Velorith without the oath |
| [Book 4 spoiler]c. 188 AL | [Book 4 spoiler]Early 188 AL, the four origin crises begin on separate fronts: Fi's old oath turns towards Velorith in Luna; Eira exposes Varkhul's black-ink wound and Ink Hollow's danger at Wolfmere; Cassian's possession cases uncover an organised threat in Crowbrook; Elias's mask-year trials expose the cost of Luminglade's tithe |
| [Book 1 spoiler]c. 188 AL | [Book 1 spoiler]In the weeks before the Festival, Eamon escapes his father's blood rite; Fi, Usso and Balorin stop the abomination, then Fi's crew recovers Velorith from the Radiant and frees Kara and Iskander from luminarite captivity |
| [Book 4 spoiler]c. 188 AL | [Book 4 spoiler]As Luna prepares for its tournament and delayed Festival, the four roads converge: the Luminglade tithe reaches the Lower Sanctum, Eira leaves the Mountains for Luna amid an oath fracture, and Cassian's Crowbrook column begins its north-eastern march |
| [Book 4 spoiler]c. 188 AL | [Book 4 spoiler]In the final days before the Festival, Fi kills Alerion with Velorith, Elias resists Kael's obedience apparatus, Eira kills Varkhul at the old wound, and Cassian's march receives news that Luna has bled and its old order has broken |
| [Book 4 spoiler]188 AL | [Book 4 spoiler]Festival night: Fi accepts the rite that takes her through the Eye as Luna traps transformed Eamon; Elias, Maerin, Neris, Vael and the freed prisoners reach the Festival court after Kael's fall; Eira frees Fae detainees under a tearing sky; Cassian's column sees its guiding gold fail. The Tear opens above the Lightspire |
| [Book 4 spoiler]c. 188 AL | [Book 4 spoiler]The next dawn brings the shared aftermath: a purple-black, red-veined sky over Luna; Elias's party survives the Lower Sanctum's collapse; Eira sends warning north from the Mountains; Cassian refuses the vacant authority and continues towards the wounded city |