I been trying to look for a few sources, but everything just tells me the events and not so much when they occurred.
How much time has passed in Azeroth? Like from Vanilla WoW to now (pre Shadowlands / post BFA)? I was redoing my TRP for this character in particular and when the age field came up, I was a bit stuck. He came to Orgimmar with his Dad from the wandering isles years ago, but I always left it vague how long ago that was.
Is there a reliable source as to how much time passes between each expansion or how much time has between now and MoP? And does anyone else age up their characters, if so, do they age along with you or when you feel it’s appropriate?
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Most recent official timeline. Keep in mind everything from the beginning of WOD is up in the air.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Timeline_(Ultimate_Visual_Guide)
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There’s no up to date official source, but it’s only been like… 8-9 years, iirc. Since Vanilla, that is.
It just keeps getting… kinda forgotten? Or, at least, neglected.
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It’s also incredibly stupid just from a rational standpoint.
So many world ending events happening one after another just isn’t feasible from even an economical standpoint for these factions but here we are where everything bad happens once every 1-2 years.
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there is an up to date official source
for everything but mop and wod
legion is year 33, BfA is 34
MoP can be assumed to be years 29-30, WoD is 31-32, legion is 33, BfA is 34, shadowlands starts in 34
Etc
Chronicle keeps track of the years
The unofficial timeline is mostly official, with the dates between Cata and now being speculative
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I remember it being said by some dev in an interview that I can’t find at the moment, around when BfA was announced, that BfA represents year 33. If I’m remembering that correctly, then Shadowlands will presumably be year 34.
The timeline page on Wowpedia says that Vanilla WoW began in year 25. The timeline on Wowwiki claims Vanilla was year 30, but it also claims that Legion was year 43, so I’m going to assume that Vanilla = year 30 is thoroughly non-canon now.
I wish they would follow the amount of real time that passes between each expansion launch instead of compressing it down into one (or for Cata, two) canon year each. The frequency of wars and disasters would still be ridiculous, but it would make RP continuity a little easier to keep track of.
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Your best bet with ages is to keep it vague. Don’t give an exact number, just ball park an age range. “Young adult”, “juvenile”, “teenager”. That makes it a little less noticeable when you need to make , ahem, minor adjustments. Also, know the racial aging lore - IF available - for the character. That can give you some wiggle room since you can say “well, I meant teenager in terms of race X.” The time line is a mess and everyone knows it, but we are stuck with it in terms of putting together a backstory.
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the most recent canon source says vanilla started in 25, yeah
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This is a better version. It combines all official sources, both in and out of game, to create a new timeline. It’s very well researched and referenced.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Timeline
Remember, the Cataclysm revamp of Westfall actually addressed that fact, and we’ve never touched on it again. It’s always bugged me that the Alliance is literally propped up by the Military-Industrial Complex because it’s the only economy capable of functioning on Azeroth.
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My understanding is:
Vanilla - Year 25
BC - Year 26
WotLK - Year 27
Cata - Year 28 (only expansion that takes two years)
MoP - Year 30
WoD - Year 31
Legion - Year 32
BfA - Year 33 (As someone said I believe it was stated at some point before BfA, it may have been the Before the Storm novel, that we were now in Year 33)
Shadowlands - presumably would be in Year 34 then?
That absolutely sounds exactly like something Blizzard would do.
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For some reason, I remember being told that Cata took place 10 years after Wrath.
But I can not for the life of me remember the source of that :L
There is no way the campaign in Northrend took 10 years LMAO. Especially when you consider Anduin was a kid in Vanilla and was only like 16 in MoP, so there is no way he WotLK took place over 10 years.
Ah, that is true.
Again, cant even remember how I got it into my head… But I remember at some point me and my friends were like AH YES IT WAS CONFIRMED THAT THERE WAS A 10 YEAR TIME JUMP.
Now I’m just sitting here like ???
I definitely RP it closer to 2-3 years between each expansion major events.
I don’t understand why they don’t just make every expansion two years in lore to match how long each expansion lasts in real life. Seems really stupid to have it be 2 years in real life = 1 year in lore.
I sort of RP stuff out and handwave a timeline, and somewhat headcanon that everything in the span of two years happened in the span of one unless we find out an expansion lasts two full years.
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I think my IRL background as a historian makes me REALLY pedantic about timetables. Like, I need one as a point of reference. Frustrates me if I don’t have one. So I follow the existing 1 expansion = 1 year timeline zealously.
That SAID
I hate it.
I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!
I too wish they’d do a real-time timeline. That way every time you RP Winterveil… it’s THE Winterveil.
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There is no way thats correct because the illidari even say that 10 years have passed in legion since the end of the illidari in BC
Time isn’t real, especially on Azeroth.
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