It says something about Spoiler Protection of some sort, so that a reader has to select the text to see the information. It gives an example of this, but it does not occur in any part of the Timeline. What's the point of it then?--Neri 05:33, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)
I'm going to admit the various timelines released by Blizzard are screwed up. Each labels the events in the games at different points in time.
Timeline Issues
It seems that various timelines printed in official sources don't seem to agree with each other and get retconned every now and then...
For example, the timeline in Lands of Conflict is different than timeline in first edition of the Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, Second edition has a different timeline than in Lands of Conflict, and Lands of Mystery makes refrences to the timeline as it is in the second edition sourcebook.
The books themselves describe events in a clear order, often stating that a book takes place after a previous book. The events described in every sourcebook predate the start of the World of Warcraft RPG. The newest book, Lands of Mystery clearly takes place before World of Warcraft, as Brann Bronzebeard has not yet gone missing, as per introduction lore in World of Warcraft manual.
Here are some examples.
The first edition sourcebook clearly states that it is set approximately one year(26 years after WC1) after the events of Reign of Chaos, which it states occured 25 years after WC1. However it briefly touches on what will happen later that year(events of frozen throne). Each sourcebook released after it are approximately one year after the events of Frozen Throne.
Lands of Conflict "adjusted"* the timeline around a bit moving the events of Warcraft 3 backwards to 20 years after Warcraft 1, with many of the events set after it adjusted between 20-25 years after warcraft 1. The book taking place at a newly adjusted "25 years after WC1". This version of the timeline seems to be the one used in this article. It seems to be the least reliable version.
The second edition of World of Warcraft RPG uses the same timeline from Warcraft RPG first edition, with Warcraft 3 being set 25 years after WC1. However it sets the new book at 30 years after WC1(just after the events of Lands of Conflict), approximately 2 years after Frozen Throne. Refrences in Lands of Mystery state that it takes place 2 years after Frozen Throne as well, clearly in refrence to the second edition book, placing it in the same year as the second edition. Since Brann Bronzebeard is not yet missing it occurs before the start of World of Warcraft. Which would be approximately 32 years after WC1 going by that version of the timeline.
Metzen is said to be in charge of the timelines printed in various official sources, but I'm beginning to think he doesn't really have a clear idea, how much time passes between each event. But considering that Lands of Conflict's version seems to be least reliable timeline compared to other sources, I think it should be ignored, and this article adjusted to reflect the most current printed timeline. At least until blizzard changes its mind again..
-Baggins 02:36, 15 April 2006 (EDT)