From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Sat 13 Feb 1993 - 01:43:04 EET
After buying KoS I attempted to create some sort of Hero Wars time
line, at least for the years 1615-1640 (about the most I expect any
campaign to cover, even when the rumoured Epic rules come out). I
discovered that the book contains two quite different versions of
events (Argraths Saga and the CHDP) and a third time line that
disagrees with both (the Minaryth 'events in my life' near the back).
Looking at the introduction, I discovered that Argraths Saga was supposed to be constructed from multiple sources long after the event, so it is the most dodgy for real history ( not to mention very few dates mentioned, and obvious confusion - ie Jar-Eel dying and re-appearing later without comment, Harrek being banished from Sartar and fighting alongside Argrath just afterwards) so I decided that this is the source to ignore if in doubt. Some events that appear to be different can be resolved to be the same if you ignore the Argraths Saga timeline ie the Battle of Gargantuans(if I got that right) is probably the same as the Battle of Dwernapple.
As to Argrath being a composite, note that the figure of Argrath of Pavis (who has a one page write-up) cannot be the same person as Argrath who participates in the Cradle scenario (aka Garrath Sharpsword, but definately Argrath). However the only words recorded spoken by both of them are approximatlely the same. Note that GS then, in his 'Conclusions', then, despite great indications that they are not the same person (Argrath of Pavis explicitly does not go on the Cradle adventure, and is active in Pavis while Argrath Dragonspear is voyaging with Harrek, and is inside the city when the nomad army (allegedly led by Argrath) advances on it), GS uses one parent from both to create Argraths genealogy. Bastard again!
There is a third (I think almost entirely contradictory) version of Argraths genealogy given when he meets with Leika Ballista of the Colymar.
I loved reading KoS. But trying to work out my own Hero Wars chronolgy will be a real pain. I think that I will basically use the one in CHDP as the most authoritative.
This contradictory history is a nice idea - but I suspect is going to really irritate me in practice. But I would much rather this than going without the book (which I really like).
Dave Cake
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:30:30 EEST