Post by Suji on Aug 28, 2010 1:35:00 GMT -5
Hi folks.
Big news for some of you, lesser news for the rest of you. The Timeline is going to be updated.
Here is the Timeline as it stands now, created over a year ago:
1996: Elfangor lands on Earth
1999: D-Day, invasion goes public. Major cities all over the world are attacked.
2006: Yeerks declare victory, take over is complete.
2009: A virus is accidentally released in an exchange between the Dallas Animorphs and the Yeerks. A resulting Atomic Bomb explosion eliminates the virus and most of north Texas
2010: Current date
The Problem.
The problem with this model is that the characters with the oldest, longest running history were created and played in a Timeline that had the open war as 4-5 years old. This Timeline places it as 11, going on 12 years. These characters (specifically Suji, Drake, Aubrey, and perhaps Jullian if we'll "count" instructors) have more collected posts together and history than the rest of the site combined.
Having one camp of people remember the war as twice or three times as long as the other camp is an irreconcilable difference. One group must change, and it stands to reason that it's easier to change for the folks who have less unalterable history with the site.
The Solution.
After discussion, we do not want to change the date that Elfangor "landed" in the series. While that would make things immediately easier, there is a nice element to keeping that date from the canon. Besides, if we went that route we could end up making Cassie around the same age as our characters now -- which would be a huge change to ret-con.
Our solution is that we will be extending the time the covert war lasted. The new Timeline will look like:
1996: Elfangor lands on Earth.
1999: Jake, leader of the Animorphs, is killed in battle. His comrades continue to fight, but never fully recover from the loss.
2005: After slowly infiltrating government and military officials of countries across the world, the Yeerks prepare for a final assault. Skirmishes break out on the ground between Animorphs and Empire forces, but are covered up by the Empire.
2006: Open war breaks out. As First World government and military leaders have already been infested, the conflict is short-lived and relatively bloodless. Humanity is conquered before most people have had time to accept the fact that aliens exist.
2007: Total victory is declared.
2009: A virus is accidentally released in an exchange between the Dallas Animorphs and the Yeerks. A resulting Atomic Bomb explosion eliminates the virus and most of north Texas.
2010: Current date.
This change will be effective immediately. I wanted to post here explaining the update, and also to make sure no one is surprised one day as they're browsing through the Need to Know section and see that stuff had been altered.
Personally, I'm still open to ideas about other possible "fixes," but this was the most efficient solution we could devise. I don't expect the overall structure to change very much.
Big news for some of you, lesser news for the rest of you. The Timeline is going to be updated.
Here is the Timeline as it stands now, created over a year ago:
1996: Elfangor lands on Earth
1999: D-Day, invasion goes public. Major cities all over the world are attacked.
2006: Yeerks declare victory, take over is complete.
2009: A virus is accidentally released in an exchange between the Dallas Animorphs and the Yeerks. A resulting Atomic Bomb explosion eliminates the virus and most of north Texas
2010: Current date
The Problem.
The problem with this model is that the characters with the oldest, longest running history were created and played in a Timeline that had the open war as 4-5 years old. This Timeline places it as 11, going on 12 years. These characters (specifically Suji, Drake, Aubrey, and perhaps Jullian if we'll "count" instructors) have more collected posts together and history than the rest of the site combined.
Having one camp of people remember the war as twice or three times as long as the other camp is an irreconcilable difference. One group must change, and it stands to reason that it's easier to change for the folks who have less unalterable history with the site.
The Solution.
After discussion, we do not want to change the date that Elfangor "landed" in the series. While that would make things immediately easier, there is a nice element to keeping that date from the canon. Besides, if we went that route we could end up making Cassie around the same age as our characters now -- which would be a huge change to ret-con.
Our solution is that we will be extending the time the covert war lasted. The new Timeline will look like:
1996: Elfangor lands on Earth.
1999: Jake, leader of the Animorphs, is killed in battle. His comrades continue to fight, but never fully recover from the loss.
2005: After slowly infiltrating government and military officials of countries across the world, the Yeerks prepare for a final assault. Skirmishes break out on the ground between Animorphs and Empire forces, but are covered up by the Empire.
2006: Open war breaks out. As First World government and military leaders have already been infested, the conflict is short-lived and relatively bloodless. Humanity is conquered before most people have had time to accept the fact that aliens exist.
2007: Total victory is declared.
2009: A virus is accidentally released in an exchange between the Dallas Animorphs and the Yeerks. A resulting Atomic Bomb explosion eliminates the virus and most of north Texas.
2010: Current date.
This change will be effective immediately. I wanted to post here explaining the update, and also to make sure no one is surprised one day as they're browsing through the Need to Know section and see that stuff had been altered.
Personally, I'm still open to ideas about other possible "fixes," but this was the most efficient solution we could devise. I don't expect the overall structure to change very much.
