Some Questions about the Timeline

[White Fire]

This thread might contain spoilers for information revealed at the end of Tristes Tropiques as well as some other information, so read with caution if you're behind and you're trying to avoid spoilers.


I'm trying to put together a timeline of this game's events to help myself and other curious players keep track of the events that happen in the story, but I ran into some problems.

The first question:

What are we to make of the Storm "recycling" people throughout history? Did people like Uncle Fiennes, Mr. Tang, Karl, even major characters like Jiu Niangzi, Isolde, or J exist in the historical record before the first Storm hit? Take Mr. Duncan: Did the Storm take Mr. Karson and put him in the place of someone who existed beforehand, or has he become an entirely new person? Either way, he couldn't have existed in the historical record before the first Storm, right?

For example, I believe Lucy's backstory (Flying to the Past) is supposed to take place in a world before anyone ever heard of the Storm, so it would be proper to place her backstory before the 1999 Storm on the list. But take J's backstory (The San Francisco Kids) for example. Would this have happened in a world without the Storm? Would J even exist?

I'm asking because it makes all the difference between the timeline looking like this:

1835-1969: Flying to the Past
1990s (I forgot the exact day/year): The San Francisco Kids
1999: The First Storm hits
1990s: Floor It! To The Golden City

And this:

1835-1969: Flying to the Past
1999: The First Storm hits
1914: The Ninth Storm hits
1990s: The San Francisco Kids
1990s: Floor It! To the Golden City

(Obviously these are very simplified timelines)


Is this question too esoteric? Does any of this even matter?


Question 2:

There are characters in Vertin's suitcase that shouldn't be there simply because the Storm hasn't landed at any of their eras. These include Tennant, Mondlicht, Charlie, The Fool, and Dikke. I'm assuming that ghost characters like A Knight, Click, and Poltergeist are immortal and could easily have joined the Foundation at any time, but I don't think the other characters I mentioned are also immortal. Are we to assume that the Storm is eventually going to arrive at their eras and that Bluepoch is letting us see waaaaay into the future like what they did with Green Lake? (I'm assuming Green Lake is a sequel to Vereinsamt because Jessica is mentioned in one of Vertin's reports alongside Tuesday's Motel and the request to build Apple III, even though it's an odd way to set up your event release schedule). Would this mean that Alien T's Anecdote is a sequel to the main story because Mondlicht is in it?

Where does Eternity/Winnifred fit into all this?

Thanks everyone

[Hoxton]

#1: Historical records also get reversed by the "Storm" so while we have no way of knowing for sure just yet until this gets addressed more directly, the most probable answer is that, in the timeline as of Tristes Tropiques, "Mr. Karson" has never existed and there is only "Mr. Duncan" now. At the bare minimum, Hoffmann has confirmed before that you cannot "meet yourself" after being taken through time by the "Storm" so it's not possible for both Mr. Karson and Mr. Duncan to have existed at the same time.

#2: The boring and sad answer is that you've overthought this. Characters being playable does not require them to be recruited by Vertin and assigned to her team. Think of it more like Hoyoverse games where playable characters are just the way to see and interact with characters you like, ignoring whether or not the story makes sense for them to be there.

Couple of examples:
We used to have Schneider as a playable character despite her getting reversed by the 1929 "Storm".
6 chose to stay on the island so lorewise him being playable makes no sense.
Lucy is on the CEO timeout vacations, she shouldn't be working for Foundation or Laplace right now.
X and Medicine Pocket are working at Laplace, no time for Vertin's yuri adventures.
Isolde is in solitary confinement.
Barbara works for UTTU, no association with the Foundation whatsoever.
Vertin has never had the opportunity to meet Getian, Yenisei, or Jiu Niangzi. Notes on Shuiori might not have even happened in the main timeline yet.

Eternity is out for herself, she's a wild card but more on the side of Vertin than anyone else. She has scammed both Manus and the Foundation at least a few times and neither one is happy about it, I doubt they would consider her an ally.

[White Fire]

Originally posted by Hoxton:

#1: Historical records also get reversed by the "Storm" so while we have no way of knowing for sure just yet until this gets addressed more directly, the most probable answer is that, in the timeline as of Tristes Tropiques, "Mr. Karson" has never existed and there is only "Mr. Duncan" now. At the bare minimum, Hoffmann has confirmed before that you cannot "meet yourself" after being taken through time by the "Storm" so it's not possible for both Mr. Karson and Mr. Duncan to have existed at the same time.

#2: The boring and sad answer is that you've overthought this. Characters being playable does not require them to be recruited by Vertin and assigned to her team. Think of it more like Hoyoverse games where playable characters are just the way to see and interact with characters you like, ignoring whether or not the story makes sense for them to be there.

Couple of examples:
We used to have Schneider as a playable character despite her getting reversed by the 1929 "Storm".
6 chose to stay on the island so lorewise him being playable makes no sense.
Lucy is on the CEO timeout vacations, she shouldn't be working for Foundation or Laplace right now.
X and Medicine Pocket are working at Laplace, no time for Vertin's yuri adventures.
Isolde is in solitary confinement.
Barbara works for UTTU, no association with the Foundation whatsoever.
Vertin has never had the opportunity to meet Getian, Yenisei, or Jiu Niangzi. Notes on Shuiori might not have even happened in the main timeline yet.

Eternity is out for herself, she's a wild card but more on the side of Vertin than anyone else. She has scammed both Manus and the Foundation at least a few times and neither one is happy about it, I doubt they would consider her an ally.

I have to correct you on a few points:

1) I thought that in To The New Future, it's revealed that Madam Z suggested that Lucy stay in Vertin's suitcase and Vertin accepted. I didn't get the sense that that chapter was supposed to be non canon, although I guess anything's possible.
2) Notes on Shuori ends specifically with Yenisei requesting to join the Timekeeper Squad. You have a point about Jiu Niangzi and Getian, that definitely pokes some holes in my theories (although we do know Getian had contact with the Foundation, so maybe it's not *completely* hopeless). But the writers also bring in Name Day for that event and have him reference Zima's anecdote, which we know happens in the 1910s since that's what Zima's profile says, so it seems a little odd to connect all those very specific points and not have any of them be canon. But on the other hand, I just realized my assumption that Shuori happens slightly before E Lucevan le Stelle was based on an assumption that Echoes in the Mountain takes place in China since the artwork was the same, but I only just realized that the devs might have just been recycling assets and that it's more likely that it takes place somewhere in Europe...so that's embarrassing. I'd have to comb that event's dialogue later to find more information about its place in the timeline.
3) Vertin and Sonetto clearly have the power to boss around X in his anecdote, and Sonetto specifically refers to him as one of Vertin's "teammates" that she has the power to assign to projects. Clearly working at Laplace doesn't stop someone from also being on the Timekeeper's team, unless that story isn't canon?

I do wonder about Isolde...her voice lines in the suitcase indicate that she seems to be treated a patient who doesn't/can't leave her room, and she does seem to be out of it, but she doesn't seem to totally believe she's on the stage like how we left her in Kakania's Character Story...yeah, you got me chief, by all accounts it doesn't make sense.



But anyway, Mondlicht is still very clearly seen on the Timekeeper Squad in aliEn T's anecdote. Are we just supposed to assume it isn't canon? How are we supposed to know the difference between canon anecdotes and noncanon anecdotes?

[White Fire]

Originally posted by Hoxton:

Notes on Shuiori might not have even happened in the main timeline yet.

I actually just realized something about Notes on Shuori:

Vertin and company didn't meet Ms. Radio (who appears at the end of NoS) until December 25, 1913, and by the time they start sailing towards the Aegean Sea on January 1st, 1914, they're too far away from Yenisei to arrange a meeting with her like Sonetto suggests. By the time they leave the island, it's already the 90s. This means one of four things:

1) Time is going to reverse to the 1910s for a THIRD time
2) Yenisei met with the Timekeeper in the six days between Vertin meeting Ms. Radio and her departure for the Aegean Sea (I think this is plausible unless there's something I missed)
3) Yenisei's request to join the Timekeeper Squad and/or her meeting with Vertin happened after the 1914 Storm and she somehow found shelter in the meantime
4) You're correct, this game's timeline was never intended to make any sense and I'm overthinking this

[Hoxton]

The anecdotes are definitely canon as characters do make reference to them, one example I recall being Tuesday mentions A Knight’s Comic Knight Festival.

[White Fire]

Originally posted by Hoxton:

The anecdotes are definitely canon as characters do make reference to them, one example I recall being Tuesday mentions A Knight’s Comic Knight Festival.

That's a really good catch, thanks so much for that