Akelara Timeline (WIP)

[StarFyre]

In my efforts to make Akelara make sense (even if only for me), I'm creating a set of pages revolving around the timeline of the Clan - chronological (mostly) stories, major (and sometimes minor) events that occur, births and deaths, etc.

In pursuit of this, I've created a side-set of pages that are basically a visual representation of the residents of the Clan during each year and their position within the Clan. Granted that this isn't complete, because there are a lot of Myrsilk not uploaded, and a lot of my old dragons are assumed to have joined Akelara at some point, and since they're not uploaded anymore, they're not included in the database yet.

http://www.silveredmagic.com/akelara/year0.html

I have one major question (because I'm waffling on this, and you can tell if you look closely) -- Vecira at one point lives inside Akelara. In fact, all the major players of Vecira are adopted by three residents of the Clan. I currently have all the people of Vecira (at least those who actually lived inside Akelara at some point) listed as part of Akelara up until they split off to live in their own dens away from Akelara.

Should I keep it that way, or should I just not bother with the 'side groups' that are actually their own group, no matter whether they live inside Akelara or not?

Another example that I didn't include is the Devyrs. They're hired Year 12, and actually take up residence inside the Clan Home itself, but I didn't include them in the list. Should I? I can make arguments for both sides of it, to include or not to include... what do the rest of you think?

[Dray]

I'd say that if you split people off, have them listed somewhere easy to find, or as a second table beneath Akelara. What's the planet's name, again? (I keep thinking that it's also Akelara!) As long as they're on the same planet, they might as well be listed, just with some hint that they've moved to a different section! I'm really enjoying how this looks, by the way. Cool to see who grows up, when!

[JKatkina]

I'd love to see the people from peripheral groups at Akelara represented -- Devyrs, etc! It gives a wonderful snapshot of the place in terms of representing that the population is fluid.

[StarFyre]

Dray: The planet's name is Nyracii. I'm actually not surprised you keep thinking of it as Akelara -- for the longest time, that's all I called it. In fact, until DF asked during the WDH, the planet had no name.

The eventual idea was to create a similar set of pages for every major group represented - at the moment, that includes Akelara, Vecira, Devyrs, Koshi Keidai, Cetirnen, Kiamar Pride (the Alevaharin, when I get more of them uploaded), and Snaedis/Yulaiko Hive. A few other groups, such as Ammia Pride and Arazasin's Keep would get pages when/if more members joined.

And all of them (except poor Cetir) would easily slot into the Myrsilk timeline in terms of what-happens-when, since they all live on Nyracii. Cetirnen will come into play in the next year or two, when Flikk and Vikktor finally beat the living daylights out of Cetir and drag him into the war as a strategist (Akelara has no strategist worth their salt, in the long run, they have a few tacticians somewhere, I believe, but no real strategists).

One of the pages currently not created is the 'List of Years' page, which I was thinking could include a 'basic overview', ala "These people were born in this year, these people died in this year, these people joined in this year, these people left to go elsewhere this year"

JKat: Thanks ^^ That's what I was aiming at. I was staring at the index page of the candis directory, and started to wonder "When did x appear at the Clan? I kinda need to know in order to make logical statements in my stories... I already have one mistake in Flikk's story, let's not compound that with others." There's also several other dragons/people from the Loner section that should be added at some point, because they stay at the Clan for a while, then take off. Tiger Felris was only the most obvious.




If I include a second table on the page, basically the 'list of those who've left', should that table only include those who left in that specific year, or cumulatively? Like, Felris leaves in year 7 - should he be listed in that 'leaving' table only that year?

I think with maybe a small change to my code... maybe I should include several different tables on years that are applicable? Like, Ansel is born year 3 (and I intend for there to be other births, not just poor Ansel), should he be listed in a "Births" table that year, and as part of the memberlist for the rest of the years? And if someone dies, list them in a 'Deaths' table for that year and remove them from the tables from them on, instead of having them just disappear. And if they just leave-leave, have a table of "Those who split off" or whatever and list where they go (to become a loner, a member of Vecira, whatever)?

[StarFyre]

Double post, because I totally forgot to post this at 3 AM last night.

For all you history buffs out there, here's the 'quick and dirty' Myrsilk-as-a-species timeline.

Revent and Yikaeri have decided to call for the start of the Fourth Phase, as the Third Phase, also known as the Time of Sky, is distinctly over with the destruction of the majority of Myrsilk Clans and culture. An interesting note is that Myrsilk start their calendars on zero, and count time (in their records, at least) not by the year-cycle of whatever planet they're on, but by the 'Great Pattern' that they can all sense, thus keeping Clans on different worlds in sync with each other.

The previous four Phases are as follows:

Zeroth Phase: the Time of Hatching -- while it was never acknowledged as a Phase during its existance, the Zeroth Phase contains the beginning of the Myrsilk as a sapient, intelligent species. This Phase ends when First Home is left for good, after having lasted some three thousand or so years.

First Phase: the Time of Breeze -- beginning at the point where the first true Clans form on Second Home, the First Phase is marked by diversity, exploration, and first contact with other sapient races around the universe. The First Phase lasts about one thousand and four hundred years.

Second Phase: the Time of Fury -- retroactively set to begin at the point where Shadowspinner declares war upon all Myrsilk who accept humans or humanoids into their ranks, the Second Phase is a relatively short span of time, consisting of only three hundred and fifty eight years. During this time, Clans war against Clans, as they split into factions based upon their beliefs about non-Myrsilk. The Time of Fury also sets the stage for the loss of several distinct places in society - the roving Scholars, the Tinkerers, the Starseers, and the Explorers. In their place rises the War Leader, the Destroyer, and the Lightbringer. With the death of many Scholars, so too dies the Wylder strain, with the Tinkerers and Explorers dies the Illusions, and with the Starseers dies the Moons. Suns, naturally drawn to the positions of Destroyer or Lightbringer, are destroyed in the fighting, and their Blood kin, drawn to positions of power, such as War Leader, die as Clans are destroyed and they choose to stand and fight, that others may escape.

Third Phase: the Time of Sky -- the Third Phase officially began when the last vestiges of Shadowspinner's armies were finally vanquished, and an uneasy peace falls upon the Clans after the bitter wars that had set them against each other. A rift remains between Clans that approve of 'aliens' and Clans that believe the Myrsilk should remain inviolate and aloof, taking what they would instead of working side by side with native species. A few roving Scholars remain, though they never return to their pre-Second Phase numbers, and much of Myrsilk history is lost or destroyed. Tinkerers, Starseers, and Explorers are all lost to the mists of time, and while some attempt to revive the old ways, not enough is known about them to truly recreate the glory of the past.The Third Phase also sees the decrease in Shadow and Void children, with some Clans going so far as to kill any Shadows or Voids that are born. These instances of infanticide are carefully swept under the rug and ignored. A few rare Suns, Bloods, Wylders, Illusions, and Moons are reportedly born, but their numbers remain low, with many Clans lucky to have even one of those types amongst their number. This Phase lasts seven hundred and eighteen years, and ends with the almost overnight destruction of the vast majority of Myrsilk and their Clans.

[JKatkina]

If I include a second table on the page, basically the 'list of those who've left', should that table only include those who left in that specific year, or cumulatively? Like, Felris leaves in year 7 - should he be listed in that 'leaving' table only that year?

Having a "left this year" table could be useful -- but then it'd seem logical to include births, deaths, emigrations etc and that seems like a metric f-ton of work. What if instead, you had a subscript under the names of people who were born, died, whatever that year, indicating that such an event had taken place?

For example, in year 3,
"Ansel Odehomuo
Born"

Or later, stuff like
"Namey Nameypants
Left for (link)Place(/link)"

Additionally, maybe under each table put a link to the next year or something? XD I find myself scrolling to the bottom and looking for a 'next' button!

[StarFyre]

I knew I forgot something =P

Thing is, adding more tables would basically involve putting a few more columns in the database I have set up and adding a bit more to the code. In fact, with the way everything is set up, more tables might be less work than subscripts. I'm not sure, of course, but that might be the case.

All those 18 pages you see there? Those aren't hand generated. They're the result of one script that iterates over everything then politely spits the pages out in the directory I told 'em to. As soon as I get everything the way I want, that script's going to be assigned a cron-job and will run automagically whenever I tell it to, updating the pages without me having to lift a finger.

^_^ I love scripts.

[JKatkina]

ARRGH, wow! XD Man, I want to learn scripting like that! That'd be so perfect for databases!

[Dray]

Ditto for me. Holy crap!

[StarFyre]

With the exception of the Devyrs and Akelara, almost every index page I have in that section of webspace is actually created via cronjobbed php files and automagically refreshes every night. Every table of dragons? Built by php.

If you want to take a look at the files, I can package them up and send them your way. I think I've got most of it commented clearly. I think =P