#also how old is Abrianna as a goblin if she's ancient in 835 PD and still kicking well into 849 PD at the earliest

[spottedenchants]

A Speculative Timeline of Events - The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen

Hey there! Here's a speculative timeline of the comics, working backwards from the story's 'present day' (with a TL;DR of my own interpretation at the end)

Though there are plot summaries on the CR wiki, be aware there are big spoilers ahead, so view at your own discretion below:

(last edited June 30, 2022)

1. When is the 'present day' of the comics?

As stated by the official media timeline of Critical Role, The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen takes place around 855 PD.

2. When does Quana Kryn's anamnesis take place?

The core narrative of the four-issue story—Leylas and Quana Kryn searching for and retrieving the Dynasty's sixth beacon, and the subsequent birth, growth, and death of their child, Caelestis—is framed by an unnamed ward (eventually revealed to be the reborn Quana Kryn) undergoing anamnesis with the aid of Umavi Skysybil Abrianna Mirimm.

This being the case, all relayed events within this framing at any given point are either a) the stories of Exandria, the Luxon, Leylas, Quana, and Caelestis as told by Abrianna or b) memories of Quana herself.

Given that Issue 4 wraps up with the reveal of Quana's identity, who then resumes her duties alongside Leylas to seek out Caelestis (who has also been reborn) and to 'restore a beacon' (probably the one Lolth got her leggies on and corrupted), it would make narrative sense that Quana's anamnesis takes place in the 'present day' of the story.

**A Caveat**

There is yet another framing around this story of Quana's anamnesis that could instead be considered the 'present day'. This is indicated by the potential link between the very first dialogue box in Issue 1 and the very last page of Issue 4. In the final page, Abrianna is much more withered, and returns from her apparent recollection of assisting Quana through anamnesis in order to help another adolescent through the same process, whose phrasing, "I'm lost", may have thrown Abrianna into memory in the first place. This could mean that Quana's anamnesis actually took place quite a while before 855 PD.

(ID in alt text)

That said, working from the opposite direction, in Issue 3, Leylas visits Xarzith Kitril at the tail end of her consecution campaign. This city was constructed in 811 PD (EGTW pg. 148), meaning Quana's anamnesis must take place no earlier than 821 PD for reasons stated in point 3 (drow adolescence) below.

Because I could not find any in-canon references about the Dynasty having/knowing of more than their four unique beacons at any point before—or by—the time the Dynasty regains their fourth beacon while putting this post together (though if anyone has refs indicating otherwise with more depth than Hytroga's definitely-fake broken beacon frame, please let me know because that changes everything 👀), I am considering all events within the comic (save for the creation of Exandria stuff) as taking place after the peace talks in Unndilar 836 PD.

Given that Quana was alive and an adult during the peace talks, this places her earliest time of death (in order to be reborn) in the latter half of 836 PD and pushes her earliest anamnesis year to 846 PD, again for reasons stated in the sentence above and in point 3 below.

With the addition of time from point 4 (Caelestis' birth) below, Quana's anamnesis is bumped to 848 PD at its earliest.

Including the events of points 5 (Leylas' return from the Dreadnest), 6 (acquisition of beacon 6), and 7 (acquisition of beacon 5) below, we can bump Quana's anamnesis a year further to around 849 PD.

Thus, taking these extra limits into consideration, we can place Quana's anamnesis sometime between 849 PD and 855 PD.

**Caveat Over**

For simplicity's sake (and based on how well everything else slots together following this point in time), I'm opting to stick with Quana's anamnesis taking place in the 'present day'.

In other words, the reborn Quana Kryn undergoes anamnesis around 855 PD.

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Before diving into the rest, I would like to add another disclaimer: for lack of any CR-canon explanations of drow maturity rates (as far as I could find), I referenced generalizations of human maturity timescales instead. As such, the rest gets exponentially more speculative as we go on.

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3. When does Quana die?

We know that consecuted souls begin undergoing anamnesis around adolescence and that such souls are implanted into newborn infants (EGTW pg. 268), so because Quana is in the process of anamnesis at the start of Issue 1, and she is a drow, we know she was reborn 1 drow adolescence-age ago.

If adolescence begins around 10-13 years old, assuming a quick soul-return-implant, Quana Kryn (and Caelestis) dies around 842-845 PD.

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4. When is Caelestis born?

Given that Caelestis is a toddler/young child at the time, we can place her age somewhere around 2-4 years old when she and Quana die.

Alongside this, Leylas is said to have consecuted thousands on her campaign following her return from the Dreadnest in Issue 3. The ritual of consecution takes about a day, so assuming a campaign rate of one consecution per beacon per day with 328 days in an Exandrian year (TCSR pg. 9), Leylas can consecute about a thousand people in three years if she's going around with only one beacon. Maybe she had other Umavi going out and consecuting people in order to get that count up to thousands (plural), or maybe group consecutions are a thing. This is very loosey-goosey and could simply be a matter of phrasing, but I may as well include it.

Taken all together, Caelestis is born somewhere between 838-843 PD.

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5. When does Leylas return from the Dreadnest?

Assuming drow gestation is similar to that of humans (9 months), and noting that Quana is due a few weeks after Leylas leaves in Issue 3, Leylas returned from the Dreadnest at least 7 or 8 months before beginning her consecution campaign.

Additionally, in Episode 7 of Campaign 3, set on 23 Brussendar 843 PD (C3E25 takes place on 14 Sydenstar 843 PD), Bell's Hells are in the Dreamscape Theater where there is a poster for a show titled "Esmer and the Child of Light". Caelestis is referred to by similar titles ("The First New Soul Born of The Light", "Born of The Luxon", "The Bright Child", "The Living Incarnation of The Luxon's Light") from her conception forward, so it is possible this show is in reference to her and a yet unknown "Esmer". The poster is described in a collection noted as being from 'throughout the years', indicating the poster has likely been up for more than a year, but without further specificity, C3E7's date will set the latest limit for this time frame.

Depending on time-of-year placement and prior deductions, Leylas returns from the Dreadnest anywhere from early-to-mid 837 PD to early 843 PD.

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6. When does the Battle of Ghostwall take place?

At the beginning of Issue 2, Abrianna states that the consecuted soldiers who died in the battle have already undergone anamnesis, indicating they have been back for a while (i.e. they are > 10 years old in 855 PD (see point 3)). Abrianna also mentions there were searches through the Ghostlands "in the days that followed" the battle, so the time between the battle and Leylas entering the Dreadnest likely wasn't particularly long either.

Assuming Leylas wasn't in the Dreadnest for several months or more, we can conclude the Battle of Ghostwall (and the acquisition of the Dynasty's sixth beacon from the Dreadnest) also takes place between early-to-mid 837 PD to early 843 PD.

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7. When does the Dynasty acquire their fifth beacon?

In Issue 1, Leylas mentions that Quana has been sad "these last months", to which Quana says her mood is because she's feeling nothing about the Dynasty gaining beacons.

There is no mention of the Dynasty having more than four beacons at any time before the peace talks in Campaign 2 and the return of their fourth beacon, and as such, I'm putting a hard 'earliest' limit on the acquisition of their fifth.

Depending on how many months have passed between beacons 5 and 6, the Dynasty can have recovered the fifth beacon anytime between Unndilar (5th month of 11) 836 PD and late 842 PD.

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As you can see, there's a fair amount of wiggle room even within the bounds I've decided to draw!

For another point of reference, Campaign 2 ends (pre-epilogues) in Sydenstar 836 PD (7th month).

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TL;DR:

My personal interpretation of the timeline for Touching Sentiments purposes:

In 855PD, a ~12-year-old reborn Quana Kryn undergoes anamnesis. Just before Quana's rebirth in 843 PD, she and ~3-year-old Caelestis Kryn die. Caelestis' birth in late 840 PD is heralded by Leylas' prophetic dream and the acquisition of the Dynasty's sixth beacon in early 840 PD. The Dynasty acquires a fifth beacon a few months prior in late 839 PD.

Bullet point format with a little more ~seasonal~ detail (again, my interpretation):

Late 839 PD: The Dynasty acquires their fifth beacon

Early 840 PD: The Dynasty acquires their sixth beacon

Mid-to-late 840 PD: Leylas begins her consecution campaign

Late 840 PD: Caelestis Kryn is born

Spring/Summer 843 PD: Quana takes Caelestis into the Vermaloc Wildwood to be executed, and she and Caelestis both die within the reach of a beacon

Late Spring/Summer/Early Fall 855 PD: Quana undergoes anamnesis and returns to Leylas' side to search for Caelestis

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If you made it this far, thanks for reading! :D

Here is a cat for you: ♡ॢ₍⸍⸌̣ ʷ̣̫⸍̣⸌₎

(Also feel free to let me know if there are any glaring errors 👀 I would like this to be reasonably accurate! xD )

#the tales of exandria #the bright queen #leylas kryn #quana kryn #critical role #to be super clear- 839/840 PD are hard deadlines for my own fic purposes #the dynasty could have gotten their fifth beacon sooner than that idk #also how old is Abrianna as a goblin if she's ancient in 835 PD and still kicking well into 849 PD at the earliest #and STILL going however many years later it takes to age as she is on the last page of issue 4 #it's a story in a story in a story- stories all the way down #all of this could be blatantly wrong #but it was fun :3 #dani carr here is my resume jk jk jk jk #touchsent lore #because what if the fifth beacon came from aeor #and a certain non-scorned thelyss brother just so happened to bring it back #also tagging just in case #child death #chanse chatters