PF Chronology

thalassocrat at nym.hush.com · 08 Dec 2007, 13:57 · from 2007-December.txt.gz

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From: thalassocrat at nym.hush.com (thalassocrat at nym.hush.com)
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:57:17 +1100
Subject: (urth) PF Chronology
Message-ID: <20071208135717.8CA812283E at mailserver10.hushmail.com>

I come to the following conclusions:

- Chris1's "birthday" is around about now; 2007.
- Chris2 is writing in about 2017.
- Chris2 appeared from the past around about the same time as 
Chris1 was born, so 2007 again (interesting ...)
- The pirate-action happens in about 1675.

Here's how I get there. First, we have some information about 
various events in Chris1's time-line:

A: "Born"
B: Goes to Cuba
C: Enters monastery school
D: Begins novitiate
E: Ends novitiate & goes to past
F: Goes forward again

We know:

B = A+10 (he goes to Cuba at age 10).
C = A+13 (approx: he went to school "a few years" after arriving in 
Cuba).
D = A+16 (approx: "A year seems like a lifetime at that age, so 
three or maybe four lifetimes passed before I went from being a 
student to being a novice ...")
E = A+17 (a novitiate normally lasting one year?)
F = A+19 (or less: the pirate-time doesn't seem to have been more 
than this to me.)

For Chris2, we know he is 28 or 29 when he goes to Cuba to become 
Ignacio: he's 28 at the time of his interview with Bishop Scully, 
with maybe a birthday before he finishes writing. Assuming "F" 
above is right, he was 19 when he appeared from the past, so that 
was about ten years before he heads to Cuba. 

And so, assuming he goes to Cuba at around "B", when Chris1 and his 
father go, the date of his appearance from the past must have been 
around about "A". 

In other words, he comes back at about the same time he was "born". 

We have reasonable dating for the "past" action.  Captain Burt 
speaks of Drake in the Golden Hind sailing around the world "almost 
a hundred years ago". This voyage lasted from 1577 through 1580. 
Let's say "E" = 1675.

We can use this to kludge up an estimate for the "present" datings. 
At the very end of the book, Chris2 says: "Today .. we have been 
dead 300 years". This is rubbery, but let's assume that Chris2 
assumes he's going to live a three-score-and-ten. That gives him 
another 41 or 42 years at the time he's writing. So, back in the 
"past", he would live until about 1675+42 = 1717. Three hundred 
years on from then is 2017.

That fixes an approximate date for "B", the date when Chris1 and 
(presumably) Chris2 both arrive in Cuba - about 10 years into our 
future. And Chris1 is being decanted from his test-tube or whatever 
just about now.

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