Aselia Timeline
I made an Aselia timeline based off of the pre-DotNW one that Cyllya wrote a while back. I gave it more of character emphasis and updated the plotholes. I hope that my version can help everyone better understand the game order and Aselia’s marvelously messy history. There will be major spoilers for Tales of Symphonia, Phantasia, and Narikiri Dungeon.
*************** I have made a new version of this timeline that’s much more organized, accurate, and includes NDX. This one will remain here for archiving purposes.****************
Update 1: Added notontumblr’s suggestion and clarified a couple of things.
Update 2: Added Tokyograndpa’s suggestions.
Update 3: Added Northeasternwind’s suggestion, here’s the full thing explaining what happened to Rhea Scarlet .
Update 4: It’s possible that the new ToS novels by Takumi Miyajima will add new details that may conflict with parts of the timeline. I’ll update as info becomes available.
Alright so before I get started I just want to say
-For the sake of simplicity I’m only going to refer to events that occur outside of each respective game.
-No info from the OVAs will be included as they wildly conflict with the canon. The mangas for ToS and ToP are also not game-canon, but I do mention one thing from the ToS manga.
-I’ve played the SNES, GBA, and PSX versions of ToP. The PSX version has the most elements that work into the timeline. I’m not including events from ToPX & NDX since I personally consider those games to be something of an AU which you are free to disagree with. I am aware of the discrepancies between the different translations. Forgive me for any inconsistencies.
-I’m not going to be super detailed. My sources will be posted at the bottom. If there’s something that I should change or add send me an ask or something and I’ll get on it.
Tales things that are connected to Aselia, their order in the timeline, and their release dates.
Tales of Symphonia (ToS) GC 2003; PS2 port 2004; PS3 Unisonant 2013
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (DotNW) Wii 2008; PS3 Unisonant 2013
Tales of Phantasia: Katararezaru Rekishi (KataReki) Novel 1999
Tales of Phantasia (ToP) SNES 1995; PSX 1998; GBA 2003; PSP FVE 2006; PSP Cross 2010 (ToPX); iOS FVE port 2013
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon (Naridan) GBC 2000; PSP Cross 2010 (NDX)
Tales of the World: Summoner’s Lineage (SamoRine) GBA 2003
————————--How do we know ToS comes first?————————-
- The ToS Scenario Guide and DotNW explain how the world was initially inhabited. Before that point it was mostly lifeless. The spirits did not exist on the world before the Elves came. The Kharlan war appears to be the first major world event that occurred after the planet was settled.
- ToS explains how the Tree Spirit known as Martel came into being and the planting of her tree, Yggdrasil.
- It was also stated that the Eternal sword was created for Mithos. It was just the one sword until Lloyd took possession of it and forged his own bond with the blade.
—————————Basic things that connect them————————————
1. The world map. This is the biggest connection. Symphonia’s maps are based off of ToP’s map. DotNW world map looks very similar to ToP’s world map. There are also reoccurring locations such as Ymir forest, the Elf village, a Ninja village, a snowy city to the north, and Moria(very briefly mentioned in ToS); as well as towns in about the same locations on both maps.
2. The Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Dwarf, Demon, and Spirit races. The PSX and up version of ToP as well as NDX briefly reference Angels. SamoRine brings up Angels too but they seem like a different thing in that game. It also came out 5 months before ToS, so technically ToS is the inconsistent one there. Dohoho
3. The Eternal Sword, its function in the story, and its components.
4. The Mana Trees. Aselia’s world tree is named Yggdrasill and its guardian spirit is named Martel. By ToP time people still worship the “Goddess” Martel but the religion now focuses on nature worship as well. Derris-Kharlan has a tree too with a guardian spirit named Norn.
5. Derris-Kharlan. It’s referred to as デリス・カーラーン in everything that it’s mentioned in. The English translation varies but the katakana is always the same. There’s mention of Elves originating from “A City in the Sky” in ToP which connects with their ToS origin story.
6. Magitech ruining everything. Mana Cannons are rarely good ideas.
7. Two moons named Sylvarant and Tethe’alla. Tethe’alla is the smaller rust colored moon and Sylvarant is the larger blue moon. Tethe’alla’s orbital period is directly stated and consistent in both ToS and ToP.
8. The basic function of magic. Basically it has something to do with elf blood. Sometimes you will randomly get a character that can use it without explanation; but for the most part this has been consistent. A lot of people try to call Klarth out for being one of those no explanation characters (Sheena don’t count she had some elf blood). But it’s mentioned that he “Perfected an Ancient Process” to allow a human to use Summoning Artes.
9. Racism against half-elves. This is a big plot point in ToS but by ToP it’s mainly the Elves who dislike them for complicated plot reasons. There are mentions of Humans disliking them as well but things seem to have largely cooled down on their end.
10. Certain rituals reoccur. The requirements for meeting the Unicorn and Maxwell for example. There’s a plethora of tiny things that pop up too like the Derris Emblem, sacred wood, a mostly dead ancient language, and the Fujibayashi family.
11. The world connection was officially confirmed by the Tales of series producer Makoto Yoshizumi.
————————————————Timeline———————————————————
?- Exact time is unspecified but likely occurred around this point. Gonna be using a lot of these
*- Expanded upon in * Sidenotes
DR*- Info originated from a Audio Drama
NVL*- Info originated from a Novel
10,000 years Pre ToS
-The Elves and summon spirits(which includes Rattata) descend to Aselia with The Great Kharlan Tree after repeated exposure to their homeworld of Derris-Kharlan gives the planet the basic qualities needed to support life.
-Ratatouille builds a boundary between Nilfheim and Aselia
-Ratatosk then orders his Centurions to see to the even distribution of mana.
-The Elves take a cutting off the Kharlan Tree and leave it to grow on Derris-Kharlan.
-Norn becomes the guardian of this new tree.
-Life flourishes throughout the new world.
5,000 years Pre ToS
-The Great Kharlan war breaks out between the countries of Sylvarant and Tethe’alla after Magitech develops and begins to strain mana.
4,000 years Pre ToS
-Mithos and his sister Martel are kicked out of Heimdall.
-They discover that Sylvarant is planning a massive invasion on Tethe’alla’s capital.
-They alert the Captain of Tethe’alla’s Knights, Kratos Aurion, of the invasion. He tries to warn the King who blows them off, branding Kratos as a heretic for listening to half-elves.
-Kratos agrees to train Mithos
- The siblings meet the high-ranking half-elf Sylvaranti officer Yuan.
?-The Capital is destroyed.
???- Kratos and Mithos meet Ratatosk (according to Chronicles novel?)
?-Yuan joins the party.
- Tales of Fandom 2 implies that the gang has Cruxis Crystals and angelic powers at this point.
-The four heroes go on their Flower quest as seen in Tales of Fandom 2.
?-They meet all of the summon spirits (sans Origin) and maybe some of the Centurions.
?-Mithos establishes the floating city of Exire using the power of Maxwell.*1
?-Kratos befriends an injured Noishe *2
?- Mithos, Yuan, and Kratos access Nilfheim and seal some of their memories or something inside. *3
-Martel develops Chronic Angelus Crystallus Inofficium and is cured by the Unicorn.
?-Yuan proposes.
-Origin creates the Eternal Sword for Mithos.
-The war ends and the worlds are split. (THIS DID HAPPEN FIRST)
-Martel is killed by a Human and her soul is bound to the great seed with her crystal.
-Ratatosk goes into Core mode and sleeps
-Mithos loses all faith in humanity and betrays the summon spirits.
Unknown
-Mithos, Kratos, and Yuan create Cruxis and establish their base on Derris-Kharlan.
-The Moons are renamed after the separated worlds after the Church begins to tell the public that the people from the countries that disappeared migrated to the moons.
?-Spiritua goes on her journey of regeneration and allegedly creates the Church of Martel. *4
800 years Pre ToS
-The Sylvarant Dynasty is destroyed by Cruxis.
?-The Renegades are established and coordinate assassinations on all future Sylvaranti Chosen.*5
70 years Pre ToS
NVL*-Kratos goes on the Journey of Regeneration with the previous Chosen of Sylvarant, Phaidra’s sister, Aithra.
The events of Tales of Symphonia occur.
16 years Pre ToS
-Presea is equipped with her exsphere and stops aging.
-Iselia establishes a non-aggression treaty with the Desians after the birth of Colette.
14 years Pre ToS
NVL*-Anna is killed by Kratos while their family was going to Iselia because of the non-aggression treaty; and the three-year-old Lloyd is taken in by Dirk who builds a house for them to live in.
12 years Pre ToS
-Virginia sends Raine, and her infant brother Genis, through the otherworldly gate.
?- Zelos witnesses the murder of Mylene Wilder. (according to non-game canon manga)
-Sheena fails to form a pact with Volt, resulting in the deaths of a quarter of Mizuho’s citizens. The Chief goes into a Coma.
8 years Pre ToS
-Regal Bryant is sent to prison for the murder of Alicia Combatir.
6 years Pre ToS
-Alice destroys the orphanage to save Decus.
5 years Pre ToS
-The Sage siblings move into Iselia. Raine becomes the town teacher and Genis befriends Colette and Lloyd.
-Aster and Richter try to find Ratatosk.
-They meet Aqua.
-Aster is killed by Ratatosk.
1 year Post ToS
NVL* ?-The contents of the “Kibou o Tsugu Mono/Successors of Hope” novel take place
1 year 6 months post ToS
-The Blood Purge occurs.
2 years post ToS
The events of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World occur.
1,000 years post DotNW
-Ratatosk likely finishes whatever it was that he was doing with the mana flow.
BIG OL’ GAP
2543 SC (Solar Calendar) Age of Antiquity/Ancient Times
-Humanity has developed magitech once more. Cities are futuristic, full of lights and robots.
-Aska is captured by the country of Thor.
Gap???
-The Ragnarok war breaks out between the Kingdom of Fenrir and the Republic of Odin.
-Thor is neutral in the conflict and attempts to arbitrate between the two.
-Fenrir has acquired the Vorpal Blade, Odin has the Flamberge, and Thor posses the Eternal/Diamond ring. *6
-The ravages of war transform the Asgard/Odin continent into a Desert.*7
-Aselia is hit by the Comet Samiel
-The Dwarves disappear.
-Fairies mostly disappear.
-Thor sinks, surviving citizens are trapped in the domed city underwater.
-Some mysterious individuals took possession of the Tria/Eternal Sword components and proceeded to ruin the countries of Odin and Thor.
-The war ends.
BIG GAP
-Derris-Kharlan has a very similar war. *8
-Its Kharlan Tree is killed after Dios Bandi fires a Mana Cannon.
DR*-Dhaos is sent from Derris Kharlan, at the cost of the lives of his girlfriend Karion, and several of his palace sorcerers, on a mission to search for a Great Seed to save the planet.
NOT AS MUCH OF A GAP
4192 AC (Aselian Calendar)
-The Elves, who had coexisted with Humanity up until this point, decide to unify their race in the Ymir Forest. Human and Elf partners are forcefully separated; any children they may have produced are left behind.
4201/4202 AC
NVL*-The events of Katararezaru Rekishi begin with Winona Bigford discovering and aiding a weakened Dhaos while searching for a Unicorn.
-Dhaos meets Edward Morrison
-Dhaos attempts to explain to Midgard’s General Reisen that magitechnology could kill Yggdrasil.
NVL*-They get into a fight that ends up severing Winona’s arm.
-Riesen begins to tell people that Dhaos has malicious intent.
NVL*-Dhaos begins traveling by himself out of concern for Winona’s safety.
-Dhaos decides that his best course of action will be to destroy the mana cannon.
-He teams up with the demons and they pretend to be his subordinates. In actuality they do everything that they can to heighten the conflict and make things worse for Dhaos.
-The the magitech researchers Mr and Mrs Scarlet are killed after Dhaos uses his “bad thought amplifying spell” on Demeter to make him kill them. Their daughter Rhea is left unharmed.
-Rhea confronts Demeter about the murders and he snaps, destroying the town of Hamel, killing Rhea.
-The Valhalla War breaks out between Midgard and Dhaos’ army.
-Riesen is warned by his scientists that the mana cannon could cause unrepairable damage to the world’s mana, which he ignores.
-Yggdrasil slowly dies after the Mana Cannon fires twice.
4207 AC
-Dhaos has become increasingly more violent with anything related to magitech.
-He is defeated by Edward D. Morrison, Alan Albane, Carol Adenade, and Winona. This is the battle shown in the opening of ToP.
-He escapes by time jumping to——-
-The war ends.
4210 AC
-Boltzman’s technique/Clerical arts/Holy Powers/Houjutsu is perfected and the order of Clerics is formed. *9
4294 AC
————The Mausoleum.
-He is promptly intercepted by the Hojutsu users/Clerics Trinicus D. Morrison, Maria Albane, Meryl Adenade, and the swordsman Miguel Albane who were informed that he was coming by their ancestors.
-He is sealed in a Coffin while he is still alive and gets to stew on how much he hates everything for 10 years.
4302 AC
-Cless receives the seal pendant on his fifteenth birthday.
4304 AC
The events of Tales of Phantasia begin
-Toltus is rebuilt as Miguel.
-Chester founds an orphanage.
-Mint becomes a traveling healer with Cless tagging along.
-ToP party gains the title of “The Heroes of Eternity”.
4352 AC
?-The Dhaos that the ToP party encountered in the past time warps into this period. *10
?-Dhaos destroys Midgard in response of their continued development of magitech weaponry.
-Suzu’s parents fall prey to Dhaos’ weird “bad thought amplifying” spell along with numerous other Ninjas.
4354 AC
Future events of ToP occur
GAP
?- Arche moves into a bitchin’ tower.
4395 AC
The events of Narikiri Dungeon begin.
4765 AC
The events of Summoner’s Lineage occur.
* Sidenotes
1. Maxwell would have been one of Mithos’ last pacts due to the fact that you need proof that you’ve fought Efreet, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome to face him.
2. There’s a scene with Kratos and Lloyd in Triet if you’ve taken his route and viewed the Noishe scene in Heimdell. He’ll briefly go over how he met Noishe; how Noishe is an ancient being who has lived far longer than he has; and will far outlive both Lloyd and himself. I’m going to assume Kratos picked up Noishe near the end of the trip since Tenebrae didn’t seem to recognize him. Or maybe Noishe was a bird. meh.
3. This is only mentioned in the PS2 version of ToS.
4. I think the specifics of Spiritua are largely left up to interpretation, but she definitely wasn’t Pronyma, and nothing in the game implies that Forcy knew her.
5. I’m basing this mainly off of how it’s implied that Sylvarant hasn’t had a successful Chosen in 800 years and the scholars in Sybak saying that it’s been 800 years since they’ve seen monsters appear in Tethe’alla. The Renegades were either disguising themselves as Desians and killing Chosens or sending assassins to do the job for them. It’s entirely possible that they’ve been around longer.
6. I’m just guessing that it’s the same ring. In ToS the item menu artwork for the Eternal Ring has a red stone. Diamonds can be red but it’s really rare. Is that a plot hole? I unno.
7. Multiple NPCs in the future state this.
8. I did a more detailed write-up on Derris-Kharlan stuff here.
9. Once again assuming that they’re the same thing. It seems likely since they’re all methods a Human can use healing arts with.
10. It is often assumed that the party was fighting the same Dhaos the entire time, but that is incorrect. When Cless and Mint went into the past they created an alternate timeline and an alternate Dhaos. The Dhaos that was sealed in the mausoleum died in the mausoleum. The Dhaos that is encountered in the past and future never touched 4294-4304 and has no clue as to how he pissed off Cless’ group.
——————————————-Plotholes———————————————————
There are some rather massive plot holes in this whole thing. DotNW in particular was two steps forward and one backflip out the window. I’m sure I’m missing quite a few but I’m mainly focusing on the big ones because I tend to ramble if you haven’t noticedyetseethereIgo.
The Centurions- Complete, blatant, retcons created so that the Temples could be reused as dungeons. Namco could have used the fairies or something instead but I guess that would be too ~flowery~. At least Tenebrae is cool.
Derris-Kharlan- I kind of went over this in the DK article that I wrote but it’s a very different place by ToP time. The people there don’t view themselves as being half-elves although they posses most of the qualities of being such. Their exact origin was obviously not really planned out until ToS.
The Material Blades- They completely changed their origin story in ToS. But it could be assumed that the legend behind them evolved over the years.
Great Seeds- Yuan says that Norn’s tree was “too young” to produce a seed when it was 6,000 years old and it doesn’t seem like it had produced one by ToP time. Yet Yggdrasill was able to produce one when it was allegedly 4,000-ish. This could be attributed to Ratatosk changing how mana works, or maybe Norn just didn’t have enough spare Dhaos lying around. But who can say for sure.
The Demon World- The name, location, and function varies a lot between games. I don’t even know where to start. Mah head.
Rondoline E. Effenberg- She was added to NDX and ToPX. Mainly what conflicts in regards to Rody(aside from how she was added into the plot 15 years after ToP came out; and there were other, more well-written. side materials that explained Dhaos’ background ^_^; ) is the Elysian bit, and some details that come up during her flashbacks with Dhaos. The Elysian bit in particular is annoying because if Dhaos had an object like that than it would have prevented a lot of the conflict with Midgard.It’s also somewhat nonsensical in regards to magical laws set forth in the other Aselia games.
The Gods- Cless directly encounters Odin (and a Valkyrie) in ToP and he’s a god, not a spirit, that says that he will meet Cless again when Cless dies. It’s implied that Thor and Fenrir also existed in the world. But alas ToS and DotNW completely forget about them outside of a couple of very vague references, such as referring to the mana cannon as “Thor’s Hammer” and placing a monster called Fenrir in the Celcius fight. These guys play a major role in the Ragnarok war that broke out waaay after ToS and it’s a shame that more hasn’t been done with them.
Mana- The exact function of mana is poorly defined and pretty much changes to suit whatever situation the writers want it to. A bit of a theme in the series. But anyways, Symphonia is the most inconsistent in the Aselia-verse on this point.
————————Things to think about (get creative with it~)———————-
1. Just take a good long look at the plot holes and think about how to un-plothole them.
2. Spiritua’s journey. It was obviously very important but isn’t really expanded upon. What was her role in starting the church? How did she earn her reputation in Tethe’alla? Was she even real? Also that rumor that she knew Forcystus came from TVtropes and there’s nothing that mentions that in the canon. I checked everything. So don’t give me none of that sass or I swear
3. The specifics of the Ragnarok War.
4. What the heck happens to Noishe, Yuan, Richter, Ratatosk, and the Sage siblings in the long term? There’s a bit of closure to what happens to ToP’s longer lived characters but there’s pretty much none for the ToS ones.
5. They kept saying that Sylvarant lacked any kind of centralized government in DotNW, but they never really resolve that particular problem; outside of just stating that there shouldn’t be different countries which obviously doesn’t work out.
6. There’s a very brief mention in Demeter’s library that a half-elf may have summoned the comet that hit Aselia during the war.
7. What did Noishe see in the water?
8. What happens to Exire? Did it land and become Thor? It can’t still be in the sky by ToP time since Maxwell is in Moria at that point and I doubt they landed it in a mine.
9. What’s the deal with the Dwarves all of the games are so vague when it comes to them. Are they just not pretty enough for you Namco?
10. How did the Summon spirits move around? How do they even form exactly? Did Norn just kind of split off of Ratatosk? Was he once tree from the waist down? Why must anything be tree from the waist down?
I guess that’s it. Big props to Cyllya for creating the original timeline. There’s no way I would have been able to make this even half as coherent as it is without all of their hard work.
Resources in no real order
Original timeline
ToS Official Scenario Guide Book Part 1 and Part 2
ToS Character Relationship scenes
Kratos portions of Tales of Fandom 2
Katararezaru Rekishi
Detailed ToP specific timeline, kind of off on the dates but gives you a good idea of the big picture
Very detailed Dhaos background info written by Northeasternwind (You go girl!)
DotNW script
Narikiri Dungeon X partially translated script
(via texanona-deactivated20140209)