Timeline of Gothic

This article attempts to build a chronological timeline of the events before the game starts and the major events, which happen during the game.
In this article only information from Gothic itself is used. A merged timeline of the original trilogy also exists.
Information from sources of questionable canonicity (the manual, the comic and websites) is contained in separate sections. A section highlighting possible conflicts is at the bottom of the article.

The game

When the exact order of events is speculative, the cell is colored olive as indication.

Game

Date	Event
the beginning of time	Innos appears to the world and illuminates it.
	Innos creates the Sun and life.
	Innos splits and creates Beliar, who brings the night.
	Innos splits again and creates Adanos.
	Beliar creates a human.
	Beliar kills his human, because he didn't worship him. Beliar creates death.
	Innos grants humans the power of magic. His first gift is the Light spell.
	Innos gives humans the Fireball spell as his second gift.
	Adanos gifts humans the Healing spell as a reaction to Beliar's creation of death.
	Innos takes the gift of magic from the ungrateful and elevates the grateful to priests.
	Some priests of Innos turn from him and worship Adanos instead.
	Religious wars break out between the followers of Innos and Adanos. The priests are divided into the water mages and the fire mages.
when humanity was still young	Uriziel gets forged from an unknown material.
	Orcs steal Uriziel from a human commander.
more than 2000 years ago	A master of the art of fighting creates his teachings, which keep getting taught for 2000 years.
ancient days	An already ancient formula to recharge focus stones is written down in the Almanac.
	Humans are forced to construct the Sleeper's Temple by the orcs. Uriziel is hidden inside it.
1000 years ago	The Sleeper gets summoned by the orcs of Khorinis at the bottom of the temple.
	The orcs on the surface seal the temple.
	Orcish prophecies speak of the Holy Foe who will banish the Sleeper.
since hundreds of years ago	Small changes in the positions of the planets are tracked over a period spanning hundreds of years.
since hundreds of years ago	The nature and source of magic is being investigated.
long forgotten days	Kings and heroes wield weapons made of Khorinis steel.
	During the first orc war fortifications are built on Khorinis.
	Bergmar sells the mountain fort and the surrounding area and mines.
	Rhobar attacks Varant and defeats Gellon's army.
	Using the last remaining army of Varant Lukkor attacks the Myrtanian troops lead by Lee and is defeated.
	Lee gets framed for the murder of the king's wife and gets imprisoned in the Valley of Mines.
during the long years of his reign	Rhobar II unifies Myrtana and defeats all his enemies except for the orcs.
	A hunter buys a magic scroll in Khorinis to kill a troll in the Valley of Mines.
	Due to the war against the orcs everyone who commits even a minor crime is forced to labor in the Valley of Mines.
	Rhobar II orders the most powerful magicians of the realm to create the Barrier of Khorinis.
	The prisoner Gomez usurps power in the Valley of Mines.
20 years ago	A digger says not much has changed for the last 20 years.
	Xardas leaves the Old Camp.
	The New Camp gets established.
10 years ago	Grimes gets imprisoned in the Valley of Mines.
	The Abandoned Mine collapses.
many years ago	Ur-Shak becomes a slave in the Free Mine.
5 years ago	The Sleeper contacts Y'Berion for the first time.
2 years ago	Lester gets imprisoned into the Barrier.
2 months ago	The Nameless Hero gets imprisoned in a small jail cell.
some time ago	Gilbert leaves the Old Camp due to trouble with Gomez' people.
1 week ago	Melvin leaves the Old Camp.
present	The Nameless Hero gets thrown into the Barrier.
	The Swamp Camp conducts a ceremony, which leads to Y'Berion's death.
	The Old Mine collapses and Gomez attacks the Free Mine.
	The Nameless Hero banishes the Sleeper resulting in the destruction of the Barrier.

Orc monster special

An article published on gothicthegame.com contained some background info on the orcs and the Sleeper.
An interesting bit of information regarding the chronology is that the Sleeper's Temple only finished construction after he was already summoned.

Orc Monster Special

Date	Event
thousands of years ago	Orcs live in the kingdom. They are lead by the warriors.
	Orcs flee from human persecution into caves. The shamans now become their leaders.
around 1000 years ago	The orc shamans open a dimensional gate to the realm of the demons and see the Sleeper.
	They have a giant summoning hall constructed.
	The orc shamans summon the Sleeper, who turns them into undead servants.
	Across generations a gigantic temple is built for the Sleeper.
	After the end of the construction some of the orcs flee and seal the temple.

The comic

While official merchandise released before the game itself, some pieces of information seem to contradict the game.

Comic

Date	Event
around 20 years before Milten's imprisonment	The king has the magicians create the Barrier of Khorinis.
	Most of the guards die in a rebellion and the ore barons take power.
	The New Camp gets established.
several years ago	A sect gets established inside the Barrier.
	Milten deserts from his post on the Great Northern Plain and flees to Khorinis.
	Milten gets recognized as a deserter and imprisoned in a jail cell.
a few weeks after imprisonment, when the month of Unicorn is over	The Four Friends are thrown into the Barrier.
	Gorn gets into a fight with Brabak.
	A tower in the Old Camp collapses. Milten and Diego free a female slave of the ore barons.
	Mercenaries from the New Camp kill Brabak.
several days after the tower collapse	Only a single prisoner is thrown into Barrier this month (possibly the Nameless Hero).

The manual

The contents of the manual differ significantly in the German and English versions.
In an interview Mike Hoge declared the (German) manual non-canon.
Several bits of information seem to contradict the game. For example Rhobar II orders the construction of the Barrier shortly after taking power, while the game's intro states that he reigned for many years.
Rhobar is called Rhotbar and Myrtana is called Myrthana.

Manual (German version)

Date	Event
many years ago	Varant attacks Myrthana.
many months into the war	King Rhotbar brings the war to Varant.
more than 4 years into the war	Rhotbar defeats Varant.
the next winter	Rhotbar dies and Rhotbar II becomes king.
at the end of winter	Orcs invade from the Northern Lands.
	The king has a group of magicians create the Barrier of Khorinis.
	Gomez usurps power in the Valley of Mines and kills the guards.
	Lee leaves the Old Camp and he and his followers build the New Camp.
many months later	Y'Berion starts preaching and builds a camp in the swamp with his followers.
	The orcs attack again and the king again forces prisoners to mine ore in the Valley of Mines. Even minor crimes lead to imprisonment in these days.
Today	The Nameless Hero is brought to the Barrier.

Manual (English version)

Date	Event
	Myrtana thrives in a blissful age.
at the end of winter	Orcs attack Myrtana.
years later	Rhotbar has a group of magicians create the Barrier of Khorinis.
	Gomez becomes the leader of the prisoners inside the Barrier.
	Some prisoners rebel against Gomez and establish the New Camp near the Free Mine under the leadership of Lares.
	Some prisoners at the Old Camp get strange visions. Their leader Y'Berion leads them to the swamp and creates the Brotherhood.
	The water mages leave the Old Camp and go to the New Camp.
	The Nameless Hero is thrown into the Barrier.

Conflicts

Conflicts within Gothic 1

• Adanos gifts humans the Healing spell as a reaction to Beliar's creation of death, but the Words of the Gods books put Innos giving people magic after Beliar's creation of death. So either Adanos' reaction was delayed or the events of the books are not written in strictly linear order.
• It is unclear if the Sleeper's Temple already existed when the orcs stole Uriziel or if they hid it somewhere else during that time.
• It is unclear, if the Barrier already existed when Lee gets imprisoned. It would be reasonable to assume that the plot against him was done soon after his victory against Varant, but at that time the Barrier didn't yet exist.
• It is unclear for how long prisoners were forced to mine ore in the Valley of Mines before the creation of the Barrier. The intro makes it sound like a relatively short time.
• In the manual Rhobar II only rules for a short time before being attacked by the orcs and unifies no realms while the intro states that he ruled for a long time and unified the four realms.
• Only the German manual mentions a pause in the orc's attacks between the creation of the Barrier and the events of the game.
• The English manual drops the majority of the background story, possibly due to the contradiction with the game's intro.
• Some sources only talk of Rhobar without differentiating between the first and the second.
• Only the English manual claims that the water mages only left for the New Camp after the Swamp Camp has already been established.
• Ratford mentions the First Orc War leading to the construction of fortifications in the Valley of Mines. It is entirely unclear how it fits into the timeline except that it must have happened before the creation of the Barrier and probably long before Rhobar II's reign due to the decay of the fortifications.

Conflicts with other games of the series

• Gothic 3's manual states that the Barrier was created 10 years before the start of Gothic 3 and that 1 year has passed between the end of Gothic 1 and the beginning of Gothic 3, meaning the Barrier existed for around 9 years. However in the comic Gorn claims the Barrier was created about 20 years ago and Lester claims to have been imprisoned in the Barrier for 2 years, meaning the Barrier stood for around 22 years at the beginning of Gothic 1. An ambient digger dialogue also says that not much has changed in the last 20 years.
• In Gothic 3's manual all events concerning Rhobar II's conquests of Nordmar and Varant contradict Gothic 1's manual.
• Gothic 3's manual states that the construction of the Sleeper's Temple took 10 more years after the summoning of the Sleeper while the monster special article claims it took multiple generations.

Related articles

• Timeline of the original trilogy
• Timeline of Gothic II
• Timeline of Gothic 3

Trivia

• The intro of the 0.94k press demo states that the Barrier was created 10 years before the start of the game.