Internal Chronology>Current Events
Open Questions[]
- When does the story start?
- How much time has taken place?
- When do the significant events in the story take place?
What do we have to work with?[]
There are both verbal clues and visual clues. An example of a verbal clue is when we hear that Klaus Barry was born two years and three months after the baron disappeared. In the same scene we are given the visual clue for the year Klaus Barry was born. The internal chronologies so far have worked on establishing the year an event took place w/o giving much thought to the season or time of year in which the event is happening. There are abundant clues dropped as to both season and time of day. I write this as Agatha and her resplendent boyfriends are working their way to the basement of the castle. To date we have seen many visual clues as to when things are taking place. We meet Von Pinn and her watch four days into the story. Von Pinn's watch has apparently served her for two hundred years. It is precise. At the time she ends her meeting with Agatha is says three minutes to five pm in the sign of Pisces. About a week later we see a full or waning gibbous moon outside of Gil's lab window. Later another full moon over Zumzum. Then Wooster in Gil's flyer against a full moon approching Strumhalten. Later in the castle Tiktoffen informs us it is Tuesday as the Fun Ball rolls by.
More subtle clues[]
- We are told that the castle is destroyed when the masters are believed out dealing with giant vegetables.
- We see in Vrin's account a very pregnant Lucrezia in a fur hat and winter clothes.
- We know from the word of the tellers that this is a gaslamp fantasy and that means a Victorian era romance.
So, what do we know from what we know?[]
So far everything above is canon. No speculation, just the facts from the story itself.
Very conservative speculation allows us to say that the castle was destroyed in late summer or early fall. That's when a story about giant vegetables would have the most credence.
Klaus Barry's 407 day life span could not have started in the earlier part of the year. He must have been born sometime in the second half of '72 and died in the second half of '73.
A slightly larger inference would be that Agatha was born in the colder months. Yet not during the time the story itself took place. There has been no mention of it during our current events.
We can also believe very conservatively that the story is happening in the Victorian century of 1800 not in 1900.
When was Agatha born?[]
The season of Agatha's birth is what determines the year the story starts. She tells Vrin in Strumhalten that she is eighteen. So if she was born in the later half of '73 or the first two months of '74 the year the story starts is '92. This is consistent with Lucrezia's fur hat.
The alternative is that her birthday is coming up in the next few months, which would mean the story starts in '93. That alternative has been put into doubt by the novelization Agatha H. and the Airship City. In the first chapter, it mentions that Agatha's green dress is a current favorite and a birthday present from Lilith. This implies that Agatha's birthday was recent and a little prior to the start of the story. The novel also mentions that Agatha's last day at TPU starts on a cold March morning. Combined with the Lucrezia's winter coat that makes '92 almost certainly the year of the story.
Non canonical but mundane facts[]
We know from the tellers own statements that they like to recycle. There world has many similarities in geography to ours. Events not central to the plot seem similar to ours as well. Agatha, Phil has said the comic is a tribute to his wife Kaja.
We can also find out from authoritative sources the dates on which the moon was full for 1892 or 1893 in our world.
Now there is nothing that constrains the tellers to make these mundane facts relevant to the story. In the absence of other clues or a direct statement of denial from Phil or Kaja, we can use them for the basis of our best guesses.
If Agatha has a simliarity to Kaja perhaps she too was born in mid-January. From that we can choose 1892 for the year of the story. From the year and the phases of the moon we can pin down some of the dates in the story. As that would be madness I will leave this sane page and find a mad one in which to continue the airship of thought.