Timeline of Jijo - David Brin's Uplift Universe

This page contains spoilers about Brightness Reef and Infinity's Shore. Those who haven't read those books and plan to read them should exit immediately. I will refer to these books by their initials, BR and IS.

This page is under construction. Help would be greatly appreciated.

The official David Brin site is www.davidbrin.com, and it includes samples of the books. The complete Uplift timeline can be found at Stewart Blandón's site or at Trent Shipley's site

I am also building an Uplift timeline, that is more "canonical" than the above timeline, since mine is based on the books.

Units of Time

Many different time units are used in the Uplift Storm Trilogy. I will try to summarize them:

Terran units (year, month, day, hour, minute, second). Probably used by Earthlings, but not by Daniks or Humans of Jijo.
Jijo units (year, month, day). Probably used by Jijoans. I don't know yet how to correlate Jijo's Month (also referred as Lunar Cycle) with the three moons. I've been testing those hypotheses:
- The Lunar Cycle corresponds to Loocen's Synodic Period. This can't be true, because Loocen's Synodic Period [the period between two New Moons] is too small
- The Lunar Cycle corresponds to Torgen's or Passen's Synodic Period. This might be rejected, because it doesn't make sense to use a lesser Moon to define a Lunar Cycle.
- The Lunar Cycle corresponds to some combination of the Two Biggest Moons - Loocen and Torgen - for example, the 1st day of each month corresponding to their conjunction.
- The Lunar Cycle corresponds to some combination of the Three Moons. This would require that the Three Moons would have their orbital motions somehow correlated. This is good, because IMHO the only way an Earth-like planet can have three moons of appreciable size is when those three moons are locked up into a resonance [like Jupiter's Io, Europa and Ganimedes]. The 1st day of each month would then correspond to some relative configuration of the three, for example, Loocen and Torgen in conjunction and Passen 90 degrees behind them.
Galactic units (midura, pidura, etc).

These units can be related by:

Jijo Year 1930 has 17 Jijo Months (Alvin, in the beginning of BR). It's not possible to know if this relation is valid for all Jijo Years, but I conjecture that Jijo must use a luni-solar calendar [like Earth's Jewish Calendar].
In BR, VIII, Lark, Ling tells Lark that Humans entered Galactic Civilization 350 Jijo Years ago. Using the number in the Uplift Timeline of 280 Earth Years for this same period, we can get an accurate ratio for the ratio (Jijo Year):(Earth Year). A Jijo Year has 292.2 Earth Days. The numbers in the Uplift Timeline do not fit the books (check my Error Page), but this period of 280 Earth Years still holds - approximately. This period may be anything from Earth Years, for a duration of a Jijo Year varying from Earth Days.
The Glossary of IS translates the Galactic units into Earth units:
```
1 dura   = 1/3 minute
1 jadura = 43 hours
1 kidura = 1/2 second
1 midura = 71 minutes
1 pidura = 6⁷ duras =~ 4 days
```
Last relation is a typographical error; using 350 * 17 Jijo Months = 280 * Earth Years = 280 * 365.25 * 1440 minutes, we get 4 Jijo Months = 99004 minutes; using 1 midura = 6³ duras we get 1 pidura = 6⁴ miduras = 6⁴ * 71 minutes = 92016 minutes. In other words, 1 pidura is almost 4 Jijo Months, and not 4 Jijo days. The other units fit into a base 6 system:
```
1 kidura = 6^-2 duras = 1/2 second
1 dura   = 6⁰ duras = 1/3 minute
1 midura = 6³ duras = 71 minutes
1 jadura = 6⁵ duras = 43 hours
1 pidura = 6⁷ duras = 4 Jijo Months or 2 Earth Months
```
Half Jijo Day is, at least, 5 miduras long: in BR, II.Book of the Slope, Dwer, Dwer sets 5 tobar seeds to be consumed during the night, each one taking a midura.
This gives an upper limit of (Jijo Year:Jijo Day) = (Jijo Year:Earth Day) / (Jijo Day:Earth Day) = / (Jijo Day:Midura) * (Earth Day:Minute) / (Midura:Minute) = / (2 * 5) * 1440 / 71 = Jijo Days per Jijo Year. On the other hand, Humans seem well adapted to Jijo's cycle of day and night, so Jijo's day can't be longer than 48 hours, giving a lower limit of (Jijo Year:Jijo Day) = (Jijo Year:Earth Day) / (Jijo Day:Earth Day) = Jijo Days per Jijo Year.
Also, when the Urunthai take Sara, Emerson, and other people, they begin travelling after Sunset, and there are at least 3 miduras before midnight. This gives an upper limit of (Jijo Year:Jijo Day) = Jijo Days per Jijo Year.

Using the above relations as starting points and doing some lenghty computations based on the books, it's possible to conclude that:

Jijo Year 1930 (when all action of BR and IS happen - not counting, of course, flashbacks) must have between Jijo days.
a Jijo Day, then, corresponds to (Jijo Day:Earth Day) = (Jijo Year:Earth Day) / (Jijo Year:Jijo Day) = Earth days.
Using Galactic Units, a Jijo Day corresponds to miduras.
In one midura, Jijo rotates - relative to Jijo's Sun - of an angle between degrees.

Timeline, by days

I still can't fit all events into a unique timeline, because there are too many ambiguities. For example, if we follow Sara from the day she left Dolo Dam to the day she arrives in Mount Guenn, it seems that only a few days have elapsed. But this period corresponds to the date of the arrival of the Rothen until two days after the Battle of the Glade, and (in other characters' accounts) this period is months long! So, we must assume that Sara spend a long time in Tarek Town and in Biblos!

The errors that are obvious are marked in Red with the suggested correction in Green . Deductions are in Blue .

I decided to break the timeline into five sets, each set, internally, with fixed dates.

Reference: arrival of the Rothen

Book reference	Day	Hour	Event	Loocen	Torgen	Passen
BR II. Asx	0	noon	The Rothen/Danik ship lands in the Gathering Glade
BR II. Sara	1	00:00 or so	Meeting in Dolo Dam	rising
BR IV. Sara	1	dawn	Sara et al leave Dolo Dam in ship Hauph-woa down river Roney
BR IV. Sara	1	sunset	Ship Hauph-woa reaches Unity Point
BR IV. Sara	2	00:00 +/- some hours	River Roney lit by two moons	not visible	visible	visible
BR VI. Sara	2	morning	Ship Hauph-woa is ambushed in Bing Village
BR VIII. Sara	2	mid-afternoon	Ship Hauph-woa reaches Canyon Country
BR X. Sara	2	late afternoon	Concert in ship Hauph-woa to celebrate The Stranger's recovery
BR X. Sara	2	almost nightfall	Ship Hauph-woa arrives in Tarek Town

Reference: Robot Battle in One-of-a-Kind's Lair

Some events of this partial timeline overlap the events of the above timeline. However, I can't get an exact correlation between the two.

Book reference	Day	Hour	Event	Loocen	Torgen	Passen
BR II. Asx	-3 or -2	noon	The Rothen/Danik ship lands in the Gathering Glade
BR II. Dwer	-2	1/2 midura before sunset	Dwer captures a glaver in the Rimmers
BR II. Dwer	-1	before dawn	Rety steals Dwer's bow
BR II. Dwer	-1	pre dawn	Dwer wakes and notices that his bow had been stolen	hovering over sillouetted peaks
BR VI. Dwer	0	nightfall	A Danik Robot attacks the Bird-Robot In the battle, they destroy each other while destroying One-of-a-Kind

Reference: Battle of the Glade

Book reference	Day	Hour	Event	Loocen	Torgen	Passen
BR XX. Sara	-4 or -3	sunset	Sara et al leave Biblos at sunset
implicit	-3 or -2		Sara et al reach Kandu Landing
BR XXIV. Sara	-2	sunset	Sara et al leave Kandu Landing and begin the crossing of Warril Plain
BR XXIV. Sara	-1	dawn	Sara et al come to Uryutta's Oasis	visible before dawn
BR XX. Lark	-1	afternoon	Lark begins writing letter to Sara to be delivered to Biblos
BR XXIV. Sara	-1	afternoon	UrKachu's Urunthai take control of Caravan Books burned Jop's companions come before sundown
BR XX. Lark	-1	sunset	The Danik scoutship leaves Gathering Glade and goes to the Gray Hills	rising
BR XXII. Dwer	-1	a midura past sunset	The Danik scoutship passes over Dwer in its way to the Gray Hills
BR XXIV. Sara	-1	post-sunset of BR_p503	Caravan split in two Faster group goes South Moonlit pool with Blade		not visible; see below
BR XXIV. Sara	-1	post-sunset of BR_p503 + at least 2 miduras	Second blood-stop		rising
BR XX. Asx	-1	night	Zealots destroy the buried Rothen cube using explosives	two moons casting beams at crater
BR XXIV. Sara	-1	post-sunset of BR_p503 + at least 3 miduras = midnight	Third (?) blood-stop
BR XXIV. Sara	0	dawn	Sara et al stop at dawn, outside Warril Plain
BR XXIV. Lark	0	morning	Lester Cambel turns on the psi-emiters
BR XXII. Dwer	0	during the day	lots of stream crossings in the Gray Hills
BR XXVI. Sara	0	afternoon	Urunthai and Jop's fanatics are subdued by the Good Guys
BR XXVIII. Sara	0	sunset	Blade comes with Ulgor
BR XXVIII. Sara	0	sunset + several miduras		up in the sky
BR XXIV. Asx	0	after sunset	The Rothen Ship returns in search for Ro-kenn et al
BR XXVIII. Lark	0	night	Polkjhy, the Jophur Ship, arrives on Jijo
BR XXVIII. Sara	1	00:00	Rothen ship returns Jophur ship comes Emerson returns with donkeys Ulashtu and the Ilias come
IS Part One, Sooners, Sara	1	00:00 h to 03:00?	Running South with Ilias through Central Slope	not visible but should be visible	not visible	pale light
IS Part One, Sooners, Sara	1	03:00? h to sunrise	Running South with Ilias through Central Slope		rising
IS Sooners The Stranger	1	sunrise	flashbacks of Emerson
BR XXII. Dwer	1	morning	Dwer at al are blocked by a mighty ravine; party splits, searching for a pass
IS Part Two, Lark	1	probably during the day	Ling sees Lark and Uthen's book in late One of a Kind's lair
IS Part Two, Sara	1	midday to sunset	crossing of Great Marsh
IS Part Two, Sara	1	sunset	Arrival at River Gentt Party enters Tunnel under River Gentt
IS Part Three, Sara	2	afternoon	Arrival at the city of Xi, in the Spectral Flow	not visible	not visible	not visible
IS Part Three, Sara	2	sunset; few miduras after Sara arrived at Xi	Rest of Horsewomen and Urs arrive at the city of Xi	not visible	not visible	near far west horizont but should be in the eastern part of the sky
IS Part Five, Emerson	2 and 3	from sunset to sunrise	Emerson at Xi	visible during the night, probably rises during the night
IS Part Five, Sara	3	day	Sara et al go from Xi to Mount Guenn Sara suffers an accident while climbing
BR XXII. Dwer	3	noon	Dwer arrives at Falls He detects Ul-Tahni's band, that had been here
BR XXII. Dwer	5 to 7		Dwer returns to Falls with Lena, Jeni and Danel
BR XXII. Dwer	6, 7, and 8	from 00:00 to 06:00	Dwer's tactic: wake after midnight and scout under the light of two small moons		visible	visible
IS Part Three, Dwer	10	day	The Danik aircraft is bombing the Rift

Reference: aerial battle in the Gray Hills beach

This table overlaps nicely with the above table, with a 10 days difference. In other words, the aerial battle at the Grey Hills beach happens exactly 10 days after the Battle of the Glade.

Book reference	Day	Hour	Event	Loocen	Torgen	Passen
BR XXII. Dwer	-5 to -3		Dwer returns to Falls with Lena, Jeni and Danel
BR XXVI. Rety	-3	?	Ul-Tahni and 12 urs are imprisoned in Rety's Band's Prison
BR XXVI. Dwer	-2	evening	Dwer expedition plans next action pre-moonrise dimness	not visible	not visible	not visible or should it be visible?
BR XXVI. Dwer	-1	a midura after midnight	Dwer wakes up Danel is trying to talk to Mudfoot	two moons rising
BR XXVI. Dwer	-1	morning	Kunn and Jass leave the Gray Hills and go to the Gray Hills beach Dwer, Lena and Danel attack the Danik Robot Danel Ozawa is killed The Danik Robot, carrying Dwer, Mudfoot, Rety, and Yee, go South
IS Part Three, Dwer	0	day	The Danik aircraft is bombing the Rift
IS Part Three, Dwer	0	day	A Jophur corvette battles with the Danik airplane
IS Part Six, Dwer	0	1/2 midura after nightfall	Dwer plans attack against Jophur corvette	not visible	not visible	visible
IS Part Seven, Kaa	1	00:00 - 12:00	Dolphin raid in Gray Hills beach captures Kunn, Jass and the Jophur Dwer, Mudfoot, Rety, and Yee enter the submarine Hikahi
IS Part Seven, Kaa	2	morning	Kaa and Peepoe leave Kaa's Outpost and go to a cave near the volcano
IS Part Eight, Kaa	4 to 9	day	Mopol and Zhaki atack Kaa and kidnap Peepoe

Reference: capture of Biblos by the Jophur

Book reference	Day	Hour	Event	Loocen	Torgen	Passen
IS Part Eight, Kaa	-1	day	Mopol and Zhaki atack Kaa and kidnap Peepoe
IS Part Eight, Blade	-1	afternoon	Blade departs from the ruins of Ovoom Town in a baloon	going to set after sunset	going to rise after Loocen sets
IS Part Nine, Kaa	0	00:00 - 06:00	Kaa saves a hoon from drowning, at Wuphon Port	not visible	rising
IS Part Nine, Nelo	0	morning	The Jophur capture Biblos
Maybe it's necessary to add one day here
IS Part Nine, Kaa	0	nightfall	The Submarine Hikahi enters Wuphon Port
IS Part Nine, Alvin	0	18:00 - 24:00	After meeting of Gillian and Uriel Heavy clouds cover Western sky	visible in the East, close to Izmunuti
IS Part Ten, Dwer	0	00:00 plus or minus some hours	Dwer begins his Baloon trip
IS Part Ten, Dwer	1	at sunrise	Polkjhy races towards ballons
IS Part Ten, Gillian	1	soon after sunrise	Streaker leaves Jijo	between Jijo and Izmunuti

My Hypotheses

Loocen lower than Torgen ?

All the books refer to Loocen as the first and Torgen as the second moon; I guessed that this was size and distance from Jijo. This has to be checked against the books.

Jijo Month = Loocen Synodic Month ?

Using the fact that Asx refers to the date of the Rothen arrival as

It was springtime, early in the second lunar cycle of the nineteen hundred and thirtieth year of our exile-and-crime, when the Rothen arrived, manifesting unwelcome in our sky. (...)

(BR, II. Book of the Slope, Asx), together with a statistical overlap of my estimations of a Jijo Month and Loocen's synodic period, I supposed that a Jijo Month were the period from a New Loocen to the next New Loocen.

However, this hypothesis can be easily disproven. Early in a lunar synodic month means that the Moon is Waxing Crescent, or that the Moon sets during the night (soon after New Moon it sets soon after sunset; and just before Full Moon it sets just before sunrise; but it never rises during the night - see The Moon: an Introduction for more details about the phases of the Moon). But in Chapter II Dwer, at the time Rety steals his bow, he observes Loocen over sillouetted peaks before dawn, and in Chapter II Sara there is a meeting in the night after the Rothen arrival, and Loocen rises during this meeting

Using an other origin for Loocen's Month still can't give the correct number of days per month, because Loocen Synodic Month is too small.

Jijo Month = Torgen Synodic Month ?

I tested this hypothesis hoping that it would not be true; Torgen is the second moon (probably only in brightness but not in distance from Jijo), and there's no reason it would be chosen as the month reference.

Alas, I guess I can disprove it with a reasonable certainty: from the tables, above, notice three Torgen risings from the period from midnight to dawn; these three risings are set apart by at least 5 days (see BR p.543, IS p.38, and IS p.503), later when I find time to write what I calculated O:-)

Under Construction

Preliminary Numbers:

Loocen Synodic Period from 4 to 8 Jijo Days
Torgen Synodic Period from 4 to 12 Jijo Days
Passen Synodic Period above 2 Jijo Days

The Timeline

This timeline uses Jijo units of Time. When a date in Earth units is more accurate than the date in Jijo units, I will give it. Otherwise, chech my Brin Timeline.

Like my other timelines, I will put some arrows to help the reader follow some characters. However, I decided to represent uncertainty by a color code, from green, representing a direct quote from the canon, to red, when the canon can only give an approximate date. Or: Error > 1000 Years, Error 100-999 Years, Error 10-99 Years, Error 1-9 Years, Exact Year.