Joseph asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Regarding Barrayar's Time Of Isolation, if I've got the timeline about right: 0-90 years, still had a dwindling tech base; 100-400, Bloody Centuries, regression to Agricultural Age; 400-450, Unification under the Emperor and canonization of the Vor caste; 450-600, Golden Age of the Vor; ~600 years, End of the ToI; ~625, Cetagandan Invasion; ~645, Aral born, ~650, Barrayar freed. Roughly on target?

Lois McMaster Bujold I've never worked out the timeline in detail (and if I ever had, the paper I'd have written it on would be long gone by now anyway.) But, sure, roughly right. I put the Ceta invasion ~15 years after the end of the ToI, and it lasted ~ 20 years. I'd put Dorca's unification later, since he survived right up to and through most of the Occupation; although he might have been merely the emperor to finish, rather than start and finish, that political process. I've never established when Aral was born in relation to the end of the Cetas, but, if not before, soon after. Have no idea what you mean by "canonization of the Vor caste", although equipping them with and/or shooting them from cannons would occur toward the middle-to-end of the ToI.

Ta, L.

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