Timeline issue

Am I the only one that feels there is something wrong with the timeline between At the Sigh of Triumph and TFT?

Clayithan is executed in February 899 when Crown-princess Alahna is 4, turning 5 in April.

In TFT, The Nahrmahn plan is instigate in 890 (5 years before Nahrmahn is killed and reawakened in VR!), and the TFT main story line runs from 901 to 916 at which point Alahna is a mature married woman. She gets married in November 911. At 17 Safeholdian years, she's only 14 standard years old at the time of marriage!

Is it just me, or should there have been a few more years in there?

We think that that 890 entry was a typo - and were a bit disappointed that it wasn't fixed in the printed books.

As for Alannah, I wouldn't be dreadfully surprised to find that 17-20 local age isn't all that unusual for aristocratic marriages - and she, at least, has access to effective contraception. However, I'd want to track down her actual date of birth, as I have a vague recollection of it being closer to 891 than 894.

MartinBV wrote:Am I the only one that feels there is something wrong with the timeline between At the Sigh of Triumph and TFT?

Clayithan is executed in February 899 when Crown-princess Alahna is 4, turning 5 in April.

In TFT, The Nahrmahn plan is instigate in 890 (5 years before Nahrmahn is killed and reawakened in VR!), and the TFT main story line runs from 901 to 916 at which point Alahna is a mature married woman. She gets married in November 911. At 17 Safeholdian years, she's only 14 standard years old at the time of marriage!

Is it just me, or should there have been a few more years in there?

I just checked, and Alahnah was born in July 894, which would make her 21 as of the Visitation at the end of TFT.

I seem to recall something about aristocratic marriages tending to be at younger ages than middle-class marriages, but I don't recall which book it was in. If I find it, I'll post the reference.

In a lot of contexts, non-aristocratic marriages were delayed by the need to afford to establish a new household. So people married in mid-to-late twenties when they could afford to move out of their parent's house (or the equivalent). For aristocratic marriages, money usually wasn't an issue and it was more important to get the next generation going. That means (in a lot of times and places) they tended to marry younger than the general population.

Julia Minor wrote:I just checked, and Alahnah was born in July 894, which would make her 21 as of the Visitation at the end of TFT.

I seem to recall something about aristocratic marriages tending to be at younger ages than middle-class marriages, but I don't recall which book it was in. If I find it, I'll post the reference.

I don't recall which book made the statement, but it's in the context of one of Merlin's musings about the setup in Safehold. The underlying drivers are economic.

For most folks, marriage occurs later. The CoGA wants to make sure that couples are properly established, and will be able to raise and support the large families they are expected to have.

Among the nobility, supporting the expected brood isn't seen as a problem, because they have wealth. The critical factor is producing heirs and forming dynastic alliances, and agreements between families that a marriage should happen between betrothed couples may be made well before either party in the marriage is old enough to have an opinion. The families matter. The feelings of the individuals likely aren't a concern. They don't have to love or even like one another - just produce heirs and cement alliances. (And the woman in such a match may be known to be pregnant when they stand at the altar to exchange vows with their husband, or even have a child. Conservatives may cluck at the impropriety, but it won't be a matter of scandal,)

Among the very poor, relationships are likely to be far more informal, with corresponding variance in just when children are produced.
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Dennis

MartinBV wrote:Am I the only one that feels there is something wrong with the timeline between At the Sigh of Triumph and TFT?

Clayithan is executed in February 899 when Crown-princess Alahna is 4, turning 5 in April.

In TFT, The Nahrmahn plan is instigate in 890 (5 years before Nahrmahn is killed and reawakened in VR!), and the TFT main story line runs from 901 to 916 at which point Alahna is a mature married woman. She gets married in November 911. At 17 Safeholdian years, she's only 14 standard years old at the time of marriage!

Is it just me, or should there have been a few more years in there?

It's a dfferent culture. It has different customs. In some parts of the Unted States, a woman your estimated age could currently legally marry.

MartinBV wrote:Am I the only one that feels there is something wrong with the timeline between At the Sigh of Triumph and TFT?

Clayithan is executed in February 899 when Crown-princess Alahna is 4, turning 5 in April.

In TFT, The Nahrmahn plan is instigate in 890 (5 years before Nahrmahn is killed and reawakened in VR!), and the TFT main story line runs from 901 to 916 at which point Alahna is a mature married woman. She gets married in November 911. At 17 Safeholdian years, she's only 14 standard years old at the time of marriage!

Is it just me, or should there have been a few more years in there?

Actually, she would be closer to 16, not 14. Re read the parts about Hector and Iris getting married for where I get that conversation. Also, I believe one of Himself’s info-dumps gives us the exact ratio of conversion.