How far back is the past?

[romangoro]

Is there anything establishing or at least hinting how old is the court? Does anybody (including Tom) have an idea of how many generations have come and gone beteween the court's foundation and Annie and Kat's time?

At times it seems like a long, almost legendary time, but chapter 14 has bits that could be interpreted as pointing to only a few generations.

Did I miss something?

[Casey]

Well, in the Court historical holo-vids, The Artilleryman is seen wearing what looks to me like an English or possibly French mid-18th century soldier's uniform.

[cherubiel]

Jones told Annie that Eglamores Job of defending the Court was passed to him 'over the generations' during exactly that holo-session.
I guess between Sir Young and Sir Thorn is maybe one or two another generations.

I think no more than 100 years (probably less) have passed since the 'creation' of the Court.

[Casey]

I'm guessing more like 150 years, but really we're in about the same ballpark I think?

No one really knows the answer for sure, romangoro, except the Big Guy himself.

[Mezzaphor]

Dec 9, 2009 14:44:50 GMT Casey said:

Well, in the Court historical holo-vids, The Artilleryman is seen wearing what looks to me like an English or possibly French mid-18th century soldier's uniform.

Whereas Sir Young appears to be wearing a trenchcoat, an article of clothing that wasn't invented until after 1900.

I hold to the theory that either some sort of time warp was involved, or some sort of artistic license on the hologram programmer's part was involved.

[cripplerking]

Young is wearing some kind of crazy peacoat, a garment popularized by sailors in the 19th century.

www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=585

Also, it just occurred to me, is that a scarf or does Young have a beard tucked in his coat?

[Yin]

Scarf or ascot, probably.

[romangoro]

Thnks a lot for the informed

And they kind of match my especulations. "Between one and two centuries" seems a good estimation of the time. However, what I think it's odd is that:

- There remains little to no record of the early events in the court's history, and some of that isn't even in the court's posession, the recording in the current 25th chapter being a good example.
- However it seems (from chapter 23) that knowing that origin is a field of study, although it could be Jones' interests, not the court's.

So, if something as Gunnerkrigg court was founded a few years ago (in historical scales) why do they have so few records about themselves? There seems to be a mistery where it shouldn't.

Of course, that kind of oddities are the reason why I can't quit reading this comic.

[wynne]

That's precisely what makes me think the court is older than 1 or 2 centuries. We haven't seen anything of the world outside the Court and the Forest save a few glimpses of the hospital, but I'd bet that the Court is much more advanced technologically than the rest of the Gunnerverse. Plus, Diego's robots are almost certainly created with some sort of etheric help, whether it was conscious on Diego's part or not. Given that the holo-vids do have artistic license attached to them, and that the Court is old enough for there to be few records of when it was founded, I'd guess maybe four or five centuries old. That seems old enough that the past could be properly sketchy, but you could still have an artilleryman.

[Seth Thresher]

You also gotta take into account that this isn't technically our universe, so we can't just go around assuming that history holds perfect true. Remember - Eggie got knighted by the Queen of England, just not the queen we have today. Who knows what all else might have been different? It's close, very close, but different enough for story and awesome's sake.

[todd]

On the other hand, the pop culture references indicate that this world can't be too different from our own on the surface level. (Unless they're just "translation conventions", and Tom imagines the comic books and video games of the Gunnerkrigg Court universe to be different from those of the real world.)