Welcome to the Rules'verse
The Rules'verse is my Faith/Giles post-Chosen series. I'm still actively working on this, and things are becoming complex in terms of time, and the verse has expanded beyond the original F/G focus. So here's a full timeline to explain all; spoilers, obviously, for later in the series. If you prefer to read them as originally written, there's also a Rulesverse tag which will give you them in reverse order.
The series is mildly AU from Chosen, and picks up only a few points from the comics.
The Faith/Giles Fics, more or less in chronological order.
First Blast of the Trumpet
Breaking the Rules*
Morning After
Sequential, Inconsequential
On Top of the World
Learn to Fly, Higher than an Eagle and Together Flying High
Long Distance*
New Worlds of Fear
Theory and Practice*
Au Bois Dormant
Destiny, Meet Reality
Bringing it Home
The Grit in the Oyster
The Turning of the Year - One- Two- Three- Four- Five- Six- Seven
Goodbye to All That
*If you're new to the verse and confused, try starting with these three, which are the foundation fics.
Also in the Rulesverse
Heroes subseries on the development of the post-Chosen Council: more admin, less shipping
Being Heroes^
Of Gods and Heroes^
Heroic Couplets^
Clay-footed Heroes^
How to Make a Hero^
Through the Wintergate
Spike/Buffy subseries
Crossing
To the Heart
Working Compromise
Draw Back the Curtain
Home is the Hunter Part One- Part Two- Part Three- Part Four- Part Five
Winds Blowing Chill
The Wide and Starry Sky (with Wesley and Illyria)
Perfect Day
More Stories Set in the Rulesverse:
Ensemble: On the Nature of Things
Swarm
Buffy and Faith talk motherhood: The Sisterhood
Willow: In the Wolf's Mouth
Dawn/Vi and Key issues: Death is Her Gift
Team Angel in the Rulesverse: One for the Team, part I, Part II, Part III (complete)
In the Candy Store, Harmony and Lorne
Gunn's life in the Rulesverse: Five things Charles Gunn never believed would happen to him
Ensemble fics around a great future battle: Dispatches From the War Prologue; The First Battles Part 1, Part Two, Part Three; Great War of Wolf and Ram; Epitaph One: Reunion; Epitaph Two: Reunions; Epitaph Three: The More Things Change, Epitaph Four: At the Core
Schmoop and mundane bingo fics: a set of challenges that take forward the Rulesverse and its relationships
Counting Blessings, Love Is..., Peanut Butter Badness, Community History, Ensemble
Taking Steps, Anyplace is Paradise, Agrodolce and Two Steps Forward, Midnight Fears, Xander/Cordelia
Blindsided and Strategic Overview, Gunn/Caridad
Who Do I Think You Are, Nesting, What Matters, Spike/Buffy
Where the River Takes You, Calendar Moment and With a Parachute, Willow/Oz/OFC
Cheers But Does Not Inebriate, Slip of the Tongue, Far Seeing, Half-Light, Boldly Going, Illyria/Wesley, plus Each Other Now Embrace, a festive ficlet
Real Dreams, First Time, Complementary, Vi/Dawn
Warming Up, Rockery, Social Discomfort, The Battle of Buttercream, Tropical Storm Faith, Faith/Giles
Polyglot, Lorne
Just Right, Sam/Riley
Broken Windows, Connor
The Timeline
May 2003 Chosen. Swarm is a moment in the aftermath.
Aug 2003 The new HQ for the Slayer Council is identified and the new ways of working are starting to build. From now on, Giles works from HQ and essentially lives in the castle, while Slayers come and go around him. Being Heroes 1 is set now.
Oct 2003 Buffy finds out Spike is alive/undead, but he stays in LA until NFA. Crossing runs from now till spring 2004.
Dec 2003 The Turning of the Year 1; The First Blast of the Trumpet
2003-04 Faith has duties in Colombia intermittently, setting up the operation in the region. But she is also regularly at HQ and closely involved in training squads of new Slayers.
April 2004 Breaking the Rules 1: F/G gets started with a *ahem* bang. Morning After Dawn sees the after-effects.
May 2004 Sequential, Inconsequential F/G is still rolling, much to Giles's surprise; though On Top of the World highlights the disparity of their strenghth. And Heroic Couplets 1: Buffy finally sticks her oar in about F/G
June-Nov 2004 To the Heart, Of Gods and Heroes: after a less-fatal Not Fade Away, the Council goes about absorbing Angel Inc. Buffy and Illyria achieve a Working Compromise. Meanwhile in LA One For the Team, part one
Sept 2004 Draw Back the Curtain: Spike and Buffy meet the First Slayer, and discover they've made a choice.
Oct 2004 On the Nature of Things 1
Nov 2004 Home is the Hunter 1: Spike accepts the Delenteria quest.
Dec 2004 The Turning of the Year 2
February 2005 On the Nature of Things 2
April 2005 Breaking the Rules 2 Shaiban monastery library tragedy discovered. Home is the Hunter 2 begins here.
2005 Both Faith and Giles are based at HQ, Faith is taking training duties full time.
Team Angel are getting set up as the Slayer Support training. Willow visits to look at a major piece of magic One for the Team part two
Just Right: the Initiative comes to the party
June 2005 Being Heroes 2: Faith already has itchy feet
Nov 2005 How to Make a Hero: Faith trains her fourth squad
January 2006 Learn to Fly, Higher than an Eagle and Together Flying High: Faith and Giles go on a mission to Pylea. It turns out that Slayer power manifests itself pretty literally in the other dimension.
April 2006 Breaking the Rules 3: Faith takes the North Asia assignment - Giles faces the music. Also this month, Spike turns 151: Who Do I Think You Are
August 2006 One for the Team part three: Willow returns to LA and wakens Cordelia from her coma. It's not the happiest awakening. About now Broken Windows brings Connor into the fold.
September 2006 Clay-footed Heroes: Buffy finds the SSO training is getting out of hand
November 2006 Counting Blessings: the Council reviews the year's successes
Dec 2006-Jan 2007 The Turning of the Year 3
April 2007 Home is the Hunter 2: Spike is still questing, Dawn is qualifying
June 2007 Gunn and Caridad connect: Blindsided. Sometime around now Lorne is welcoming in new SSOs in Polyglot
Autumn 2007 In the Wolf's Mouth: Willow is struggling with the magics.
Jan 2008 Heroic Couplets 2 and Breaking the Rules 2: Tzipi dies and Faith is injured in the Ulan Bator disaster. Faith returns to HQ to recover, but is back on duty within weeks.
March 2008 Home is the Hunter 4 and the core of Winds Blowing Chill: Buffy wants a baby. Spike can't provide.
April 2008 Through the Wintergate: Xander, Vi and Erik investigate a lost Council secret
Aug 2008 Faith is in Irkutsk until the move to Chita (Long Distance).
18 Sept 2008 Breaking the Rules 1: North Asia final victory over the Big Bad
October 2008 Home is the Hunter 4(contd). The Delenteria quest goes very bad. Buffy is pregnant.
Meanwhile, Gunn and Caridad are getting married, Strategic Overview and Harmony's having dating problems, In the Candy Store
1 Nov 2008 Breaking the Rules 0: Faith returns to HQ to celebrate the North Asia victory; Giles proposes
Nov 2008 Theory and Practice 1: as immediate marriage as they can manage
25 Dec 2008 The Turning of the Year 4
January 2009 Wesley and Illyria have germs: Cheers But Does Not Inebriate. Buffy and Faith talk about babies: The Sisterhood part I
Feb/March 2009 Spike and Buffy resolve some issues. Part of The Wide and Starry Sky takes place here, having started in September 2008.
April 2009 Annelise (Annie) Summers-Smith is born to Buffy and Spike. Winds Blowing Chill resolves. Sadly, they have yet to sort out her nursery: Nesting
February 2010 Xander and Cordelia reconnect Taking Steps
March 2010 Home is the Hunter 5 Delenteria is resolved. Dawn discovers quite a lot about the Key. The Wide and Starry Sky resolves too.
April 2010 On the Nature of Things 3 Annie's first birthday
May 2010 New worlds of fear: Faith and Giles are having a baby. Meep. Sometimes around now, Faith also rescues Giles from a rocky death: Rockery. Buffy and Faith talk babies again, with a new perspective: The Sisterhood part 2
10 June 2010 Faith takes Scandinavian assignment
July 2010 Slip of the Tongue Illyria leaks some glad tidings. Real Dreams, Vi and Dawn watch the sky
2 Sept 2010 Theory and Practice 2: Scandinavian bear demons slayed by a very pregnant Faith. Heroic Couplets 3 Spike and Giles bond (slightly) over being Slayer menfolk.
September 2010 Far Seeing: Wesley and Illyria contemplate human miracles
October 2010 On the Nature of Things 4 More about the Key
4 Nov 2010 Theory and Practice 3: Michael Giles (Mike) is born to Faith and (Rupert) Giles.
5 Nov 2010 Heroic Couplets 4: Buffy meets Mike
November 2010 Spike and Buffy celebrate a covert anniversary: What Matters
Dec 2010 Theory and Practice 4: Faith hits rock bottom with night feeds.
January 2011 Death is Her Gift (flashback) Illyria tells Dawn the Key is immortal
March 2011 Aurora (Rorie) Summers-Smith is born to Buffy and Spike
May 2011 Theory and Practice 5: Faith goes back to active field duty in Scandinavia
July-September 2011 Willow meets Oz and Talia, and returns to Slayer Central to fix a crisis Where the River Takes You, Calendar Moment, With a Parachute
Oct 2011 Au Bois Dormant Rogue vegetation at the castle
Nov 2011 First Time: Dawn and Vi play the piano
Dec 2011 The Turning of the Year 5
January 2012 Warming Up, Faith is having some time alone in Sweden. Giles helps her pass the time.
June 2012 Destiny, Meet Reality: Giles and Mike see Stockholm, with hilarious consequences.
August 2012 Xander and Cordelia have some power outage problems; they deal. Anyplace is Paradise
cSep 2012 Faith returns to the UK and takes up the Head of Fieldwork post
October 2012 Being Heroes 3: Buffy retires as Chief Slayer and becomes a regional squad head in California: Faith, Kennedy and Vi become section heads and alternate chiefs
cNov 2012 The Grit in the Oyster 5: Kat starts as nanny
December 2013 Each Other Now Embrace: Wesley and Illyria hold Christmas with Spike, Buffy and their family
March 2013 Death is Her Gift Vi realises what to do about the Key and Bringing It Home: Buffy is seriously injured in California.
April 2013 Heroic Couplets 5: Buffy comes home to Slayer headquarters. Half-Light Wesley and Illyria try to recover from their loss.
June 2013 The Grit in the Oyster 4: Giles and Faith misbehave in graveyards
Autumn 2013 The Grit in the Oyster 3: Mike manifests disturbing Giles-ish behaviours and The Grit in the Oyster 2: Faith has committee issues and the Council agree to work on a force predictor to manage threats. Peanut Butter Badness: Summers women make cookies. Death is Her Gift resolves about now too.
Dec 24 2013 The Turning of the Year 6
early February 2014 Agrodolce Xander and Cordelia come to an agreement
14 February 2014 Love Is...: Valentine schmoop for Rulesverse couples
April 2014 The Grit in the Oyster 1: Rosy is born
June 2014 On the Nature of Things 5: another graduation of Slayers and support officers
Oct 2014 Social Discomfort. Faith and Giles host a dinner party. Kind of.
April 2015 The Battle of Buttercream. It's Rosy's first birthday.
sometime 2015 Complementary: Vi has thinky thoughts about souls. Boldly Going, Wesley and Illyria have a talk
Oct 2015 Dispatches From the War Prologue and Part One: the Council members prepare for war. The war continues into 2016 and the Dispatches stories should be read in order for the next year.
Sept 2016 Five things Charles Gunn never believed would happen to him resolves now and fits into the Dispatches series.
October 2016 Dispatches from the War concludes now.
Sometime 2017 Community History. Sharing some memories.
Dec 2018 The Turning of the Year 7
November 2019 Two Steps Forward: Xander and Cordelia face a difficult future
March 2020 Midnight Fears: Xander and Cordelia are still struggling with the future.
June 2020 Tropical Storm Faith: a summer picnic for the Lehane-Giles family. It rains. Perfect Day: Spike and Buffy have their own terrile picnic too.
Feb 2021 Goodbye to All That Giles retires
The series is mildly AU from Chosen, and picks up only a few points from the comics.
The Faith/Giles Fics, more or less in chronological order.
First Blast of the Trumpet
Breaking the Rules*
Morning After
Sequential, Inconsequential
On Top of the World
Learn to Fly, Higher than an Eagle and Together Flying High
Long Distance*
New Worlds of Fear
Theory and Practice*
Au Bois Dormant
Destiny, Meet Reality
Bringing it Home
The Grit in the Oyster
The Turning of the Year - One- Two- Three- Four- Five- Six- Seven
Goodbye to All That
*If you're new to the verse and confused, try starting with these three, which are the foundation fics.
Also in the Rulesverse
Heroes subseries on the development of the post-Chosen Council: more admin, less shipping
Being Heroes^
Of Gods and Heroes^
Heroic Couplets^
Clay-footed Heroes^
How to Make a Hero^
Through the Wintergate
Spike/Buffy subseries
Crossing
To the Heart
Working Compromise
Draw Back the Curtain
Home is the Hunter Part One- Part Two- Part Three- Part Four- Part Five
Winds Blowing Chill
The Wide and Starry Sky (with Wesley and Illyria)
Perfect Day
More Stories Set in the Rulesverse:
Ensemble: On the Nature of Things
Swarm
Buffy and Faith talk motherhood: The Sisterhood
Willow: In the Wolf's Mouth
Dawn/Vi and Key issues: Death is Her Gift
Team Angel in the Rulesverse: One for the Team, part I, Part II, Part III (complete)
In the Candy Store, Harmony and Lorne
Gunn's life in the Rulesverse: Five things Charles Gunn never believed would happen to him
Ensemble fics around a great future battle: Dispatches From the War Prologue; The First Battles Part 1, Part Two, Part Three; Great War of Wolf and Ram; Epitaph One: Reunion; Epitaph Two: Reunions; Epitaph Three: The More Things Change, Epitaph Four: At the Core
Schmoop and mundane bingo fics: a set of challenges that take forward the Rulesverse and its relationships
Counting Blessings, Love Is..., Peanut Butter Badness, Community History, Ensemble
Taking Steps, Anyplace is Paradise, Agrodolce and Two Steps Forward, Midnight Fears, Xander/Cordelia
Blindsided and Strategic Overview, Gunn/Caridad
Who Do I Think You Are, Nesting, What Matters, Spike/Buffy
Where the River Takes You, Calendar Moment and With a Parachute, Willow/Oz/OFC
Cheers But Does Not Inebriate, Slip of the Tongue, Far Seeing, Half-Light, Boldly Going, Illyria/Wesley, plus Each Other Now Embrace, a festive ficlet
Real Dreams, First Time, Complementary, Vi/Dawn
Warming Up, Rockery, Social Discomfort, The Battle of Buttercream, Tropical Storm Faith, Faith/Giles
Polyglot, Lorne
Just Right, Sam/Riley
Broken Windows, Connor
The Timeline
May 2003 Chosen. Swarm is a moment in the aftermath.
Aug 2003 The new HQ for the Slayer Council is identified and the new ways of working are starting to build. From now on, Giles works from HQ and essentially lives in the castle, while Slayers come and go around him. Being Heroes 1 is set now.
Oct 2003 Buffy finds out Spike is alive/undead, but he stays in LA until NFA. Crossing runs from now till spring 2004.
Dec 2003 The Turning of the Year 1; The First Blast of the Trumpet
2003-04 Faith has duties in Colombia intermittently, setting up the operation in the region. But she is also regularly at HQ and closely involved in training squads of new Slayers.
April 2004 Breaking the Rules 1: F/G gets started with a *ahem* bang. Morning After Dawn sees the after-effects.
May 2004 Sequential, Inconsequential F/G is still rolling, much to Giles's surprise; though On Top of the World highlights the disparity of their strenghth. And Heroic Couplets 1: Buffy finally sticks her oar in about F/G
June-Nov 2004 To the Heart, Of Gods and Heroes: after a less-fatal Not Fade Away, the Council goes about absorbing Angel Inc. Buffy and Illyria achieve a Working Compromise. Meanwhile in LA One For the Team, part one
Sept 2004 Draw Back the Curtain: Spike and Buffy meet the First Slayer, and discover they've made a choice.
Oct 2004 On the Nature of Things 1
Nov 2004 Home is the Hunter 1: Spike accepts the Delenteria quest.
Dec 2004 The Turning of the Year 2
February 2005 On the Nature of Things 2
April 2005 Breaking the Rules 2 Shaiban monastery library tragedy discovered. Home is the Hunter 2 begins here.
2005 Both Faith and Giles are based at HQ, Faith is taking training duties full time.
Team Angel are getting set up as the Slayer Support training. Willow visits to look at a major piece of magic One for the Team part two
Just Right: the Initiative comes to the party
June 2005 Being Heroes 2: Faith already has itchy feet
Nov 2005 How to Make a Hero: Faith trains her fourth squad
January 2006 Learn to Fly, Higher than an Eagle and Together Flying High: Faith and Giles go on a mission to Pylea. It turns out that Slayer power manifests itself pretty literally in the other dimension.
April 2006 Breaking the Rules 3: Faith takes the North Asia assignment - Giles faces the music. Also this month, Spike turns 151: Who Do I Think You Are
August 2006 One for the Team part three: Willow returns to LA and wakens Cordelia from her coma. It's not the happiest awakening. About now Broken Windows brings Connor into the fold.
September 2006 Clay-footed Heroes: Buffy finds the SSO training is getting out of hand
November 2006 Counting Blessings: the Council reviews the year's successes
Dec 2006-Jan 2007 The Turning of the Year 3
April 2007 Home is the Hunter 2: Spike is still questing, Dawn is qualifying
June 2007 Gunn and Caridad connect: Blindsided. Sometime around now Lorne is welcoming in new SSOs in Polyglot
Autumn 2007 In the Wolf's Mouth: Willow is struggling with the magics.
Jan 2008 Heroic Couplets 2 and Breaking the Rules 2: Tzipi dies and Faith is injured in the Ulan Bator disaster. Faith returns to HQ to recover, but is back on duty within weeks.
March 2008 Home is the Hunter 4 and the core of Winds Blowing Chill: Buffy wants a baby. Spike can't provide.
April 2008 Through the Wintergate: Xander, Vi and Erik investigate a lost Council secret
Aug 2008 Faith is in Irkutsk until the move to Chita (Long Distance).
18 Sept 2008 Breaking the Rules 1: North Asia final victory over the Big Bad
October 2008 Home is the Hunter 4(contd). The Delenteria quest goes very bad. Buffy is pregnant.
Meanwhile, Gunn and Caridad are getting married, Strategic Overview and Harmony's having dating problems, In the Candy Store
1 Nov 2008 Breaking the Rules 0: Faith returns to HQ to celebrate the North Asia victory; Giles proposes
Nov 2008 Theory and Practice 1: as immediate marriage as they can manage
25 Dec 2008 The Turning of the Year 4
January 2009 Wesley and Illyria have germs: Cheers But Does Not Inebriate. Buffy and Faith talk about babies: The Sisterhood part I
Feb/March 2009 Spike and Buffy resolve some issues. Part of The Wide and Starry Sky takes place here, having started in September 2008.
April 2009 Annelise (Annie) Summers-Smith is born to Buffy and Spike. Winds Blowing Chill resolves. Sadly, they have yet to sort out her nursery: Nesting
February 2010 Xander and Cordelia reconnect Taking Steps
March 2010 Home is the Hunter 5 Delenteria is resolved. Dawn discovers quite a lot about the Key. The Wide and Starry Sky resolves too.
April 2010 On the Nature of Things 3 Annie's first birthday
May 2010 New worlds of fear: Faith and Giles are having a baby. Meep. Sometimes around now, Faith also rescues Giles from a rocky death: Rockery. Buffy and Faith talk babies again, with a new perspective: The Sisterhood part 2
10 June 2010 Faith takes Scandinavian assignment
July 2010 Slip of the Tongue Illyria leaks some glad tidings. Real Dreams, Vi and Dawn watch the sky
2 Sept 2010 Theory and Practice 2: Scandinavian bear demons slayed by a very pregnant Faith. Heroic Couplets 3 Spike and Giles bond (slightly) over being Slayer menfolk.
September 2010 Far Seeing: Wesley and Illyria contemplate human miracles
October 2010 On the Nature of Things 4 More about the Key
4 Nov 2010 Theory and Practice 3: Michael Giles (Mike) is born to Faith and (Rupert) Giles.
5 Nov 2010 Heroic Couplets 4: Buffy meets Mike
November 2010 Spike and Buffy celebrate a covert anniversary: What Matters
Dec 2010 Theory and Practice 4: Faith hits rock bottom with night feeds.
January 2011 Death is Her Gift (flashback) Illyria tells Dawn the Key is immortal
March 2011 Aurora (Rorie) Summers-Smith is born to Buffy and Spike
May 2011 Theory and Practice 5: Faith goes back to active field duty in Scandinavia
July-September 2011 Willow meets Oz and Talia, and returns to Slayer Central to fix a crisis Where the River Takes You, Calendar Moment, With a Parachute
Oct 2011 Au Bois Dormant Rogue vegetation at the castle
Nov 2011 First Time: Dawn and Vi play the piano
Dec 2011 The Turning of the Year 5
January 2012 Warming Up, Faith is having some time alone in Sweden. Giles helps her pass the time.
June 2012 Destiny, Meet Reality: Giles and Mike see Stockholm, with hilarious consequences.
August 2012 Xander and Cordelia have some power outage problems; they deal. Anyplace is Paradise
cSep 2012 Faith returns to the UK and takes up the Head of Fieldwork post
October 2012 Being Heroes 3: Buffy retires as Chief Slayer and becomes a regional squad head in California: Faith, Kennedy and Vi become section heads and alternate chiefs
cNov 2012 The Grit in the Oyster 5: Kat starts as nanny
December 2013 Each Other Now Embrace: Wesley and Illyria hold Christmas with Spike, Buffy and their family
March 2013 Death is Her Gift Vi realises what to do about the Key and Bringing It Home: Buffy is seriously injured in California.
April 2013 Heroic Couplets 5: Buffy comes home to Slayer headquarters. Half-Light Wesley and Illyria try to recover from their loss.
June 2013 The Grit in the Oyster 4: Giles and Faith misbehave in graveyards
Autumn 2013 The Grit in the Oyster 3: Mike manifests disturbing Giles-ish behaviours and The Grit in the Oyster 2: Faith has committee issues and the Council agree to work on a force predictor to manage threats. Peanut Butter Badness: Summers women make cookies. Death is Her Gift resolves about now too.
Dec 24 2013 The Turning of the Year 6
early February 2014 Agrodolce Xander and Cordelia come to an agreement
14 February 2014 Love Is...: Valentine schmoop for Rulesverse couples
April 2014 The Grit in the Oyster 1: Rosy is born
June 2014 On the Nature of Things 5: another graduation of Slayers and support officers
Oct 2014 Social Discomfort. Faith and Giles host a dinner party. Kind of.
April 2015 The Battle of Buttercream. It's Rosy's first birthday.
sometime 2015 Complementary: Vi has thinky thoughts about souls. Boldly Going, Wesley and Illyria have a talk
Oct 2015 Dispatches From the War Prologue and Part One: the Council members prepare for war. The war continues into 2016 and the Dispatches stories should be read in order for the next year.
Sept 2016 Five things Charles Gunn never believed would happen to him resolves now and fits into the Dispatches series.
October 2016 Dispatches from the War concludes now.
Sometime 2017 Community History. Sharing some memories.
Dec 2018 The Turning of the Year 7
November 2019 Two Steps Forward: Xander and Cordelia face a difficult future
March 2020 Midnight Fears: Xander and Cordelia are still struggling with the future.
June 2020 Tropical Storm Faith: a summer picnic for the Lehane-Giles family. It rains. Perfect Day: Spike and Buffy have their own terrile picnic too.
Feb 2021 Goodbye to All That Giles retires