Timeline of present events
This is a brief timeline of ‘recent’ events in the Motherland. It begins when the Rockets first started their rise to prominence, since most of said events revolve around their existence, and ends a few years post HGSS. It will be added to as necessary.
1979
Rockets start rising to prominence.
8 AprilLance turns five.
1981
Jacob Surge, Marcus Surge’s father, commits suicide after apparently having gone insane and ‘seeing things’.
Koniro Okido, Professor Oak’s grandson, is born.
1982
Rosaline Barano is born.
Akai Akashiba is born.
1984
8 April
Lance Blackthorn turns ten.
28 May
Zane Blackthorn, Lance’s father and leader of the Plateau Elite Four, is murdered by Team Rocket and his house burned to destroy evidence. Lance, his dratini and dratini’s litter-mates are the only survivors. Lance goes to live with his family at the Blackthorn City Gym.
1987
AprilAt thirteen, Lance runs away from home to seek justice for his father’s murder.
1988
September
After a year of numerous misdemeanours including theft, kidnapping, blackmail, bribery and trespassing, Lance psychologically breaks and commits manslaughter. He releases his dragons and attempts to commit suicide by going willingly into the depths of Silver Mountain; his dragons follow and save his life. Their care and presence force him to keep living.
1989
February
Chaz Blackthorn, Zane’s younger brother and Blackthorn City Gym Leader, dies of lung cancer. Clair, his daughter, is recalled from dance school in England to assume the post of Blackthorn’s gym leader.
1991
February
While stationed in Kuwait Lieutenant Marcus Surge finds a rogue desert pikachu, whose colony has been destroyed by war, and takes it in. They become attached. Koga, ninja and Fuchsia City gym leader, then captures it for safekeeping.
March
Lance, broken out of his non-existence by rescuing a man stranded by a snowstorm, comes down from the mountain battered but psychologically intact-as well as socially impaired and with Champion-level pokémon.
April
While Surge investigates nuclear testing and black ops programs in Kuwait, he is offered the pikachu by Koga provided he is willing to move to the Motherland.
Lance runs across a Rocket operation in Blackthorn and helps out the local LEOs, leading to the realisation that he is more powerful than the Rockets and even his cousin, and then to the decision to use his skills for the League by challenging the Elite Four (currently three) for his father’s vacant position.
May
Surge arrives in the Motherland and undergoes orientation.
June
Surge discovers he can only leave the Motherland at will if he is qualified as a League rep-a gym leader or higher, or a vetted scientist or politician. He goes to train at the abandoned power plant.
13
Lance takes on the Elite Four and wins, becoming their leader at only seventeen. The adjustment is difficult, since he is young and inexperienced, but Giovanni, one of Zane’s old friends, offers himself as an advisor.
1992
8 April
Lance turns eighteen.
The Boss Rocket begins sending assassins after Lance.
1993
DecemberLieutenant Surge hustles Vermilion’s ground-type leader, with the gym as the stake, and wins.
1994
January
The Boss Rocket begins putting pressure on the government-from increasing the Rocket activity in Celadon to harassing Cinnabar and Vermilion through the Mansion and Diglett’s Cave.
1 April
Pokémon trainers Rosaline Barano, Akai Akashiba and Koniro Okido (RBYFRLG protagonists/rival) leave Pallet Town on their pokémon journeys.
5
Brock arrests Rockets in Mount Moon and the amber from Pewter City is stolen.
10
Arlie Arrington, Falkner’s father and Violet City Gym Leader, is killed in action. Falkner becomes Violet City Gym Leader.
15
Misty arrests Rockets in Cerulean, while another team fails to kidnap Bill due to his pokémon-transporting machine going awry. Akai and Koniro witness the former while Rosaline discovers Bill.
7 May
Silph Co’s ghost-scope is stolen; witnesses describe an aerodactyl as being present.
21-26
Lavender Town’s tower is held hostage by Rockets and later liberated by Agatha. The hostages, Akai among them, claim an aerodactyl was present.
3 June
Erika and Koga raid the Celadon Game Corner but fail to apprehend the Boss Rocket. They find the Silph Scope-with Lance’s fingerprints on it.
4
Lance is arrested.
5
Saffron is taken over by Rockets, covering a takeover of Silph. The League responds: Surge liberates Sabrina; Koga infiltrates Silph; the Elite Four sans Lance liberate Silph; the Boss Rockets escapes with the Master Ball. Koniro and Rosaline are present.
July
Kyogre and Groudon are set loose by the Aquas and Magmas. Hoenn is beset by floods, earthquakes, rain and drought, leaving region-wide destruction in their wake. When the Legendaries are calmed by Rayquaza, the Teams disband and the Hoenn government focuses on repairing the region.
5-18
Blaine discovers old research notes regarding Mewtwo and the resurrection device in the Pokémon Mansion. He realises where the second aerodactyl came from and goes to Koga with this information; they, along with only a handful of others, investigate who would have the means to frame Lance. They come up with Giovanni’s name and release Lance in secret.
19
Lance, wired, confronts Giovanni at the gym, interrupting Giovanni’s test-battle, in which he’s using Mewtwo, against the Pallet Town trainers. Lance gets a confession and they battle; Lance destroys Metwo’s ’ball, setting him free, and then defeats Giovanni. Giovanni is arrested and the Viridian Gym raided.
August
The Rockets officially ‘disband’, but the government nearly collapses in its wake, leaving the League to hold it up.
October
Lorelei resigns due to the public distrusting her because of her former friendship with Giovanni. Koga applies for the Eliteship.
Lorelei returns home to Sevii; she and Bruno discover Rockets on the Islands and take them out, removing Giovanni’s last escape route. They fail to find Giovanni’s son.
November
Agatha is murdered. Karen, working in the League offices as a minister’s secretary, discovers her immediate boss is on the Rocket’s payroll and turns him in, earning the right to apply for the Eliteship.
The discovery of Rockets in the League prompts Lance the League reps to request psychic help from Hoenn; they get the empath Will, who fills the last Elite Four position and boosts Lance up to the post of Champion. Lance is able to call martial law on Tohjo, cracking down on the Rockets’ movements.
1995
January
Lance has a breakdown and is sent to Hoenn to recuperate away from Tohjo League pressures.
8 April
Lance turns twenty-one.
May
Giovanni escapes from jail.
July
The League discovers someone has leaked recent events to the Outside and the Motherland is being cast as a children’s game. Lacking the resources to memory-wipe everyone involved, they choose to use it as plausible deniability.
25 DecemberThe Plateau is bombed by Rockets.
1996
July
Lance is captured by Team Rocket; in the course of his absence there is an upswing of Rocket activity.
August
Lance awakes in a Rocket medical ward with amnesia. He is told he is a Rocket executive with amnesia and psychological issues which require medication. Over the course of the next eight months he is retrained in Rocket policies and as a Rocket operative.
1997
23 February
Clair and Bruno, patrolling the Silver Range, comes across a team of Rockets which includes the brainwashed Lance, who recognises neither of them.
March
Azalea is harassed by Rockets, who take over the town’s water supply. Bugsy and Kurt handle the issue.
4 April
One of Lance’s Rocket friends defects to the League with the news that the brainwashing on Lance has failed and will be restarted, and the location of the base where he is being held. League reps come to Lance’s rescue, but he is psychologically broken and Giovanni escapes.
Lance begins psychic therapy to block his memories of being tortured and brainwashed, to be followed by normal therapy.
May
Jasmine’s ampharos is poisoned and unable to continue duties at the lighthouse, allowing Rockets to sneak through the sea-lanes to Cianwood.
The apothecary in Cianwood is robbed, but the owner, a ninja, catches the Rockets involved and hands them over to Falkner, who comes to retrieve Jasmine’s medicine.
The Rockets being held at the Cianwood Detention Centre are broken out.
June
Lance and Pryce raid a Rocket base in Mahogany Town. While there Lance finds and releases Kamon, Giovanni’s son.
The Goldenrod Radio Tower is taken over by Rockets, who cover their true intentions by broadcasting for Giovanni, still in hiding after the operation to rescue Lance. Karen, Koga, Will and Falkner liberate it.
Giovanni uses the radio broadcast and the evolution ray to drive the Silver Range pokémon down to the towns, threatening the counties of Blackthorn, Violet, Viridian and the Plateau. The Dragon Clan and League reps mobilise to fight them off while Lance tracks Giovanni to Silver Mountain, rescuing Giovanni’s son and three of his friends from New Bark (GSCHGSS protagonists). Giovanni is killed and the equipment destroyed.
DecemberLance, officially done with his therapy but still off-duty and with a secret drug addiction, leaves to go travelling the Outside.
1998
November Lance returns home intending to overcome his drug-use problem and heal the divide between the Motherlander and the Hidden.
1999
Lance undergoes therapy for his drug use and disassociation, and puts starts forming plans for a new black ops program.
2000
July
The black ops program is begun, giving Hidden residents, among other things, the right to request location from war-torn countries and greater protection from the Outside law. Over time, this program thins the security between the Hidden and the Outsiders, allowing more government, military and law enforcement personnel to be let into the secret. Several key governmental figures, particularly in Japan, are allowed to know to give the Motherland’s operatives greater freedom to act beneath the radar.
1979
Rockets start rising to prominence.
8 AprilLance turns five.
1981
Jacob Surge, Marcus Surge’s father, commits suicide after apparently having gone insane and ‘seeing things’.
Koniro Okido, Professor Oak’s grandson, is born.
1982
Rosaline Barano is born.
Akai Akashiba is born.
1984
8 April
Lance Blackthorn turns ten.
28 May
Zane Blackthorn, Lance’s father and leader of the Plateau Elite Four, is murdered by Team Rocket and his house burned to destroy evidence. Lance, his dratini and dratini’s litter-mates are the only survivors. Lance goes to live with his family at the Blackthorn City Gym.
1987
AprilAt thirteen, Lance runs away from home to seek justice for his father’s murder.
1988
September
After a year of numerous misdemeanours including theft, kidnapping, blackmail, bribery and trespassing, Lance psychologically breaks and commits manslaughter. He releases his dragons and attempts to commit suicide by going willingly into the depths of Silver Mountain; his dragons follow and save his life. Their care and presence force him to keep living.
1989
February
Chaz Blackthorn, Zane’s younger brother and Blackthorn City Gym Leader, dies of lung cancer. Clair, his daughter, is recalled from dance school in England to assume the post of Blackthorn’s gym leader.
1991
February
While stationed in Kuwait Lieutenant Marcus Surge finds a rogue desert pikachu, whose colony has been destroyed by war, and takes it in. They become attached. Koga, ninja and Fuchsia City gym leader, then captures it for safekeeping.
March
Lance, broken out of his non-existence by rescuing a man stranded by a snowstorm, comes down from the mountain battered but psychologically intact-as well as socially impaired and with Champion-level pokémon.
April
While Surge investigates nuclear testing and black ops programs in Kuwait, he is offered the pikachu by Koga provided he is willing to move to the Motherland.
Lance runs across a Rocket operation in Blackthorn and helps out the local LEOs, leading to the realisation that he is more powerful than the Rockets and even his cousin, and then to the decision to use his skills for the League by challenging the Elite Four (currently three) for his father’s vacant position.
May
Surge arrives in the Motherland and undergoes orientation.
June
Surge discovers he can only leave the Motherland at will if he is qualified as a League rep-a gym leader or higher, or a vetted scientist or politician. He goes to train at the abandoned power plant.
13
Lance takes on the Elite Four and wins, becoming their leader at only seventeen. The adjustment is difficult, since he is young and inexperienced, but Giovanni, one of Zane’s old friends, offers himself as an advisor.
1992
8 April
Lance turns eighteen.
The Boss Rocket begins sending assassins after Lance.
1993
DecemberLieutenant Surge hustles Vermilion’s ground-type leader, with the gym as the stake, and wins.
1994
January
The Boss Rocket begins putting pressure on the government-from increasing the Rocket activity in Celadon to harassing Cinnabar and Vermilion through the Mansion and Diglett’s Cave.
1 April
Pokémon trainers Rosaline Barano, Akai Akashiba and Koniro Okido (RBYFRLG protagonists/rival) leave Pallet Town on their pokémon journeys.
5
Brock arrests Rockets in Mount Moon and the amber from Pewter City is stolen.
10
Arlie Arrington, Falkner’s father and Violet City Gym Leader, is killed in action. Falkner becomes Violet City Gym Leader.
15
Misty arrests Rockets in Cerulean, while another team fails to kidnap Bill due to his pokémon-transporting machine going awry. Akai and Koniro witness the former while Rosaline discovers Bill.
7 May
Silph Co’s ghost-scope is stolen; witnesses describe an aerodactyl as being present.
21-26
Lavender Town’s tower is held hostage by Rockets and later liberated by Agatha. The hostages, Akai among them, claim an aerodactyl was present.
3 June
Erika and Koga raid the Celadon Game Corner but fail to apprehend the Boss Rocket. They find the Silph Scope-with Lance’s fingerprints on it.
4
Lance is arrested.
5
Saffron is taken over by Rockets, covering a takeover of Silph. The League responds: Surge liberates Sabrina; Koga infiltrates Silph; the Elite Four sans Lance liberate Silph; the Boss Rockets escapes with the Master Ball. Koniro and Rosaline are present.
July
Kyogre and Groudon are set loose by the Aquas and Magmas. Hoenn is beset by floods, earthquakes, rain and drought, leaving region-wide destruction in their wake. When the Legendaries are calmed by Rayquaza, the Teams disband and the Hoenn government focuses on repairing the region.
5-18
Blaine discovers old research notes regarding Mewtwo and the resurrection device in the Pokémon Mansion. He realises where the second aerodactyl came from and goes to Koga with this information; they, along with only a handful of others, investigate who would have the means to frame Lance. They come up with Giovanni’s name and release Lance in secret.
19
Lance, wired, confronts Giovanni at the gym, interrupting Giovanni’s test-battle, in which he’s using Mewtwo, against the Pallet Town trainers. Lance gets a confession and they battle; Lance destroys Metwo’s ’ball, setting him free, and then defeats Giovanni. Giovanni is arrested and the Viridian Gym raided.
August
The Rockets officially ‘disband’, but the government nearly collapses in its wake, leaving the League to hold it up.
October
Lorelei resigns due to the public distrusting her because of her former friendship with Giovanni. Koga applies for the Eliteship.
Lorelei returns home to Sevii; she and Bruno discover Rockets on the Islands and take them out, removing Giovanni’s last escape route. They fail to find Giovanni’s son.
November
Agatha is murdered. Karen, working in the League offices as a minister’s secretary, discovers her immediate boss is on the Rocket’s payroll and turns him in, earning the right to apply for the Eliteship.
The discovery of Rockets in the League prompts Lance the League reps to request psychic help from Hoenn; they get the empath Will, who fills the last Elite Four position and boosts Lance up to the post of Champion. Lance is able to call martial law on Tohjo, cracking down on the Rockets’ movements.
1995
January
Lance has a breakdown and is sent to Hoenn to recuperate away from Tohjo League pressures.
8 April
Lance turns twenty-one.
May
Giovanni escapes from jail.
July
The League discovers someone has leaked recent events to the Outside and the Motherland is being cast as a children’s game. Lacking the resources to memory-wipe everyone involved, they choose to use it as plausible deniability.
25 DecemberThe Plateau is bombed by Rockets.
1996
July
Lance is captured by Team Rocket; in the course of his absence there is an upswing of Rocket activity.
August
Lance awakes in a Rocket medical ward with amnesia. He is told he is a Rocket executive with amnesia and psychological issues which require medication. Over the course of the next eight months he is retrained in Rocket policies and as a Rocket operative.
1997
23 February
Clair and Bruno, patrolling the Silver Range, comes across a team of Rockets which includes the brainwashed Lance, who recognises neither of them.
March
Azalea is harassed by Rockets, who take over the town’s water supply. Bugsy and Kurt handle the issue.
4 April
One of Lance’s Rocket friends defects to the League with the news that the brainwashing on Lance has failed and will be restarted, and the location of the base where he is being held. League reps come to Lance’s rescue, but he is psychologically broken and Giovanni escapes.
Lance begins psychic therapy to block his memories of being tortured and brainwashed, to be followed by normal therapy.
May
Jasmine’s ampharos is poisoned and unable to continue duties at the lighthouse, allowing Rockets to sneak through the sea-lanes to Cianwood.
The apothecary in Cianwood is robbed, but the owner, a ninja, catches the Rockets involved and hands them over to Falkner, who comes to retrieve Jasmine’s medicine.
The Rockets being held at the Cianwood Detention Centre are broken out.
June
Lance and Pryce raid a Rocket base in Mahogany Town. While there Lance finds and releases Kamon, Giovanni’s son.
The Goldenrod Radio Tower is taken over by Rockets, who cover their true intentions by broadcasting for Giovanni, still in hiding after the operation to rescue Lance. Karen, Koga, Will and Falkner liberate it.
Giovanni uses the radio broadcast and the evolution ray to drive the Silver Range pokémon down to the towns, threatening the counties of Blackthorn, Violet, Viridian and the Plateau. The Dragon Clan and League reps mobilise to fight them off while Lance tracks Giovanni to Silver Mountain, rescuing Giovanni’s son and three of his friends from New Bark (GSCHGSS protagonists). Giovanni is killed and the equipment destroyed.
DecemberLance, officially done with his therapy but still off-duty and with a secret drug addiction, leaves to go travelling the Outside.
1998
November Lance returns home intending to overcome his drug-use problem and heal the divide between the Motherlander and the Hidden.
1999
Lance undergoes therapy for his drug use and disassociation, and puts starts forming plans for a new black ops program.
2000
July
The black ops program is begun, giving Hidden residents, among other things, the right to request location from war-torn countries and greater protection from the Outside law. Over time, this program thins the security between the Hidden and the Outsiders, allowing more government, military and law enforcement personnel to be let into the secret. Several key governmental figures, particularly in Japan, are allowed to know to give the Motherland’s operatives greater freedom to act beneath the radar.