#and irelia being 'barely' 14??? hello???

[deathdxnces]

according to the wiki, the noxian invasion happened during 984 AN and 989 AN and i'm just trying to make sense of the timeline more or less for my own reference which is why i'm not getting into what all the other characters were up to so

irelia's story suggests her family's death happens early on in the invasion, considering she returns home because "rumors of foreign invaders sighted off the coast" get to the placidium (so she's 11 when they die and she discovers her powers, in 984).

usan, having struggled with the kinkou's ways since the jhin investigation, finally leaves the order to fight noxus directly when the invasion starts. he's banished from the temple by kusho, but he isn't an enemy to the kinkou yet. i assume this is also in 984, since it takes some time of fighting before he goes for the tears. it's around this time he gets his first few followers, acting as part of the navori brotherhood (which irelia joins right after her family's death). it's also probably when he starts to be called zed.

it's suggested the vastaya (those of them who joined the war and fought beside noxus, that is) begun joining the noxians at some point around 985. this would also have marked the beginning of zed's hostility towards them, although it'd reach it's peak and become much worse following swain's capture of the placidium of navori in 986, which is suggested to have been made possible with the vastaya's help (more specifically, the one vastaya who is later rewarded by being made fae'lor's governor).

the war, at this point, has lasted around 2 years, maybe a little more and ionia's resistance is suggested to be on the verge of being vanquished entirely by swain. and it maybe would be, were it not for irelia, at "barely fourteen" according to her bio, miraculously succeeding in almost wiping out the entirety of the noxian high command present there — including swain himself, although he survives because of the demon. her victory makes irelia the (reluctant) leader of the growing resistance.

zed is not present at the placidium. the noxians isolate his forces in the siege of thanze, cutting them off from the rest of the brotherhood (purposefully, maybe? before irelia's stand, i assume zed would've been one of the most significant leaders/threats noxus had to contend with). after ensuring the civilians are secure in the tunnels beneath the village, that is when he returns to thanjuul for the tears of the shadow, claiming the temple and supposedly killing kusho. some of the kinkou die, but most are purposefully allowed to flee, while a smaller number choose to side with zed. this means the order of shadows is formed in 986.

kayn's bio states using the child soldiers was darkwill's plan to exploit the ionian's compassion after the disastrous battle at the placidium. it's unclear when exactly that starts, but considering it seems pretty desperate and the kids had like no training, i'd assume it was a pretty immediately employed strategy, or at least as immediate as it would be possible to regroup, conscript the children and take them to ionia. 987 seems a reasonable year to place zed finding kayn in the epool river.

i frankly have no idea what's going on for them in 988 other than uh they're still fighting in the war. irelia's bio says "reluctantly, she led the growing resistance for almost three years of grueling battle before her triumph at dalu bay", so that was either late 988 or early 989, and she was 16ish. this is said to be the victory that really drove the noxians away almost completely, effectively ending the war (with swain's coup happening the same year, and the grand general ending the occupation of ionia).