Avatar

TMA 19th C: A (Hopefully) Comprehensive Timeline

In my own research I've found that Jonny plays things very fast and loose with the 19th C timeline, which isn't really a surprise. But I've been trying to rig one together for possible fic purposes, and thought I'd share it here. I haven't come across one of these on here before, but if there is, please send me a link, I'd love to compare notes.

Beneath the cut as it gets a bit long as I attempt to rationalize things, and make sense of what we're given.

Our known TMA dates are:

1818 for the Institutes founding, Von Closen contacts Jonah in 1816 about the books he found in 1815, Bennett dies in 1824, Fanshawe cuts his ties in 1831 when Von Closen dies, and 1867 for Smirke's death.

From this we can get a general timeline, and it's fine, but I like history so have some headcanons mixed in with a historical timeline

1780 (October)

  • Smirke is born, this is the historical date and puts him at 38 when the Institute is founded

1791

  • Is when I headcanon Jonah to be born.
  • I imagine he was something of a second son of landed gentry, able to get an excellent education but with little else to his name.
  • I like him at 27 for the Institute's founding as it's the same age Jon became the Archivist (poeticism) and it fits best into my timeline.

1807

  • Smirke gets his first appointment as an architect for the Royal Mint.

1809

  • Jonah(18) goes to university, meets Barnabas, and gets into architecture.
  • I will die on this hill, he was an architect before the Institute. How else could he adjust Millbank's plans without it being suspicious, or that he likely designed the Institutes London location himself.
  • Leitner made reference to the necessity of those principles in holding artefacts of that sort.

1810

  • Covent Garden Opera House's design is heavily criticised by one of Smirke's contemporaries. I think Sloane essentially called it gaudy and ugly, because Smirke put all the effort into making the facing really fancy at the sacrifice of the rest of the exterior. (Historical, I just found it really funny[also RIP Danny])

1812

  • Bentham's Panopticon design for Millbank Prison is abandoned RIP(It's for the best, also historical)

1813

  • Smirke becomes an architect of the Office of Works, which was the peak of the career (historical). I also pin this as the date Jonah(22) apprentices under Smirke and gets inducted into the occultist group.
  • This gives Jonah five years to scrape together contacts, resources, and a reputation for his Institute. As funny as him sleeping around for funds is, I think working as an architect would be better for his reputation.
  • This is also the year the Temple of Ramesses II was found in Abu Simbel, giving Barnabas a 5 year stretch to visit, I assume it was before the Institute was founded as he only goes once, and a flight of passion indicates an early trip.

1815

  • Albrecht finds his cursed books
  • Smirke is put in charge of Millbank (historical), so Jonah(24) should be working in London with Smirke in this period.
  • Jonah futzes about with the prison plans, which indicates him throwing his lot in with Beholding from the get go (which is a bit boring in terms of moral decline, but whatever). I'm assuming less for ritual purposes, and more in the vein of 'Bentham''s Panopticon is so unethical that I just have to see it in action' like watching a hanging or something.

1816

  • Albrecht tells Jonah about his books.
  • We don't know when they were taken, only that it's within a 10~ year period following this date.
  • Oh and Millbank opened, but hadn't finished construction.

1818

  • Institute founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, home of anatomical studies and where Jonah(27) meets Jonathan Fanshawe. I headcanon that Jonah is just running the Institute out of his house at this point.

1821

  • Millbank Prison has finished construction.

1824

  • RIP Barnabas
  • Jonah(33) is fully in the throws of the Beholding by this point.
  • I assume Albrecht's been robbed around here, perhaps a little after, as this marks Jonah's most- ah let's call it his most consequential choice.
  • Even if Millbank has already happened, Barnabas Bennett is the choice that impacted Jonah personally.

1828

  • Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh. Not relevant to the story at large, but it's historical and in the vicinity of the principle cast.
  • I imagine Fanshawe is incredibly irritated that corpses are obnoxiously difficult to get a hold of.

1831

  • Albrecht falls to whatever curse has maligned him, Fanshawe gets his autopsy!
  • Due to the nature of the curse I'm disinclined to believe Jonah(40) stole the books prior to the Institute's founding as sixteen years is a long time to have a steady decline in health, especially back when blood letting was considered medicine. 7~ years is more likely, and puts more significance on the Barnabas incident.
  • Oh, and Fanshawe cuts ties (King, we hardly knew ye).

1867

  • Smirke dies in February (ahistorical, he dies in April in our timeline) after writing Jonah(76), begging him not to choose evil.

1868

  • 1 year after Smirke dies Jonah enacts the Watcher's Crown at 77.
  • 50 years after the founding of the Institute, because these are all nice numbers, and Jonah had to have his ritual 200 years after the founding, so it's in character.
  • It fails, obviously.
  • He purchases the ruins.

1871

  • London location is operational
  • I'm being generous with three years on a wreckage sight, but we can assume that it's functional if incomplete.
  • Jonah is 80 here.

1872+

  • Jonah Magnus body hops mysteriously disappears

More like this

A Break in the Clouds - Ash_Rabbit - The Magnus Archives (Podcast) [Archive of Our Own]

archiveofourown.org

A Break in the Clouds - Chapter 22 - Ash_Rabbit - The Magnus Archives (Podcast) [Archive of Our Own]

archiveofourown.org

Everyone has a different 'scariest' episode of TMA, but none have filled me with horror as much as MAG 118 had.

It's not the threat of Elias or the choir of skin puppets that turned my stomach.

It's Martin Blackwood.

Martin and his wanton destruction of historical documents. Albrecht's letter in particular.

Below is just a vent about that letters possible research significance and why it's destruction is devastating from like a small scale. Information Science people could probably say it a lot better, but it is 2 am and still thinking about that.

Working off the assumption that the letter is the Schwartzwald statement Mag 23, well-

Anyone have good fics about Jonah Magnus? Like...backstory stuff?

I can find a lot of polycule fics, but none that focus on him as a character (My bad for looking up the relationship tags, but it's very hard to search him and ACTUALLY get fics about him.)

Reading Recs for Each Entity

When Magnus ended, I thought back on different media that I've enjoyed, some of them fit very neatly into the dread powers, unsettlingly so in some cases, others not so much. If you enjoyed the show for it's horror, and want more of that, then I've got a list for you.

Assume everything here is rated M and has some gore, death, and general dark themes.

Beneath the cut, because there's 15 of these fears. Feel free to add on if you like. By the way, I'm citing writers, not directors when there's a movie.

Beholding

1984 - by George Orwell: Classic surveillance society. Very boring to start off with classical lit, but it was and still is a relevant commentary on society.

Hey, wait. Mag 181, Upton house period- Why the hell is Jon the only one affected?

Jon gets all spacey and mentally deteriorates, based on the premise that it cuts off his connection to the Eye, and that Jon is essentially a corpse reanimated by the Beholding as a result of 120.

And the camera allegedly isolates from all entities, not just the Eye.

A Corpse Should Be Left Well Alone - Ash_Rabbit - The Magnus Archives (Podcast) [Archive of Our Own]

archiveofourown.org

Thinking about Tim Stoker and Hawaiian shirts

I personally think that Tim- Tim who worked in publishing and was climbing that corporate ladder, Tim who Basira called the 'Hot one' -would dress like a hot librarian or a regular office worker.

However, Danny being an obnoxious little brother and buying them for Tim as a souvenir every time he went away knowing Tim would never be caught dead in one of those colourful monstrosities.

It becoming a thing where Tim has this enormous collection of shirts he'll never wear, but only keeps because they're from Danny.

But season 3 Tim, who is trapped in a dead end job from Hell and researching the clowns that killed his brother. I think that Tim would wear the loudest Hawaiian shirts, the ones with clashing neon colours and the ugliest flower splashes, everyday.

An Autopsy: Mag200 Last Words

I will preface this by saying that, one (1) this is my opinion, and that I am at best ambivalent towards Martin and Jmart. And that this influenced the emotional impact of the episode for me, and likely many other viewers.

Additionally, I don't have a transcript open so we're going off memory. And spoilers below, obviously.

I. Everything that I wanted to see

1. Jonah

I'm very glad he showed back up and was coherent. That was definitely a highlight since bastard he may be, but he's my favourite.

Sponsored