What is the Mouse Guard year count and timeline based on?
I other Words, 1152 since what?
A fascinating thought to explore. David Peterson has allowed that some info about canon / lore of the MG world is placed in the Legends of the Guard stories, and there are possible snippets in Black Axe; however, the overall chronological timeline from year 0 to year 1152 is never fully fleshed out.
I tend to think of Legends of the Guard story, The Hawk’s Mouse and the Fox’s Mouse, as the initiation of a Guard-maintained reckoning of time from year 0 with the first Matriarch, Feruin. That’s not any kind of official statement, and I cannot fully back up my conjecture. Seems interesting.
I don’t often play campaigns in 1152, but instead I choose other times with some intent to avoid most stable canon about events.
Good theory. But their are other legends that kind of contradict this, even in the same volume.
The Hawks Mouse and the Foxs Mouse legend says Faulknir and Silfano were the first Guard Mice and making Feruin the first matriarch of sorts.
Then there is the Crown of Silver, Crown of Gold legend, saying Moira was the first Guard Mouse after ending the line of the kings.
These are both in Legends of the Guard volume 1.
Not only that, but David Petersen himself has drawn the Legend of the War of Silver and Golden Crowns with a description that sets it in the year 942.
So if the Guard came after the kings and the kings still existed and faught in 942, then year 0 is not when the Guard was started.
Also, from the names in the description and the legends, it seems the last king, Avidar, of the Silver Crown was the grandson of the Silver Crown king, Souree, who faught and died in the war of 942…
Judging by these legends, the Guard can`t be much older than 150 years or so… That means they had nothing to do with starting the timeline at year 0.
And all this just from volume 1 of Legends of the Guard 
hold on. I had to research, but didn’t have much time. In Crown of Silver; Crown of Gold the final heroine, Moira is noted as “the first Guardmouse of Rosestone and Cedarloch, there are many more…” This may indicate that she is the first of that pair of settlements to join the Guard service, and a later display of the Matriarchs illustrates Moira among them, so she continued in service to the extent of being selected as Matriarch and serving a good time in the role.
Now, due to the art of the battling kings, I agree that the story which includes Moira must have occurred after 942, but as she is noted as the first to come from both Rosestone and Cedarloch after the ending of both kings lineages, I don’t think it means she is the first Guardmouse ever, and potentially not the first from the previously separate Rosestone or Cedarloch.
The initial tale of The Hawk’s Mouse & The Fox’s Mouse is told to occur before the written history is kept, yet a portion of it is known to be true, which I suspect at a minimum is that Feruin became the first of the Matriarchs; I think it indicates this is the beginning of the Guard. But nothing really tells of when.
Another piece of cover art shows Gregor, a book keeper, encountering with a disembodied spirit claiming to be “the first matriarch of the Mouse Guard named, ‘Calla,’” to which he responded that the known historical record, only traced back to Laria, who has the fourth…" And this gives to us a confusion regarding Calla vs Feruin as the first Matriarch, so perhaps we could say that Calla is the first matriarch of the Mouse Guard, yet Feruin was the “first of matriarchs” such as the first among the honored matriarchs in respect to an ensample or prototype prior to the organization of the Mouse Guard as an institution.
Now, it may be worth noting that The Black Axe tells of Farrer bringing the axe to Lockhaven in 915 and beginning the tradition regarding that weapon, and we might surmise that the Guard existed prior to that date and having established Lockhaven as the distinct citadel of the Guard service. Also from this book comes the description of some matriarchs which have been remembered. In that, Feruin is remembered as having, “started the tradition of cloaked Guardmice.” Laria is illustrated and remembered. Moira is illustrated and remembered. So, Calla is not illustrated and remembered, and I’m thinking that might mean nothing in respect to that Legends 1 cover art, but could be a half-true recollection.
I have not got Legends 2 and 3 on Comixology, so I cannot research those at this time.
Moira had to be two generations after 942, as the king in that one was the grandson of the one in the cover art.
Maybe Lockhaven was founded in year 0, as it was rally the start of Mouse civilisation in the Territories…
Moira had to be two generations after 942 as the king in the cover art was the grandfather of the one in the Legend. …
Maybe Lockhaven was founded in year 0, as it was the start of Mouse civilization in the Territories. .
Legends 2 and 3 and Baldwin the Brave and Other Tales does not go into it, the beginning of the guard or year 0, as far as I remember…
Though BtBaOT has a story by David that touches on mythology/belief and the afterlife in what is called the city or realm of Seyan. It is listed East of Burl and South of Grasslake, inside of Wild Country; on a map from 1124.