World of Shadows: Timeline, Faction Tree, and Network Map

This is the reference page. It is intended to be the post you bookmark and come back to whenever the books cross-reference each other or the wider Raven Universe. I will keep it updated quietly over time as the corners of the universe expand.

Series Chronology

The trilogy spans roughly four months of present-day in-world action, with significant flashbacks running back thirty-one years. The numbered events below are presented in absolute chronological order, not in the order the books reveal them.

Pre-trilogy events.

1. Year minus thirty-one. Father Leopold Glasser, a parish priest at Saint Mary of the Pines on the Oregon coast, discovers a girl named Maria Estefan with telekinetic gifts. Three weeks later, a Vatican team takes her. Glasser begins a private investigation into what he later confirms is the Vatican Children program — a centuries-old catalog of children with measurable supernatural abilities.
2. Years minus thirty-one through minus seven. Glasser ascends through the diocesan hierarchy, eventually becoming Bishop of Everett. Throughout this period he conducts his investigation. He identifies, by the seven-year mark, a Vatican file naming three hundred and twelve gifted children. He commits, internally, to dismantling the system from the outside. He begins acquiring resources and demonic artifacts.
3. Year minus six. Bishop Glasser establishes covert relationships with Ninth Circle financiers. The Council of Chaldea, unaware of the connection, accepts Glasser as a major donor. Within four years, Glasser's contributions account for roughly seventy-five percent of the Council's operating budget. Council member Emily Glasser, his sister, is positioned to forward Council intelligence to Glasser's network.
4. Year minus four. Bishop Glasser opens his Arizona facility, an underground compound at an abandoned water treatment site. He begins acquiring children — first one, then several, eventually seven core wards. Jeremy Caldwell is among the first. He is, Glasser believes, the second one — the most powerful Vatican Child Glasser will ever directly hold. (The most powerful, Haatim Arison, remains protected and offline.)
5. Year minus three. Arthur Vangeest's family — wife Sarah and daughter Emily — are murdered in a remote West Virginia manor by a Ninth Circle cell, on intelligence that originated from a small Vatican clerical document signed by Emily Glasser. Arthur is on a Council operation in Brussels at the time. He returns to a destroyed home.
6. Year minus three, months one through nine. Arthur conducts an unsanctioned vendetta investigation. It culminates in a single night at a second West Virginia manor — the Ninth Circle cell's gathering site — where Arthur kills more than twenty people. The Council closes ranks around him. The Vatican does not. He becomes infamous in certain rooms.
7. Year minus three, month ten. Arthur encounters Abigail. She is six years old at the time. He places her with Frieda Gotlieb of the Council. The Council assumes provisional guardianship.
8. Year minus four, Manila. (See Case File: Manila short story.) Father Niccolo Paladina conducts an exorcism in Tondo, Manila, with Sister Lorena and a young investigator named Marisol Reyes. The case ends in mixed outcome — a successful exorcism, an institutional cover-up, and a personal cost Niccolo carries into Everett. The Manila case is the seed of Niccolo's eventual willingness, in Book Three, to act against the institution he serves.

Trilogy events.

9. Day zero. Father Niccolo Paladina arrives in Everett, Washington, at the request of Father Jackson Reynolds. He encounters Rose Gallagher, the dolls in her guest room, and the doll-anchor that controls her. Bishop Glasser plays the gracious host while moving toward the launch of his Everett experiment.
10. Days one through five. (Book One, The Everett Exorcism.) Arthur Vangeest arrives in Everett pursuing his vendetta against the Glasser network. The Everett demonic outbreak escalates. Niccolo and Arthur form an uneasy alliance. The exorcism of Rose succeeds. Glasser escapes with the artifact and Jeremy. Arthur and Niccolo agree to meet in Colorado in one week.
11. Days twelve through thirty-one. (Book Two, The Vatican Children.) Arthur, Niccolo, and Desiree Portman track Glasser through Sacramento, then to the Arizona facility. Garfield Tesfay rescues them from the underground tunnels. Frieda's intelligence support is constant but increasingly risky. The trail ends at a California shipyard. Niccolo kills Glasser in the trailer with a fallen pistol. Six children are recovered from the cargo hold; Jeremy escapes. Arthur drives back to recover Abigail.
12. Days thirty-two through ninety-eight. (Off-page, between Books Two and Three.) The Council and the Vatican begin dismantling Glasser's operation. The auxiliary bishop directly above Glasser resigns. The Cardinal who funded the compound, however, remains untouched. Jeremy Caldwell goes to ground.
13. Day ninety-nine. (Book Three, The Bishop's Legacy, opening.) Cardinal Richter calls Arthur at three forty-seven in the morning. Six psychic incidents in four states. Jeremy has activated thirty of Glasser's recruited children using Glasser's phone, organized into complementary cell teams.
14. Days ninety-nine through one hundred and twenty. (Book Three.) Arthur, Niccolo, and Desiree pursue Jeremy and Megyn Willford through Akron. Frieda apprehends Curtis in Minnesota; Abigail's latent abilities surface. The trilogy climaxes at Akron General Hospital. Jeremy surrenders. Twenty-two of thirty children are recovered. Three remain missing. Eight are unaccounted for.
15. Day one hundred and twenty-one. Adoption paperwork is finalized. Arthur is Abigail's legal father. They drive away from Ohio together.

The Faction Tree

                   THE VATICAN
                       |
        +--------------+--------------+
        |                             |
  Curia / Cardinals          Council of Chaldea
   (institutional)          (operational arm)
        |                             |
   Cardinal Richter             Frieda Gotlieb
   Father Affretti              Arthur Vangeest
   Cardinal X (donor-           Garfield Tesfay
   funded; never named)         Jun Lee (oversight)
        |                             |
        +-----------+-----------------+
                    |
             Vatican Children
             Program (catalog)
              312 known names
                    |
                    +--- Maria Estefan (taken yr -31)
                    +--- Jeremy Caldwell (taken yr -4)
                    +--- Curtis (Minnesota)
                    +--- Megyn Willford (Ohio)
                    +--- 27 others recovered post-trilogy
                    +--- Haatim Arison (offline / protected)
                    +--- 8 unaccounted

                  THE NINTH CIRCLE
                       |
        +--------------+---------------+
        |              |               |
   Twelve cities    Glasser cell    Other cells
   (groundwork in   (Everett /      (operational
    four)            Arizona /       in eight
                     California /    additional
                     Akron)          cities)

  Ninth Circle assets:
   + Bishop Leopold Glasser (deceased)
   + Naomi Develon / Cran ("the collector")
   + Emily Glasser (Council mole, deceased before Bk 1)
   + Demonic vials (Vasric and others)
   + The Everett artifact (recovered Bk 2)
   + Brussels courier packets (3 delivered, 1 unknown recipient)

Character Relationship Chart

Arthur Vangeest — Council Hunter. Father (legally) of Abigail. Carries a vow against killing rooted in his nine-month vendetta. Mentored operationally by Frieda. Closest field partner: Niccolo Paladina (post-Everett).

Niccolo Paladina — Vatican exorcist. Mentored, formally, by Father Affretti. Paired in Everett with Father Jackson Reynolds. Killed Bishop Glasser at the California shipyard at the close of Book Two. Plans, post-trilogy, to find the missing children and then turn himself in to the Vatican.

Frieda Gotlieb — Senior Council member. Provisional guardian of Abigail until Arthur's adoption is finalized. Long-running professional partner of Arthur Vangeest. Coordinates the Mikael / Curtis Minnesota operation in Book Three.

Garfield Tesfay — Council operative. Specializes in heavy-asset retrieval. Unwilling participant in the Arizona rescue. Tranquilized by Arthur at the close of that operation, with mutual professional respect intact.

Desiree Portman — Civilian rescued from Bishop Glasser's basement in Colorado. Becomes a non-combat asset to Arthur's team. Critical research and analytical contributor through Book Three. Her telephone call with Arthur in the Book Three epilogue is one of the most quietly important scenes in the trilogy.

Bishop Leopold Glasser (deceased) — Former parish priest, Saint Mary of the Pines, Oregon. Founder of the Glasser cell of the Ninth Circle. Adoptive father (in his own framing) of Jeremy Caldwell. Funder of approximately seventy-five percent of the Council of Chaldea's operational budget at time of death. Dead-man switch: a USB drive and letter exposing the Vatican Children program, set to release on his death. Trilogy never confirms which recipient ultimately received it.

Jeremy Caldwell — Vatican Child. Glasser's adoptive ward. Telepathy, telekinesis, biochemical interference, emotional manipulation at one hundred meters. Took control of the Glasser network at the start of Book Three. Surrenders at Akron General Hospital. Future status: in custody, awaiting Vatican-Council joint adjudication. Arthur has committed to advocate for him.

Megyn Willford — Vatican Child, telekinetic. Conditioned by Glasser. Manipulated by Jeremy in Book Three. Reaches for Arthur in the final scene rather than Jeremy — the choice that breaks the network. Recovered alive.

Haatim Arison — the one, the most powerful Vatican Child. Never on-page in this trilogy. Protected even from Jeremy's network. Glasser's dead-man contingency for him remains active. Lives in another series.

Geographic Index of Operational Sites

• Everett, Washington. Saint Joseph's Cathedral, Bishop Glasser's estate, Patty's Diner, Rose Gallagher's house on Richmond Street. Site of the Book One outbreak. - Yokohama, Japan. Jun Lee's apartment. Setting of the flashback chapter that names Emily Glasser as the family-betrayal source. - Arthur's Cabin, Colorado. Off-grid. Setting of the early Book Two sequences. Site of Desiree's interrogation and recovery. - Sacramento, California. Afterlife nightclub. Naomi's first contact point. - Arizona Desert. Abandoned water treatment facility. The underground compound where Glasser holds the seven core wards. Site of the Book Two raid and Garfield's rescue. - California Shipyard. Cargo freighter and office trailer. Site of Glasser's death. - Manila, Philippines. Tondo. Setting of Case File: Manila short story (companion piece, 2015 timeline). - Akron, Ohio. Multiple sites: abandoned service station, Saint Thomas Church, hotel, Akron General Hospital. Site of Book Three's escalation and finale. - Athens, Ohio. Arthur's abandoned family home. Single chapter, Book Three. Important for the moment where Arthur calls Abigail for the first time as her future father. - West Virginia Manor (referenced). Site of the Vangeest family murders. Off-page in the trilogy. Reachable in flashback only. - Brussels (referenced). Courier drop point for Glasser's dead-man switch contingency. Off-page.

Open Threads (for the careful reader)

A short list of unresolved threads that the trilogy intentionally leaves open. These will recur in adjacent series.

1. The Cardinal who funded the Arizona compound is never named, never apprehended, and is mentioned twice in the Book Three epilogue. 2. The third Brussels courier packet was delivered to an unknown recipient with clean hands. Its contents — Glasser's dead-man switch — are not yet public. 3. Three Glasser-network children remain missing at the close of Book Three. Eight more are unaccounted for. 4. Jeremy Caldwell is in Vatican-Council joint custody. He killed two wounded mercenaries in cold blood at the shipyard while Arthur sat with the rescued children. The full implication of that act is not yet adjudicated. 5. Haatim Arison's location is fully off-grid, even from Jeremy's network. The Glasser dead-man contingency protecting him is, as of the trilogy's close, still active.

This page will be updated as the wider Raven Universe expands. Bookmark it. Most threads tie off elsewhere.

For the story behind these choices, see the writer's commentary, or start the trilogy from the complete series.