#dmc timeline

There are 3 versions: a. Short - 31245 (mainline games) b. Long - This includes the supplementary canon materials > Devil May Cry 1 novel > Devil May Cry 3 manga -> DMC3 game > Devil May Cry 1 > 2007 Devil May Cry Anime -> 2 CD Dramas > Devil May Cry 2 novel > Devil May Cry 2 > Devil May Cry 4 -> *Deadly Fortune/DF novel (canon extended ver) > Before the Nightmare novel/ BTN > Devil May Cry 5 -> Visions of V manga/ VoV

*Note - The devs are referencing the 4 novel in BTN, DMC5, and VoV

c. Longer version - Some lore can be found in other external supplementary materials (guides, manuals, artbook, etc).

This timeline that make sense to me since, I really believe Nero was only 16 during DMC4, since it was hinted that he is either 16-17. Either way he was born during DMC3 (whether its a game or manga)

Creation of the Universe (DMC3 manga)

2. Demon King Pluto tried to destroy the Human World, but eventually separating it to the Demon World ("Pluto shall come on the promised date and separate heaven and earth.")

3. Devil May Cry Manual PS2 - In the darkest pit of the underworld, Mundus was born. It was prophesied that he will kill Pluto ("One with black wings of treachery shall come and stand in Pluto's way")

4. In a short time, he gained his full power via eating the fruit of the Qliphoth tree

5. "According to legend, a dark prince of the Underworld mustered a great army of evil and slew the former god of evil" (DMC1 Strategy guide). "Sparda - the Demon Emperor’s right hand, one of the very reasons why Emperor Mundus had even managed to take the throne in the first place." (Deadly Fortune vol 2 p.146)

6. His first act as ruler of all devils was to declare himself emperor of the Devil Kingdom. His next feat was an invasion of the human world. (Devil May Cry Manual PS2)

7. At some point around this, Baul and Modeus, twin demons apprentices were mentored and trained by Sparda (DMC Anime Mission 10)

8. He (Argosax) considered himself the sovereign of Hell and opposed the ruler of Mundus back in that Great War that divided Hell into two camps (Before the Nightmare p. 58) *This part is somewhere it's hard to put it. You be the judge

9. 2000 yrs ago - First Human vs Demon World War, The Legend of Sparda and Sealing the Temen ni Gru

10. Sparda became a lord in Fortuna after the war and the creation of the Order of the Sword

11. 100 yrs ago - Sparda visited Dumary Island to help the protectors against Argosax (DMC 2 manual, DMC2)

12. 12th century - Strange happenings in Mallet Island

13. 1975 - Sparda met Eva, eventually Eva birth the twins. Vergil is older by several hours before Dante (3142 Artbook Bingo Morihashi interview)

14. Sparda trained the twins, gave them his Rebellion and Yamato until he left suddenly at some point during their childhood and disappeared.

15. 1983 - First Red Grave Incident happened when the twins are 8 years old

16. 1986 - Morris Island Incident happened when Dante as Tony was 11-12 years old

17. 1991 - 16 years old Vergil visited Fortuna, met Lady in Red/ At the same time, in another town Dante became a mercenary. Sanctus killed Solemnis by putting poison in his food after 2 years

18. Between 1991-1992 - Vergil (17) met Sanctus

19. Brief summary of the Goldstein & Martin family: Rock is a son of Roy Martin, and Nell Goldstein. When Rock was 7 years old an accident that caused him to be permanently blind at his right eye. This happened since Rock doesn’t know said gun was unfinished. This led to an argument and then a divorced between his parents. Rock is the reason why Nell also misspelled ART WARKS instead of ART WORKS. Roy remarried to a housewife and has a daughter named Alyssa. Rock never cared about Roy, worked as a research engineer in one of the weapons enterprise in Uroboros. He located Nell 20 yrs after his parents divorced.

20. Between 1992-1993 - Vergil left Fortuna and met Arkham in a library

21. 1993 (18 yrs old) - Both DMC1 novel and DMC3 manga happened in the same year. Rock finally goes to the town but, realizes he’s too late as his mother, Nell Goldstein died in the fire half a year. Rock left Uroboros, change his last name to Goldstein, moved to the hinterlands, and opened a gun shop. Kyrie was born at this year

22. 1994 - DMC3 (19 years old). Technically Dante was still not 18 until he turned 19 in Mission 17 during his fight against Vergil. Mundus defeated Vergil and Vergil turned into Nelo Angelo. Introduction of Devil May Cry shop. During this time J.D Morrison tracked down where Dante is. Meanwhile, in the same year Nero was born and was abandoned in front of the orphanage.

23. 1996 – Nico was born, parents: Alyssa Martin and Agnus

24. 1998 - Agnus was summoned to return to Fortuna by Sanctus. Alyssa Martin (Rock’s half-sister) died to incurable disease. Rock adopted Nico as his daughter

25. 2003 - Dante and Vergil are 28 during DMC1

26. Devil Never Cry turned to Devil May Cry again after Trish left due to an incident regard to Enzo and the demonic gun made by Machiavelli. In turn, Enzo set up a pawn shop

27. 2006 (DMC Anime, CD Dramas, DMC2 novel, DMC2) - Dante was around 31 yrs old. The last time Enzo became an information broker was during DMC2 novel

28. Morrison became Dante's permanent information broker

29. 2007 – When Nero was 13 years old, he accompanied Kyrie and the orphans to visited Fortuna Castle

30. 2010 - One month before DMC4, Mitis Forest incident happened. One of the knights named Josh died, both Nero (right arm) and Kyrie (back) were injured due to the Assault. Nero, Kyrie, the orphans, Tonio, Sagan were instructed to never tell anyone by the Order

31. The events of DMC4 happened: Nero is 16, Kyrie is 17, Dante is 35

32. 2015- Before the Nightmare Prologue chapter to Interlude takes place 5 years after: Nero is 21, Kyrie is 22, Dante is 40

Dante and Vergil are about ~44 in DMC5 and Lady is is roughly in her early 40’s. Granted, they look good because they’re based off of actual models, but that’s not nearly as old as you probably think it is lol. Plus, whether conventionally attractive or not, plenty of people just age extremely well.

Anyway! I’ve done a timeline before, but I can’t find it. So, here’s a fast breakdown:

Pre-Game: D&V are ~8 years old when Eva is killed.

DMC3 Manga: it’s stated here and in Before the Nightmare that everything that happens here is ~10 years after Eva dying and the twins’ separation. Even Arkham confirms it. That makes the twins ~18. Post-Manga (probably), but Pre-DMC3: Vergil goes to Fortuna, Nero is conceived, making Vergil ~18-19 at the time.

DMC3: Dante confirms on at least two different occasions that’s it’s been “about a year” since he and Vergil saw each other. Lady would be ~16, D&V are ~19, Nero is a newborn/young infant.

DMC1: Trish in DMC1 and Before the Nightmare state that Dante’s family was destroyed by Mundus ~20 years prior. Official statements have also put DMC1 ‘about 10 years’ after DMC3. This makes D&V ~29 years old, Lady would be ~26.

Anime & DMC2: Before the Nightmare, DMC5’s prequel novel, has Dante saying he beat Argosax and met/took care of Patty roughly 10 years prior to the events of the novel. Dante is ~43 in the novel (more on that below), so that makes him roughly ~33 in both DMC2 and the animated series. Lady would, in turn, be ~30.

DMC4: Capcom/the DMC staff have said Nero, in his first appearance, is the same age as Dante was in DMC3, and that Dante was “approaching 40” in DMC4. We know Dante was 19 in DMC3 and that Nero was born around this time, so this makes Nero ~19 in his debut, and Dante (and Vergil) ~38. Lady is ~35.

Before the Nightmare: States that DMC4’s events happened 5 years prior to its events. This makes D&V ~43 years old, and Nero ~24 years old.

Ok, I said I will update the old timeline I made, since some things got retconned(like Patty’s age and DMC2 taking place before DMC4 now)with the new novel “Before the Nightmare” and DMC5.

Old timeline post:

https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/177471935795/devil-may-cry-timeline

DMC timeline is a little bit tricky to find out and you need more than one medium to connect things, but once you did, it makes sense. I will list this in years, so you can be sure this is Dante’s and Vergil’s age and I will add Nero’s age(and Patty’s) in some parts. As before, I considered all canon media we got till now =)

Here we go:

(about -2000) Sparda defeated Mundus and closed the portal to the demon world

(0) Vergil and Dante were born (never mentioned when Sparda and Eva met but they were married)

(8) Sparda disappeared(died) and shortly after Eva was killed by demons, which were sent by Mundus

(early 18) Vergil visited Fortuna to search for tales and information about Sparda and impregnated a human woman(”Deadly Fortune” novel, Artbook 3142 SE) at the same time Dante was known as Tony Redgrave(”Before the Nightmare” novel)

(late 18) DMC Manga + Nero’s birth

(19) DMC3(Nero was around 1 year old)

(28) DMC1(Nero was 10 years old)

Up to this point, nothing changed in the timeline, except Vergil’s assumed age, visiting Fortuna.

(At some point between 28 and 31)The Order of the Sword found Nelo Angelo’s broken armor at Fortuna seaside and the broken Yamato at Fortuna outskirts(”Deadly Fortune” novel+”Before the Nightmare” novel)

(early 31) DMC Animation(Nero was 13 years old, Patty was 8 years old)

(late 31) DMC2

(late 35/early 36) DMC4(Nero was 17 years old, mentioned in the “Deadly Fortune” novel)

(40-41) “Before the Nightmare” novel events, taking place 5 years after the Fortuna incident and one year before DMC5 till the events of DMC5. The time skip in the novel’s plot is one year. (Nero is 22-23 years old, Patty is 17-18 years old)

(41) DMC5(Nero is 23 years old, Patty is 18 years old)(Dante’s age was mentioned on the ITG site to be 41 in 5)

I didn’t want to spam this post with maths and huge explainations, how I came up with this timeline, but don’t hesitate to ask me, if you need the exact source or information about something. I’ll try my best to explain with facts. =)

In all brutal honesty: I have no fucking solid idea.

I don’t think it was actually Vergil for several reasons, but it’s always — even in summary form — referred to as:

And in the DMC1 novel, that is what happens. Kamiya’s Vergil is actually a really manipulative, cruel, nasty piece of work. Itsuno’s Vergil is the anti-villain that while... extremely morally gray, most of the time, is not evil and malicious just ‘cause.

Most of that novel can work — not just Nell, .45 Art Warks, the mercenary work, etc. — as long as Vergil isn’t Gliver. And that’s what’s generally accepted, as far as I know (or am concerned). Because that novel is the only thing really clashes with Itsuno’s DMC series (2-5), and it’s far easier to throw out 90% of a novel that was hard to find and not that popular versus bits and pieces from different games that, for the most part, were smash hits.

If you want my two cents:

You can take the DMC1 novel (or some version of the major events in it) as basically canon, especially since it’s set before DMC1, as long as Vergil =/= Gliver and has no affiliation with Gliver.

Before the Nightmare confirms that Vergil didn’t assume a false identity and thus had to fend of demonic hit squads from Mundus — however, he had the Yamato, so he was able to do it. Dante was protected to some extent by the Tony Redgrave alias.

IMO, if you changed that novel around and had had Dante think Gliver was Vergil (who would have, canonically, been missing for nearly a decade at that point) and then have the reveal prove him wrong instead of revealing Gliver as Vergil, you could have a throwaway villain dude/demon named Gilver fucking shit up for Dante.

Trish said Mundus found out about Dante while Dante was using the TR alias in Before the Nightmare, so there is like... an opening... there to tie in a non-Vergil, Mundus affiliated, one-off villain named Gliver into the story.

Also IMO, not only is the Gliver thing really, really OOC for Itsuno’s Vergil, but it would put him in a really bad position with most of the main and supporting characters, which isn’t what you’d wanna do if you’re trying to pull a heel-face(-ish) type turn for someone like Vergil.

I have, but it’s cool!

The twins are roughly ~44 years old in DMC5; Nero is about ~25.

If you’d like a fast breakdown for where exactly those numbers came from, you can go here (link is sfw and goes to another post on this blog).

Yeah, she’s wrong (surprise, surprise).

Assuming DMC5 takes place in roughly 2019 (current year) — which is pretty reasonable imo, given how close that sets the major in-game events to Father’s Day — Dante and Vergil are firmly in the Gen X age range at ~43-44.

Considering that DMC2 now canonically comes before DMC4 (Matt Walker himself has stated this), and the order is now DMC3 Manga -> DMC3 -> DMC1 -> Anime -> DMC2 -> DMC4 -> Before the Nightmare -> DMC5, here’s a rough timeline:

!UPDATE! This timelime has been updated, since some parts had been retconned/changed with the new novel and DMC5. Here is the link to the updated post:

https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/184631950665/ok-i-said-i-will-update-the-old-timeline-i-made

Someone asked for a timelinelist. So I wrote one using all the canon material we've got so far. DMC timeline is a little bit tricky to find out and you need more then one medium to connect things but if you do, it will make sense. I will list this in years, so you can be sure this is Dante's and Vergil's age and I will add Nero's in some parts.

So here we go:

(about -2000) Sparda defeated Mundus and closed the portal to the demonworld

(0) Vergil and Dante were born (never mentioned when Sparda and Eva met but they were married)

(8) Sparda disappeared(died) and shortly after Eva was killed by demons which were sent by Mundus

(17) Vergil visited Fortuna to search for tales and information about Sparda, and impregnated a human woman(Deadly Fortune novel)

(18) Nero was born

(18) DMC Manga

(19) DMC3(Nero was 1 year old)

(28) DMC1(Nero was 10 years old)

(At some point between 28 and 35)The Order of the Sword found Nelo Angelo's broken armor at Fortuna seaside and the broken Yamato at Fortuna outskirts(Deadly Fortune novel)

(29) DMC Animation(Nero was 11 years old, about the same as Patty(10)

(35) DMC4(Nero was 17 years old)

The timeline after DMC4 is not really confirmed yet, only that Dante was in his 40s so I wrote the things down I know so far

(42) DMC2

(Several years after DMC4 and I suppose shortly after DMC2, so 42-45) DMC5(so Nero is now 24-27 years old)

Hope we get the unknown part confirmed in DMC5 :)

Purely based on my vibes alone and not related to any canon material. For a few reasons:

1) The canon itself seems to care little about putting any of the games in a particular time period, everything is very anacrhonistic overall. The reboot is the only exception because it’s very deliberate about having a modern urban setting and its inspirations are very out there. 

2) I don’t think the canon is consistent enough to begin with to warrant me being too much of a stickler for the minute details. 

My timeline does have some stipulations though because I take the DMC world as an alternate timeline for our world, not a 1:1 Our World but with demons. I consider DMC5′s setting to be somewhere in the late 1990s or early 2000s as shown by nobody having a personal phone and people using super retro flash cameras in the proglogue cutscene. There’s also a pretty massive and clunky video camera in the van instead of any sort of camcorder, as well as a discarded Walkman. 

So my headcanon is entirely based around what someone said in the comment section of a fic I like about DMC being set in a ‘perpetual 90s world’. Which I think is amazing <3

Anyway, with the end goal being somewhere in 1995-2005, here’s the actual meat of the timeline.

For starters, my headcanon for Eva is her being born in the 1920s, meeting Sparda in the 1940s and giving birth somewhere between 1945 and 1950. She looks the tiniest bit older in the model viewer for DMC5, so I’d say she could’ve given birth in her 30s and not her 20s. Only vibes here though, so I’m not picky either way, it’s just fun to think about. The whole timeline can be shifted several years back or forth, which... is something I will end up doing. But I need a baseline.

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1925 - Eva’s birth year

1955 - twins are born, Eva is 30

1964(~) - Mundus’ attack, Eva dies at 39 (twins are 9, I prefer the attack on them to happen while the twins are 12-ish but I was told they are 8-9 at the time, so that’s what I’ll go with here)

1973 - DMC1 novel, Dante lives as Tony Redgrave and works as a mercenary, Vergil goes to Fortuna and has his one night stand (twins are 18)

1974 - DMC3 happens, Dante and Vergil are 19, Nero is born, Lady is 17

1984 - DMC1 (twins are 29, Nero is 10, Lady is 27)

1984-1985 - DMC anime happens (I think the recap video in 5 put the anime after 2? But I think it fits better between 1 and 2, it’s part of Dante’s heavy depression years, which can peak during 2)

1985 - DMC2 (twins are 30, Nero is 11)

1993 - DMC (twins are 38, Nero is 19* (I know most people go with him being 17, but someone once told me he’s 19-20 in 4 which I heavily prefer given the artstyle in the game), Lady is 36)

1998 - DMC5 (twins are 43, Nero is 25, Lady is 41)

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