When Does "Demon Knights" #1-#15 (2011) Take Place?
"Demon Knights" #1 "Seven Against the Dark" to #15 "The Moment of Forgetting" is a historical fiction fantasy comic-book written by Paul Cornell that premiered September 14th, 2011. So when is "Demon Knights" set?
It takes place on the fictional DC Comics Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because in issue #1 "Seven Against the Dark" Jason o' th' Blood (who will later be known as just Jason Blood) says, "Ninety years ago, in Brigantia." when he recognizes someone. Brigantia is the ancient name for a region of Northern England ruled by the Roman Empire that ceased to be a political state in the 200s AD but continued to be a cultural region until the 1100s AD in the real world. So it must be before 1280 AD.
1013 AD
We know this because in issue #1 "Seven Against the Dark" Jason o' th' Blood (who will later be known as just Jason Blood) says, "Ninety years ago, in Brigantia." when he recognizes someone. Brigantia is the ancient name for a region of Northern England ruled by the Roman Empire that ceased to be a political state in the 200s AD but continued to be a cultural region until the 1100s AD in the real world. So it must be before 1280 AD.
1,190 + 90 = 1,280.
More specifically, at the very start of "Demon Knights" #16 "The Gathering Storm" (2013) a time setting textbox tells us it is "Thirty years after the Battle of Avalon." referring to the final confrontation in issues #14 and #15 and the immediately following textbox declares that the new current year is "1043 A.D." So that makes it 1013 AD during #14 and #15.
1,043 - 30 = 1,013.
The beginning of the main action of the story can’t be more than a few months earlier than this so it is probably all contained within the 1013 AD calendar year.
Furthermore, the main action of issue #1 begins with this free-floating text: "NOW. The Dark Ages." The "Dark Ages" is a non-historical term used for the Middle Ages of Europe, very roughly 400 AD to 1400 AD. So it is almost certainly after 200 AD but before 1200 AD. Of course, that is a span of a millennia.
Additionally, there is a "Prologue" in issue #1 that begins with free-floating text reading "Four centuries ago. The last night of Camelot." (Camelot is the quasi-historical British capital under the quasi-historical British King Arthur, who may or may not have lived in the real world at all.) Conceivably, this loosely puts "The last night of Camelot." sometime around 613 AD.
1,013 - 400 = 613.
Flashbacks in issue #8 "The Ballad of Nimue & The Demon" (2012) return to this setting; so they are also around 613 AD.
Finally, #4 "Merlin Watches the Storm" includes scenes in a liminal space during which Merlin says, "We are outside time. Every time is the same time." As such, these scenes cannot be placed on a timeline.
It is a chronologically early comic in the DC Comics Universe multiverse timeline (an early chronological story to feature Jason Blood/Etrigan The Demon & Nimue Inwudu/Madame Xanadu) and can be read at its timeline point or as an extended flashback before "Stormwatch" #1 (1993).
