/u/wisul's question in the Medieval Mondays thread got me thinking on this.

I'll start (my "age" markers are for fun and subject to change), and you post stuff to add or correct or your own timeline with, uh, tarot and whores if you think mine sucks:

P R E H I S T O R Y

???? - DauT is born

Antiquity

Oct 15, 1997 - Ensemble Studios releases Age of Empires I

1997ish - Heavengames Forums is founded and becomes the premier modding website for the Age of Empires games, and is the largest community into the late 2000's Dark Age

1997-1998ish - Development starts of Age of Empires 2 but the developers realize they cannot deliver the game to Microsoft in 1 year as planned.

Oct 31, 1998 - Rise of Rome is released to help buy time to develop Age of Empires 2.

Fall of Rome

Sep 30, 1999 - Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is released

Aug 24, 2000 - Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is released

2001ish - Patch 1.0c is released

Dark Ages

Oct 18, 2005 - Age of Empires III is released

Idunno - MSN Zone stops hosting Age of Empires 2 games

Idunno - Voobly is founded

Idunno - Gameranger is founded

Idunno - HawkAoC, basically the Chinese equivalent of Heavengames, is founded

Feudal Age

2010ish - A Chinese modder on HawkAoC discovers how to add civs to the game

2010ish - /u/CysionBE begins work on an unofficial expansion to the game, recruiting from Heavengames AoE2 forum, AoKHeaven.

2011ish - Cysion releases The Forgotten Empires

Apr 24, 2011 - /r/aoe is founded (by /u/sixty3?)

2011ish - Presumably due to The Forgotten Empires, AoE2's continued multiplayer presence, and uh I dunno maybe this sub, Microsoft begins to see renewed interest in Age of Empires II, possibly as a result of Forgotten Empires

2012 - Development on Age of Empires II: HD Edition begins

Castle Age

Apr 9, 2013 - Age of Empires II: HD Edition is released

2013ish - Microsoft announces that Forgotten Empires will be an official expansion to HD Edition

Nov 7, 2013 - The Forgotten Expansion is released

Aug 11, 2014 - /r/aoe2 hits 10k subscribers

Nov 9, 2015 - African Kingdoms is released

2016ish - A picture on Facebook is shared on the official Age of Empires II showing two Elephant units that were not in the game already leading to...

Dec 19, 2016- Rise of Rajas is released

May, 2017 - In an AMA, /u/thisisbillgates replies to /u/le-click asking for a new Age of Empires game, stating he will look into it and asking "How many empires do you need?"

Jun, 2017 - Microsoft announces Age of Empires I Definitive Edition

Aug, 2017 - Microsoft announces Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

Imperial Age?

Ehh I think we're still in the Castle Age, and the Imperial Age will start when Definitive Edition is released.