Not quite. He’s got the entire story arc planned out, but individual strips are written only a short time before publication. So, he can add a tribute strip or two, or drop a couple of jokes, and thus get any strip falling wherever he wants it. Not that he always marks the 50’s and 100’s with major events anyway. Sometimes he does, sometimes not.
I am starting to develop this theory about the end of the comic. So far, the Order of the Stick has left in its wake a huge number of angry and dispossessed people. For one, every being on the planet who was affected by the Familicide spell; every goblin and hobgoblin in the city; all the Azurites who think the Order of the Stick was the cause of the war in the first place; all the guest at the hotel that was exploded; the residents of the town where the Linear Guild showdown was; the Oracle and his minions…
Is there anybody in their wake that they haven’t pissed off? I get this feeling like sooner or later all of this is going to come back to haunt them. Probably all at once. 
Well, they are PCs…
As I always say, you can’t make an omelette without setting a few villages on fire.
I always pronounced that ‘Hommet’…
If you set Hommlet on fire is that elemental evil?
<Slow clap>
<hat off>
Okay, for what it’s worth, I’ve composed a timeline of the background events in OOTS. I’ve spoilered it because it contains information from the books as well as the strips.[spoiler]Order of the Stick Timeline
“The Dawn of Time”: The four original pantheons of the Gods arrive and form reality out of the threads of chaos. There were disagreements on which threads would be used and the result was the creation of the Snarl. The Snarl attacked and destroyed the Eastern Gods and then all of reality in an attack that lasted twenty seven minutes. The remaining three pantheons feld to the outer planes where they hid for centuries. The three elder gods finally met and made a plan to trap the Snarl and rebuild reality.
0: The gods used the threads of reality to rebuild their creation. This time they form agreements on what threads will be used. In addition to building the world, they also use the threads to form a prison to trap the Snarl.
The gods create clerics to carry out their will in the mortal plain but realize the clerics do not develop power quickly enough. They create low-level “monster” races like goblins, orcs, kobolds, and bugbears to give their favored races an easy challenge to let them increase their powers.
Eventually one goblin, the Dark One, arose who had significant power. He organized an alliance between various goblin tribes and led them to victory over human kingdoms. The Dark One met with the humans to negotiate a settlement to the war but was betrayed and assassinated.
His goblin followers were outraged and killed a million humans within a year in revenge. As a result of all these deaths in his name, the Dark One became a god. He now knew the monster races had been created for the purpose of being defeated by other races and was angry with the other gods. Some of the older gods wished to destroy the Dark One but he had some allies like Loki, Rat, and Tiamet and was allowed to exist as the god of the goblin races.
1080: Vaarsuvius is born.
1080: “Xykon” discovers he has sorcerous powers.
1088: “Xykon” meets with Xavion. He kills Xavion and his parents. He assumes the name Xykon and embarks on his path of evil.
1101: Xykon decides to stop being a minion and become an archvillian.
1102: Eugene Greenhilt is born.
1114: Eugene Greenhilt enters Magic University.
1118: The rifts appear. A paladin Soon Kim and an elven druid Lirian are among the first to discover them and form a group to capture and seal them. The group’s members were Soon, Lirian, halfling rogue Serini Toormuck, dwarf barbarian Kraagar, illusionist/tracker Girard Draketooth, and wizard Durokan. They discover there are five rifts and learn how to seal them shut.
A goblin cleric also discovers one of the rifts and passes the knowledge on to the Dark One. The Dark One sees possession of the rift as a means to force the other gods to give the goblins a better position in the world. He creates the Crimson Mantle and gives it to one of his clerics and tells them to capture the rift.
Soon’s group gains control of the five rifts and seals them. Kraagar is killed. Each of the five surviving members of the group is assinged to guard one rift in whatever manner they feel is most effective. Lirian defends the rift known to the Dark One. Soon founds the Sapphire Guard to protect his rift.
1123: Vaarsuvius apprentices to Aarindarius to learn magic. He studys with Aarindarius for sixty years.
1124: Eugene Greenhilt dies and is resurrected for the first time. This happens again in 1143, 1149, 1158, 1159, and 1168.
circa 1135: Xykon kills Eugene Greenhilt’s mentor Fyron Pucebuckle. Eugene swears vengeance. He discovers Xykon’s name from the Oracle, swears an Oath of Blood Vengeance, and joins an adventuring group to track down Xykon. But he never finds Xykon and eventually gives up looking for him after ten years.
1136: Shojo becomes leader of the Sapphire Guard.
1144: Durkon Thundershield is born.
1149: “Redcloak” is ordained as an Acolyte of the Dark One. His village is wiped out by the Sapphire Guard. The only survivors are “Redcloak” and his younger brother. “Redcloak” assumes the Crimson Mantle.
1153: “Redcloak” and his brother meet Xykon. They adopt the names Redcloak and Right-Eye to avoid confusing Xykon.
1154: The Creature in the Darkness is captured.
1156: Xykon, Redcloak, Right-Eye, and their goblins attack Lirian’s Gate. They’re defeated and the survivors are placed in an underground prison. Redcloak transforms Xykon into a lich so they can break out. They attack Lirian’s Gate again. Xykon defeats Lirian but Redcloak accidentally destroys the Gate. But Lirian accidentally tells Xykon of the existance of the other four rifts. Xykon becomes outraged when he discovers some of the things he sacrificed by becoming a lich. He threatens to kill Redclaok and Right-Eye but relents. But he tells them he is now in charge and they have to obey his orders.
1155: Roy Greenhilt is born.
1159: Haley Starshine is born.
1162: Right-Eye gives Eugene Greenhilt information about Xykon in hopes that Eugene will be able to defeat Xykon. Eugene admits he’s no longer interested in revenge. Right-Eye decides to flee from Xykon and tries unsuccessfully to convince Redcloak to join him.
1162: Twin brothers Elan and Nale born.
1166: Durkon is sent away from his home due to a prophecy from Odin.
1167: Julia Greenhilt is born.
1176: Roy is a freshman at Bash University. His father visits him and tells him of the Oath of Blood Vengeance he swore against Xykon.
1177: Xykon disappears. While gone, he finds Serini Toormuck’s diary which has information about all of the rift gates.
1178: Haley and Crystal meet and become nemeses.
1180: Eugene Greenhilt dies for the final time due to old age.
1180: Roy graduates from college and joins a adventurer group. Roy meets Durkon who is a member of the group. Roy and Durkon disagree with the other members of the group and split off on their own.
1180: Redcloak reunites with Right-Eye, who he finds now has a wife and three children. Redcloak steals the Creature in the Darkness from the circus where he is a sideshow exhibit. Redcloak is on the verge of abandoning his plans and settling down in Right-Eye’s village when Xykon reappears. He tells them he has located the other four rifts and forces everyone to rejoin his army.
1182: Xykon besieges Dorukan’s Tower, the location of a second rift in 1181. After over a year of waiting, Xykon lures Dorukan out to fight by threatening Lurian who he captured when he defeated her. Right-Eye tells Redcloak that he plans to attack Xykon while he fights with Durokan in hopes that Xykon will be distracted enough to be defeatable. Redcloak refuses to admit he was wrong to follow Xykon and kills Right-Eye to protect Xykon. Xykon defeats Dorukan and then taunts Redcloak for being too servile to defy him like Right-Eye did.
1182: Haley receives a letter that her father is being held for ransom in Tyrinaria and quits Thieves’ Guild. Haley begins adventuring.
1183: Vaarsuvius is sent out by his master Aarindarius to learn about the world.
1183: Haley and Vaarsuvius meet.
1183: Roy and Durkon get Xykon’s current location at Dorukan’s Tower from the Oracle.
1183: Elan is abandoned by his patron Sir Francois.
1183: Vaarsuvious participates in an Iron Mage competition and accidentally blows up the stadium. The explosion lets Belkar escape from the prison next door, where he was being held for trial after killing 15 people in a bar fight.
1183: Roy recruits Haley, Vaarsuvius, Belkar, and Elan into the group. The group sets out for Dorukan’s Tower and adopts the name The Order of the Stick.
1183: The Order of the Stick enters Dorukan’s Tower. They meet the Linear Guild. They fight Xykon and his army and apparently destroy him. However he is able resurrect himself and escapes with Redcloak and the Creature in the Dark. Elan accidentally destroys Durokan’s Gate.
1183: Miko Miyazaki is sent to capture the Order and bring them to Azure City. The Order goes on a sidequest to obtain starmetal to rebuild Roy’s sword. Vaarsuvius kills a black dragon. Xykon and Redcloak recruit a new army of hobgoblins. The Order is put on trial for destroying Durokon’s Gate.
1184: The Order agrees to work for Shojo to destroy Xykon and protect the remaining Gates. The Order obtains information from the Oracle. The Linear Guild launchs another convuluted attack against the Order and Nale learns about the rifts. Miko kills Shojo. Xykon attacks and captures Azure City. Miko destroys Soon’s Gate. Roy and Miko are killed in the battle. The Order is split up.
1184: Roy reunites with his deceased family members in the afterlife. Haley and Belkar keep Roy’s body and reunite with Celia. Elan meets Therkla who subsequently dies. Vaarsuvius becomes obsessed with locating Haley and Belkar and leaves Durkon and Elan. Vaarsuvius makes a deal with three fiends for power. The Order is reunited.[/spoiler]
There’s one tiny error in your timeline. New Year’s occurred between the point that the Order was arrested by Miko and the point they went on trial. The Azure city new year was clearly analogous to the Chinese new year. Elan specifically mentions that new year was a couple of months before they celebrate it in Azure city and since it took over two months for them to travel there…
Of course that’s way more thought than it needed.
There’s a new strip up. (#650)
It’s not an exact science. I decided to divide the years when they celebrated it in Azure City because it happened “in strip”.
I figure the year probably also changed at some point since Azure City fell and we’re now in 1185 but it happened during one of the stretches of time that happened “off strip” like when the fleet was sailing between islands and Belkar and Haley were fighting in the resistance.
The biggest guess I had to make was trying to pin down when Xykon killed Fyron. It was an important event so I wanted to include it in the timeline but there was very little information about when it occurred. All we’ve been told is that it happened a few years after Eugene finished his apprenticeship and that Xykon appeared to be around fifty at the time.
There’s a much more detailed timeline on the GitP fora.
Told ya. Something horrible IS about to happen.
We know they’re not another year further on since there have been a lot of time references in the strip that pin it down to only a few months.
Oh hey, new strip. So… four strips and counting. 
I don’t know if it would be funnier for V to defeat him or end that fifth strip on a cliffhanger that makes it look like V’s won when he/she hasn’t…
After they’re reunited, Belkar is talking about the new skills Elan learned while they were seperated and says “Let’s split up for another year, maybe he’ll finally master basic multiplication.” (cite)
Link. For some reason I get into the site quicker following links here than going to the site directly.
That makes sense; you need to redirect to the latest comment from the main site.
So…assuming that Xykon doesn’t pull out some severely impressive Epic magic, who actually thinks the bony one is going to walk away from this? A transmuter-specialized wizard with an ungodly save DC is just the right tool for the job of destroying a lich.
One potential wrinkle I see is that Xykon may well be much better protected against magic than HP damage. This shouldn’t be an obstacle for someone with a few Summon Monster IX’s prepped…but I don’t think V will settle for sending in a horde of summoned monsters.
Hmm. Random guess. What if V finds out that Redcloak holds Xykon’s phylactery, and throws another Disjunction at him to break it? (This would also spell a significant chance to both also break the Mantle, and guss up V’s spellcasting permanently.) This would move the plot along and, be less predictable than either “V trounces Xykon on Round II.” or “Xykon makes a cutting observation that costs V another spliced soul.”
I think that’s a real time year, not an “in-comic” year.
Whee! Okay, I was wrong on Roy reappearing in all his corporeal glory in #650, although the process is nicely underway, but golly Moses! The two spliced souls were showing signs of verbal distress in their last panel – I wonder if the connection will break just as V is preparing to deal the death blow to Xykon.
And interesting that, as much has happened since the Soul Splice, it’s been in less than 20 ‘actual’ minutes.
Can’t wait to see what happens next!