My Friend & I were discussing this and I went to Imperial Library...

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/dragon-war-timelines

Any thoughts...

Um...

What?

What are you asking?

You are going to find exceptional difficulty in plotting a chronology of a war against Time.

Oh, so you want a timeline concerning the Dragon War?

Like, a linear story of the events or perhaps you want to know when this war took place?

After Convention and before the reign of Harald.

Damn, I'm good. Give me a ceegar. Just kidding. I don't smoke ceegars.

Or are we actually being serious here? This question hurts my head a little.

It's kinda hard to pin down exactly when certain events took place. I suppose it began with Convention. The stone tablets on High Hrothgar imply Dragons came before the mortal races and ruled the skies for some time before Men or Elves appeared. Alduin was the first piece that broke off from Akatosh. I think this is when Time started to solidify somewhat on Nirn.

So the events would start after that point, sometime in the Merethic, but closer to the First Era. It's stated that the Dragon Cult became oppressive only after the Atmorans moved to Tamriel. It doesn't specify if this is before or after the Night of Tears. I'm gonna assume it was actually before that but I might be wrong. All this would logically take place before their fights with the Elves, which were about expanding the Nordic Empire. I believe this expansionist mindset happened after the Nords defeated Alduin. They then wanted to conquer Skyrim for themselves, but the Snow Elves took offense.

Another way of looking at it is that this happened after the defeat of the Falmer. MK's version of the Companions mentions they brought Dragons with them from Atmora, so it's possible the Dragon Cult was still functional until after the fall of the Falmer. This would explain why it was being fought as far south as High Hrothgar, which would have been deep in Snow Elf territory.

In either event, the Cult was smashed long before the time of Harald, because it was notable when a long-hidden stronghold of the Cult was discovered then.

Yes.