This is a summary of The Early Diaspora Years, the third chapter of A Brief History of the Order. The original is in 17 parts.
- Annalum is founded as the Order's library and records repository by a group of members of House Cristofer at the beginning of the diaspora in 232.
- The other magi of the Order are divided into two "diaspora parties," one sent north and one sent south, charged with the mission of carrying the Order out into the world. The south-bound diaspora party founds Covenant Melos in Rhythnor. The north-bound diaspora party divides after a quarrel; the majority of its Lemmite members found Covenant Brellyn on Whinnie Moor; the others continue on to Chaeronia, where they found Covenant Trismagisti.
- Only three of the founders remain on the Council, which now represents less than half of the Houses of the Order. Over the next thirty years, the Council goes into a serious decline, accelerated by the eventual deaths of the founders. By the 250s, it has become little more than an honorary body.
- The dispersal of magi throughout Tympania radically changes the structure of the Order and the values of its magi. In the years following the diaspora, covenant identity becomes the primary affiliation of many magi, and the covenants come to command loyalty often surpassing that owed to either House or Order. As the Order moves from an urban phenomenon to a decentralized rural one, its magi adopt the aesthetics of Andar-dominated Tympania. Self-sufficiency, perseverance, and the martial virtues become the traits most admired within the Order.
- Houses Savacion and Aegidius both rejoin the Order in this period. Members of House Savacion disperse throughout the diaspora covenants, and while House Aegidius remains somewhat isolated, the door is opened for its eventual reintegration into the Order as a whole.
- The female branch of House Aegidius, descended from Melia, are sent to live in their own covenant, apart from the rest of the House. Separated from the rest of the House both by location and by their second-class status, which is made evident when the House passes an edict restricting leadership of the House to men, the female branch begins to be viewed as a kind of sub-House all their own, and the term "Melian" is coined to describe them.
- House Lem divides into different schools of Lemmite interpretation. These three schools—the Brellyn Lemmites, the Circulans, and the Gravites—each have their own covenant. The leadership of House Lem gives its tacit approval to this development, which is to become fundamental to the character of the House.
- By the end of this period, the institution of the covenant has been transformed from a simple outpost of the Order and home for its magi to an expression of mage identity, philosophy, and affiliation. Covenants begin to be founded with specific goals and foci in mind. This trend is typified by the solidarity of the Ultorum, and reaches its culmination in the founding of Covenant Ad Vim Per Veritatem.
- Annalum emerges as the regulatory body for the diaspora Order, usurping many of the Council's traditional functions. In order to counteract some of the decentralizing efects of the diaspora, the Annalum Cristofereans establish an Order-wide census, to be taken every forty years. They also work for the acceptance of regularly-scheduled Tribunals, hoping that through these tribunals, they might eventually lead the Order to ratify some overarching Code. The First Cristoferean Census is published in 258. The First Tribunal is held at Annalum in 269.
