Originally a fan-created timeline dedicated to Star Wars, Time Tales came into existence in 1996. Christoper McElroy was its creator, and the timeline initially went live on Star Wars Virtual Edition, a site run by Roderick Vonhogen, a Catholic priest residing in the Netherlands. Shortly thereafter, Michael Potts, based in Australia, reached out to Chris McElroy, offering his research and insights, leading to a collaborative partnership. Their strengths were complementary: McElroy focused on writing summaries of stories, while Potts contributed supplementary details, which they described as a "bricks and mortar" approach.
In 1997, Time Tales transitioned to TheForce.Net and evolved into a substantial document exceeding 1100 pages. Time Tales was available as both an illustrated online version and a downloadable Microsoft Word file. Only Sections 1.1 and 1.2, which delve into the Old Republic era, remain on TheForce.net as of November 2022.
Potts' Star Wars family trees and McElroy's "Dune Sea Scroll" are also hosted on the website. The "Dune Sea Scroll" and family trees are expanded transcripts of the Star Wars films and radio dramas. "Arcana Historica," a presentation of Star Wars adventures and nonfiction works that are both long-forgotten and unreprinted, is another part of their website.
Time Tales has garnered recognition from both fans and authors. Sean Williams and Shane Dix acknowledged Christopher McElroy and Michael Potts in the Force Heretic trilogy. Daniel Wallace also acknowledged them in The Essential Chronology, the official Star Wars Legends timeline guidebook published by Lucasfilm.
Fans have translated Time Tales into various languages as well.