What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?

  When we have an era on a timeline that is embedded within another one, the eras are shown stacked and events within the inner era are repeated on the timeline and shown twice. This leads to longer timelines in the display than necessary which also are a bit confusing to read since time no longer progresses linearly down the line and is jumping backwards and forwards. What would be a lot nicer (IMO) is if an embedded era could just be shown within the era in which it occurs and the events within it were shown only once on the timeline. I see no reason why that shouldn't apply for arbitrary nesting levels, although I do recognise that overlapping eras need a bit of thought. But basically, even there, I'd like to see the start and end of the era, just the once, and I don't see why they can't just be markers on a linearly progressing timeline, shown just once.  

How does this feature request address the current situation?

  At the moment, I am reluctant to use embedded eras at all because this display issue is offputting. Embedded eras are nice though, and a perfectly natural way to think about time, so it would be great to be able to deploy them without duplicating the events.  

What are other uses for this feature request?

  I'm not super familiar with Chronicles as yet, so I don't know whether the same considerations apply there (or something analogous).