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I wish there was a thread to discuss lore sometimes.
storywise sure. Character progression wise, that ended on the first.
It's the standard by which something is judged. While the definitions provided to you thus far are accurate, the term canon is broad and can apply to many different subjects.
To provide some insight in the literary sense, if something is considered canon in the lore that means that it has established a precedent of truth in the storyline. For example:
"The lesser moon Dalamud is on a crash course with Hydaelyn."
If something is non canon then you don't have to, nor should you expect others, to accept it as truth in regards to the story being told. For example:
"Rhomagus Asclepiot fought alongside Baderon's father during the attack on Ala Mihgo"
Now that is something I made up myself that didn't come from an authority in regards to the storyline.
Where it gets confusing is where an authority will do things that seem outside of the story's established canon. For example:
"A GM calls for everyone to line up and dance while they sing the lyrics to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in order to halt the attack of the ferocious beasts invading Ul'dah"
Anything created by the development team or its representatives in game could be considered cannon. In general though, if not all players are able to witness an event it may not be considered canon as well as other game mechanics such as system messages displaying maintenance schedules and game glitches. Since only one server was privy to this event and it wasn't actually written into the games storyline by the game's writer(s) we don't necessarily have to consider this event canon. Now if the event were to be referenced in, say, a quest cutscene in ARR or possibly a lodestone article written by a journalist from the Harbor Herald, then we might have to consider it.
Canon in this sense begins to become vague. The following are my opinions on what I personally believe are canon, and I may change them in response to a possible SE declaration.
1.) The formation of the Grand Companies in response to the lesser moon Dalamud's apparent crash course with Eorzea." Canon
2.) Adventurer's dancing to "Never Gonna Give You Up" to stop the invasion of Ul'dah
Non-Canon
3.) Relics appearing in our beds as we wake up from a dream
Non-Canon or Canon needs to be followed up by another authoritative source in the story imo.
4.) Monster suddenly growing in size after patch 1.16 (dubbed by some as the over-compensation patch)
Canon as the change has been referenced by in game NPCs.
As you can see, what is and isn't considered canon is quite vague and can change dramatically.
Duuuude mentioned retroactive continuity. I'd consider number four an example of just that. The official source decided to recognize a change via lore when that didn't necessarily have to be done, but since it's an official source you kind of have to take it as a precedent of truth.
Retconning is often frowned upon by fans of a series' lore.
No, actually, on the page where we voted to see if the game would continue to be playable after the 11th, there was a part that explained that everything happening now completely contradicted everything we did in the previous storylines. This isn't canon, it's just fun times before the servers shut down.
NERVERMERND