3.3 - how long has it been lorewise since 2.0?

Hey guys,

A friend of mine asked for RP purposes how long it has been since the Calamity until where we are now with 3.3 in Eorzea. I know between the Calamity and ARR's beginning it's been 5 years lorewise. How much time has passed after that though?

I've been trying to find an accurate timeline both here on the forums and elsewhere on the internet, but they all end in 1577 with ARR's beginning. I always imagined somehow it's been roughly a year between 2.0's beginning and end, but have little idea how much time passed after, though it feels like maybe one or two years tops. Does anyone have some answers with a source?

Thanks ^^

Lucky for you this is a frequent question, so I can go ahead and pass this one off to ... myself.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Like the in-game clock, the in-game passage of time itself is fudged so that given dates don't need to be adjusted every time the plot moves. There is a time bubble of approximately one year that encapsulates the 5th Year of the Seventh Umbral Era also known as the 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era. Even if you can prove 5,000 days existed in the bubble, it's still stuck on 1(7AE). Thanks to an old post by Fernehalwes of the dev. team (who confirmed this), we call this "Simpsons Time" and by extension "The Simpsons Time Bubble".

The dev. team needs to be able to not go back and update every instance of one year ago, five years past, ten years back, etc. every time there's a new patch or new expansion. (And you know it wouldn't be done with accuracy under pressure, and then you can't even track the lore even if you were paying attention to all those mentions). You can interpret the time however you like for your own character. Maybe you're a lore purist and it's been one hell(s) of a year. Maybe you'd prefer it if your character spent over a decade slogging around Eorzea moving crates and waiting for the next epic battle. It's up to you!

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TL;DR: Time passes all time, but all it does is shove more and more into the "one year" bubble. In fact, at the end of Heavensward, one of the knights has had a baby and time still hasn't moved, lol.

Here are the dev. team citations:

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Originally Posted by Fernehalwes

To allow everyone that joins the game, regardless of when they do, to experience the full story, there simply has to be a stoppage of time. Okay, not really a stoppage, but more of a time bubble in which a span of about a year is contained. This is why that for the duration of 1.0, Eorzea was in a perpetual 1572. Think of it as the same thing that’s happening in the Simpsons. 23 seasons gone and Lisa’s still 8, Maggie’s still a baby, and the gummy Venus still tastes oh, so sacrelicious. Pushing time along would also mean changing 1000s of lines of NPC dialogue, updating quests, webpages, etc. with every patch. Meaning it would take more than double the time to release updates, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t want to wait. In a book, movie, offline game, a strict timeline can be set without too many complications. In an online title, there are just too many variables, so we ask that you bear with our bending of space-time. It’s for the greater good!

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Originally Posted by "2015 Interview with Gamer Escape

Anwyll: Long ago, you mentioned that 1.0 took place in a “Simpsons Time Bubble.” Are we still in a bubble? Or does time move now that we know Patch = Canon?

Koji Fox: It’s still a bubble; you have to have a bubble. There are players joining in Heavensward that are starting at the beginning. The bubble’s just gotten bigger.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Lucky for you this is a frequent question, so I can go ahead and pass this one off to ... myself.



TL;DR: Time passes all time, but all it does is shove more and more into the "one year" bubble. In fact, at the end of Heavensward, one of the knights has had a baby and time still hasn't moved, lol.

Here are the dev. team citations:

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Hehe, somehow I was already hoping you would respond, seeing you've been the guy to go to when it comes to lore! Thanks for the response, that's good to know it's been only one year. Guess I was about right then, though I didn't think of the time bubble possibility.

Actually, I've been wondering if the bubble is still the case, since the "Kettle to the Metal" quest mentioned that it had been about two years between patchs 2.1 and 3.2.

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Originally Posted by Naria

Actually, I've been wondering if the bubble is still the case, since the "Kettle to the Metal" quest mentioned that it had been about two years between patchs 2.1 and 3.2.

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That's probably Geralt being too drunk to remember things correctly...

But time is mentioned to pass during Heavensward. It takes about a fortnight to make the manacutters, and the Zundu mention its been a while since you last visited.

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Originally Posted by Naria

Actually, I've been wondering if the bubble is still the case, since the "Kettle to the Metal" quest mentioned that it had been about two years between patchs 2.1 and 3.2.

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More accurately, it would be about two years between patches 2.2 (when Jalzahn first arrives in Eorzea) and 3.2.

And I think that's actually more a reference to the amount of real time that has passed for us, the players, than in Eorzea itself.

We could say that this suggests time is passing in Eorzea at roughly the same rate it's doing so in real life. More on this to come.

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Originally Posted by Valenth

...good to know it's been only one year. Guess I was about right then, though I didn't think of the time bubble possibility.

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As Anonymoose said, this question frequently comes up, and I wonder if forum visitors would be better served by having the topic put up in a stickied thread. ;)

As explained, the time bubble is a necessary device to accommodate the different times at which players enter the game.

But rather than to see it as a "restriction", as many players seem to do, I prefer to regard it as a means of giving players the freedom to imagine whatever timeline they feel is appropriate for their characters' development.

After all, official lore and role-play share a dynamic relationship. To paraphrase George Orwell's cardinal rule for writing: I would sooner "break" the lore than imagine anything outright ridiculous.

I don't know about other players, but it's outright ridiculous to me that our characters can go from total n00bs to the paramount Warrior of Light in a matter of weeks, Echo-blessed or not.

And in that context, two years between Jalzahn's arrival and the current state of affairs sounds about just right, to account for all the development my characters have undergone during the period.

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Originally Posted by Valenth

Hehe, somehow I was already hoping you would respond, seeing you've been the guy to go to when it comes to lore! Thanks for the response, that's good to know it's been only one year. Guess I was about right then, though I didn't think of the time bubble possibility.

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Happy to help where I can /blush

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Originally Posted by Naria

Actually, I've been wondering if the bubble is still the case, since the "Kettle to the Metal" quest mentioned that it had been about two years between patchs 2.1 and 3.2.

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EDIT: TinyRedLeaf nailed it while I was double checking transcripts. Feel free to disregerd :p

I'm fairly certain (though please correct me if I'm mistaken) that Kettle to the Mettle is a meta joke that's spiraled out of control. The first red flag for me is that long-standing rules (confirmed multiple times in both versions of the game) would have suddenly changed during a player-requested joke quest about a Masterworks Kettle. But that's not a deep enough look at the situation, lol.

Drake tells Gerolt that order for the kettle came in "two years ago", which Gerolt remembers as being around the time that Jalzahn showed up. Jalzahn showed up in Patch 2.2, and this quest came out in Patch 3.2. Note that, between 2.0 to 3.0, there was no change in how many years had passed since the Battle of Silvertear Skies, so no years passed there. Also note that, from 3.0 to 3.2, there was likewise no change in how many years since Alexander was summoned. So no years passed there. One would have to conclude that the order was placed in 3 Seventh Umbral... unless ... it's just a meta joke.

Kettle to the Mettle was released in Patch 3.2 (February 23rd, 2016). Jalzahn first showed up talking about the Braves in Patch 2.2 (March 27th, 2014).

Two years.

The headcanon I used for FFXI was that each expansion was about a year, but if you went and did content from earlier expansions you just had to retcon it to being before the later stuff. I guess we could assume the same thing for FFXIV. Like I think the players can just suspend their disbelief when doing stuff they know was in an earlier patch.

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Originally Posted by Shadotterdan

The headcanon I used for FFXI was that each expansion was about a year, but if you went and did content from earlier expansions you just had to retcon it to being before the later stuff. I guess we could assume the same thing for FFXIV. Like I think the players can just suspend their disbelief when doing stuff they know was in an earlier patch.

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This was basically how I was approaching the game yeah. If I did stuff that was from the previous expansion, I considered as if I did it back in time... or something. xD

Also there was either a reference by one of the main npc's either nanamo, or the other 2 from uldah or gridania. Even the scions lalafell did mention something about it.

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Originally Posted by Cipher_Zaabiz

Also there was either a reference by one of the main npc's either nanamo, or the other 2 from uldah or gridania. Even the scions lalafell did mention something about it.

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Sorry, I'm lost a bit. Reference to/about what? :)

About how much time has passed since then. Kan e senna made a comment about it, if I am right.

I love the time bubble concept, however, I feel like every patch/expansion exists within its own bubble. And each of those bubbles line up to make a bubble stream.

(1) (2.0)(2.1)(2.2)....(3.1)(3.2)

The amount of time you spent playing exists in a "patch bubble" and they like up to make a smoothly flowing time line.

Back to the original question, I like to think the main games (ARR and hw) span 6 months and every patch exists over the span of 1 month.
Calamity- ARR =5 years. Arr=6 months. 5 arr patches =5 months. Hw=6 months. 3 hw patches=3 months.
So you've been traveling around for 1 year 8 months. So the calamity would be 6 years 8 months ago.

P.s. I'm probably completely wrong about this. I just like theory crafting.

^ That's beautiful! The analogy nicely encapsulates how I imagine the passage of in-game time, but it never occurred to me to describe it that way.

{Good job!}

At end of 3.3, didn't Edmond give a date for the end of the Dragonsong War?

Although that could just be me playing too much FF Type-0. They have a date for every event there. :-)

Not sure if anyone has went into this, but at the end of 3.3 they actually say that Estinien was taken/controlled by Nidhogg for only a few days.

So the end of 3.0 - the end of 3.3 is apparently only a few days long.

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Originally Posted by Balphagor_

Not sure if anyone has went into this, but at the end of 3.3 they actually say that Estinien was taken/controlled by Nidhogg for only a few days.

So the end of 3.0 - the end of 3.3 is apparently only a few days long.

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Makes sense, if a little rushed. A week or two is enough to cover two attempted assassinations, the Grand Melee and Nidhogg's 2nd invasion of Ishgard

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Originally Posted by Balphagor_

Not sure if anyone has went into this, but at the end of 3.3 they actually say that Estinien was taken/controlled by Nidhogg for only a few days.

So the end of 3.0 - the end of 3.3 is apparently only a few days long.

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If you are talking about Lucia she actually said "many days" which is still pretty vague. It could mean weeks or months or more.

What about: The Rising? Is the event where its often said that a year has passed meant for the player or the character?

I always thought it was both, they confirm that a year has passed ingame and praise the player for playing FFXIV for a year. Maybe I am wrong, but that is what I always thought.

Holiday events (like relic quests) tend to work on "meta time", referring to how many events of have passed since the release of the game regardless of the in-game canon chronology bubble. Look how many "new year" kabutos we have compared to (echoing an earlier post) how zero years have been added to how far back the Battle of Silvertear Skies or the summoning of Alexander were.

But in the case of The Rising, there's a bigger red flag: very little effort is made to conceal that the Wandering Minstrel himself is basically "In-Character" Naoki Yoshida, whether he's giving out mounts in 1.0, doling out buffs in the Beta, giving you non-canon challenge-variants of fights from the Rising Stones, showing up as a GM from an expo, or, yes, thanking you for playing his game on its anniversary.

We're talking about the same Wandering Minstrel that said:

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Originally Posted by Wandering Minstrel"

In the days before the Calamity, I glimpsed a world beyond the void─a new world, birthed from the ashes of the old, delivered from darkness by the Bringer of Light. The giver of hope. You.

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Is he literally saying that the dimension of A Realm Reborn is "across the void" from the dimension that 1.0 took place in? That the old dimension was really destroyed and its ashes really made this one? Or is he simply saying, "In the days [before we shut down the 1.0 servers], I glimpsed a [better game] beyond the [server outage] - a new [game], developed from the ashes of the [old game], [prevented from permanently flopping and never being heard from again thanks to people who continued to believe in its potential]."

I'm hesitant to read more into it than meta references, even the "years" bits (until the in-game reference-point dates change).

...Unless the "ten and three" worlds are all similar to the Source with subtle differences and Version 1.0 took place in a reflection that really was destroyed and we were sent here, to the original world, by Louisoix and that's why everything's different and now the Warriors of Darkness are back from the 1.0 variant world and the Minstrel was telling the truth all along! Someone get me Walter Bishop!

Another dimension to this is the need for sequence-breaking to be able to work.

For example, if someone does the Alexander quests first, and then catches up on Crystal Tower later, things still make sense with respect for our Garlond Ironworks people. Likewise, if we start seeing Allisae in the main scenario soon, it still needs to be possible for the Binding Coil quests to happen at any point in the relative past or future.
Some quests will get text amendments acknowledging progress flags (hello, Azure dragoon), but these can only examine relatives else things start breaking.

And no one wants their wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff to start feeling jumbled.