7th Umbral Calamity is not much of a calamity

Previous Umbral Calamities caused the destruction of whole civilizations. 4th Umbral destroyed Allag. 6th Umbral destroyed the 3 magic nations. But at the end of the 7th Umbral calamity, the city states of Eorzea still stood. The civilization of the 7th Astral era is the same as the civilization at the end of the 6th Astral era.

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Originally Posted by Yuella

Previous Umbral Calamities caused the destruction of whole civilizations. 4th Umbral destroyed Allag. 6th Umbral destroyed the 3 magic nations. But at the end of the 7th Umbral calamity, the city states of Eorzea still stood. The civilization of the 7th Astral era is the same as the civilization at the end of the 6th Astral era.

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Well, a certain old man managed to avert most of the disaster. Just saying. Just because there wasn't end of the world destruction doesn't mean that nothing happened. The elementals in the shroud are thrown out of whack, the weather in Coerthas is eternal winter, Eastern Thanalan now gets a lot of rain, the Behemoth was apparently released (the FATE one), etc. Things have changed, you just have to pay attention.

That was because a certain archon made a decision that mitigated the effects of Bahamut's rampage. But even then it was so close to ruin that Gaius would be able to finish the Job with Ultima (either though literal destruction or by terrorizing the city states into giving up and accepting Garlean rule, which would destroy the city states on a cultural and political level by reducing them to mere colonies of a greater empire.)

that the 7th Umbral Calamity wasn't as apocalyptic as previous ones is sort of the point

That does raise an interesting question, though: did it cause a Rejoining, or not? If Louisoix mitigated and contained most of the damage, did it still make Hydaelyn desperate enough to absorb another shard?

Yes, there was (probably) still a Rejoining. It's (seemingly) clear in the context of what people say about the Seventh.

Koji referred to it as Louisoix "half stopping" the Calamity, which I assume means he stopped the half that causes all of the destruction here on the Source (or at least undid and mitigated a great deal of it) and not the destruction of the other world.

The Ascians refer to Zodiark being empowered by the recent Ardor, so it's hard to assume one didn't take place.

Hydaelyn says that she's failed to prevent a Calamity seven times, so the one labeled the Seventh probably succeeded.

As far as I remember, the cutscene said we already had 7 Rejoinings, so I am pretty sure that yes, it caused one. As for the actual damage done by the catastrophe:
I think changing entire regions entirely is a pretty big deal. Considering especially Coerthas basically became uninhabitable in most parts does not pale much in comparison to other catastrophes, it just has a smaller area of effect?


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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

EDIT INCOMING

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http://i.imgur.com/VdXMfbn.gif

A possible secondary effect of civilization surviving and not falling the same way as in previous Calamities is that the realm appears to be more susceptible to a Calamity/Rejoining much sooner than has happened in the past.

Astral eras have typically lasted hundreds of years as the realm rebuilds before being pushed to the brink again. It's been 5 years (canonically speaking) and the current Ascian efforts appear to be much further along - in fact, Nabriales seemed ready to invoke a Rejoining with Tupsimati in short order had we not stopped him.

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Originally Posted by Hinoto-no-Ryuji

That does raise an interesting question, though: did it cause a Rejoining, or not? If Louisoix mitigated and contained most of the damage, did it still make Hydaelyn desperate enough to absorb another shard?

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Originally Posted by Atoli

As for the actual damage done by the catastrophe: I think changing entire regions entirely is a pretty big deal.

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There was another peculiar after-effect from the Calamity: Mass amnesia.

The survivors of the Calamity can't clearly remember those who had answered the call to fight against it.

And I like to imagine now that this was caused by a Rejoining: Two worlds merged and fundamentally changed space-time realities in the new world born from the merger.

The "Warriors of Light" who had counterparts in the Reflection got merged or erased as the Shard's space-time reality blended into that of the Source. And that's why the survivors on the Source can't remember the previous generation of WoLs any more: They no longer exist in the new, merged timeline.

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

They no longer exist in the new, merged timeline.

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D:
I still exist!
*flays arms around*
See?! In the source world. Despite being one of the original WoLs!;-;
Don't kill us off just yet xD

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Originally Posted by Atoli

D:
I still exist!
*flays arms around*
See?! In the source world. Despite being one of the original WoLs!;-;
Don't kill us off just yet xD

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I wonder if that's why we have tattoos in the back of our necks! To survive the merging O.o

Actually the reason no one remembers the Warriors of Light from Cartenau was that Louisoux put you out of the time stream near the end. 5 years later you pop back in, there's a bittle of wibbly wobbly timey wimey aftereffects.

Just throwing this out there, but...

Why are we so convinced it's over?

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Originally Posted by LuckyFish

Just throwing this out there, but...

Why are we so convinced it's over?

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With the reveal that the cycle is entirely tied to whenever the Ascians manage to successfully pull off an Ardour/Rejoining I think we can safely lay to rest the idea that there's any organic rhythm or underlying natural force to the cycle of Eras. It really is just a pattern that Eorzeans super-impose over history in a bid to try and make sense of it all so "It's now the 7th Astral Era because We Say So" is perfectly valid.

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Originally Posted by FJerome

With the reveal that the cycle is entirely tied to whenever the Ascians manage to successfully pull off an Ardour/Rejoining I think we can safely lay to rest the idea that there's any organic rhythm or underlying natural force to the cycle of Eras. It really is just a pattern that Eorzeans super-impose over history in a bid to try and make sense of it all so "It's now the 7th Astral Era because We Say So" is perfectly valid.

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The events that immediately followed the declaration of peace in our time I mean the end of the 6-year 7th Umbral Era kinda undercut even that broadest of definitions.

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Originally Posted by LuckyFish

The events that immediately followed the declaration of peace in our time I mean the end of the 6-year 7th Umbral Era kinda undercut even that broadest of definitions.

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You'd have to take it up with the Grand Companies, I'm afraid. Every measure of time is an invention, and a flawed, descriptive one, at that. The memory of the ages can't even tell historians from angels, so it's not surprising that the cycle of the eras wouldn't be exact in their descriptions - only so much is as preordained as Elidibus would have us believe.

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Originally Posted by Gamer Escape Interview with Koji Fox (Fan Festival 2014 Las Vegas)

So, officially, it’s the Seventh Astral Era… but there’s still… a lot of stuff going on. Who are the Grand Company Leaders that they can just be like, “Okay, it’s over, we’re done!”

This is a very political thing. Basically, five years ago, you had half of your world destroyed because Louisoix stepped in and tried to stop things and only half stopped things. A lot of people did pass away during the Calamity, and their livelihood has been destroyed, and they have to rebuild and go into the shroud to move felled trees and rebuild their farms, and it's got a lot of people down.

If you look at some of the NPC dialogue, one thing we did in 2.0 was, we thought, you know, if my life had been destroyed, I’d be all depressed. I’m just trying to rebuild things and get back on my feet. So we’ve tried to put that kind of text into these regular NPCs. You have all these people in these nations that are very down. They had this big war with the Garleans, they won all these great battles, it was the first time in thousands of years the Grand Companies were formed, and then “Hey, we …DIDN’T make it!”

So basically the GC leaders were waiting for something good to happen and they grasped onto that and said “OK! Umbral era is over! Mission accomplished! We’re done!” to hopefully bring peoples spirits up. It’s a morale thing, you can’t have your people depressed all the time; they won’t be productive thinking, “Why should I farm? Another Bahamut is gonna just destroy my fields.”

So we have that quest line, Chronicles of a New Era.. so we ARE in a new era then?

Yep. When they announce it, that’s it.

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Besides, considering that the time bubble encompassing the game-year is still intact, either history will look back on the greatest threats to our world being thwarted in the 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era and think, "Well, clearly we knew the tide had turned." or Hydaelyn will be lost to oblivion and there won't be anyone to get all smug about it in retrospect, anyway.

I think its safe to say when an umbral era starts. Something really, really bad happens, lots of people die and/or civilisation collapses. An astral era would be much harder to have a clear mark for. As I see it, it is denouncing effectively a time of rebuilding and growth. In that regard it might actually be right. While the world is definitely a troubled place, Eorzea has been growing stronger. The nation states have been building and are now closer together than they have been in a really long time. Trade and commerce is flourishing. Its a time of growth as opposed to a collapse and chaos.

Wait, what is the rejoining or whatever everyone is talking about after a era is announced? Anonymoose( or anyone else lol) I need your wisdom!

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Originally Posted by Powe

Wait, what is the rejoining or whatever everyone is talking about after a era is announced? Anonymoose( or anyone else lol) I need your wisdom!

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A rejoining or the Ardor is the reason the Ascians are causing the calamities. Every time they create a calamity it causes one of the mirror worlds to be destroyed and return the Aether of that world to the source world. 7 Rejoinings mean 7 worlds have been destroyed or returned to the source world.

The calamities are merely a means to an end and the resulting chaos and destruction it causes seems to be as much a side effect than an intended outcome. Frankly its probably better for them when civilisation recovers faster as they can move to trigger another Rejoining more quickly that way.

So...not to get too political here, but...

"Mission Accomplished"?

It also seems we're using the same words to refer to more than one thing. There's the delineation of history represented by the Astral/Calamity/Umbral/Rejoining cycle, and the metaphysical forces that underlay them.

Is the metaphysical status known at present?