Distances and Travel Times

So with the world map opening up, I'm curious about how much ground we're actually covering and how long it takes us. For example, from Limsa Lominsa to Kugane. I'm guessing that trip took 3 months of sailing, meaning that in Stormblood, we actually spent the better part of a year away from Eorzea.

I also want to know how long an average trip between the Eorzean city-states generally takes. I've seen some NPC dialogue that implies that a single rider can get from Gridania to Ul'dah in one day, but only if they push their chocobo to the absolute limit. What's the distance between those two points?

Distance is hard to measure because the map is limited to 40x40 coords so 1x1 pixel is different yalms on different map.
I guess you can use aether compass if you haven't unlock flying for hard measure but won't work for ARR.

Travel time I settle for what chocobo/falcon porter gives (with mount speed),
gridania - camp tranquill - camp drybone - uldah = ~10mins, or 3h 26 mins eorzean

G.R.R. Martin, author of the Song of Fire and Ice chronicles, famously refused to give any specifics on how large Westeros and Easteros are, precisely because he didn't want fans fussing over long it takes for characters, armies and ships to get from one part of the world to another.

I'd suggest that players don't take distances too seriously in Eorzea either. All talk about travel times is effectively moot, given the existence of instantaneous travel via aetheryte crystals and Garlean teleporters.

The lore makes it such that adventurers are "special" (don't ask why; there's never been a satisfactory answer, I feel, as to why adventurers necessarily have more aether reserves, or anima, than common folk), and are able to teleport regularly, almost at will. And, in gameplay terms, that's effectively what it is: instant travel, any time, all the time.

It's one of those things I'd chalk up to gameplay-story segregation. For head-canon/fan-fiction reasons, I ignore the existence of such teleportation devices, or otherwise imagine that their range is severely limited.

But, to answer the OP more directly, I believe it was indeed officially stated somewhere that it takes about two to three months to sail from Limsa Lominsa to Kugane.

So, yes, the journey to-and-from Gyr Abania to Othard should, by right, have taken up to at least half a year in game time. By my own very conservative reckoning, the campaigns to liberate both Ala Mhigo and Doma should have taken at least a year concurrently, if not more, excluding travel time.

And so, contrary to how it feels to most players in actual gameplay, the revolution didn't happen "overnight". It did in fact take a lot of time, logistics and planning to carry out, and would have very likely not been easy.

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

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It's funny you should mention fanfic, since that's one of the reasons why I'm thinking so much about this question. Writing a long fanfic on Comic Book Time is doable, but not my style, really.

I personally estimate Stormblood as having taken place over a year, travel time included - which means all our fighting and talking took place within 6 months. It's things like these that remind me of how the writers really screwed the pooch by making Alphinaud and Alisaie teenagers: all that time passing and they don't age one hair? But well, time bubble.

I actually estimated the travel time between Limsa Lominsa and Kugane by a real-world comparison. A sailing ship in the 18th century apparently took 100 days or so to travel from England to China, going around Africa and all that. Limsa Lominsa to Kugane, in Earth terms, would probably be like sailing from Saint Helena to Japan, which I'm guessing is a similar distance.

I forget the source, but someone (might have been Anonymoose?) did the math or something and the trip from Limsa to the Far East is supposed to take at least two months, assuming good weather.

Ah I see now. I don't think we can set age or relative time span in story. How long a quest can be finished usually not related to how long the story went. My character would be 42 years old if I start adventuring at age 16. The game is accurate tho metrics-wise, in the example without mount speed, it would be 14 hours for normal npc which gives 10 hours rest in camp drybone/tranquill. Even chocobo need sleep/eat :p

There's no chronological order for side stories too, for example dragoon job quest and msq can overlap in sb and still make sense to me. (sorry if spoiler)

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I'm guessing that trip took 3 months of sailing

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

I forget the source, but someone (might have been Anonymoose?) did the math or something and the trip from Limsa to the Far East is supposed to take at least two months, assuming good weather.

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Getting the obligatory disclaimer out of the way: Any and all timelines focusing on the opening cutscene of A Realm Reborn onwards are fanmade contrivances to which no player can justly be beholden until such a time that the world lore team concretely and specifically states otherwise. Time is locked in a one-year bubble in Eorzea's open world and NPCs deliberately refer to present time passage in vague increments.

That said, if you were going to try to focus on your own headcanon timeline for your own writing, I highly recommend just checking out historical sailing information. Almost every metric on Hydaelyn mirrors Earth itself with a bit of wiggle room, from the name (Earth → Eorþe → Eorzea) to the basic layout of the continents. Until we have anything better to go on, that's a great place to start.

Landmass distribution implies that Eorzea is roughly Africa broken and shifted northward with Europe shifted eastward to accommodate. Climate implies that Thanalan is at roughly 30 degrees north latitude. [Checks view from space to see if anything is absurdly askew of this so far, it's not.] So grab a location between Portugal and Senegal (a fff[kupo]k of a lot farther than 1,000 malms, let me tell you, Gosetsu), pretend mid-Africa is open ocean, and sail to Nagasaki at galleon speed (let's say 8 to 12 knots). Yeah, you're probably looking at a moon to two depending on where the fine-tuning falls in terms of latitude and wind behavior.

This is why I don't even try to gauge realistic travel across even just Eorzea. You are able to explore tiny sections of areas which make up tiny fractions of regions which make up a massive continent, and being an MMO means playing with scale as required. Even taking aetherytes and linkshells and the imaginary time-jump between loading screens into account, by the time you chart out the various speeds at which news and soldiers are able to travel based on the needs of the plot, you're back to arguing about the flight speed of ravens alongside the Ice and Fire crowd.

Also keep in mind that the areas we have explored are sometimes really far apart (love the new map layouts showing this!) So even on the chocobo examples, we still cross those swaths in an instant XD Ironically reason i don't mind the instanced areas is because this means they realistically can keep adding "land" wherever they want lol.

I dunno how true the one year bubble statement is now, given that there's a NPC (Yomogi, under "what kind of place is this") in the Doman Enclave after you liberate Doma who specifically states that it's been a year or so since the failed Doman rebellion, which was around... 2.2-ish?

And Gerolt's disciple once said it's been two years since the master crafter received a commission to hammer out, if I remember correctly, a number of kettles, while Lyse/Yda said it's been, what, 15 or so years, since she fled Ala Mhigo? I don't have access to my notes to give the definitive figures offhand.

But this doesn't mean a time bubble isn't in place. A better analogy suggested by one forum contributor a while back is to imagine a "chain of (time) bubbles", with each expansion corresponding to the latest bubble in the chain. By that, we know definitively that events in one expansion happen after events from previous content. But bubble still holds, with regard to each expansion.

As 'moose said, try not to think too hard about it. It's enough to know that there is some kind of continuity. Let your imagination fill in, or paper over, the gaps, whatever the case may be.

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

I dunno how true the one year bubble statement is now, given that there's a NPC (Yomogi, under "what kind of place is this") in the Doman Enclave after you liberate Doma who specifically states that it's been a year or so since the failed Doman rebellion, which was around... 2.2-ish?

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This line has been driving me up the wall since 4.00 dropped, because it doesn't mesh with anything. Doma? Still 25 years ago. Ala Mhigo? Still 20 years ago. Silvertear Skies? Still 15 years ago. Not one single mention of relative time in Stormblood accommodates this alleged year, and yet they say it over and over. I thought maybe I could skew it the other way - that maybe Solus died longer ago than we thought and Gaius, being rogue, just didn't get word. Except, no, the lore book pins Solus's death to the present year (5 7UE / 1 7AE). The discrepancy is driving me batty.

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

And Gerolt's disciple once said it's been two years since the master crafter received a commission

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I believe we were able to encircle that one with logic and all-but-prove that it was a meta joke about the real world time that players had invested into Gerolt's quests, as it is just about exactly two Earth years from Jalzahn's first appearance to Gerolt referencing the start of the Zodiac Weapon arc. Gerolt and co. really like to make fun of your masochism.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

This line has been driving me up the wall since 4.00 dropped, because it doesn't mesh with anything. Doma? Still 25 years ago. Ala Mhigo? Still 20 years ago. Silvertear Skies? Still 15 years ago. Not one single mention of relative time in Stormblood accommodates this alleged year, and yet they say it over and over. I thought maybe I could skew it the other way - that maybe Solus died longer ago than we thought and Gaius, being rogue, just didn't get word. Except, no, the lore book pins Solus's death to the present year (5 7UE / 1 7AE). The discrepancy is driving me batty.

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To be honest, I kind of disregarded that, or wrote it off as the Domans rounding up. They might even be using an entirely different calendar, since the Eorzean calendar is based on the Twelve, who are mostly unknown in Othard. I wouldn't be surprised if Domans and Hingans counted their years based on the reigns of their current rulers, just like how China and Japan did (and Japan still counts their years according to the reign of their Emperor).

As for distances, though, I wish I could estimate how far north of the equator each region is, based on climate, but then we have Coerthas, which is supposedly near the Hydaelyn equivalent of the Mediterranean, but is locked in an eternal winter thanks to Bahamut. The Twelveswood is also an evergreen forest, I'm assuming, but on Earth, it seems that it would be too far north.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Climate implies that Thanalan is at roughly 30 degrees north latitude. [Checks view from space to see if anything is absurdly askew of this so far, it's not.]

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It took me a while, but this sentence, along with my own comments on the constant winter in Ishgard and the Twelveswood seemingly being too far north, made me wonder if it's possible to gauge how far north a particular location is, going by what is possible to grow there. (Wanted to ask if Eorzea even actually experiences seasonal weather patterns, and the only in-lore reference to changing weather is in a levequest [I think it was a level 30-40 crafting levequest?] that mentions that "winter is coming" in Ishgard. And that could've just been a sarcastic quip, really. "Winter is coming? Of course winter is coming, it's always winter here!")

La Noscea, for instance, is on a higher latitude than Thanalan, but has an ecosystem that can support a huge variety of plants. We can harvest grapes, oranges, lemons, and kukuru (cacao) beans in Lower La Noscea alone, plums and strawberries rolanberries in different parts of Upper La Noscea, tomatoes, lettuce, and wheat in Middle La Noscea, artichoke and zucchini in Eastern La Noscea, and that's not even counting all the different herbs and spices we get from that region, some of which, if I'm not mistaken, would be growing in completely separate climates and seasons on Earth.

But then I recall certain trees in the North Shroud which can provide you with both latex and maple sap at the exact same time, and I suppose in-game gathering isn't all that reliable a measure, after all. Fine. So going by what I see in-game, the farmers of La Noscea definitely grow wheat (Red Rooster Stead), grapes (Wineport), some kind of fruit trees, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say are oranges (RRStead and Summerford), and... a field of lavender? Does anyone know which latitude that kind of crop implies?

Time bubble chain is very likely. Because I leveled DRG during 3.2. I remember the patch number very well because what was going on in the MSQ at the time didn't match with what was happening in the DRG storyline. Ever since then I just pictured two(three now) time lines going at the same time. Everything 1-50 is happening during the Ultima arc. 51-60 is happening during the Dragon Song arc and etc.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

So going by what I see in-game, the farmers of La Noscea definitely grow wheat (Red Rooster Stead), grapes (Wineport), some kind of fruit trees, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say are oranges (RRStead and Summerford), and... a field of lavender? Does anyone know which latitude that kind of crop implies?

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Now that you mention it, I think all of those are grown around 35~38 degrees north latitude in California. COINCIDENCE!?

If I have to guess from the description

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Originally Posted by La Noscean Orange

A sweet citrus fruit known to thrive in the temperate climate of lower La Noscea.

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Temperate climate is between 45-60 latitude both north or south IF hydaelin rotates in a perfect right angle.
It's always between equator and polar regions, real earth axis is skewed so temperate climate is ~20-45 latitude.
It could be similar, but the climate isn't related to weather. Weather changes like clockwork, every 6 eorzean hours or 17.5 minutes.

There's no way to be certain because new expansions might reveal new continents or other parts of the world we haven't seen yet.

From the Encyclopedia Eorzea, First Book "Hydaelyn", section "Geography"

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"So great is the distance, that even the fastest of trader vessels carried by favorable winds require at least a fortnight to make the journey from Old Sharlayan to Vylbrand, and another two moons to travel from there to Doma."

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Ah, it was from the lore book, not a loremonger. Interesting.

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Originally Posted by Random0

From the Encyclopedia Eorzea, First Book "Hydaelyn", section "Geography"

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Sweet, thanks. So we can safely double those travel times if we're assuming less-than-favourable conditions. Though "two moons" refers to a trip between Vylbrand and Doma, which may or may not have a port that's much further southwest than Kugane.

Is it actually possible for people who aren't Mary Sues to teleport between Eorzea and the Far East? At what point does distance become a major hindrance to aetherial travel?

I actually found it amusing how in the MSQ, Alphinaud explicitly mentioned how airships wouldn't be able to fly all the way there due to fuel constraints (while never bringing up the possibility of stopping and landing to refuel along the way), yet Kugane has an airship landing. Presumably meaning we'll be able to do the exact thing he said was impossible. I'd love to see what kind of tech they come up with to explain this one away.

I don't see how being unable to fly from Eorzea to the Far East means Kugane can't have an airship landing. For one, the Hingans themselves harbor a great interest in airships (noted by some NPCs) and the Garleans make frequent use of airships as well.

Also Doma is northwest of Kugane.

The problem lies in the fact that, while the airships taking off from Kugane currently may be on much shorter journeys, we, as the players, would most likely be using that airship landing solely to take airships to the Eorzean city-states or the Gold Saucer. It's just a gameplay mechanic. But I'd love to see that explained in-lore. And there's always a chance that airship landing will also be the starting point for a dungeon.

I got the impression that Doma stretched much further south than Hingashi. If Doma is the geographical equivalent of China, then it would follow that there's no other country between Doma and the sea to the south.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

Is it actually possible for people who aren't Mary Sues to teleport between Eorzea and the Far East? At what point does distance become a major hindrance to aetherial travel?

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Well, given how difficult it is for normal people to even teleport from one part of a country to another, I doubt any more than a handful of super-powered heroes can actually teleport across half the world on a regular basis.

Hence, the continuing need for mundane forms of travel, by caravan, galleon and airship.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I actually found it amusing how in the MSQ, Alphinaud explicitly mentioned how airships wouldn't be able to fly all the way there due to fuel constraints (while never bringing up the possibility of stopping and landing to refuel along the way)

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It would be a very significant logistical problem, though. For one thing, the "free world" — that is, the parts of the world not under Garlean subjugation — likely do not have ports with ceruleum refuelling stations along the way.

Thavnair is probably the only significant neutral or friendly landmass on the sea route that is advanced enough to maintain and sustain such stations. It's quite likely that an airship launched from any of the Eorzean city-states don't have the range to reach Thavnair, and are hence unable to make a flight to Doma.

Going by their size, Garlean dreadnoughts probably carry all the fuel needed for such long-distance journeys (and, significantly, there are no Eorzean airships in that class). The smaller airships either get their fuel supply from a dreadnought mothership, or from Garlean fuelling stations set up at strategic locations across the Empire.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

So we can safely double those travel times if we're assuming less-than-favourable conditions.

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Incidentally, it occurs to me that sea-going Garlean vessels probably do not need to rely on favourable winds, as they're at the very least partially powered with cerulean engines. I'm extrapolating this from the fact that the Krakens have an engine of their own stowed away in the hull, possibly for use whenever they're becalmed. The engine was quite possibly stolen from a Garlean vessel, given the Krakens' participation in the, ahem, "spice trade".

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I actually found it amusing how in the MSQ, Alphinaud explicitly mentioned how airships wouldn't be able to fly all the way there due to fuel constraints (while never bringing up the possibility of stopping and landing to refuel along the way), yet Kugane has an airship landing. Presumably meaning we'll be able to do the exact thing he said was impossible. I'd love to see what kind of tech they come up with to explain this one away.

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I also read it as partly due to the differences between Eorzean airships and Garlean airships. The latter seems to be powered entirely by ceruleum and designed around that, which may include more advanced and efficient engines.

Whereas Eorzean airships are a weird mish-mash of Garlean techniques as brought over by Cid and Garlond Ironworks, and Ixali designs utilizing airstones.

In addition to my questions on latitude, does anyone know what the type of crops grown in which region means about said region's weather? Wheat, oranges and grapes in La Noscea, Thanalan has... pumpkins, or some type of squash growing in the sultana's gardens, and the Black Shroud has, as far as I can remember, apples and cotton. I'll have to go through the botanist guild quests to see what else grows where.

But, not being a farmer, the most I know is that different plants need different types of weather, both hot and cold, to survive. So does anyone know anything better?

Another thing it remember is that the distances and size of various objects in each zone are distorted to make play more viable than if they were true scale. You can actually easily see this with how big Alexander is in the hinterlands and how big he is in Breath of the Creator.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

But, not being a farmer, the most I know is that different plants need different types of weather, both hot and cold, to survive. So does anyone know anything better?

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I don't know much more (being very far from any sort of agriculture), but rice tends to need lots of sun and lots of water to be cultivated. Which allegedly made for cultural differences between warmer Southern China (primarily rice-growing) and colder Northern China (primarily wheat-growing).

So the Yanxia/Doma region of Othard should be similar to Southern China, since they grow rice there.

I was mainly trying to work it out based on how "Yanxia" should be pronounced: the Southern Chinese way ("Yan-sia"), or the Northern Chinese way ("Yan-sha", or stereotypically "Yan-sharrrrr").

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

I was mainly trying to work it out based on how "Yanxia" should be pronounced: the Southern Chinese way ("Yan-sia"), or the Northern Chinese way ("Yan-sha", or stereotypically "Yan-sharrrrr").

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I thought "Yanxia" was another varient, possibly a Mandarin dialect pronunciation, of "天下", pronounced "tiānxià", the concept of "All under Heaven".

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I thought "Yanxia" was another varient, possibly a Mandarin dialect pronunciation, of "天下", pronounced "tiānxià", the concept of "All under Heaven".

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There is no dialect I know of that reads 天 as "yan" or similar. If there is, it would be so obscure that "xia" would not be pronounced that way either.

Personally, given the Swallow's Compass landmark (and its Japanese name of Gan'en's Tomb), I'm guessing Yanxia might either be 燕下 ("Under the swallow") or, slightly less likely, 燕峡 ("Swallow ravine").

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

There is no dialect I know of that reads 天 as "yan" or similar. If there is, it would be so obscure that "xia" would not be pronounced that way either.

Personally, given the Swallow's Compass landmark (and its Japanese name of Gan'en's Tomb), I'm guessing Yanxia might either be 燕下 ("Under the swallow") or, slightly less likely, 燕峡 ("Swallow ravine").

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Upon reflection, the answers to many of our questions about lore over the years have been the simplest possible ones, so the simplest answer is probably that. But do any of the NPCs or sidequests make reference to the name of the area?

Also, the first time I ever saw Yanxia, I was immediately reminded of the Southern Sky Pillar mountains. Could just be real-life design inspiration, could just be me grasping at straws. We won't know until we get Encyclopaedia Othard, I guess.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

Also, the first time I ever saw Yanxia, I was immediately reminded of the Southern Sky Pillar mountains. Could just be real-life design inspiration, could just be me grasping at straws. We won't know until we get Encyclopaedia Othard, I guess.

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Same here. I'd love it if it was a direct reference, but I suspect it's the same reason why all the architecture in Yanxia is Tang dynasty era: it's the Standard Ancient China set dressing as seen in pop culture, such as wuxia. (I may be behind the times; I don't keep track of wuxia trends, because I don't really like wuxia.)

Doma/Yanxia is (apparently) supposed to be Nara era Japan, which is why the architecture is influenced by the Tang era.

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

Doma/Yanxia is (apparently) supposed to be Nara era Japan, which is why the architecture is influenced by the Tang era.

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This makes me wonder if we'll ever get to see a Hydaelyn equivalent of Korea, though it's probably unlikely. There's no mention made of a third country between Hingashi and Doma, anyway.