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.