The time between Calamities

[Bright-Flower]

Mostly fine? Coerthas was a nice green highland before, and is now an icy waste. There are any number of landscape disruptions and climate/weather disruptions, and plenty of refugees whose homes were destroyed during the Calamity.
The city states are holding together, but only barely.

Compared to all the other calamities where civlizations were ended, yeah.

Sure there's snow in Coerthas but the nation isn't collapsing because of it. Homes are destroyed but the city states are ultimately fine. The world took a bloody nose but nothing near as bad as the other calamities or even the midpoint of FF VI. Eorzea was given a bloody nose but was able to pick itself up and continue on.

[MrThinker]

Compared to all the other calamities where civlizations were ended, yeah.

Sure there's snow in Coerthas but the nation isn't collapsing because of it. Homes are destroyed but the city states are ultimately fine. The world took a bloody nose but nothing near as bad as the other calamities or even the midpoint of FF VI. Eorzea was given a bloody nose but was able to pick itself up and continue on.

Is the collapse of civilization a necessary component of a Calamity though? I always thought it was just great chaotic catastrophic aetherical disturbance causing massive environmental change and the collapse of civilization is just a side effect of those things.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Is the collapse of civilization a necessary component of a Calamity though? I always thought it was just great chaotic catastrophic aetherical disturbance causing massive environmental change and the collapse of civilization is just a side effect of those things.

Ehh.

I'd actually say rejoinings and calamities have slightly different definitions. What you just described would be a rejoining, and Bahamut definitely counted as that. But everyone who's not an Ascian has no idea what a rejoining is. They don't know about the atherial disturbance stuff. To them, the Calamities were disasters that destroyed civilizations. And by that standard, it is pretty weird that Eorzea's people count Bahamut as one when he didn't cause anywhere near the devastation of previous Calamities (granted he only didn't because Louisoix stopped him, but that's just it: Louisoux stopped him).

[Iscah]

To them, the Calamities were disasters that destroyed civilizations. And by that standard, it is pretty weird that Eorzea's people count Bahamut as one when he didn't cause anywhere near the devastation of previous Calamities (granted he only didn't because Louisoix stopped him, but that's just it: Louisoux stopped him).

I think it depends what part you define as the Calamity. The disaster still happened. If you think of it as a bomb, the bomb still went off - they were warned this time, they tried to defuse it, but they couldn't. It still exploded, and they just managed to contain the blast.

[LineageRazor]

I think it depends what part you define as the Calamity. The disaster still happened. If you think of it as a bomb, the bomb still went off - they were warned this time, they tried to defuse it, but they couldn't. It still exploded, and they just managed to contain the blast.

Additionally, I'm pretty sure folks in-game refer to what happened with Bahamut as a Calamity, and marked it as the beginning of the Seventh Umbral Era, just as prior Calamities have invoked Umbral Eras. They're the ones who define what a Calamity is, and if they're willing to assign it that identifier, then I think we can assume it's the case. They also declared the onset of the Seventh Astral Era a mere five years after that Calamity, to drive the point home just how little damage this Calamity did, compared to most.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Hydaelyn also told us that "seven times the Ascians succeeded" meaning yes, that was the seventh rejoining.