Could there be a relatively peaceful solution to the shard problem?

[RenewalXVII]

Maybe, just maybe, the orbit of the star around is sun is like 10 times as long as Earth's? Perhaps a "year" in eorzea is more like a decade on earth (with people's lifespans being similarly scaled cuz magic)?

Every year that's happened before the present has passed similar to our own, most visibly with regards to Minfillia, who was a child ten years before 1.0 and then an adult by the time of 1.0 proper. It's pure out-of-story fiat that the events in FFXIV are conveniently not explicitly marking off time within the story. There's no need to think up convoluted reasons why 1577 has lasted so long, besides the writers not wanting to commit to moving onto 1578.

EDIT: It's left entirely up to us as players to decide on what would be a more realistic timeline for ourselves, because it's a headache that the writers are basically saying they're not interested in wrangling.

[Veloran]

I mean Stormblood alone has more than a year's worth of time purely in boatrides. They'd better fork over an airship base next expansion or it'll get downright laughable in a sad way.

[Rannie]

That is, explicitly, their intention with the time bubble. However many years' worth of adventures we cram into it, the writers are not required to move time forward, keep track of changing dates or "x years since", or increase characters' ages.

1577 is an extremely long and stretchy year and we have clearly spent more than a year of time within it.

Reminds me of a year that we're currently in >.<... is 2020 over yet?

I honestly wish they hadn't introduced the concept of the time bubble for the MSQ... but *shrugs* they did and so they're going to keep going by those dates. It would have been so much easier atleast in my opinion for people to say things like , "I was living in a hamlet outside of Ala Mhigo when it was conquered by Garlemald." Instead of bring up the the 20 years part. Gives us wiggle room for what we could say the time frame was instead being the stuck time....

[Rosenstrauch]

Y'know, thinking about the passage of time in Stormblood—and Shadowbringers thanks to Bozja—I have to wonder why we didn't just take an airship in the first place. I mean, if Zenos can fly out to Doma and back before we finish our business there, and Cid can just fly an airship out to Gangos and back in arguably even less time, it seems to me that spending months on a boat is kind of wasteful. And unless it comes up again in the plot for some reason, I don't see missing out on the Final Fantasy V reference dungeon as a big loss.

[Rannie]

Y'know, thinking about the passage of time in Stormblood—and Shadowbringers thanks to Bozja—I have to wonder why we didn't just take an airship in the first place. I mean, if Zenos can fly out to Doma and back before we finish our business there, and Cid can just fly an airship out to Gangos and back in arguably even less time, it seems to me that spending months on a boat is kind of wasteful. And unless it comes up again in the plot for some reason, I don't see missing out on the Final Fantasy V reference dungeon as a big loss.

I hear another "Why didn't they just use the eagles to fly to Mordor" lol but yeah the taking the boat was kinda ridiculous unless it was being propelled magically or by magitek...

[Kesey]

Y'know, thinking about the passage of time in Stormblood—and Shadowbringers thanks to Bozja—I have to wonder why we didn't just take an airship in the first place. I mean, if Zenos can fly out to Doma and back before we finish our business there, and Cid can just fly an airship out to Gangos and back in arguably even less time, it seems to me that spending months on a boat is kind of wasteful. And unless it comes up again in the plot for some reason, I don't see missing out on the Final Fantasy V reference dungeon as a big loss.

I believe it was explained in Stormblood that airships can't sustain long flights. Most likely due to a fuel issue, as the Empire requires their air force to refuel through conquered territories. This why Hein wants to cut off flights through the Burn, as flying around it would make the flight too long and make an air attack against Doma impossible, ensuring it's safety while he is away fighting with the Eorzean Alliance in Ghimlyt Dark.

[LineageRazor]

In the case of the "twenty years" thing, it could be just a rough estimate rather than an exact measure of years. You could say "twenty years ago" for pretty much any span of time from 16-24 years. Though it helps to say "twenty-odd years" or "twenty years, give or take" to be sure.

[Cilia]

Point is, no matter how it happens Rejoinings still require the cessation of existence for entire worlds - their peoples, history, and culture consigned to oblivion. Even if life were (subjectively) "better" in such a world, most people would doubtlessly oppose that purely (and justifiably) on the grounds of self-preservation.

No amount of sophistry can change that.

[LineageRazor]

Point is, no matter how it happens Rejoinings still require the cessation of existence for entire worlds - their peoples, history, and culture consigned to oblivion. Even if life were (subjectively) "better" in such a world, most people would doubtlessly oppose that purely (and justifiably) on the grounds of self-preservation.

No amount of sophistry can change that.

I think the original proposition involved a gradual tapering-off. No new life would be born on the worlds, and all existing life would live out their existence until natural death. No one would be asked to give up their life - just their potential for children. As for history and cultures, those could still be preserved through historical records and such, just as lost cultures are (sometimes) preserved under ordinary circumstances.

All this, of course, would STILL be a very hard sell. Which is why I remarked a while back that if we had the potential for this, we'd basically be living in a utopian society already.

Still, after seeing what the ancients used to have, I think it's quite likely that there would be more than a few pepole pushing for this if it could be done gently. (And a few, like Varis, who would push for it regardless...)

[Vyrerus]

Just wanna point out that it's explicitly stated that Carvallain's boat has a clandestine Ceruleum engine. He didn't use it until after the Sirensong Sea, at least to the knowledge of the player, but Alisaie sure as heck figured out it was there and questioned the fuck outta that dandy boy about it.

Realistically if you wanted to conserve fuel, but get where you're going quick, then you could use the Ceruleum engine when the wind was against you or wasn't with you. I have no idea if the sea around Thavnair has still winds except in/right after the monsoon season in India, but the Sirensong Sea was what, somewhat around that point but a bit southy south?

In the real world it took a European sailing ship about a full year to reach the Dutch East Indies, what with sailing around the horn of Africa and all, and then hitting the still winds in the Indian Ocean. We've no Africa analogue in FFXIV, so we can take out 6 months there, assume Ceruleum engine use for half the trip... and I'd say that gets the trip for our WoL down to about 2~3 months.

As for why we didn't just hop on Cid's Excelsior... other than it wasn't in the script... well there's the fuel reason. Then I guess the fact that it's all imperial territory, and they have almost nothing but airships, whereas their naval power is mistakenly on their part, absurdly weak. Stupid Garleans, having weaknesses that are hella convenient for the plot.