Seventh Astral Era or Eighth Astral Era?

[Cynthis]

Edit edit: It is probably worth underscoring how the term umbral era is a bit misleading. The German translation, as I mentioned above, uses the term "catastrophe" to better articulate what is going on.
Ergo, umbral eras last as long as their catastrophic impacts are being felt, making them typically measurable in years, and astral eras last however long it takes for the next significant world-altering catastrophe to come along, which can be a long time. In the case of the sixth Astral, approx 1573 years.

This is interesting. In theory you could meausre exactly when the 7th Umbral Era started which would be the moment Bahamut got free from Dalamud but it must be much harder to determine when the effects of that are no longer being felt. Theoretically AAR could therefore take place in the Astral era. Has it been confirmed that we are still in the Umbral era when AAR starts?

Is the concept of Astral and Umbral eras used by the empire as well? We don't know how hard they were hit by Bahamut, if at all so in theory they could then be in a different era if they were not affected.

[Renen]

Thanks for giving us the translated post from the German forum. With that information, we can conclude that we were living during an Astral Era period before the 1.19 update which would mark the beginning and period of the umbral era. If we take into account about the length of an era to be true, then technically speaking we would have been adventuring during the Sixth Astral Era, which led to the events of Dalamud as the Seventh Umbral Era, followed by what would be the Seventh Astral Era for FFXIV: ARR. Thus we can map out the following time Umbral/Astral Era sequences of Eorzea where Umbral is followed by Astral = Umbral > Astral = U/A...

The Divine Era - Light?: Time of the gods and goddesses
The First Umbral/Astral Era - Wind: The end of the Divine Era and beginning of "humanity"
The Second U/A Era - Lightning
The Third U/A Era - Fire
The Fourth U/A Era - Earth: The destruction of the Allagan Civilization/Empire
The Fifth U/A Era - Ice
The Sixth U/A Era - Water: The great flood that damaged and submerged the land of Eorzea
The Seventh U/A Era - Darkness?: The day Dalamud exploded and Primal Bahamut was released back into the world

Now... If this sequence is correct then we can say that we are living in the Seventh Umbral Era. However, it's odd that the Eras would be in a U/A sequence but the months are in a A/U (Astral > Umbral) sequence. Furthermore, there is still the trailer to be speculated about. If we are living during the Seventh Astral Era, then what has happened to Bahamut and why hasn't Eorzea been destroyed and become a big pile of rubble? Also why is it that Thancred is shown to be in the same place he was during the time Bahamut was soaring through the skies? How religious is this promiscuous bard since the events of Dalamud or if he is at all? What are the details of the time skip/warp spell that Louisoix cast on the fellow chosen adventures and possibly on all the other main characters?

Reading through that, if we ever get an expansion like WotG, the 2 possible times they could allow us to go would be the Divine Era (possible story line about the 12) or the fourth era (Allagan empire and wtf the were doing with putting bahamut into a giant flaming egg)

[Catapult]

This is interesting. In theory you could meausre exactly when the 7th Umbral Era started which would be the moment Bahamut got free from Dalamud but it must be much harder to determine when the effects of that are no longer being felt. Theoretically AAR could therefore take place in the Astral era. Has it been confirmed that we are still in the Umbral era when AAR starts?

Is the concept of Astral and Umbral eras used by the empire as well? We don't know how hard they were hit by Bahamut, if at all so in theory they could then be in a different era if they were not affected.

You have just asked the questions to which we do not yet have answers. v_v

[Majoga]

Front page of Lodestone says:

"New Year's Greetings (01/01/2013)

~Skip to last part~

Now then, 2013—the year of rebirth—has arrived. But just when we thought that the cataclysm that ushered in the Seventh Umbral Era is behind us, it would seem a prophetic passage, penned by a man we all know and respect, has been discovered. And the message it bears rings ominously indeed..."

[Enkidoh]

Well, what Yoshi-P said there pretty much sums up how I interpreted the whole Astral/Umbral sequence - that the world is still in the 7th Umbral Era even five years after Dalamud's fall - although the videos and images show a world on the mend, it's clear the scars of the disaster still run deep, and that the world is still very much sliding into a long, slow, languorous decline.

Not to mention all the official information for 2.0 on the main website continuously refer to the game as still being in the 7th Umbral Era which makes it even more clearer in that regard. After all, if the world really is now in the 7th Astral era, wouldn't it have been mentioned as such?

[Cynthis]

I would really enjoy a future expansion, or set of patches, in that case where we had to complete a number of quests with the purpose of ushering in the next Astral era. That seems like a very worthwhile goal to pursue over a period of time with a nice payoff at the end.

[Fadigre]

Well, what Yoshi-P said there pretty much sums up how I interpreted the whole Astral/Umbral sequence - that the world is still in the 7th Umbral Era even five years after Dalamud's fall - although the videos and images show a world on the mend, it's clear the scars of the disaster still run deep, and that the world is still very much sliding into a long, slow, languorous decline.

Seems Eorzea's Astral and Umbral eras work very much like a country in recession. Regardless of how big something is, if it's in decline then it is Umbral. Regardless of how small something is, if it's growing then it's in Astral.
Although for this to make sense the assumption that the realm is still dying even if the cities are rebuilding (guess the huge aether consumption could play into this, too).

[Yukagama]

I've cant wait for the actual Opening of the game. Hope beta give's us the final opening.

[Eruantien]

I always assumed some of the main storys of ARR would be to return the world to the seventh astral era and we would be in the 7th umbral era that was brought about by the cataclysm that was Bahamut.

[Renen]

So, we still sem to be about 1/2 and 1/2 on which era was previously, and which era it is now... >_<