Current Eorzean Timeline

[Shikiseki]

Good day Lorefans!

I was just starting with my character backstory and I'm currently kinda stuck on a rather basic problem: Which year are we currently in as for 3.4?
I know that by the time we got to Titan story, it was supposedly 1577 so if the years flow like they do in real life, it should technically be 1580 now but is this how time works in Eorzea? Hope someone knows, thanks

[FJerome]

Good day Lorefans!

I was just starting with my character backstory and I'm currently kinda stuck on a rather basic problem: Which year are we currently in as for 3.4?
I know that by the time we got to Titan story, it was supposedly 1577 so if the years flow like they do in real life, it should technically be 1580 now but is this how time works in Eorzea? Hope someone knows, thanks

Unfortunately the official answer is "still 1577". Welcome to the giddy weirdness of the ARR time-bubble?

[Daemius]

Since we're in the 7th Astral Era now wouldn't it technically be 5 7AE? Seems like the year resets every time we enter a new Astral era.

[Keever]

6AE 1572 was the year 1.0 took place in.
All of 2.0 took place in the fifth year of the Seventh Umbral Era (7UE 5).
Post-2.0 takes place in the Seventh Astral Era - year 1, or year 0 perhaps.

Dialogue will still refer to the Calamity as having taken place 5 years ago, so that they don't have to rewrite all the game's dialogue every year, and so that the story still makes sense for new players joining.

I'd encourage you to headcanon your own date based on how long you feel like the MSQ and other quests should have taken. Realtime works pretty well for me - as far as I'm concerned, my Warrior of Light has been in Ishgard for a bit over a year now.

[Sounsyy]

This is actually a question I've been asked a lot and the answer is kinda open to interpretation. According to the lore team, FFXIV exists in what’s referred to as a “Simpsons Time Bubble” in which the whole of the storyline exists compressed within the span of a year, give or take a few months.

Before I move onto question two, allow me to veer off onto a little tangent: there have been several threads about Hydaelyn’s timeline not matching up with Earth’s. If it has been two years since the release of the game, why is it still 1572 in Eorzea at the time of patch 1.23? This is a dilemma faced by a lot of MMOs. To allow everyone that joins the game, regardless of when they do, to experience the full story, there simply has to be a stoppage of time. Okay, not really a stoppage, but more of a time bubble in which a span of about a year is contained. This is why that for the duration of 1.0, Eorzea was in a perpetual 1572. Think of it as the same thing that’s happening in the Simpsons. 23 seasons gone and Lisa’s still 8, Maggie’s still a baby, and the gummy Venus still tastes oh, so sacrelicious. Pushing time along would also mean changing 1000s of lines of NPC dialogue, updating quests, webpages, etc. with every patch. Meaning it would take more than double the time to release updates, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t want to wait. In a book, movie, offline game, a strict timeline can be set without too many complications. In an online title, there are just too many variables, so we ask that you bear with our bending of space-time. It’s for the greater good!

Q: Long ago, you mentioned that 1.0 took place in a “Simpsons Time Bubble.” Are we still in a bubble? Or does time move now that we know Patch = Canon?
MCKF: It’s still a bubble; you have to have a bubble. There are players joining in Heavensward that are starting at the beginning. The bubble’s just gotten bigger.

Now, obviously that bending of space time isn’t exactly conducive to long RP story arcs and the like, where a character may have been RPing for several years. Where does that leave them? Fortunately, in 3.2 we got a quest that appears to have put a time-passage-marker on the current timeline. See for yourself:

Jalzahn: Gerolt, how could you forget? When was this order placed?
Drake: Two, um…years ago.
Gerolt: Hold on a minute! It’s all comin’ back to me now! This order came in ‘round the time you barged in here, rantin’ and ravin’ about yer godsforsaken Zodiac Weapon, distractin’ me from me work! This is your fault, ye swivin’, scabby-arsed, shite-eatin’ streak o’ piss! And you have the BALLS to ask fer that bleedin’ title back!? Bollocks to that! I’m keepin’ it─fer good!

Now, Jalzahn first comes to Eorzea from Thavnair in patch 2.2. If we take this quest as canon time passage, Drake and Gerolt suggest that its been two years (give or take) between patch 3.2 and patch 2.2. What does this mean as far as the Simpsons Time Bubble? Well, I think this means that like 1.0 existed in its own time bubble, 2.0 now existed in its own bubble, and 3.0 Heavensward will exist in its own, each consisting of about a year. I think only a few weeks passed in between 2.55 and 3.0, according to dev commentary. Unrelated lore from the Encyclopedia Eorzea and 3.3's quest The Paths We Walk suggests that even within the Heavensward time bubble, several months have passed in between patches.

Panzer Doll
Another mechanical creation forged deep within Alexander's interior assembly plants, panzer dolls are neurally linked to a "Manipulator," receiving orders while constantly sending information on performance and possible weaknesses back to the walking fortress's main core for analysis. Gathered information is then used to improve future versions of the forgekin - such as what has been seen with the recent appearance of the "Neo Faust" but mere moons after a party of adventurers reported striking down an older, less sophisticated Faust model.

Come, my lord. Mayhap you recall the survivor whom you carried back to Falcon's Nest that day? Well, his wife but recently gave birth to their first child.

"Moons" between Alexander storylines and Redwald's mention of the rescued Reconnaissance Party Knight from the early 3.0 storyline suggest that many months have passed between Heavensward launch and 3.3/3.4, though we don't know exactly how long. I find that it's safest thinking about time passage like this:

1.0 = Year 1572 6AE.
2.0 = Year 5 7UE > Year 1 7AE.
3.0 = Year 2~3 7AE.

Theoretically. However, this model actually works pretty well as far as roleplaying or character development goes, so.
I do want to add a personal note. The Year 1577, or any year past 1572 does not exist in the Eorzean calendar, please do not use 1577 ICly in RP. Upon every Umbral Calamity and every Astral reset, Eorzeans reset the calendar year at Year 1. Similarly to how factories reset the sign that says “NO ACCIDENTS IN 37 DAYS” when there is an accident on the 38th day. The Eorzean calendar year is essentially saying “THE WORLD HAS NOT GONE TO SHIT IN 1572 YEARS.” If you tell a Carteneau veteran that it’s the Year 1577, you’ve essentially told them that the Calamity never happened.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymoose]

The following has been copy-pasted from here.

Time in XIV is measured no less than three different ways, and not one is compatible with any other. Each time we try to explain it, it gets a little more precise, and though it's confusing at first, the dev. decisions are pretty logical.

The In-Game Clock
One year in clock-time is 18 days and 16 hours earth time. Forget "What year is it?", we should all be dead by now. Think of this as time relative to game mechanics. It keeps the world feeling alive, and semi-accurately reflects, say, how it takes "all day" to clear out a dungeon or "a hard day's work" to gather up some timber or "hours" of travel time.

The Lore-Time Bubble (aka The Simpsons Bubble)
Lore time passes, but it does not move. Even if you can prove that 5,000 days passed, the year does not change. It is, and will always be, 5 Seventh Umbral Era [into/also known as] 1 Seventh Astral Era.

This is a dilemma faced by a lot of MMOs. To allow everyone that joins the game, regardless of when they do, to experience the full story, there simply has to be a stoppage of time. Okay, not really a stoppage, but more of a time bubble in which a span of about a year is contained. This is why that for the duration of 1.0, Eorzea was in a perpetual 1572. Think of it as the same thing that’s happening in the Simpsons. 23 seasons gone and Lisa’s still 8, Maggie’s still a baby, and the gummy Venus still tastes oh, so sacrelicious. Pushing time along would also mean changing 1000s of lines of NPC dialogue, updating quests, webpages, etc. with every patch. Meaning it would take more than double the time to release updates, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t want to wait. In a book, movie, offline game, a strict timeline can be set without too many complications. In an online title, there are just too many variables, so we ask that you bear with our bending of space-time. It’s for the greater good!

The lore-time bubble expands ever outward, infinitely approaching but never actually reaching a new year. It's up to you how you wish to interpret that for your character. Perhaps, by the time the servers go dark, it's been one hells of a year for you. Perhaps your character "actually" spent decades walking around. It just can't be enforced upon anyone else. This is the canon time, and it keeps things working smoothly internally (less math, less mistakes, less time spent changing "It's been X years." every patch) and for players (who have a consistent understanding).

Real-World Time (aka Meta Time / aka Player Time)
Holidays take place within their own unique bubbles that are within but without Eorzean "hard-canon". Everything that happened in Eorzea happened within the sub-bubble, but not everything that happens within the sub-bubble has to happen in Eorzea.

Think Hildiband (which I joke as having taken place in The Manderville Bubble); Eorzean history is still true within the bubble, but could Hildibrand survive point-blank explosions to the face and multistory falls with nothing but a silly change of expression in a world where people are regularly devoured by raptors while picking pumpkins? Probably not. (Not to mention the primal Enkidu, who is technically a primal but not at all how primals work.) But that's an example of a sub-bubble being used for comedy, not for chronology.

Every year you step (back) into a holiday event's bubble, where real-world time is referred to as if true for everyone in Eorzea. This is the dev. team communicating with you, the player, and celebrating a holiday in-character. And it's especially true for The Rising, as the Wandering Minstrel is literally in-character Naoki Yoshida. Holiday events aren't the only place you'll find player time in motion; Gerolt frequently uses it to mock you for how much time you've put into your relic. In Kettle to the Mettle he even refers to the player time between the patch in which Jalzahn first appeared and the patch in which the quest takes place.

And that's just how time is officially measured.

You as a player can choose how to measure it for yourself. Some people keep it hard canon and do via the "hells of a year" joke. Some RP groups just stick to the real-world time (which is easiest to standardize, but gets weird when all major events come with precise 3 month gaps). Some groups condense it a bit and assume that each numbered version of the game gets its own one-year span. The important thing is that it works for you, groups agree (or agrees to disagree) on how to go about it within the group, and no one tries to argue with outgroups how it "should be done".

[Daemius]

6AE 1577 was the year 1.0 took place in.
All of 2.0 took place in the fifth year of the Seventh Umbral Era (7UE 5).
Post-2.0 takes place in the Seventh Umbral Era - year 1, or year 0 perhaps.

Dialogue will still refer to the Calamity as having taken place 5 years ago, so that they don't have to rewrite all the game's dialogue every year, and so that the story still makes sense for new players joining.

I'd encourage you to headcanon your own date based on how long you feel like the MSQ and other quests should have taken. Realtime works pretty well for me - as far as I'm concerned, my Warrior of Light has been in Ishgard for a bit over a year now.

I think you mean astral there but thanks for this. I thought 1.0 was 6AE 1572 not 1577. Your list makes sense. So yeah, technically we're in 7AE 0 or 1 and will be for as long as the time bubble exists. Most logical headcannon places it closer to 7AE 2-3 imo.

[Keever]

I think you mean astral there but thanks for this. I thought 1.0 was 6AE 1572 not 1577. Your list makes sense. So yeah, technically we're in 7AE 0 or 1 and will be for as long as the time bubble exists. Most logical headcannon places it closer to 7AE 2-3 imo.

Fixed, thank you.

[Shikiseki]

Thanks for all the responses, interesting read that's for sure. And I guess that makes sense that it's sort of a bubble cause for me, living through all the events almost 3 times now it just felt normal to say that 3 years have passed since then. But that's a good thing as RP wise it'll make things a bit easier as things aren't too restricted timewise. I might just take the easy approach to say that 1 year = 1 expansion so my character won't turn 40 and still looking like a teen haha.

And now I'm excited to see if there will be changes to the timeline with 4.0 since the WoL obviously changed a lot!

[moleverine]

It really would be nice if each expansion lives in its own "bubble". I would like some idea of the passage of time. Things start getting more and more ridiculous the more you try to retroactively compress into a one year span. At this point, the Dragonsong war feels like it took a few months to resolve. As we add more events with more expansions, the amount of time we can allot to one series of events in order for it to fit into "one hells of a year" becomes smaller. Soon, it's over in a week; later, a weekend. Eventually, we'll have resolved the entirety of the Dragonsong war in "a busy afternoon, but still time for tea with Aymeric."

I think at some point, the timeline is going to HAVE to move forward.