Lore Timeline?

[ObsidianFire]

The only time I'd say having an "ordered time bubble" is a problem is when you first start playing the game and then everything gets unlocked at once regardless of what patch it was in. Once you are past that stage, it's not very hard to keep track of when certain quests happened relative to other quests is pretty easy.

[Iscah]

The tricky thing with "Level 3" events is that it seems there are two elements to how it works in practice:

1. Optional questlines only happened if the player has personally done them.

BUT

2. If you later complete them out-of-sequence, they still happened in the patch when they were released.

They get "slotted in" to the pre-established timeline rather than taking place when you personally complete them.


An example I recently came across is meeting Alisaie at Lv60 in post-Heavensward. I never picked up the Binding Coil unlock quest on my alt, so when she introduced herself, she said we hadn't met since our very early encounter around Lv20 at the Carteneau memorial services.

But then I went and played Binding Coil afterwards, and that still takes place at Lv50. It's also our first meeting since the memorial services, Alphinaud is his overconfident ARR self (and busy organising the Crystal Braves!) and there is no altered dialogue to acknowledge that we've met in Ishgard - because as far as Lv50-Alisaie is aware, we haven't. It's still a future event for her.


Completion of past events will affect dialogue in future events, but not (or rarely) vice-versa.

Partly it would be a matter of not having to update old dialogue, but it also brings its own sort of logic to how optional stories affect - and fit into - the overall timeline. (Though one that makes it regrettably hard to bring things like the Warring Triad back into MSQ without a plot-halting "complete this quest chain first" progression lock.)

[Brightamethyst]

Completion of past events will affect dialogue in future events, but not (or rarely) vice-versa.

It does happen sometimes though. I did the anima relic ages ago but only recently finished the zodiac quests, and during Kettle to the Mettle Gerolt mentioned the anima quests.

[RenewalXVII]

It does happen sometimes though. I did the anima relic ages ago but only recently finished the zodiac quests, and during Kettle to the Mettle Gerolt mentioned the anima quests.

Note that Kettle to the Mettle was released in 3.2, perhaps affirming that the time bubble generally respects patch release order.

EDIT: A quick second thought, and I suppose we can say Kettle to the Mettle occupies an ambiguous space. It only requires completion of the Vital Title, which places it at any point after 2.5, but was released in 3.2, which could place it at any point up to then, if we hold that future events don't really affect past ones.

[Brightamethyst]

Note that Kettle to the Mettle was released in 3.2

Oh, right. Forgot about that.

[Nefiiria]

I feel like people who use the "time bubble" theory are taking it too broadly. Clearly there are events that have happened, and therefore time must unfold in that space. You can put things in a bubble or sort of suspend quests and locations to certain points in time, but you cannot assume that the events between ARR and Shadowbringers have only been a short amount of time.

What I like to do is separate the expansions into about a year's worth of "events." Which seems to be the most likely case. Maybe ARR was a short amount of time, but you cannot tell me that between the end of ARR and the end of Seventh Astral Era, that at least half a year hasn't gone by. This stuff takes time to set up. You think the Crystal Braves were set up in a day? A week? A month? Please, recruiting an army takes several months, at best. Even with Alphinaud tirelessly finding new members.

By my standing, about three years have passed since the introduction of ARR up until the end of Stormblood. That leaves plenty of space for your character to have done all the MSQ stuff and run through all the side quest, raid, and expeditionary(24-man) content. The way that the characters talk, they make it clear that we don't really use the aetheryte crystals all that much, if at all. Most content seems to be "walk" to this place, not "teleport."

If you really want to assume that an absurdly short amount of time or absolutely no time has passed between the events of ARR and Stormblood, I mean of course you are free to do so. And I'm not saying we should even follow the calendar events of the world. But honestly it's not a very interesting topic to just assume that everything is episodic or that everyone's stuck in a time bubble. That just makes it seem like no one can grow as characters, which they all clearly have.

The time bubble theory could be applied per expansion, where all events and side quests do go in a sequential order, the MSQ being the only thing you have to rigidly stick to in order to see events afterwards, but I don't think you could reasonably make an argument where both Gaius van Baelsar was both just defeated in the Praetorium and is also seeking to slay the Ascians while wandering through the Burn. The devs are busy actually making the game, leave them out of it, you should be able to make your own conclusions to how long the timeline is so far.

[Brightamethyst]

I feel like people who use the "time bubble" theory are taking it too broadly. Clearly there are events that have happened, and therefore time must unfold in that space. You can put things in a bubble or sort of suspend quests and locations to certain points in time, but you cannot assume that the events between ARR and Shadowbringers have only been a short amount of time.

That's not how the time bubble works here. Time is still passing and the story is still being told in order. The time bubble is just keeping the calendar from moving. It's why Aphinaud is still 16 and the Calamity is still "5 years ago" and such despite 4-6 years worth of events having happened since the beginning of 2.0.

[Jaywalker]

It's why Aphinaud is still 16 and the Calamity is still "5 years ago" and such despite 4-6 years worth of events having happened since the beginning of 2.0.

Then again we can also go devil's advocate to argue that we've got no idea how elezen age and/or he could be a late bloomer.

[Iscah]

Then again we can also go devil's advocate to argue that we've got no idea how elezen age and/or he could be a late bloomer.

We do know that actually, from the lorebook - they're slow to hit puberty (as their whole lifespan is 10-20% longer than average) and overtake Hyuran height around age 20.

That doesn't explain the "always five years since the Calamity" thing, or twenty since the fall of Ala Mhigo whether you're in ARR or Stormblood.

[Dualblade]

Partly it would be a matter of not having to update old dialogue, but it also brings its own sort of logic to how optional stories affect - and fit into - the overall timeline. (Though one that makes it regrettably hard to bring things like the Warring Triad back into MSQ without a plot-halting "complete this quest chain first" progression lock.)

If the Warring Triad ever becomes required they'd probably make it so you have to complete it in order to continue the HW story. If it was me and I had to make it required I'd make each part of the Triad required at the end of the patch story it was introduced in so new players would have time to gear up inbetween as well.

Meanwhile for players who already completed the story past that point but hadn't done the Triad would be unable to start the next xpac (or patch if it was made required earlier than that) until they complete it, with plenty of warning ahead of time similar to how the Crystal Tower has been given plenty of notice it will be conisdered important (though not required as it seems so far). Does run into the "complete this quest chain first" block there but thats why players are given notice well before they'd be locked out of doing more MSQ.