Lore Timeline?

[Jaywalker]

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.

Whoop didn't hit that part of the lorebook yet, but fair point!

Five years since the Calamity/20 years since the fall of Ala Mhigo remains weird agreed. Twenty I could see rounding/figurative language involved maybe but five is too low a number for me to buy that.

[ObsidianFire]

The better way to put it is that the 7th Astral Era starts five years after the 7th Umbral Era starts. The timeline of FFXIV effectively stops counting formal years in the First Year of the 7th Astral Era.

[Seraphor]

Whoop didn't hit that part of the lorebook yet, but fair point!

Five years since the Calamity/20 years since the fall of Ala Mhigo remains weird agreed. Twenty I could see rounding/figurative language involved maybe but five is too low a number for me to buy that.

Simple, the entire plotline of ARR right through to whatever 6.0 or 7.0 is called, will always fit neatly into a time period of less than a year.

[Iscah]

Simple, the entire plotline of ARR right through to whatever 6.0 or 7.0 is called, will always fit neatly into a time period of less than a year.

True, but at the same time those events might have (and logically should have) taken longer. We might have spent a year in the events of ARR, a month hiding out at Dragonhead waiting to get in to Ishgard, three months travelling to Dravania, another two to resolve Heavensward, at least a month at sea traveling to Othard.... and still fit all of that and all our future travels into the space of a year.

It's time-bending logic. The bubble doesn't mean that everything happens simulaneously - there's a sequence to the events that happen in it, but that sequence of events can take longer than the amount of time that the bubble occupies on a broader timeline.

[Jaywalker]

Simple, the entire plotline of ARR right through to whatever 6.0 or 7.0 is called, will always fit neatly into a time period of less than a year.

I mean theoretically lol, but the pacing logistics of that seem a bit poop and would require Eorzean travel time on foot/boat/etc. to be so negligible that it raises weird questions about the rest of the lore. Not to mention character development and dynamics. XD Tbh we could also raise questions about how a billion days and nights pass as we're playing but no months turnover or anything. Are we just living a groundhog day-esque loop?

No one has to agree with me, but I'm personally just gonna plant my hand on the table so to speak and say it's comic book logic at work. We can probably adhere or ignore this bit of info because it's bizarre and doesn't entirely make sense.

[Jandor]

I think ARR, HW & SB all took about a year each.

People can say I'm wrong, I don't really care, having everything that has happened so far take place in less than a year makes the whole story a farcical mess and I simply cannot suspend my disbelief that much.

[Seraphor]

I think ARR, HW & SB all took about a year each.

People can say I'm wrong, I don't really care, having everything that has happened so far take place in less than a year makes the whole story a farcical mess and I simply cannot suspend my disbelief that much.

Don't overthink it.
It's the same reason the Simpsons have been the same age for the past 20 years.

[Hezzlocks]

I honestly do not buy that whole "it will always be year 1" nonsense at all, not unless a single eorzean year is worth multiple of our own earth years. Just because a bunch of unimportant side NPCs dialogue never changes doesn't mean time isn't progressing. Logically time would have passed. I'm not sure how much time, iirc MSQ dialogue stops making timeline references at about the end of ARR / start of HW, but logically at least a year, likely more, would have passed.

The funny thing is, there is a perfectly valid lore explanation why old NPCs don't change their dialogue, much less positions, movements and actions. The Echo. It allows you to not only relive old memories, but also actively interact with them. This is why we can do dungeons and fight bosses whenever we want. There are even quests, like the Anima weapon, that refers to going back to do old content like Garuda again as "reliving the fight in your mind". So, when we go back and talk to old NPCs and doing old sidequests? We are experiencing and manipulating old memories via the Echo.

[Keever]

snip

But it's not just "old NPCs". The time references continue throughout Stormblood. The Calamity was five years ago, Ala Mhigo fell 20 years ago, Doma 25, Dalmasca 30. Yda died six years ago, one year before the Calamity. The failed Doman Uprising was "one year ago" and it's in response to this that Yugiri and her refugee compatriots came to Eorzea.

[Nefiiria]

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.

I don't like the idea of this time bubble. Like I said in my last paragraph, it makes absolutely no sense how time could be "stopped" when events clearly have happened. You can't say Gaius got his ass kicked, spent no time thinking about what he was going to do to get revenge on the Ascians, and then spent no time gathering like-minded folk to help him in his cause, and then spent no time getting to the Burn. Time has obviously passed. Screw the calendar year, we all know the game doesn't run on our depiction of time gone by. But you can still say that on a per-person basis, time has passed. If I go do MSQ's 1-25 and then go back and do side quest 1, side quest 1 is more in line with MSQ 1. Likewise, if I'm on MSQ 500 and I go back and do side quest heavensward pre-nidhogg slain and they talk about the dangers of nidhogg, I'm assuming the quest is part of that era. Not a part of the current event the MSQ is on.