Current Eorzean year.

[Vyrerus]

We know that months pass between certain patch ends, given that one of the House Fortemps Knights says as much at the start of the MSQ, "Promises Kept."

House Fortemps Knight: "Ser Aymeric de Borel, lord speaker of the House of Lords, lord commander of the Temple Knights, and viscount of House Borel, cordially invites Master <Player Character Surname> to dine with him in his estate."

"You seem surprised. The messenger assured me that his lord had broached the subject with you at an earlier date-- when the arrangements for the peace conference were still being finalized..."

"Of course, the intervening moons afforded little opportunity for leisure. But with the happy advent of peace, 'tis plain the lord commander sees no further cause for delay. What say you?"

I mean, correct me if I've erred, but I'd always taken the passage of moons to mean the passing of months (maybe it's merely days or weeks in other languages?).

Of course, just because that's true doesn't mean they ever nailed down just how many months, nor weeks, nor days... it's one of those pesky things that interferes with what's good for business. If they gave us any time scale, having the pubescent characters of Alisaie and Alphinaud demand that they show them age, eventually, and that's bad for character recognition/bonding or whatever.

I think they kind of liked to stake the idea on the long game. Where someone new to the game, even just starting out from level 1, can still finish the whole of the MSQ from getting off the carriage/ship to looking up at the reddening moon in roughly 2~3 months with doing some side stuff and what not. They put the passage of time in for everyone who has to wait, but they don't nail it down so it doesn't feel jarring to someone who's riding through.

Just put the year as 1577+ teehee

[Beddict]

If they gave us any time scale, having the pubescent characters of Alisaie and Alphinaud demand that they show them age, eventually, and that's bad for character recognition/bonding or whatever.

I feel like they still could, assuming the time is reasonable. Elezen don't reach physical maturity until their 20s, and Urianger has this to say at one point:

Aye...'twas not until my twentieth summer that I myself outgrew my boyish proportions...though Moenbryda towered over me nonetheless.

The Twins are 16 at the start of ARR so the devs could totally say three years have passed: one year for ARR, one year for HW, one year for SB, and then ShB largely took place on the First so who cares. At that point, great, the Twins are 19, they haven't hit their growth spurt at all, and it's reasonable for them to still have the same appearance. The devs are never gonna actually do that though, easier to just say it's still the year 1577. Although at this point the year is actually 1 Seventh Astral Era. Is the year 1577 ever actually used in game anywhere, or do people in the FFXIV community just use it out of convenience rather than bouncing between 5 Seventh Umbral Era and 1 Seventh Astral Era? Always wondered about that.

[Veloran]

The Twins are 16 at the start of ARR so the devs could totally say three years have passed: one year for ARR, one year for HW, one year for SB, and then ShB largely took place on the First so who cares.

It's most likely two years for Stormblood. There's literally over a year of just boatrides between then and now.

[Beddict]

It's most likely two years for Stormblood. There's literally over a year of just boatrides between then and now.

A fast merchant ship with favourable winds can make the trip from Vylbrand to Doma in about two months. Given that we used Carvallain's ship which also has a Garlean ceruleum engine, I imagine we did keep to the two month voyage. Although we do that four times so while I don't think it was quite a year, it was definitely at least eight months. Would give the devs four months to play around with, although that's suuuuper pushing it given the time it likely takes to raise multiple armies, and I ain't even gonna pretend to consider the Xaela of the Azim Steppe flying their Yols from Othard to Ala Mhigo because that will literally break my suspension of disbelief.

[Veloran]

Although we do that four times so while I don't think it was quite a year, it was definitely at least eight months.

To start with we have Gosetsu coming to Eorzea, two months. We then have the trip to the Far East which is two months, but then Carvallain basically says he's going to make a round trip with all the goods he's picked up and come back afterwards. So that's at least four months of the Scions doing the Doma thing and him sailing around before he picks everyone up again, and it is indeed his ship seen doing so. Then that's another two months back. Then Y'shtola books passage there on her own, another two months. Setting aside the probability of the twins also having there again in 5.2, around this time the Doman refugees also travel back by boat, another two months. And then Alphinaud's body is necessarily shipped back over another two months. And then, because for some reason it was written this way, another two months for Tataru to sail back, which was after Alphinaud had already arrived at the Rising Stones.

That's like 12-18 months of boating just from the beginning to end of Stormblood depending on how you count it. And I'm pretty sure I've missed quite a bit, without even getting into other stated passages of time or side content.

[Beddict]

To start with we have Gosetsu coming to Eorzea, two months. We then have the trip to the Far East which is two months, but then Carvallain basically says he's going to make a round trip with all the goods he's picked up and come back afterwards. So that's at least four months of the Scions doing the Doma thing and him sailing around before he picks everyone up again, and it is indeed his ship seen doing so. Then that's another two months back. Then Y'shtola books passage there on her own, another two months. Setting aside the probability of the twins also having there again in 5.2, around this time the Doman refugees also travel back by boat, another two months. And then Alphinaud's body is necessarily shipped back over another two months. And then, because for some reason it was written this way, another two months for Tataru to sail back, which was after Alphinaud had already arrived at the Rising Stones.

That's like 12-18 months of boating just from the beginning to end of Stormblood depending on how you count it. And I'm pretty sure I've missed quite a bit, without even getting into other stated passages of time or side content.

Ah, was forgetting some of the events, such as Carvallain making a round trip while we were puttering about in the Far East during Stormblood. I was counting the ride there at level 61, the ride back at level 67, and ride there with Y'shtola in the post-SB stuff, and then the time waiting for Y'shtola to return in the post-SB stuff. That would be a total of four two-month trips or eight months, plus or minus some time to account for some weather, but it appears I was off by quite a bit. No wonder the devs don't want to acknowledge the passage of time, Stormblood is a complete mess if you do.

[Mansion]

To start with we have Gosetsu coming to Eorzea, two months. We then have the trip to the Far East which is two months, but then Carvallain basically says he's going to make a round trip with all the goods he's picked up and come back afterwards. So that's at least four months of the Scions doing the Doma thing and him sailing around before he picks everyone up again, and it is indeed his ship seen doing so. Then that's another two months back. Then Y'shtola books passage there on her own, another two months. Setting aside the probability of the twins also having there again in 5.2, around this time the Doman refugees also travel back by boat, another two months. And then Alphinaud's body is necessarily shipped back over another two months. And then, because for some reason it was written this way, another two months for Tataru to sail back, which was after Alphinaud had already arrived at the Rising Stones.

That's like 12-18 months of boating just from the beginning to end of Stormblood depending on how you count it. And I'm pretty sure I've missed quite a bit, without even getting into other stated passages of time or side content.

(Can't we teleport though, once we have attuned to aetherites? Not just from a gemplay point of view but in lore too? I remember the twins and ourselves literaly teleporting into Lakshmi's lair for instance -without attuning, mind you- so couldn't this at least cut some of these travels? Sure Carvallain needs to do the full thing with his boat, but I thought we were able to teleport anyway!)


Back to the topic, hopefully Endwalker being the end of that ark, we can have a sort of time skip at the end... The time bubble makes sens from an expansion point of view (Alexander rises and is shut off befor Stormblood events), but some other things not so much. Shadowbringers happens quite fast, but Ivalice (4.X and 5.X) sure implies more time is spent there than Shadowbringers patches.
I wouldn't be opposed to an official timeline, and each quest text having an indicative date for when it is happening.

And that's not even mentioning recurring yearly event which... happen every year.

[WhiteArchmage]

(Can't we teleport though, once we have attuned to aetherites? Not just from a gemplay point of view but in lore too? I remember the twins and ourselves literaly teleporting into Lakshmi's lair for instance -without attuning, mind you- so couldn't this at least cut some of these travels? Sure Carvallain needs to do the full thing with his boat, but I thought we were able to teleport anyway!)

Teleportation is VERY weirdly handled lore-wise. 1.0 had "Anima" as a limited but renewable resource that dictated how far and often you could teleport. This was SEEMINGLY dropped in 2.0 and instead uses gil (the lore explanation for this was the Aetherytes breaking and Eorzea taking out a loan from the Syndicate to repair them, the gil is meant to pay back that loan), but when repairing the Aetheryte at the House of the Fierce, Alphinaud will mention that they're basically only doing it for people with large amounts of Anima, such as yourself...

So sometimes it's treated like a very convenient plot device that negates travel times, and other times it's this prohibitive skill that's not as commonplace. For example: Flow was a big deal because you can't Teleport in battle and 2.55 respected that with Y'shtola using the riskier but shorter Flow. And then in 3.4(4?) the Devout of Darkness uses Teleport damn near instantly and everyone just neglects to stop her.