A MSQ timeline/calendar is needed.

[Necrotica]

There needs to be some way of telling how much time has passed in game from first entering the starter cities to killing titan, to killing despair itself.

It would help the story make a lot more sense. Particularly when you get things like "the scions are pretendjng to disband and won't see eachother as often" to the next quest being "let's get the gang back together"

Been like 2 days dude. Gonna get a restraining order for Graha.

So right next to that Eorzea clock? Add a Eorzean calendar date that only advances with MSQ progression.

[aveyond-dreams]

But then they wouldn't be able to justify why the twins never grew up.

[VelKallor]

But then they wouldn't be able to justify why the twins never grew up.

They have grown up. What YOU fail to realise is that Elezen have an extended lifespan, close to 110 years..or longer. Yes they still look young, thats to be expected of a race that doesnt necessarily LOOK their age.

I am 61 this year...I have been mistaken for a man of 35.

Its even funnier you say this when, if you apply that to Viera, they dont look like they "grow up", yet that young looking Viera you say doesnt "grow up".................can be 130 years old.

[MikkoAkure]

They have grown up. What YOU fail to realise is that Elezen have an extended lifespan, close to 110 years..or longer. Yes they still look young, thats to be expected of a race that doesnt necessarily LOOK their age.

Hilda's half-brother is full-blooded Elezen and is 20-years-old, using an adult Elezen model. There's a bunch of 21-23-year-old Elezen using the adult model as well. That's probably just past the limit we would reasonable expect the twins to look young. There are 16-year-old Hyur using adult models so while there is a difference in how fast the two races age, it's not a super large one and they'd still be expected to reach their adult height before their 20s.

The devs themselves said that they're not keeping track of time so we're not likely to ever get clarification beyond a small handful of events like the couple of months it took us to get to Kugane or event NPCs remembering us from last year. I believe it was mentioned that it's been at least 1 year since the failed rebellion in Doma that made Yugiri leave with refugees that was a result of the First Garlean Civil War caused by Solus's death, which happened sometime during ARR.

No matter how you write your own interpretation of the timeline into your RP or your fan fic, you'll find someone who disagrees with you so it's probably best to not touch on it if it can be avoided or to be vague if it can't.

[XiRon]

But then they wouldn't be able to justify why the twins never grew up.

I remember people thinking we'd get a BIG timeskip between 6.0 and 6.1 and we'd finally see adult Leveilleurs.
lol.
lmao.
10.0 will come out and they'll still be 17 because otherwise theyd have to redux the entire bahamut questline.
You can do Bahamut at any time but since it revolves around the twins they can never get growd unless they rewrite it, force it into msq despite it not being in raid roulette, or come up with a timetravel plot device, and since everyone DESPISES daily alliance because 6/7 times its Labyrinth or Syrcus, the first absolutely will never happen.
I guess Alphinaud and Alisaie could get their spines broke to excuse not getting their mature rlf growth spurt but since theyre in Trusts that aint likely either

[LeonKeyh]

There needs to be some way of telling how much time has passed in game from first entering the starter cities to killing titan, to killing despair itself.

It would help the story make a lot more sense. Particularly when you get things like "the scions are pretendjng to disband and won't see eachother as often" to the next quest being "let's get the gang back together"

Been like 2 days dude. Gonna get a restraining order for Graha.

So right next to that Eorzea clock? Add a Eorzean calendar date that only advances with MSQ progression.

As people had mentioned, they won't do this because then they need to figure that stuff out. The long waits are typically done between patches and if you're playing at that time it makes sense, but yes, afterward it feels like you're binging an old show and don't really "get to" experience the cliffhangers.

I remember people thinking we'd get a BIG timeskip between 6.0 and 6.1 and we'd finally see adult Leveilleurs.
lol.
lmao.
10.0 will come out and they'll still be 17 because otherwise theyd have to redux the entire bahamut questline.
You can do Bahamut at any time but since it revolves around the twins they can never get growd unless they rewrite it, force it into msq despite it not being in raid roulette, or come up with a timetravel plot device, and since everyone DESPISES daily alliance because 6/7 times its Labyrinth or Syrcus, the first absolutely will never happen.
I guess Alphinaud and Alisaie could get their spines broke to excuse not getting their mature rlf growth spurt but since theyre in Trusts that aint likely either

There are plenty of anachronisms that you can fall into with the side stories and it's largely understood that they happened at that point in the MSQ, I don't think that they would change anything with Coils if they made the twins older.

[Brightamethyst]

10.0 will come out and they'll still be 17 because otherwise theyd have to redux the entire bahamut questline.
You can do Bahamut at any time but since it revolves around the twins they can never get growd unless they rewrite it, force it into msq despite it not being in raid roulette, or come up with a timetravel plot device, and since everyone DESPISES daily alliance because 6/7 times its Labyrinth or Syrcus, the first absolutely will never happen.

That's not how it works. Time is still flowing and events still happen in a linear order. It's just the calendar that's frozen.

Think about it like chapters in a book. If you read chapter 1 and then skip ahead to chapter 5, and then go back to chapter 3, it doesn't mean 3 takes place last chronologically. You just read the story out of order.

[Gullis]

I remember people thinking we'd get a BIG timeskip between 6.0 and 6.1 and we'd finally see adult Leveilleurs.
lol.
lmao.
10.0 will come out and they'll still be 17 because otherwise theyd have to redux the entire bahamut questline.
You can do Bahamut at any time but since it revolves around the twins they can never get growd unless they rewrite it, force it into msq despite it not being in raid roulette, or come up with a timetravel plot device, and since everyone DESPISES daily alliance because 6/7 times its Labyrinth or Syrcus, the first absolutely will never happen.
I guess Alphinaud and Alisaie could get their spines broke to excuse not getting their mature rlf growth spurt but since theyre in Trusts that aint likely either

meanwhile I did Eden after EW.

[Latarma]

here is my simple time line of events from the end of 1.0 as alegacy player not ARR is count as the frist year. so
1. ARR and all events up to ultima weapon itself a year. the events of the post ARR paches ending with the bloody banquet is about 6 more mouth so AA to heavensward is about 1 year.
2 heavensward year 2 all events of the msq+the end of the dragonsong war (aka the final steps of faith). i'm putting at 2 to 3 years (you not ending a thousand year war so quickly.
the last set of patches leading into stormblood bout 8 weeks.
3. Stormblood all of it all the way till the battle with Zenos/elbidius i'm guess say 2-4 year again you battle a war on to fronts and not at the same time.
4.shadowbrings get strange as the first has diffent time but can also have time equal to the source. (i refuse to believe no one did anything wile we were away) so i'm say it took about a year ot 2 when 1 year one ont he frist = and 1 hour on the source. (again time travel is a strange ting to accoutn for)
5.endwalker the events up tot he end with the endsigner i would say happen in a year time. and 6.0 takes palce 8 mouth later so my time line of events is is 8 years from arr to present.

[LeonKeyh]

here is my simple time line of events from the end of 1.0 as alegacy player not ARR is count as the frist year. so
1. ARR and all events up to ultima weapon itself a year. the events of the post ARR paches ending with the bloody banquet is about 6 more mouth so AA to heavensward is about 1 year.
2 heavensward year 2 all events of the msq+the end of the dragonsong war (aka the final steps of faith). i'm putting at 2 to 3 years (you not ending a thousand year war so quickly.
the last set of patches leading into stormblood bout 8 weeks.
3. Stormblood all of it all the way till the battle with Zenos/elbidius i'm guess say 2-4 year again you battle a war on to fronts and not at the same time.
4.shadowbrings get strange as the first has diffent time but can also have time equal to the source. (i refuse to believe no one did anything wile we were away) so i'm say it took about a year ot 2 when 1 year one ont he frist = and 1 hour on the source. (again time travel is a strange ting to accoutn for)
5.endwalker the events up tot he end with the endsigner i would say happen in a year time. and 6.0 takes palce 8 mouth later so my time line of events is is 8 years from arr to present.

That seems like a fairly decent head canon.

My idea would be about 2 years from 2.0 to 6.0 really any more like that bumps into problems with the twins and puberty. Which is generally why an "official" one doesn't exist.

Let me put it in a way you can understand. If we go under the assumption that ARR happened in around a month or two, that you trust these people enough to throw your life away for them? That one of their deaths (Moenbryda) badly effects you when you've barely known them a week or two? Realism or not, you're not going to do something like that for somebody you barely know, that isn't long enough for bonds to set in.

You're kind of ignoring the context here. I'm sure that soldiers create fairly quick bonds on the battlefield. They want to be seen as reliable so that they can rely on people. I imagine that the friendships that "adventurers" have are fairly short generally, so anything longer than a few weeks would definitely seem like a long friendship.