Flow of time

[Astronema]

They introduced a new concept this expansion: interdimensional fusion. If the fusion takes time to complete, then time could be unsynced while it's happening and synced once it's done. That could be one explanation. But the idea of interdimensional fusion as a process is kind of hard to comprehend. Like a dome appeared and some people from our world got trapped in it while the fusion was incomplete?...

They stole this trope from the failed last season of the TV series sliders. A dr. Geiger uses a fusion device called the combine to experiment in fusioning dimensions.

[Cleretic]

They stole this trope from the failed last season of the TV series sliders. A dr. Geiger uses a fusion device called the combine to experiment in fusioning dimensions.

Far more likely is that it's riffing on Final Fantasy IX, which was approximately concurrent with Sliders' last season. The plan laid out in IX never really got put into play, but the description more or less lines up. Hardly 'stolen'.

And of course even then it was a reiteration on Final Fantasy V's story, and over the years similar ideas have cropped up in Doctor Who, Xenoblade, both DC and Marvel comics (including DC and Marvel together in 1996) and more examples that I haven't really got the time or interest in cataloguing. I wouldn't call this a common trope, it's not especially often that a story winds up in a situation to do it, but it's fairly plentiful to the point where Final Fantasy's done it a few times.

[Cilia]

tl;dr: Don't worry, a wizard did it.

When the dome appeared, time for the people in Yyasulani (and Zoraal Ja, who had gone over earlier) passed at an accelerated rate compared to time for the people outside of it. By completing Vanguard, a bridge was made that stabilized the difference (synched it to Source time).

Don't worry about the how or why of it; it happens however the writer wants it to.

[Cleretic]

tl;dr: Don't worry, a wizard did it.

When the dome appeared, time for the people in Yyasulani (and Zoraal Ja, who had gone over earlier) passed at an accelerated rate compared to time for the people outside of it. By completing Vanguard, a bridge was made that stabilized the difference (synched it to Source time).

Don't worry about the how or why of it; it happens however the writer wants it to.

Always remember the main rule of time travel:

Time travel works how the story needs it to work this week.

[Denishia]

If they ever fully solidified the time flow between Shards into a measurable and controllable phenomenon, they gut the flexibility and range of stories.

The electrope around the portal - and possibly the portal itself?- wasn't there a thousand years ago when the Yok Huy were mining and starting to have the visions. Which, hmm.. We are going to assume that bleedover was attempts at the fusion that later affected Yssalani> Or a form or radiation contamination from the gate? Is the material electrope grown from whatever the gate is or just what you get from electric aether poisoning? I'm about to start mining in the Sylphlands.

And the Golden City of Alexandria with its dome, Endless, and regulators was running for centuries after the war and it was only as the power demand grew too great as a drain on the surviving aetheric resources that the idea of fusing with another Shard was urgent. The question then becomes is does Krile's parents' dialogue confirm that they personally were alive during the time that Eternal Queen Sphene was created or are they from at least a few decades afterwards? We do know that 100 years passed on the First when only a few months of Stormblood's MSQ did on the Source, and the flow on time isn't a steady conversion rate.

[Iscah]

My impression was that Vanguard was acting as a sort of "airlock" between the two realities, but once we burst it open, the area within the dome became fully part of the Source and subject to an equal flow of time. This is also likely what allows linkpearl communication across the barrier.

[Alenore]

My impression was that Vanguard was acting as a sort of "airlock" between the two realities, but once we burst it open, the area within the dome became fully part of the Source and subject to an equal flow of time. This is also likely what allows linkpearl communication across the barrier.

I don't see why it's when we went into Vanguard, and not when they obviously opened it to let troops and units go through.
We have no mention of Zoraal Ja having come back to a significantly different time, nor of any time effect between any command center they have (since they're able to relay infos to Zoraal Ja during the second attack) and the units/airships in Tural.

[MikkoAkure]

I don't see why it's when we went into Vanguard, and not when they obviously opened it to let troops and units go through.
We have no mention of Zoraal Ja having come back to a significantly different time, nor of any time effect between any command center they have (since they're able to relay infos to Zoraal Ja during the second attack) and the units/airships in Tural.

Yeah, I was under the impression through the dialogue that Zoraal Ja breaching the dome with Vanguard and sending his force outside the dome is what made the time on both sides sync up.

They said that they had to puncture the barrier in order for them to send their forces out and it makes no sense for the punctured barrier to maintain the time dilation inside, especially if it wasn't even known to Zoraal Ja since he thought 30 years passed on both sides.

[NeoZanther]

I think now time is stabilized and in sync with the source. This is because the gate between worlds is now closed. There isn’t a true direct connection between Heritage/Solution and whatever share they came from anymore so those spots have synchronized with the sources time and happen to hit an equilibrium at the time of the invasion.