So I actually just made a similar post in the Days of the Week Thread.
As Fernehalwes explains in the CG Midlander Thread the XIV universe exists (lore wise) in a time bubble similar to how comic strips and comics work. Time theoretically passes, but we never actually advance in time. This is because if a new player joins the game in 2016, story-wise they will start off in the 5th Year of the Seventh Umbral Era, despite people who are currently up to date with the storyline through Patch 3.2659178B are now in the 3rd Year of the Seventh Astral Era. If that makes sense?
As for calendar years, the number of years resets with every Era shift. The Sixth Astral Era (1.0) ended in the Year 1572 6AE. When we entered the 7th Umbral Era, we entered into the 1st Year of the Seventh Umbral Era (01 7UE). Five years later (05 7UE) we entered into the Seventh Astral Era, reseting our numerology once more to 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era (01 7AE).
Now, as I stated in the Days of the Week thread, some will make the argument that because we had a Heavensturn seasonal event (Eorzean New Years) this means we have at least experienced the end of at least part of a year in Eorzea and the start of a new. Making it effectively 6 years since 1.0. So depending on if you want to equate real time passage to time passage in Eorzea, we're still either in the 1st or 2nd Year of the 7th Astral Era.*
*I strongly caution doing this though! A lot of people assumed that time passed (because of Heavensturns) in 1.0 as well but lore stated that the whole of 1.0 events took place in the single year of 1572. With 3.0 quickly approaching and Yoshi-P's nudge that a story-altering event is going to happen to herald the change over from 2.0 to 3.0 just like 1.0 to 2.0's change over, we may see a canon date added to lore for said event. And that date is likely to still be 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era.
The dates 1577 and 1578 do not actually exist. But when determining the birth year of your character it can help to "use" those numbers as a way to simplify the math. So yes, your character's birth year would be 1557 6AE.
As Fernehalwes explains in the CG Midlander Thread the XIV universe exists (lore wise) in a time bubble similar to how comic strips and comics work. Time theoretically passes, but we never actually advance in time. This is because if a new player joins the game in 2016, story-wise they will start off in the 5th Year of the Seventh Umbral Era, despite people who are currently up to date with the storyline through Patch 3.2659178B are now in the 3rd Year of the Seventh Astral Era. If that makes sense?
As for calendar years, the number of years resets with every Era shift. The Sixth Astral Era (1.0) ended in the Year 1572 6AE. When we entered the 7th Umbral Era, we entered into the 1st Year of the Seventh Umbral Era (01 7UE). Five years later (05 7UE) we entered into the Seventh Astral Era, reseting our numerology once more to 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era (01 7AE).
Now, as I stated in the Days of the Week thread, some will make the argument that because we had a Heavensturn seasonal event (Eorzean New Years) this means we have at least experienced the end of at least part of a year in Eorzea and the start of a new. Making it effectively 6 years since 1.0. So depending on if you want to equate real time passage to time passage in Eorzea, we're still either in the 1st or 2nd Year of the 7th Astral Era.*
*I strongly caution doing this though! A lot of people assumed that time passed (because of Heavensturns) in 1.0 as well but lore stated that the whole of 1.0 events took place in the single year of 1572. With 3.0 quickly approaching and Yoshi-P's nudge that a story-altering event is going to happen to herald the change over from 2.0 to 3.0 just like 1.0 to 2.0's change over, we may see a canon date added to lore for said event. And that date is likely to still be 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era.
The dates 1577 and 1578 do not actually exist. But when determining the birth year of your character it can help to "use" those numbers as a way to simplify the math. So yes, your character's birth year would be 1557 6AE.
