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Sierra Nazrin · **12-03-2015, 06:22 AM**

Hey all, Sierra here with a few questions to get started in writing this backstory for my character.

Alright so something i raised a topic in Uldah shout chat about what the current date was, i'm trying to figure out a proper date for my character's backstory so i can finally write this thing after about a year of tinkering. Anyways, one of the things that came to mind was trying to figure out what year/era it would have been 19 years ago so i can begin.Â

According to a few people its currently the eighth umbral era? this is what confuses me because after reading this:http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/61230-An-Eorzean-Timeline. I'm unable to distinguish what actual year Sierra would have been born in which would be crucial to the story i have planned.

I'll be posting a few more things in regards to idea's about what im doing with her and asking questions on such things in the future but i'd like some input here, what would that date have been and up till now what years/eras would she have lived through?

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks again! Sierra Nazrin

Thunderbolt300 · **12-03-2015, 09:56 AM**

Yeah, I'd seen that thread too. There isn't a whole lot of information, especially since there isn't an official timeline from SE. It's all fairly open ended and the players try to read between the lines to piece it all together. I eventually settled for my own character's timeline being a little vague.

From what I can tell, it's currently the end of the Seventh Umbral Era / beginning of the Seventh Astral Era, not the Eighth:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Seventh_Umbral_Era

Supposedly, we're currently trying to usher in the new Seventh Astral Era, while some big baddie is trying to usher in the Eighth Umbral Era with another grand calamity? Or something like that.

I think that player timeline is largely accurate. I certainly haven't seen anything that discounts it. ARR's release would have been at year 5, but there's nothing that really says how much time has passed since then, which is probably going to be your biggest problem. With a lot of MMO's, time doesn't seem to flow at a RL pace- but that might be the only real option you have to use.

That's my understanding of it- and I admit, this might not be entirely accurate either. It's what I've been able to piece together so far. Frankly I'm as interested in this as you are, so if someone else has a better idea, I'd love to hear it too.

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **12-03-2015, 10:22 AM**

Timelines after 2.0 starts are very tricky to handle. So much to the point that when Square Enix basically says "it's a time bubble" and "we can't answer specifically". (This was during the 2014 Las Vegas Fanfest).

At the beginning of 2.0, we know we're into the 5th year of the Seventh Umbral Era, started by the fall of Dalamud (aka The Calamity).

By the end of 2.0, everyone is celebrating that the new/current Warrior of Light (you as a the single player in the MSQ) have helped usher in a new era, the Seventh Astral Era, but this is naturally before any 2.1-3.1 content ever takes place. What we did hear is that from about 2.5 to 3.0, that's "only a couple of weeks", as per the lore team. But that really doesn't give anyone something more concrete, which is just something we have to try to accept within MMO logic. (Because it'd get very tricky if I played from my 1.0 timeline, another person played from the launch of 2.0 in 2013, another person played from 2014, and then a new person played from 2015 and we all had conflicting views about how long our characters have been wandering around in this world).

For me, personally, I'll assume we're still in that 5th year of the Seventh Umbral Era, which could also be considered the start of the Seventh Astral Era (year 0).

Warren Castille · **12-03-2015, 10:45 AM**

Due to the timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly nature of the XIV time bubble you kind of have to choose: You either have a hard confirmed age, and the actual year of your birth is vague and unspecified, or you have a hard confirmed date of birth and your actual age is the vague part.

Sierra Nazrin · **12-03-2015, 11:14 AM**

(12-03-2015, 10:45 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: Due to the timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly nature of the XIV time bubble you kind of have to choose: You either have a hard confirmed age, and the actual year of your birth is vague and unspecified, or you have a hard confirmed date of birth and your actual age is the vague part.

Lol by this it seems like i should just go by age and forget the dates.

Warren Castille · **12-03-2015, 11:21 AM**

(12-03-2015, 11:14 AM)Sierra Nazrin Wrote:
(12-03-2015, 10:45 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: Due to the timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly nature of the XIV time bubble you kind of have to choose: You either have a hard confirmed age, and the actual year of your birth is vague and unspecified, or you have a hard confirmed date of birth and your actual age is the vague part.
Lol by this it seems like i should just go by age and forget the dates.

That seems to be the best bet: unless you had to be an exact age for an exact event (like the Fall of Ala Mhigo as a large example) it's pretty simple to brush it off as a block of ages. There's less importance between age 8 and 10 than there is between child and toddler, or teenager versus child, or things like that. "I was only a kid when Ala Mhigo fell" works just as nicely as "I was eight and a half."

Mia Moui · **12-03-2015, 12:46 PM**

Time is very tricky when wanting to place certain events in a reasonable time period. I've just decided that my character is unsure how long ago this or that took place. She speculates that she's 20 or 21 but she lost track of time while in the possession of the Coeurlclaw cult. Â When referring to her childhood she uses the phrase "before the..." and it's just presumed she's mentioning the Calamity without using the name.

I like fairly solid timelines in RP and when making my characters background but it's not possible with the time gap between 1.0 and 2.0 and it just gets worse from that point forward as others have said.

I made some fan art that had the date of her owning her own chocobo at 2 AE (Astral Era) but that's not a super solid date because of the elastic time problem in MMOs. Â I just like the sound of 2 AE - possibilities and all that.

Sounsyy · **12-03-2015, 03:49 PM**

Okay time for the time lore!

It is currently the Seventh Astral Era as of the end of the 2.0 storyline. After each era changes, the years reset. The most recent Calamity ended the Sixth Astral Era and brought on the Seventh Umbral Era. Five years later, the leaders of the grand companies officially declared the Umbral Era ended and the 1st year of the Seventh Astral Era began.

More lore:
-Units of Time & Eras Lore
-Time Bubble

If you're wanting a birth date for your 19 year old, they'd be born in the Year 1558 of the Sixth Astral Era.

Hope this helps!

Warren Castille · **12-03-2015, 04:44 PM**

While Sounsyy is completely correct in a vacuum, keep in mind that in terms of RP time we've been experiencing the same couple of months for the past two years. So in the course of one season, people have met, fallen in love, gotten pregnant, and had babies.

Timey-wimey. Wibbly-wobbly.

Kage · **12-03-2015, 05:06 PM**

To be honest, I'm not sure why you would be too concerned with the time bubble aspect as it really only applies to people who are focused upon staying within the timeline of the whole 2.0, between 2.0-3.0 or afterwards. The birth date isn't in a time bubble and I haven't met many players who actually care to distinguish what year/date/era their character is born. Most I meet just say that they've lived for about 25 years etc.

I mean, your character isn't 5 years or younger right? I fail to see why the time bubble would really affect the characters birth.

Warren Castille · **12-03-2015, 05:17 PM**

(12-03-2015, 05:06 PM)Kage Wrote: To be honest, I'm not sure why you would be too concerned with the time bubble aspect as it really only applies to people who are focused upon staying within the timeline of the whole 2.0, between 2.0-3.0 or afterwards. The birth date isn't in a time bubble and I haven't met many players who actually care to distinguish what year/date/era their character is born. Most I meet just say that they've lived for about 25 years etc.

I mean, your character isn't 5 years or younger right? I fail to see why the time bubble would really affect the characters birth.

I was speaking more from the long-runner perspective of the bubble. I suppose it isn't as prescient for newcomers.

For example, you've been playing Kage for a long time. How old is he compared to how old he was at launch? If he hasn't aged, it means he's been -insanely busy- in the past few months, having gone through all of his entire RP life in less than a school year. It gets jarring to think back on all of the time we've invested and go "Yep, that was three weeks ago." The months-long wait between 2.55 and HW was only "a couple of weeks" too, which further confuses how busy we actually are.

It almost gets to the point of nega-retconning, where you have to start timing stuff to before the actual launch in order for it to time out correctly. The Grindstone's existed for two years OOCly, with a fight night every week, but that means we've done 100+ fight nights in less than 365 days. Counting 8-day weeks and it just gets muddier and muddier. So the GS either is lying on an OOC level because of time bubble, or the GS existed in-canon before it existed in canon.

Headaches. Headaches everywhere.

You're not wrong though. For someone new entering the fray, the bubble doesn't apply to you. It will in a year or so, though, when it's only been two months since the end of 3.0. Maybe.

Wibbly wobbly.

Erah'sae · **12-07-2015, 11:21 AM**

(12-03-2015, 05:17 PM)Warren Castille Wrote: Headaches. Headaches everywhere.

You're not wrong though. For someone new entering the fray, the bubble doesn't apply to you. It will in a year or so, though, when it's only been two months since the end of 3.0. Maybe.

Wibbly wobbly.

I've always viewed post launch role-play timelines in more a 'real time' method than story timelines the developers throw at us. Â They're often rather vague, unclear, and jump ahead or back as they feel fits from an outside perspective looking in. Â I don't even want to talk about the changes in timelines for some previous games, I've RP'd with.

However, we don't stop. Â We don't pause or jump ahead. Â Our characters interact on a day to day basis as if days have passed. Â To keep continuity for roleplay purposes, I tend to just take launch day (which we know for 2.0 was year 5?) and add real-time from there.

It's the only way I can really keep track of the passing of time impacts things I roleplay with.

Current year/era of FF14's universe.

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes