How Much Time Has Passed in Hydaelyn?

[ThatHyuranChick]

I'm sorry if this has already been asked but I did a quick search and couldn't  find any other question like this. ARR is based 5 years after the Calamity but ARR was released in 2013. Therefore my question is, has it been 10 years (2018 - 2013 = 10) since the Calamity? or 5? I mean technically yes it has been 10 years but in RP terms do most people prefer to actually account for the past 5 years that have gone by since the release of ARR?

[Kieron Lohengrin]

In official canon, it's still about roughly five years post-Calamity, which was 1572 Sixth Astral Era. Operation Archon, Heavensward, and Stormblood all take place within a few weeks / months of each other.

Present time is still somewhere between 1577-1578. The next lorebook volume coming out soon might update that, we'll see.

[ThatHyuranChick]

So is that typically the popular view or just canon wise? I mean it would be kind of hard to think that the amount of experiences a character might have in 5 years are actually just a few months.

Edited September 28, 2018 by ThatHyuranChick

[Mermaid]

3 minutes ago, ThatHyuranChick said:

So is that typically the popular view or just canon wise? I mean it would be kind of hard to think that the amount of experiences a character might have in 5 years are actually just a few months.

Canonically we got a line from Nanamo in 4.something (2?) confirming it's still only been 5 years.

 

From what I hear RPers tend to view passage of time similarly to real time. So if they've been consistently RPing for a year they tend to view it as their character going through a year's worth of events. I don't know if they typically write it as a year or so later than the canon one we have or if they just age their character and refer to events as happening a year ago.

[Valence]

The current canon states a bit more than 5 years, so it stays around those 5 years that were already announced during ARR. However digging a little bit more into it we have a couple of rather esoteric quotes and references (that I don't really remember, would have to summon the Sounssy for that) that seem to point out that one year might have passed since ARR. Just for long travel times alone (like the journey to Othard), that the WoL will only do once, but that other characters do several times. And sometimes I feel that the story team often fails to take that into account but that's another story...

 

Anyway, 5 years yes. Time bubble. If you're asking that for roleplay, a majority of RPers I know tend to follow their own rule of 1 IRL year = 1 ingame/RP year. My personal opinion over that is that it conflicts heavily with lore to a point that I consider greatly lore breaking since your story eventually totally sticks out of the lore timeline like a sore thumb in a parallel universe, so I prefer to stick to what the lore tells us, no matter how some things can seem a bit off at times. I believe that it feels a lot more silly when not following time lore anyway. 

 

And to be honest I also like the ability to just not care and roleplay through time ellipses and what truly happens rather than when exactly and followed by what and whatnot at precise times. Totally unnecessary for any adventuring/daily life narrative in my opinion unless you're really trying to write a journal (DAY 1: I did go farm my popotoes... DAY 2:...) .

 

But that's up to you and a matter of preference.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Valence

[Sounsyy]

This is one of those topics that just doesn't have a satisfying answer. Per lore canon it's still only been 5~6 years since the Calamity. Most all dialogie still cites the Calamity as happening 5 years ago, but in Stormblood many NPCs refer to the War of Succession and Doman rebellion that happened circa 2.2 as 1 year ago. So it's a sort of nebulous 5~6 years.

 

That said, it's not super conducive to RP. Especially characters who've been around for a long time. Some people RP in real time, some RP using canon dates, and some ignore time altogether for simplicity sake. For example, my character is 32 in canon time, but if I RP'd them in real time, they'd be turning 37 soon. And while I'd eventually like to RP that time in her life, I'd also like to keep RPing current events, which technically all would've happened to her when she was 32.

 

Anyways, here's a link to a more in depth explanation on time passage:

What Year Is It

[Tregarde]

[ThatHyuranChick]

So basically time is just overall an odd concept in FFXIV and try not to think about it too much? I guess it makes sense as to not complicate things.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

4 hours ago, ThatHyuranChick said:

So basically time is just overall an odd concept in FFXIV and try not to think about it too much? I guess it makes sense as to not complicate things.

 

Pretty much. It works like TV series that have been running for years on end. Time bubbles!

 

But it's also to keep things like player A, who started playing 5+ years ago, and player B, who just picked up the game, on the same timeline as they progress through the main story. While there are a handful of NPCs who violate the time bubbles (usually event NPCs who may remember your character from the previous year), it's generally much easier to say "this MSQ event took place X amount of time from [hard date]." The technical bloat of having to potentially update every single NPC's dialogue based on how long the game has been out and/or how long that character's been playing (or both) would be pretty dampening on getting actual content released. (Or could potentially blow up because all the NPC dialogue is predetermined by the client based on server flags for your character on map loads or quest completion.)