Timejumper Ages

[Havoc Snow]

An interesting question popped up in my mind while I was trying to decide on the race of my eventual character regarding his age, and how exactly he would refer to it given that he's a time jumper. Given there are no real world parallels short of a coma patient waking up I suppose, I'm not sure of a realistic perspective to have regarding this.

 

Say for example your character was 23 during the Battle of Carteneau, and you were thrust forward five years in time. To you, and your body, you are still only 23 years old; but chronologically you are actually 28 years old now. I imagine regardless of your opinion this would take some getting used to, but realistically how would a character react to suddenly being five years older than they actually are? Would they still consider themselves 23, or 28 in the example?

 

I'm likely going to play my character being quite disoriented after the game launches for a while, getting used to the world as it is now and it being five years later, but I'm curious to see the opinions of others in the community.

[Domri Blackblade]

This actually was something I was thinking about today when I was just relaxing with a friend. While I'm not RPing a time jumper, I would probably allow myself to have a little fun with it.

 

A character asks mine how hold he or she is:

 

"Twenty three. No.. wait, twenty-eight. You see what had happened what I'm technically twenty-eight but I'm twenty-three."

 

Maybe make it an endearing little quality but at the same time a legitimate source of confusion and general thinking point. If Meie were a time jumper, she'd probably introduce herself as the present day's age just to avoid confusion in case her past came up and someone would be like: "But you weren't alive!"

 

But then again, this is my lack of lore knowledge, are time jumpers rare? Cause if not, then I think the population could come to grow and understand in time that these people are just from another time but are the same age as they were then.

[Aysun]

As my wiki says:

 

19 according to her, 24 according to her nameday.

 

Those who were teleported were "untouched by time" therefore their bodies are still the same age. But according to their year of birth, they would be older.

 

The "time jumpers" are the Warriors of Light, they are numerous (though there are fewer of them than people who chose to live out the 5 years for their characters), but I haven't seen acknowledgement of being one in-game yet due to the foggy memory thing surrounding it. I'd like to talk to more NPCs in the next phase of beta in hopes of finding out more about if the NPCs are realizing that people are returning and they are the people from Carteneau or not.

[Nox]

That's an interesting question. The only real parallel I can draw is to a series like Dr. Who. In Dr. Who, the Doctor takes normal humans and takes them through both time and space. When they jump through time, his "Companions", as they are called, remain the same age. Its almost as if they were removed from time and moved forward or back. 

 

So, to answer your question, I think your character would still be 23. But that could just be me.

[Havoc Snow]

Thinking about it a bit more, I kind of see it like when you have a birthday, or even when the year changes. After you've been saying it's 2013 for a year, it takes a little time getting used to writing 2014 anything you need to date something, or it takes a bit of time to get used to being a year older when you've been used to being whatever age you are for a whole year. Despite all that, eventually you do get used to it, and so I figure for a while the Warriors of Light will have a hard time grasping the concept they've been gone for five years, but once that realization sinks in it won't be that long I don't think before a person comes to term with their "actual" age. I think it would be weird if three years from now you're still saying "technically I'm # but I'm actually #"

[Aysun]

Aysun's going to be incredibly stubborn about it. She's lived for 19 years. She is 19.

[sanguineFenrir]

Kevaraan's going to be stubborn too. He was 24.... and, in his opinion, he's still 24.

 

He might eventually just allow people to think he was originally 19 though, but everyone he's close to will probably know and (hopefully) accept the original explanation. Now that I think on it, the fact that he timeskipped is quite disconcerting to him, and he worries over it. (He expected a battle, but not a mage time-warping the lot.)

 

So, I suppose I am using the discrepancy to flesh out my character a bit?

[Domri Blackblade]

"I'm ageless."

/hair flip

[Rhio]

I think it's going to work much like time dilation did in The Forever War for most people. For those of you who haven't read the book... well, you should, it's a good book! But it's very focused on hard science fiction, especially the time dilation that occurs from approaching the speed of light.

 

The reason for the book's title and some of its major themes is the idea that time is moving very differently for the soldiers compared to the rest of the universe. The main character lives more than a thousand years objectively, but he doesn't even break 30 years lived subjectively by the end.

 

Rhio, to her mind, is still the same age as she was at that last battle. From an objective standpoint she's five years older, but subjectively she hasn't aged a minute. She's 29, even though she was born 34 years ago.

 

Let's not do the time warp again.

[Dubs]

So am I going to be inundated with people RP'ing Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap or what? And is Dean Stockwell going to be replaced with a Moogle?

[Havoc Snow]

"I'm ageless."

/hair flip

This is fabulous.

[Aysun]

So am I going to be inundated with people RP'ing Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap or what? And is Dean Stockwell going to be replaced with a Moogle?

 

Lol

 

Tbh, I think the poll we took showed more people from 1.0 opting out of the time-warp than people going with it.

[Dubs]

"I'm ageless."

/hair flip

 

Actually this is ageless

 /wig flip

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4557090281160804&pid=15.1[/img]

[Eva]

Eva was 32 when she went into the time rift.

It will now be 37 years after her birth year.

 

She knows she missed her nameday (which was not long after Calamity) and so considers herself to be 33 because she feels "weird" having been 32 for so long.

 

The whole thing is weird though.  :dazed: