What year is it in FFXIV: ARR?

[Ackermans]

I'm trying to determine the year in which my character was born, so am I correct in assuming that the current year in ARR is 1577?

[Vali]

ARR starts in 1577, from what I've seen and from what has happened since the launch of the game, seeing as we are currently in the Seventh Astral Era, I think its safe to assume that in game it is the summer of 1578, but then again that is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt

[FreelanceWizard]

The Calamity happened in 1572 of the 6th Astral Era and ushered in the 7th Umbral Era. ARR starts 5 years after that, so at launch, the year in game was 5 of the 7th Umbral Era (year numbering resets in each era).

 

After that, how time progresses gets a little squishy and depends on the players involved and how they deal with the events of the MSQ. Those who've completed the MSQ might say it's either year 1 or 2 of the 7th Astral Era; those who haven't, who don't RP as if its events have happened, or who are particularly dour or anti-establishment (given how it's declared ) might still say it's year 5 or 6 of the 7th Umbral Era. Whether it's been a year or not depends on whether a player feels years advance in game in lockstep with real life, or whether they advance in "comic book time" (i.e., when the devs say the year changes to serve their plot).

 

So, in short, about the only thing you can definitively say among all RPers is that we're at least 5 years past the Calamity.

 

EDIT: For me, I follow the MSQ and real time, so I RP that we're in year 2 of the Seventh Astral Era.

[Kailia]

Me personally, I go by the main story quest AND the real world time. So to me, when the game launched it was 1577, but in january it became 1578

[Mae]

Me personally, I go by the main story quest AND the real world time. So to me, when the game launched it was 1577, but in january it became 1578

Same. Of course, there'll always be people who will disagree and say that it was 1577 when they joined (regardless of how many years from now they'll join the game), so rule of thumb is to be vague with anyone who's outside your group/community's timeline until you are sure they're running on the same calendar you are.

 

(Do we have an RPC-Community timeline? Was the possibility of one discussed a long while back? The idea worked out wonderfully in the big RP community I was in in the past)

 

Anyways. To go by the in-game clock isn't viable. By the in-game clock, one month of Real-World time equals out to be just under two In-Game years. That equals out to almost twenty years have currently passed since ARR launched, and sets us up for having holidays that lasted half a year or more. And whole years where there wasn't a single holiday. And a conversation can last days without needing to stop for at least a nap.

 

SE has some very strange ideas about time, and XI set up some weird precedents. While it makes sense that the clock moved faster there because of some mechanics (Undead only popping at nighttime, moon phases, guild/shop hours, the day element effects, certain weather effects, 'wait one Vana'diel day before progressing', versus the only thing I've encountered in XIV so far that relies on the time of day was the Halloween event), the XI devs maintain that a full Vana'diel year has NOT passed in XI. Yep, twelve Real-World years of content, over a dozen crisis', something near 300 Game-Clock years later, and apparently a Vana'diel year hasn't passed yet.

 

Maybe I'm being a bit early in this, but I would not be surprised if the same happened in XIV down the road.

 

------

 

And before someone tries to argue RP-agrues that maybe these planets are just -that- small to be rotating this quickly... I'm not an expert, but I believe a planet that rotates this quickly wouldn't be able to keep an atmosphere or have enough gravity to keep anything stuck to the surface. It's just a game mechanic in XI that allows you to not have to wait days (or months) for conditions to be right for types of crafting, specific quests, monster pops, etc., and I suspect in XIV it's directly linked to why I can't talk to NPCs while mounted.

[FreelanceWizard]

Oh, yeah, I'd definitely ignore the game's time compression. It exists purely for gameplay reasons; otherwise, Hydaelyn would be so small it'd have spun itself to interstellar dust at this point, and Ul'dah is like... a couple hundred feet in diameter.

 

On a side note, putting on my Magic Admin Hat...

 

(Do we have an RPC-Community timeline? Was the possibility of one discussed a long while back? The idea worked out wonderfully in the big RP community I was in in the past)

 

There's a lore-driven timeline on the wiki that is, more or less, up to date to the launch of ARR. It really should be updated with the MSQ through 2.2, but then, a lot of things on the wiki need updates and reorganization.

 

That said, the site won't be giving any stamp of approval to any player-created "stuff," whether that's an event, timeline, or interpretation of lore. We're a community site with a set of tools, not the Regulators of RP. I definitely don't want people to feel that the RPers on the RPC are trying to tell anyone else how they can or must RP; what player-created events, lore, and characters they must recognize and accept to be part of the "community;" etc. I don't like it when people try to do that to me (*cough* SWTOR Player-Run Planet Initiative *cough* Jedi Council RP *cough*), and so I wouldn't want to subject anyone else to that. That said, if that's not what you were getting at, I apologize if the above came off harshly. I'm just always wary of attempts to "build community" through shared continuity that doesn't come from the devs.

[Eva]

Just to chime in a little bit, this has actually been answered by the Dev Team's 'Fernehalwes' in a thread some time back:

 

Before I move onto question two, allow me to veer off onto a little tangent: there have been several threads about Hydaelyn’s timeline not matching up with Earth’s. If it has been two years since the release of the game, why is it still 1572 in Eorzea at the time of patch 1.23? This is a dilemma faced by a lot of MMOs. To allow everyone that joins the game, regardless of when they do, to experience the full story, there simply has to be a stoppage of time. Okay, not really a stoppage, but more of a time bubble in which a span of about a year is contained. This is why that for the duration of 1.0, Eorzea was in a perpetual 1572. Think of it as the same thing that’s happening in the Simpsons. 23 seasons gone and Lisa’s still 8, Maggie’s still a baby, and the gummy Venus still tastes oh, so sacrelicious. Pushing time along would also mean changing 1000s of lines of NPC dialogue, updating quests, webpages, etc. with every patch. Meaning it would take more than double the time to release updates, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t want to wait. In a book, movie, offline game, a strict timeline can be set without too many complications. In an online title, there are just too many variables, so we ask that you bear with our bending of space-time. It’s for the greater good!

 

Another thread was made here on the RPC that related to this.  Many of us from pre-ARR had evolved our characters gradually over a couple of years, so this "time bubble" explanation never really sat well with those of us with dynamic characters who had experienced multiple "New Years" events and other holidays and whose characters had changed realistically and plausibly over a span of time which - when compressed down to fit within the scope of one year's time would not make as much sense.

 

I think of things like this, to make it easier for me:

 

<<<

2010 = 1570

2011 = 1571

2012 = 1572

2013 = 1577 (or 1 in the new era)

2014 = 1578 (or 2 in the new era)

2015 = 1579 (or 3 in the new era)

...etc...

 

I think this is a common adaptation made by many RPers where we overlook the thing (sort of like how many of us overlook sudden changes in day/night for the sake of a long scene or rapid weather changes).

 

I just wanted to throw that out there though, since something official has been provided, even if it's a bit lackluster.

 

 

EDIT: corrected the table a bit to reflect "new era" numbers for those who want to be technical - I don't view either as being inherantly wrong. For instance, Ben records his notes in his journal with the dates post-1572, and that is just his way.

[Flickering Ember]

I RP it as 1578. At game launch it was 1577. The turn of the new year happened at January or 1st Astral Moon. It matches IRL time and the game's storyline.

[Tiergan]

I'm in the same boat as FreelanceWizard in that if I have to actually acknowledge the year, I gun with it being the year 2 of the Seventh Astral Era.

 

That said, I just try to avoid mentioning the year at all if I can because I know different folks view it in a different way.

[Sounsyy]

I don't mean for this to come off as brusque, but if we're trying to agree on a calender the years 1577, 1578, etc do not exist. The numbering of the year resets with every Era conversion. Otherwise we'd have to include previous Eras and we'd likely be in the Year 9000 or so.

 

On the 11th sun of the 6th Astral Moon in the Year 1572 of the 6th Astral Era (11/11/1572 6AE) the lesser moon Dalamud unleashed Bahamut upon Eorzea, ending the 6th Astral Era and beckoning the next, 7th Umbral Era at the Year 0 (11/12/0000 or 12/11/0000 depending on how you read dates).

 

The way I've always reasoned this is that from the 6th Astral Moon (November) to the 1st Astral Moon (January 1st) incorporated Year 0 of the 7th Umbral Era and because a society would like to maintain the day of the new year, the 1st sun of the 1st Astral Moon (January 1st) would mark the start of Year 1 of the 7th Umbral Era.

 

ARR start of play takes place in Year 5 of the 7th Umbral Era (0005 7UE). After completing the 2.0 MSQ, the Grand Company leaders declare the 7th Umbral Era over and that day would start Year 0 of the 7th Astral Era. If you're one of those people who like to RP with time passing as events from 2.1, 2.2, and the soon to launch 2.3 unfold, we're likely now in the 1st Year of the 7th Astral Era (0001 7AE) given our having a New Years celebration in ARR. This would put us at 6 years post-Calamity.

 

But it's kind of dangerous to get ahead of game time and relate it to real time (IMO) due to the impending release of the first expansion or v3.0 of XIV. Yoshi said in a recent interview with Nova Crystallis that they are planning a 2.0 to 3.0 story change over that is nearly as shocking as the 1.0 to 2.0 change over. A big event like this will probably have a canon date that 3.0 NPCs may refer back to.

 

To more directly answer the OP's question, I use this little formula to get my characters age: (1572 + 5) - desired age = birth year. If you have an early birth month, such as January and you wish to maintain that it is currently June in game, the formula changes to (1572 + 6) - desired age = birth year.

 

Hope this helps! ^^

[Mae]

On a side note, putting on my Magic Admin Hat...

 

(Do we have an RPC-Community timeline? Was the possibility of one discussed a long while back? The idea worked out wonderfully in the big RP community I was in in the past)

 

There's a lore-driven timeline on the wiki that is, more or less, up to date to the launch of ARR. It really should be updated with the MSQ through 2.2, but then, a lot of things on the wiki need updates and reorganization.

 

That said, the site won't be giving any stamp of approval to any player-created "stuff," whether that's an event, timeline, or interpretation of lore. We're a community site with a set of tools, not the Regulators of RP. I definitely don't want people to feel that the RPers on the RPC are trying to tell anyone else how they can or must RP; what player-created events, lore, and characters they must recognize and accept to be part of the "community;" etc. I don't like it when people try to do that to me (*cough* SWTOR Player-Run Planet Initiative *cough* Jedi Council RP *cough*), and so I wouldn't want to subject anyone else to that. That said, if that's not what you were getting at, I apologize if the above came off harshly. I'm just always wary of attempts to "build community" through shared continuity that doesn't come from the devs.

Aah, gotcha. And, nah, it wasn't harsh. Different communities work in different ways, and different games have different styles that lend better or worse to the idea. Which is why I asked.

[Ackermans]

Whoa, thanks for the replies everyone! If I'm being honest, I'm actually a little more confused than I was in the beginning, but I definitely feel enlightened now ahaha...plus, my question was answered so. (Thanks Sounsyy!) I guess the timeline has to be pretty flexible to fit everyone's RPing, so I'll just pass it off as one of the lesser aspects. Thanks again for all your help!