Popping FFXIV's Time Bubble – The Aught Revision

A Second Edition of Ellis's Extradiegetic Study and Reconceptualization of the Relationship between Earth's Arrow of Time and Etheirys's

As I was using the equations that I developed below, I came across a small issue that I had never come across before—and couldn’t have come across until I calculated and remembered the calculations of two dates on either side of the year from August 27 (the ARR release date anniversary).

On August 27, 2013, according to the assumptions required by my date conversion equations, was the First Sun of the First Astral Moon of Year 0 of the Seventh Astral Era. A great day, truly, but one that lay precisely 384 suns away from its opposite: the 32nd Sun of the Sixth Umbral Moon of Year 0 of the Seventh Astral Era. Because of the way my protocol worked, that final date resolved to August 26, 2014, and that was a problem. It means I’m celebrating Joan’s nameday in July when it’s actually in December.

This conflicts with Lived Experience, and since this misalignment only affects Year 0 of the Seventh Astral Era, our need for Lived Chronology demands a surgical solution to this new—but much smaller—problem.

---

---

The Standardization of Year Aught

Year Aught, or Year 0 of the Seventh Astral Era, began on August 27—or the First Sun of the First Astral Moon (1.1A). In order for every Earth year following 2013 to align properly with every solar Etheiryan year, then we’ll have to dilate time across Year 0 to a little over 300% of normal speed, thus creating the circumstances whereby Year 0 ends both on December 31 and on the 32nd Sun of the Sixth Umbral Moon (32.6U).

So, real quick, let’s review.

Equivalence Equations for Second, Minute, Bell, Sun, Week, and Moon

The equivalence equations for Etheiryan seconds, minutes, bells, suns, weeks, and moons are represented by the set of equations listed below, where the second (s_🥕), minute (m_🥕), bell (b_🥕), and sun (d_🥕) of Etheirys each map congruently with the second (s_ℝ), minute (m_ℝ), hour (b_ℝ), and day (d_ℝ) of Earth, respectively speaking; and the Etheiryan week (w_🥕) and moon (M_🥕) are arithmetically derived from the isochronal four:

\(\begin{aligned} s_{🥕} &\equiv s_{\mathbb{R}} \\ m_{🥕} &\equiv m_{\mathbb{R}} \\ b_{🥕} &\equiv h_{\mathbb{R}} \\ d_{🥕} &\equiv d_{\mathbb{R}} \\ w_{🥕} &\equiv 8d_{🥕} \\ M_{🥕} &\equiv 4w_{🥕} \equiv 32d_{🥕} \end{aligned}\)

The Dirt Simple Y_🥕,7AE

You’re gonna love this. Ready? Here’s the formula for how to calculate the Etheiryan year using the Earth year.

You might want to sit down.

\(\forall \ d_{\mathbb{R}} \geq \text{Jan. 1, 2014} \implies Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} = Y_{\mathbb{R}} - 2013\)

So, in English: For any day d_ℝ that is greater than or equal to January 1, 2014, all you gotta do is subtract your Earth year by 2013 to get your Etheiryan year.

Easy as pie.

I’m a little mad about it too. Here’s two examples from three years after the ARR release date (2016) and from the current year 2026:

\([ d_{\mathbb{R}} \geq \text{Nov. 14, 2014} ] \implies \begin{cases} \begin{aligned} Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= Y_{\mathbb{R}} - 2013 \\ Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= 2014 - 2013\\ Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= 1 \\ \end{aligned} \end{cases}\)

\([ d_{\mathbb{R}} \geq \text{Jan. 9, 2026} ] \implies \begin{cases} \begin{aligned} Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= Y_{\mathbb{R}} - 2013 \\ Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= 2026 - 2013\\ Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} &= 13 \\ \end{aligned} \end{cases}\)

The Even Simpler Year Aught

That first year? We gotta make it go fast. Fast enough so that 384 Etheiryan suns pass in just 127 Earth days. Fortunately, we only use this for our Lived Chronology (i.e. how we chronologically organize our lived experiences over a long period of time), so if you happen to run an actual RP event in Year Aught, just let it play out however and put it on whatever Eorzean calendar sun feels right.

As for the year…that part’s laughably simple now:

\(\forall \ d_{\mathbb{R}} \in [ \text{27 August 2013}...\text{31 December 2013} ] \implies Y_{🥕, \text{7AE}} = 0\)

In English: For any day d_ℝ that is one of the calendar dates between August 27, 2013, and December 31, 2013, it is always Year 0 of the Seventh Astral Era.

Funny Story About Y_🥕,7UE

Now, when you start a new era, it makes sense to start it on the first date of the calendar year. But the end of an era is a teensy bit tougher to control. That’s why we don’t.

The Calamity happened on the day it happened, and that became the First Sun of the First Astral Moon of the Seventh Umbral Era. And the Siege of Castrum Meridianum happened on the day it happened, which we have arbitrarily agreed is also Earth date August 27, 2013. August 27 happens to be the Fourth Umbral Moon of the year, and by our arbitrary choice of origin anchor, the Seventh Umbral Era was declared to have ended on the 27th Sun of the Fourth Umbral Moon of Year 5 of the Seventh Umbral Era (27.4U.5:7UE).

Consequently, no compression is needed for any years preceding August 27, 2013.

\(\forall \ d_{\mathbb{R}} \in [ \text{Jan. 1, 2013}...\text{Aug. 27, 2013} ] \implies Y_{🥕, \text{7UE}} = 5\)

In English: For any day d_ℝ that is one of the calendar dates between January 1, 2013, and August 27, 2013, it is always Year 5 of the Seventh Umbral Era.

The rest of the Seventh Umbral Era—a short five years—is calculated like so:

\(\forall \ d_{\mathbb{R}} \in [ \text{Jan. 1, 2008}...\text{Aug. 27, 2013} ] \implies Y_{🥕, \text{7UE}} = Y_{\mathbb{R}} - 2008\)

In English: For any day d_ℝ that is one of the calendar dates between January 1, 2013, and August 27, 2013, all you gotta do is subtract your Earth year by 2008 to get your Etheiryan year.

And yeah, that works for Year 5:7UE too, since Year 5 gets cut in half by the Eorzean city-state calendar planners. Makes things easy when you think things through a little more than I did last time. 😅

All the math was still a lot of fun to figure out. I regret nothing!

The 1,572-Year Y_🥕,6AE

We could use the date that FFXIV 1.0 went down to anchor the calendar again, but let’s simplify things. Most of us play in the present day anyway, and the only reason for us to reach back into the Sixth Astral Era is for purposes of Lived Chronology.

This might not be true for you, but it is why I did not work this problem harder and instead set the arbitrary end of the Sixth Astral Era five years prior to the start of Year 1 of the Seventh Astral Era. Precisely where the math already puts it, even if it’s nowhere near the date Dalamud fell for millions of players across the world in November 2012.

\(\forall \ d_{\mathbb{R}} \in [ \text{Jan. 1, 435}...\text{Dec. 31, 2007} ] \implies Y_{🥕, \text{6AE}} = 1572 - ( 2007 - Y_{\mathbb{R}} ) \)

In English: For any day d_ℝ that is one of the calendar dates between January 1, 435 BCE, and December 31, 2007 CE, (1) you must subtract your year from 2007, then subtract that difference again from 1572.

Notably, any date prior to January 1, 435 BCE, will be a date in the Sixth Umbral Era. While you can work that far back, we do not know how long the Great Flood lasted, and this prevents us from correctly converting times before this last, well-recorded era.

---

Maxx the Archon likes it when the math hurts. Joan the Masochist keeps working until she stops needing aspirin. —Arcwolf, E.C.A. (2025, July 1). Joan saves the day with simple arithmetic [Digital screenshot]. Final Fantasy XIV. Published under the FFXIV Materials Usage License.

---

That’s It!

Or is it? Maybe. Maybe not.

I’m being silly. I promised an app. So I made an app! Behold the app!

Click the button, enter a date, and go! You will have to load a javascript program onto your computer, and as these are sometimes used for phishing scams, if you want to use the app, you’ll have to click the button that says you trust me.

You don’t have to! But I hope you enjoy the app if you do.

---

---