Timeline guide: two calendars and four views of one historyMinor spoilers
This game uses the Dagdan calendar; Three Houses uses the Adrestian Imperial calendar. A shared event gives a 996-year difference. Start with the 1449 Heroic Games and 1454 apocalypse, then trace the old civilization, the empire, and the resurrection plan into the final battle.
1449 is the year of the Heroic Games; 1454 is the opening crisis. The game shows Dagda five years later before sending you into the past to intervene in four protagonists' lives. Play order therefore differs from historical order.
The four routes are not four consecutive versions of 1449. They show different perspectives on the same period; switching routes reveals another side of the same history. When reading the timeline, first check who an event affected, then how each route’s experiences feed into the shared future.
The two imperial calendars
This game's dating belongs to Dagda; Three Houses' belongs to the Adrestian Empire. Both use the term Imperial Year, so identify the country before comparing dates.
A shared event provides a comparison:
Dagdan year = Fódlan Imperial Year + 996; conversely, Fódlan Imperial Year = Dagdan year − 996.
| Reference point | Dagdan year | Fódlan Imperial Year | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garreg Mach completed | 1181 | 185 | 268 years before this game |
| Heroic Games | 1449 | 453 | Part I's place in history |
| Prologue crisis | 1454 | 458 | Five years after the Games |
| Three Houses begins | 2176 | 1180 | About 727 years after the Games |
The calendars begin their years in different months. Dagda welcomes the new year in the first month; Adrestia begins in the fourth, the Great Tree Moon.
The 996-year offset comes from the same invasion
SpoilersThe conversion anchor involves a protagonist's individual ending
Three Houses' library text, A History of Fódlan, Part II, records the empire attacking Dagda through Brigid in Imperial Year 731 and ultimately failing.
One of Cai's solo endings here records Adrestia invading from Fódlan in Imperial Year 1727. Cai holds off more than twenty thousand enemies alone before dying of exhaustion. Treating both records as the same war yields 1727 − 731 = 996.
This is a calculation across two texts. Support dialogue provides further evidence: Fabio says Garreg Mach was built more than 260 years ago. 453 − 185 = 268, which fits that range.
The events in 1727 belong to Cai’s solo epilogue. Part 1 still takes place in 1449; paired endings are separate.
Three years to remember at the start
1181 / Fódlan Imperial Year 185: Garreg Mach has been built. Fódlan already has an established history before this game begins, and Dagda has its own past.
1449/Fódlan Imperial Year 453: Four team leaders arrive at the Heroic Games with different wishes. Compare how the same places and opponents appear across routes. To follow one person's emotions continuously, finish a route first, then return for another perspective.
1454 / Fódlan Imperial Year 458: Sothis awakens the Promised One, and Fortuna takes him back through time. The opening already shows this goal; the details and ending come later.
Ten milestones from the empire’s past to the final battle
SpoilersImperial history through the final battle, including origins and Parts II–III
All years use the Dagdan calendar.
- 551: The People of the White Egg are defeated, and Yu Phas saves five thousand children. The empire’s fear of ancient technology becomes a ban on reading and writing. The children survive, but the passing down of knowledge is restricted. The ban eventually shapes life in Salamis.
- 881: Damascar falls, and Yu Phas is executed. The empire blames her and her people for the theft from Balor’s tomb. Those who lose their nation preserve their old faith, while Aurora cannot forgive her father for failing to protect her mother. Theodora’s wish to rebuild the holy land traces back to this event.
- 940: The emperor is sealed away, and Solel rules in his place. The public account of a “long sleep” conceals the suppression of an emperor who had lost control. Solel inherits both authority and the harm he previously failed to prevent.
- 1181: Garreg Mach is built in Fódlan. The construction date mentioned in Fabio’s support helps establish this game’s place in history.
- 1434: Cai is born. Castor’s relationship with Aurora leaves an old sin behind. The next year, he receives a reprieve until the child turns fifteen. The trigger for the quest to save his father is therefore set at Cai’s birth.
- 1444: The Cydonia massacre. Leda loses her father and homeland, and Buccar helps her escape. Her reason for entering the games five years later takes root here. Her mentor’s list draws more people from the past into her revenge.
- 1449: The Heroic Games. Cai turns fifteen and his father is arrested. Four personal wishes enter the same competition. Switching routes shows other people in the same year, rather than advancing another five years into the future.
- From around 1450: The Part 2 war. The emperor returns and Solel dies, turning the conflict into a war between the empire and the resistance.
- 1453: Eshmel gains a body. Fortuna asks Zenon to create a Mediator, and Zenon gives his core.
- 1454: The opening apocalypse and the changed final battle. The story first shows the present that needs saving, then sends you into the past to gather companions. The final battle requires more than defeating Balor: you must also destroy the body sustaining the Underworld. The narrator then declares the Underworld War over, while the Promised One remains missing.
The routes share a period; the Imperial calendars do not
- Treating every Imperial Year as a Fódlan year: first check which game and speaker the passage comes from.
- Stringing four routes into four consecutive histories: first check whether they still concern the same 1449 Games.
- Treating one individual ending as every run's shared epilogue: retain its conditions, especially Cai's ending used as the conversion anchor.
- Subtracting 996 to calculate exact birthdays or event dates: the years begin in different months, so check the calendars separately.
For the reasons behind character choices, continue to The five protagonists. For ancient civilization and divine history, see Story revelations.
Timeline
Dagdan calendar = Three Houses' Imperial calendar + 996 (derived by comparing Cai's ending with Three Houses' history books; see Connections to Three Houses).
- Ancient timesWorld
Major spoilers
Sothis descendsSothis came to this planet from afar, using humans and her own tissue to create seven first children, the Founders. Their descendants are the Nabateans.
- Ancient timesDagda
Major spoilers
Balor goes mad and is executed by SothisBalor, the Founder tasked with purifying dead souls, is driven mad by resentful spirits. After fighting his brother Dagda, he attacks Sothis, who draws him into her soul world and executes him. His body is divided into eight pieces, with four daughters guarding the tombs. This occurs after the Great Undoing and before the Empire's founding
- Around 10546 years before the Dagdan Calendar(11542 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
Sothis builds Bloodmark Temples on what later becomes the Dagdan continentEarlier than this year.
- Around 7546 years before the Dagdan Calendar(8542 years before the Imperial Calendar)World
Major spoilers
Sothis and her children enter a long slumberFalls asleep after teaching humanity; over the following millennia, humanity develops a spacefaring civilization.
- 1699 years before the Dagdan calendar(2695 years before the Imperial Calendar)World
Major spoilers
Great UndoingA great earthquake exposes Sothis's body. Vritra, the Grand Megalith superintelligence governing humanity, orders an attack with javelins of light, awakening Sothis and the Nabateans. The world burns and billions die. Three spacecraft are ordered to ram Sothis; Nuwa disobeys and crash-lands. Countless resentful souls begin eroding Balor. The Agarthans' javelins of light and hatred of the goddess in Three Houses originate here.
- Around 546 years before the Dagdan Calendar(1542 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
Sothis sends Fortuna to watch over Emperor DagdaFortuna is a replica (avatar) created by Sothis, tasked with watching Dagda and reporting to Sothis.
- Dagdan year 0(996 years before the Imperial Calendar)DagdaFounding of the Dagdan Empire
Emperor Dagda defeats the Iscandarians and becomes the Divine Emperor. The Dagdan calendar begins with this victory (founding day: 11/27). Official promotion states that the goddess entrusted the continent to the monarch Dagda, who founded the empire after several major wars.
- Dagdan year 551(445 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
Battle of Fezan: Dagda destroys the fallen NuwaDagda finds the crash-landed Nuwa in the desert, abducts fifteen thousand people and executes them in the cauldron. Yu Fas pleads to save five thousand children on the condition that they may not read or write. These children later establish the Kingdom of Damascar, explaining Saramis's continuing ban on writing and reliance on oral history.
- Dagdan year 553(443 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
Birth of Aurora, goddess of stars and navigationNominally the daughter of Solel and Yu Phas, though both she and Solel suspect her biological father is Dagda.
Related characters:Aurora - Dagdan year 663(333 years before the Imperial Calendar)DagdaBattle of Zor; founding of the Kingdom of Arago
The demigod hero Arago conquered Zor on Dagda's orders and founded the Kingdom of Arago.
- Around year 781 of the Dagdan calendar(215 years before the Imperial Calendar)Fódlan
Light spoilers
(Fódlan) Enbarr is founded; Flayn is later born there - Around year 796 of the Dagdan calendar(200 years before the Imperial Calendar)Fódlan
Light spoilers
(Fodlan) Nemesis robs the Holy Tomb; the Red Canyon tragedyEarlier than this year. The Agarthans direct Nemesis to steal Sothis's remains, create the Sword of the Creator and massacre the goddess's kin at Zanado; the Ten Elites receive blood and Heroes' Relics.
- Dagdan year 881(115 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
The Damascar purge; Yufas is executedAfter the seal on Balor’s tomb is broken, the empire blames Yu Phas’s people and destroys their country overnight; Yu Phas is executed in Dagda’s cauldron. The tomb was actually opened by Vandal, founder of the trading company, at the request of Balor’s daughter Maria. The survivors become the “forest people.”
- Dagdan year 940(56 years before the Imperial Calendar)Dagda
Major spoilers
The Dagdan emperor goes mad and is sealed in a tomb by Solel and JurahThe public claim is that the Great Emperor has “fallen into a deep sleep.” Solel becomes Divine Sovereign and first seals the Emperor's cauldron. The official introduction's account of the sleeping Emperor and Solel ruling in his place is the surface version of these events.
- Dagdan year 955(41 years before the Imperial Calendar)Fódlan
Light spoilers
(Fódlan) Seiros appears in EnbarrA Zanado survivor seeks allies for revenge under the name Seiros; her “miracles” later develop into the Church of Seiros.
- Dagdan year 997(Imperial year 1)Fódlan(Fódlan) Adrestian Empire founded, Imperial Year One
- Dagdan year 1028(Imperial year 32)Fódlan(Fódlan) War of Heroes begins
In Imperial Year 91 (Dagdan Year 1087), Seiros defeats Nemesis at Tailtean Plains; the war ends in Imperial Year 98.
- Dagdan year 1043(Imperial year 47)DagdaKingdom of Brezarant founded
Brezza, demigod son of Mars the war god, duels Hanno, king of Arago, in Dagsion’s arena and wins recognition for founding a nation.
- Dagdan year 1181(Imperial year 185)Fódlan(Fódlan) Garreg Mach Monastery founded
Fabio says Garreg Mach was “founded over 260 years ago”; combined with the monastery’s founding year, this places the game before Three Houses.
- Dagdan year 1230(Imperial year 234)Dagda
- Dagdan year 1426(Imperial year 430)
- Dagdan year 1434(Imperial year 438)Dagda
- Dagdan year 1444(Imperial year 448)Dagda
- Dagdan year 1448(Imperial year 452)Seteth investigates Dagda under an aliasRelated characters:Seteth
- Dagdan year 1449(Imperial year 453)Dagda
- Dagdan year 1453(Imperial year 457)Dagda
Major spoilers
Zenon gives up his core, and Eshmel's body is createdFortuna asks Zenon of Kunlun to create another Mediator body. Zenon transfers his own core into it, creating Eshmel.
Related characters:Eshmel - Dagdan year 1454(Imperial year 458)DagdaThe Demon God Balor revives; Eshmel arrives (prologue · Part III)
Armies of the risen dead sweep across the lands, and the four protagonists have died. Sothis awakens Eshmel, and Fortuna takes Eshmel back five years to change their fates. The game opens in this year.
Related characters:Eshmel - Around year 1454 of the Dagdan calendar(Imperial year 458)Dagda
- Dagdan year 1717(Imperial year 721)First Mach War: Dagda crosses the sea to invade Fódlan
Recorded in Three Houses' History of Fódlan; Dagdan forces are repelled, and the Mach region suffers severe damage.
- Dagdan year 1724(Imperial year 728)The Empire attacks Brigid, Dagda's ally
- Dagdan year 1727(Imperial year 731)
Major spoilers
The Empire's invasion of Dagda fails; Cai dies in battleThree Houses: The Empire launches a major invasion of Dagda via Brigid and fails. Cai's solo ending in this game: As a general under the ruler who unified Dagda, he holds off over twenty thousand foes alone and ultimately dies from exhaustion (only in a specific ending). This is the anchor for converting between the two calendars.
Related characters:Cai - Dagdan year 2171(Imperial year 1175)Dagda–Brigid campaign
The two nations' allied forces attack the Empire and are repelled by Count Bergliez. Shamir loses her partner and becomes stranded in Fodlan; Petra's father dies, and Petra becomes a hostage.
- Dagdan year 2176(Imperial year 1180)Fódlan(Fódlan) Three Houses begins
About 727 years before this game's Heroic Games.