#i'm thinking of how dungeon meshi takes place in 513 and acoc is in 1215 even though neither take place on earth

[mikumutual]

years are so difficult in high fantasy. one always feels compelled to set it in 1256 or something, coinciding with our medieval time period, but the year is quite arbitrary. something around 1000 feels very low for a world with races that can live for thousands of years. on earth, agriculture began happening maybe 10,000 years ago, but if you set something in the year 8480, that year is going to feel futuristic even if it isn't. but the year being a low number feels like it's insinuating that, y'know, jesus christ's birth makes for the most sensible year system. and it doesn't. it's arbitrary. but we are used to it. and you'd think "well maybe my kingdom started 4000 years ago so they consider that to be the beginning of the calendar" but then you still have characters saying "it's the year 4000" and that does feel futuristic compared to 2024. even though it's arbitrary. it's just really hard to decide