28 réponses à ce sujet

[badkenbad]

There seems to be an assumption around the internets that the events of the game take place roughly over the course of a year. That doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
 
It would take more than a year just to complete the renovations to Skyhold, let alone any of the other events of the game.
 
Looking at the main quest line only:
 
The Wrath of Heaven takes a few days.
 
For The Threat Remains, you must travel back and forth from Haven to the Hinterlands, and then from Haven to Val Royeaux. Round trip travel time from Haven to the Hinterlands is a month at least (probably quite a bit more). In DA:O, Dagna says it is a minimum two weeks and four days round trip from Orzammar to the Circle Tower, and that's taking the Imperial Highway, which implies minimal travel time. The distance from Haven to the middle of the Hinterlands is at least twice that, and much of it with no roads. Not to mention you're traveling all over the Hinterlands doing stuff for people at the Crossroads.
 

 
After that, it's a round trip to Val Royeaux, probably a little more than two months, given that you are traveling the whole time on the Imperial Highway.
 
Cumulative total: over 3 months.
 
For Champions of the Just / In Hushed Whispers, it's another round trip to the Hinterlands, so we'll call that another month.
 
Cumulative total: over 4 months.
 
In Your Heart Shall Burn is a tough one to estimate because a lot happens. At the start, you have to wait for the mages/templars to arrive from the Hinterlands, so that takes at least a month. The events immediately following happen pretty fast, possibly over the course of a day, but after that is the trip to Skyhold, which has you wading through knee-deep snow into the Frostback Mountains. Meeting up with the main group must take several days. Then it's a week or two on foot with a large group of wounded to Skyhold itself. Altogether, on the low end, I'd guess this whole quest takes at least two months.
 
Cumulative total: over 6 months.
 
From the Ashes is a quickie, no traveling.
 
Here Lies the Abyss is another long quest that has you traveling quite a lot. Assuming you don't recruit anyone else, which would involve another month or two of trekking around Ferelden (round trip to the Hinterlands and the Storm Coast), you head to Crestwood. That's a month and a half round trip at least, heading to a location several days east of the northern tip of Lake Calenhad. The events in Crestwood go by pretty quickly in the game, but in reality they'd probably take a week or more.
 
Next it's off to the Western Approach, which is a long trip across a lot of wilderness. You can take the Imperial Highway to Val Firmin in southern Orlais, probably a two month trek, but then you have to set out across the wasteland, taking another month to get to your destination. Again, the events in the Western Approach can be completed in several hours in the game, but would take weeks in reality. It's another three months to get back to Skyhold after all that.
 

 
Finally, back all the way across southern Orlais to Adamant Fortress, also in the Western Approach. Another six month round trip. Could have saved quite a bit of time if you had just video conferenced with your advisors from the Western Approach.
 
This quest alone takes over a year. Cumulative total: 19-20 months.
 
Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts is a relative quickie - just a round trip to Halamshiral, which is in eastern Orlais relatively close to Skyhold, so only a month round trip.
 
Cumulative total: 20-21 months.
 
What Pride Had Wrought is a long trek to the Arbor Wilds in southern Orlais. The roads through the Dales are in poor shape from the civil war, and of course there are no roads at all in the deepest forest that is the destination of this quest. I would guess it takes about the same amount of time to get there as it does to get to the Western Approach, so three months each way.
 
Cumulative total: 26-27 months.
 
The Final Piece is another quickie, no traveling.
 
For Doom Upon All the World, you wait for the big bad to come to you, and he's not wasting any time, so it all happens very quickly.
 
So, adding up just travel time for just the main quests (assuming the Inquisitor never cleaned up the Storm Coast, never visited the Fallow Mire, or the two areas in the Dales, or the Hissing Wastes, or Emprise du Lion, all of which would involve considerable travel time), the events of Inquisition take over 27 months. More than two years. Accounting for actual time spent in the areas could add months to that, and adding in the optional areas could add years.
 
Well over two years - just for the main quests!

[MisterJB]

From heretics to mediating negotations between Nevarra and Tevinter and invited to negotiations between the Empress and Grand Duke?

Couple of weeks?

[badkenbad]

Yeah, I didn't factor in any war table operations at all. Or recruiting anyone beyond the original 3 companions, and not doing any personal quests. The point here is to show just how wrong the common assumption is, that the Inquisition takes a year.

[Lethaya]

I thought a vague estimate handed out said around three years? Lemme see... ah, here we are. I mean, it's not an official count or anything, but!

 

Gaider's Tweet: I dunno. Three years or so?

 

So your estimation falls in line with his, not bad!

[4everbubslover]

Alcoholism shortens life.

[badkenbad]

I thought a vague estimate handed out said around three years? Lemme see... ah, here we are. I mean, it's not an official count or anything, but!

 

Gaider's Tweet: I dunno. Three years or so?

 

So your estimation falls in line with his, not bad!

 

Hey, that's pretty cool, thanks for that link. I wonder why I keep seeing fan fiction that takes place in Dragon 9:43 or 9:44 and time estimates of one year. Nice to have a rough estimate from the lead writer himself.

[Lethaya]

No problem! ^__^ But probably has something to do with... ah, I dunno. I mean for me the game didn't feel like three years? XD The pacing definitely could have been better, or maybe by the end the Inquisition could have felt a bit more... like an established entity? Eh. It doesn't bother me, really, but I can see why people who hadn't given it much thought would assume the timeline was shorter.

[In Exile]

When you get to Crestwood you can overhear talk that it's been "months" since a merchant visited them because of the situation with the rift. Their rift is obviously caused by the Breach, which also fits with your timeline regarding In Your Heart Shall Burn.

[Cespar]

I thought a vague estimate handed out said around three years? Lemme see... ah, here we are. I mean, it's not an official count or anything, but!

Gaider's Tweet: I dunno. Three years or so?

So your estimation falls in line with his, not bad!

Good to know! So it's 9:44 Dragon.

[Emerald Rift]

No problem! ^__^ But probably has something to do with... ah, I dunno. I mean for me the game didn't feel like three years? XD The pacing definitely could have been better, or maybe by the end the Inquisition could have felt a bit more... like an established entity? Eh. It doesn't bother me, really, but I can see why people who hadn't given it much thought would assume the timeline was shorter.

 

Well hopefully one day we would be able to play games with changing seasons to show passing of time.

[X Equestris]

Yeah, I didn't factor in any war table operations at all. Or recruiting anyone beyond the original 3 companions, and not doing any personal quests. The point here is to show just how wrong the common assumption is, that the Inquisition takes a year.

I think the common assumption comes from the fact that there is relatively little to indicate the passage of time in the game itself. And when you have Josephine mention months in the context of how long you've known each other, it feeds the assumption that it took about a year.

[DarkKnightHolmes]

A day, tuesday to be specific.

[In Exile]

I think the common assumption comes from the fact that there is relatively little to indicate the passage of time in the game itself. And when you have Josephine mention months in the context of how long you've known each other, it feeds the assumption that it took about a year.

 

Realistically I think it also has to do with when you could trigger the dialogue in the timeline of the Inquisition's plot. 

[Jaquilinekangas]

This is really interesting. Thank you for adding this up!

[BabyPuncher]

There's that one time the Inquisitor and Cole go leave Skyhold to have lunch in Val Royaux or however you spell it.

 

I do like Gaider's tweet. It's refreshing to hear a developer respond to a question with a nice "I dunno." It's very honest.

[Lostspace]

Is this walking or via horseback?

 

 

There seems to be an assumption around the internets that the events of the game take place roughly over the course of a year. That doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
 
It would take more than a year just to complete the renovations to Skyhold, let alone any of the other events of the game.
 
Looking at the main quest line only:
 
The Wrath of Heaven takes a few days.
 
For The Threat Remains, you must travel back and forth from Haven to the Hinterlands, and then from Haven to Val Royeaux. Round trip travel time from Haven to the Hinterlands is a month at least (probably quite a bit more). In DA:O, Dagna says it is a minimum two weeks and four days round trip from Orzammar to the Circle Tower, and that's taking the Imperial Highway, which implies minimal travel time. The distance from Haven to the middle of the Hinterlands is at least twice that, and much of it with no roads. Not to mention you're traveling all over the Hinterlands doing stuff for people at the Crossroads.
 

 
After that, it's a round trip to Val Royeaux, probably a little more than two months, given that you are traveling the whole time on the Imperial Highway.
 
Cumulative total: over 3 months.
 
For Champions of the Just / In Hushed Whispers, it's another round trip to the Hinterlands, so we'll call that another month.
 
Cumulative total: over 4 months.
 
In Your Heart Shall Burn is a tough one to estimate because a lot happens. At the start, you have to wait for the mages/templars to arrive from the Hinterlands, so that takes at least a month. The events immediately following happen pretty fast, possibly over the course of a day, but after that is the trip to Skyhold, which has you wading through knee-deep snow into the Frostback Mountains. Meeting up with the main group must take several days. Then it's a week or two on foot with a large group of wounded to Skyhold itself. Altogether, on the low end, I'd guess this whole quest takes at least two months.
 
Cumulative total: over 6 months.
 
From the Ashes is a quickie, no traveling.
 
Here Lies the Abyss is another long quest that has you traveling quite a lot. Assuming you don't recruit anyone else, which would involve another month or two of trekking around Ferelden (round trip to the Hinterlands and the Storm Coast), you head to Crestwood. That's a month and a half round trip at least, heading to a location several days east of the northern tip of Lake Calenhad. The events in Crestwood go by pretty quickly in the game, but in reality they'd probably take a week or more.
 
Next it's off to the Western Approach, which is a long trip across a lot of wilderness. You can take the Imperial Highway to Val Firmin in southern Orlais, probably a two month trek, but then you have to set out across the wasteland, taking another month to get to your destination. Again, the events in the Western Approach can be completed in several hours in the game, but would take weeks in reality. It's another three months to get back to Skyhold after all that.
 

 
Finally, back all the way across southern Orlais to Adamant Fortress, also in the Western Approach. Another six month round trip. Could have saved quite a bit of time if you had just video conferenced with your advisors from the Western Approach.
 
This quest alone takes over a year. Cumulative total: 19-20 months.
 
Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts is a relative quickie - just a round trip to Halamshiral, which is in eastern Orlais relatively close to Skyhold, so only a month round trip.
 
Cumulative total: 20-21 months.
 
What Pride Had Wrought is a long trek to the Arbor Wilds in southern Orlais. The roads through the Dales are in poor shape from the civil war, and of course there are no roads at all in the deepest forest that is the destination of this quest. I would guess it takes about the same amount of time to get there as it does to get to the Western Approach, so three months each way.
 
Cumulative total: 26-27 months.
 
The Final Piece is another quickie, no traveling.
 
For Doom Upon All the World, you wait for the big bad to come to you, and he's not wasting any time, so it all happens very quickly.
 
So, adding up just travel time for just the main quests (assuming the Inquisitor never cleaned up the Storm Coast, never visited the Fallow Mire, or the two areas in the Dales, or the Hissing Wastes, or Emprise du Lion, all of which would involve considerable travel time), the events of Inquisition take over 27 months. More than two years. Accounting for actual time spent in the areas could add months to that, and adding in the optional areas could add years.
 
Well over two years - just for the main quests!

[nightscrawl]

Since this was bumped, I would like to reply with official information, since this is a speculative thread.

 

The Conclave explosion happens in 9:41 Dragon, and then you have the events of the game. When playing Trespasser, you discover that it has been two years since Corypheus was defeated and the Exalted Council is called in 9:44 Dragon.

 

So, because we don't know the exact months in which the Conclave explosion OR the Exalted Council take place -- we can't even judge by seasonal changes since the environments are static -- I think we can safely add a few months padding and say that the main game takes place between 1 year and 1 year, 6-11 months. For reasons the OP mentioned, I am leaning toward the long side, but that is essentially the length of time we have to work with.

 

 

To elaborate unnecessarily...

The first month in the Thedosian calendar year is Wintermarch(1).

The last month is Haring(12).

(The month number is added for convenience.)

 

So let's say that the Conclave explosion happened in Wintermarch(1), 9:41. A maximum timespan of 1 year, 11 months would end the main game at Firstfall(11), 9:42, with Trespasser starting at Haring(12), 9:44 Dragon, after a gap of two years.

 

To visualize...

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:41

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:42

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:43

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:44

 

But the later we start in 9:41, the shorter the maximum allowable timespan gets, so starting in Justinian(6), 9:41, and ending in Firstfall(11), 9:42, gives us a maximum time of 1 year, 5 months for the main game, with Trespasser still taking place in Haring(12), 9:44 Dragon.

 

Until Bioware makes an official statement about the exact amount of time, this is what we have to go on. So, you can stretch it, or shorten it for your own head-canon for the length you feel is most appropriate for your play.

 

 

[edit]

I'd like to give an example of how the time shifts depending on when you might feel is an appropriate starting time for both the main game and Trespasser.

 

So, because we are in southern Thedas and the temperatures are colder, let us pretend that the main game starts in the spring at Cloudreach(4), and that Trespasser is in the fall at Kingsway(9). A gap of two years has the game ending in August(8), leaving a duration of 1 year, 5 months for the events of the main game.

 

If you're writing fanfic or whatever, you start with the time you want Trespasser to take place and then add two years. After that, you determine when you want the Conclave explosion to occur. The time in between is the duration of the main game.

 

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:41

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:42

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:43

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |  -- 9:44

 

I might have been inclined to say that the reckoning of the seasons is actually the opposite since we are in the southern hemisphere. But because we have the months Wintermarch, Harvestmere, and Firstfall, along with the holidays Wintersend and Summerday that correspond to northern hemisphere seasons, it seems like those real-world rules don't apply in this instance. It could be a discrepancy on the part of the devs. More likely, since Bioware is a Canadian company, the devs went with what was familiar.

Modifié par nightscrawl, 19 décembre 2015 - 06:48 .

[thats1evildude]

I always figured it took a year or so.

 

I don't pay too much attention to supposed travel times.

[nightscrawl]

I always figured it took a year or so.

 

I don't pay too much attention to supposed travel times.

 

Even though it's been stated that DAO is about a year, the travel in that game seems less daunting because it's in the smallish area of Ferelden. However, they do rather imply that we're mostly on foot the entire time. But with DAI we travel across most of southern Thedas, with Hinterlands and the Western Approach being on the extremes in terms of distance. So, with travel being so in-your-face in DAI, it seems rather improbable that the game would take place in only a year.

[sjsharp2011]

Yeah, I didn't factor in any war table operations at all. Or recruiting anyone beyond the original 3 companions, and not doing any personal quests. The point here is to show just how wrong the common assumption is, that the Inquisition takes a year.

 

 

Agreed I'd say around about 2 years personally

[SwobyJ]

I don't trust these travel times.

 

They sound like on-foot travel. We'd be taking horses. I consider the horse quest to be canon. So there.

 

I still think trips take days, weeks, rarely even months, but I think most of this supposed 'travel time' in OP's thoughts would instead be the Inquisitor hanging in Skyhold.

 

I think DAI takes place over 2-3 years (TOPS), then a period of 2 years during which DLC/side content may or may not happen (but if they do happen, it'll only be in the initial weeks/months), then Trespasser over days/weeks, resulting in 3-4 or more years of the Inquisition which may or may not be officially disbanded after.

 

This is also a bit of a stretch. DAI main campaign could take place within 2 years, as nightscrawl intelligently put it.

 

All in all, its likely a longer period than (at least the main campaign) of DAO, but shorter than the time period shown in DA2.

 

Personally I just vaguely take the whole period of the story we see (including the title screen march to the Conclave! and the meeting of armless Inquisitor!) to be within 5 years altogether.

 

9:40-9:41 to 9:44-9:45.

 

There's the debate whether DAI (main story) is in 1 year or 3 years or in between, but I think we can all agree its not less than a year or more than three.

[Illegitimus]

Well hopefully one day we would be able to play games with changing seasons to show passing of time.

 

[dgcatanisiri]

I thought a vague estimate handed out said around three years? Lemme see... ah, here we are. I mean, it's not an official count or anything, but!

 

Gaider's Tweet: I dunno. Three years or so?

 

So your estimation falls in line with his, not bad!

 

He later corrected that the 'three years' estimate was the time spent WORKING on Inquisition, not in-universe time.

 

Honestly, my maximum allowance for Inquisition's plot is that the main game takes place in no more than two years at most, and even that's a stretch. Consider the fact that we know that Celene's assassination is scheduled to happen within less than a year of In Hushed Whispers - I don't see how the Orlesians and their image consciousness would allow them to push back the date of the ball at Halamshiral for something as trivial as a risen Tevinter magister seeking godhood.

 

Especially when you factor in how Cassandra states in conversation at Haven that while in theory the Chantry's remaining leadership could argue indefinitely about who the next Divine is, realistically, if they don't select someone within a set time frame, the Chantry's institution starts to collapse. Considering that Divine Victoria has a pretty solid Chantry after her election, it probably is not much more than a year after the destruction of the Conclave that the Chantry comes to Skyhold saying 'send us Leliana and Cassandra, we want them to duke it out for the fanciest of hats.'

 

So yeah, I favor saying that Inquisition's main game takes place over roughly a year and a half, two years tops.

[Sifr]

A possible bit of fridge brilliance, but perhaps Dagna's rough estimate of "two weeks, four days" for a round trip between the Circle Tower and Orzammar was based on the trade route taken by merchants?

 

A lot of the merchants we encounter tend to be either on foot or travelling with a wagon, so they're probably not covering ground all that quickly, especially if they infrequently stop to trade with travellers they meet along the road. We also hear often that the more mountainous terrain of north-western Ferelden, especially around the Frostbacks, can be a nightmare to travel through at various portions of the year. Unlike our heroes, merchants also don't have the plot giving them a pressing need to hoof it to their destination to avert such and such catastrope, so they have the time to enjoy a leisurely walk.

 

So Dagna's figure actually being the maximum estimate, not the minimum, would fit nicely with how we are able to see that on a forced march, Eamon was able to take his soldiers from Redcliffe to Denerim in only a few days (even with the relatively flat terrain and straight road helping significantly), as well as how Inquisition soldiers are able to travel far greater distances in seemingly short periods of time.

[Excella Gionne]

Inquisition would have been better if there was a day & night cycle. Maybe this would have helped show the passing of time.