Dating Systems?

I'm not quite sure where to put this question, so I put it in the one I thought fit best. If it's wrong, I'd be grateful if someone moved it to the correct place.
Anyway, on to the question. I was wondering about the Star Wars dating system, as in year names, like we have B.C. and A.D.
I know of BBY and ABY (before battle of Yavin, and after battle) but considering that dating system couldn't have been used until the battle actually took place, another system had to have been used before hand. Does anyone know? My guess would either be the creation of the Republic or the Sith Wars, but I'm not sure.
Is there any cannon system?
Thanks for any input.
-Cari

 

Moving to Literature from Saga

 

First of all, BBY/ABY is an out-of-universe dating system the audience can use, based on the fact that we all started with that movie. Disney apparently attempts to retool it to a "Battle of Naboo" system so that everything will be dated in relation to the in-universe-chronological start of the film franchise. Nobody in the SW universe has a calendar based on either of those events.

As for in-universe dating, I think Imperial time starts with Palpatine declaring himself Emperor (obviously, since this is when the Empire officially starts) and there's been another, much older dating system before that. It never factors into the stories, though, which is why I personally never cared to find out more about it; nobody in the books ever uses a calendar. You're lucky if they give you timeframes by mentioning "X years ago" and the author didn't mess up.

 

...I think I just had a senior moment.

I opened this thread expecting "dating systems" to be referring to something very different.

 

I know, man. I know. I only went in for a good ol' "in before the lock" moment.

 

IIRC, there was an in-universe system that took its start point from the Ruusan Reformations (or the final battle). There would probably have been even earlier dating systems, each starting at a momentous point.

Zahn's The Thrawn Trilogy introduced 'Empire Date' and 'Pre-Empire Date' - probably as a throwaway - but it does mirror what happened under the Revolutionary/Bonaparte 1 years in France (only there they changed the month names as well!).

Personally, I would have preferred to see the new dating starting from Endor (first choice) or from the installation of the New Republic Government on Coruscant; but that's just me.

 

I was hoping more to find a dating system used during the Clone Wars, but it appears there's no in-universe date. This is actually for a fanfiction taking place during the CW. Perhaps you can suggest the most likely starting point for a new dating system during that time?
-Cari

 

Maybe in relation to the battle of Geonosis? The old Clone Wars timelines did that, going through the three years between the movies on a month-by-month basis. You could have people say that it's been "two and a half years since all hell broke loose in the galaxy" or something like that.

 

Hmmm, maybe.

 

Or go back to the old pre-imperial one.

 

I've decided it would be best to simply make my own dating system based on what would most likely have been used. It's only fanfiction, after all, doesn't matter if it's not cannon. ;P
The set point would be the Ruusan Reformation or RR. It's a likely event to use and it's easy to translate the year from BBY, just subtract the BBY year from 1000.
So the Empire would have been created year 981 RR, and BBY would have happened exactly on 1000 RR.
What do you think? Sound plausible?
-Cari

 

So are the people that run wookieepedia the ones who started the whole BBY/ABY thing. I know it was a pure EU creation but when exactly did it get its start? Was it from one of the authors or a fan site like wookieepedia that created that massive timeline.

 

Not everything that is perceived as bad or misguided was made by Wookieepedia. The BBY/ABY system existed as early as the second edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (1994), in the form of BSW4/ASW4.

But there IS a dating system that was used during the Clone Wars (at least in the Legends): the Great ReSynchronization. Starting point is 35 BBY, so the Clone Wars occurred between 13 and 17 post-GrS. (Or, to be exact, between 13:5:19 and 16:5:23 GrS.)

 

I follow the Palpatine Method. Lay some sweet negs on a blonde HB 6.5 before getting frustrated and trying to electrocute him to death.

 

*snort* I almost choked on my own spit!

 

The Ruusan Reformation is Legends though. Just use the dates in the movie.

"This Republic... has stood for a thousand years." - Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Attack of the Clones

Now, that's a rounded number, like how one might say "Christ lived two thousand years ago." But it'll work until we have something firmer.

So in Republic years, the series would look something like this:

990: The Phantom Menace
1000: Attack of the Clones
1000 - 1003: The Clone Wars
1003: Revenge of the Sith
1011: A New Dawn
1017: Rebels
1022: A New Hope
1025: The Empire Strikes Back
1026: Return of the Jedi

Of course, none of this takes into account the Commerce Treaty of 1647, but the series has so far provided us no means to account for it. It could be the current calendar, an ancient one, a local one, or 1647 might be the name of the place the treaty was signed. We just don't know.


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Damn, now I had to watch Cheatin' Unleashed again.

 

The only canon in-universe dating system thus far is Lothal Years. I highly doubt the majority of the galaxy uses Lothal's dating system, though.

 

Actually I think somewhere in A New Dawn it states that the story takes place ten years after the events in Episode III.

 

#I'm all otter love, I'm so lost without you

 

I opened this thread wondering how long it would take someone to make the joke. 3 posts is actually slower than I expected.

 

THIS.

(And thank you for those specific dates, I've been trying to find them.)




Also, BBY and ABY has been included in-universe as a dating system established after the New Republic was in control. I forget when that was ret-conned in. Sometime during NJO.

 

But, "For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of Peace and Justice in the Old Republic. Before the Dark Times. Before the Empire.

 

Kenobi was just an old man whose story got better as time went on. It went from a thousand years when Palpatine said it to a thousand generantions when Obi Wan said it. Luke will probably say in Ep. VII that the republic stood for a million years.

 

That's why Palpatine says "THIS Republic." The Clone Wars established that there's been more than one, that the "Old Republic" fell (which is why Sidious can say "once more the Sith will rule the galaxy," they've done it before), and during its fall Mandalorians led a raid on the Jedi Temple (wherever it was at the time). Huyang and the Crucible were both constructed during the days of the Old Republic.

Now, I wouldn't go so far as to assume the "Old Republic" (whatever it was called before it fell) stood for "a thousand generations." Kenobi's point is more about how long the Jedi have been around; I'd argue that he uses the "Old Republic" as shorthand for "back when we still had democracy."


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