Final Fantasy XIII timeline

This page details the timeline of Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.


 * Note: The "BF" stands for "Before the Fall" and is not a term presented in-game.

Ca. 1300 BF

 * Cocoon is created.

770 BF

 * The nation of Paddra ruled by Paddra Nsu-Yeul is built.

521 BF

 * Oerba Yun Fang is born.

519 BF

 * Oerba Dia Vanille is born.

600 BF

 * During the War of Transgression between Gran Pulse and Cocoon, Vanille and Fang become l'Cie and are given the power of Ragnarok and the Focus of destroying Cocoon.
 * Fang becomes Ragnarok and damages Cocoon's shell.
 * The goddess Etro saves Cocoon and Gran Pulse by forcing Fang and Vanille into crystal stasis, and places them in Anima's Temple in Oerba.
 * In the paradox ending "Vanille's Truth", Serah and Noel are thrown back to the time after the War of Transgression after killing Caius in 200 AF Oerba. There, the two find Vanille and prepare to take her to Fang (as is common with the Paradox ending, it is an event that never really happened).

40 BF

 * Sazh Katzroy is born.

21 BF

 * Lightning is born.
 * Snow Villiers is born.
 * Gadot is born.

19 BF

 * Lebreau is born.
 * Yuj is born.

18 BF

 * Serah Farron is born.

17 BF

 * Maqui is born.

14 BF

 * Hope Estheim is born.
 * Alyssa Zaidelle is born.

6 BF

 * Dajh Katzroy is born.

1 BF

 * The events of Final Fantasy XIII take place.

0 AF

 * Cocoon falls and the Crystal Pillar is created
 * The intervention of the goddess causes distortion in the timeline and opens the Historia Crux, which sucks Lightning into Valhalla.
 * When the goddess saves Serah, she is branded with three gifts: the "Eyes of Etro", "Time Travel", unlocked at 3 AF, and "Summoning", the latter truly unlocked five years later.

1 AF

 * Cocoon's governing body, the Sanctum is overthrown by Rygdea.
 * Bartholomew Estheim and Rygdea found the Academy and the provisional government to replace the Sanctum.

3 AF

 * Hope joins the Academy.
 * Snow departs on a journey intending to find Lightning. Eventually, he travels through time and becomes a Pulse l'Cie once again. Also, Lightning appears in one of his dreams, asking him to protect Cocoon's crystal pillar.
 * Noel Kreiss arrives with the meteorite in New Bodhum and departs on a journey through time with Serah and Mog.

4 AF

 * The construction of the Gran Elevator is complete.

5 AF

 * Hope becomes leader of the Academy.
 * Serah, Mog, and Noel meet Alyssa in the Bresha Ruins.

10 AF

 * A paradox occurs, causing the fal'Cie Fenrir from 190 years into the future to appear in the Yaschas Massif and cover the sun, causing an eclipse.
 * Noel, Serah and Mog meet with Hope and Alyssa.
 * The eclipse causes a newly discovered Oracle Drive in the Paddra Ruins to show distorted images of the future.

1X AF

 * After resolving the anomaly in Oerba -200 AF-, the eclipse doesn't occur.
 * Hope and Alyssa shows Serah, Mog, and Noel the Oracle Drive with the now clear images.

13 AF

 * The Academy constructs the Augusta Tower.
 * The Academy conducts the Proto fal'Cie Program with overlook done by Hope and Alyssa. The artificial intelligence malfunctions, kills the people in Augusta Tower, then creates machine duplicates of them as a cover-up for the incident.
 * In an alternate timeline, the Proto fal'Cie Program is abandoned after Hope sees an Oracle Drive where Serah, Mog, and Noel are fighting the Proto fal'Cie and Serah angrily shouts at him.
 * Hope and Alyssa sleep in a time capsule and wake up in Academia -4XX AF-.

200 AF

 * Oerba is caught within a paradox caused by clashing of the ruins' times.
 * Arriving to Augusta Tower, Noel and Serah are trapped in the structure upon discovering the death of Hope and the other Academy members by the actions of the Proto fal'Cie Adam.

300 AF

 * A paradox occurs, resulting with thousands of flan merging into a giant flan in the Sunleth Waterscape that slowly melts the crystal pillar. Snow fights Royal Ripeness in order to protect Vanille and Fang residing within the pillar.
 * After resolving the anomaly, the number of flan drastically decreases with only some merging into a larger flan that was easily killed off.

400 AF

 * Under the impression that their survival of the Augusta Tower in 200 AF to be a paradox, the Proto fal'Cie Adam creates Cie'th in order to eliminate Serah, Mog, and Noel prior to their arrival to that time period.
 * Many flan start to organize, with scientists conning this new behavior pattern "Flan Schools."

4XX AF

 * Hope and Alyssa conduct the construction of the new artificial Cocoon.

500 AF

 * The old Cocoon falls, and the new one called "Bhunivelze", arises. Caius Ballad intervenes with the plan and attempts to crash the new Cocoon with the old one. However, Serah, Mog, Noel, and Lightning manage to stop him. Serah and Noel come back to Academia 500 AF after defeating Caius in Valhalla, but Serah sees a vision of the future and dies in Noel's arms. Lightning enters crystal stasis to preserve Serah's memory as the chaos of Valhalla is unleashed into the Visible Realm as a result of Etro's death, merging Valhalla with Gran Pulse and forming the world of Nova Chrysalia.

682 AF

 * Noel Kreiss is born in an altered timeline.

700 AF

 * Due to Cocoon's fall in an altered timeline, Gran Pulse becomes a dying land with Noel among the last remaining humans on it.

831 AF

 * Hope is recruited by Bhunivelze and goes missing. He reverts to his 14-year-old self at that time.

1000 AF

 * Lightning wakes from her crystal stasis and finds herself in Nova Chrysalia with a maximum 13-day limit to save the world before time ends.
 * The events of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII take place.