Archive / Systems

Dating Systems: Earth Years vs. Maf Years

Type: Systems — Calendar/Chronology Reference Status: Canon (confirmed by creator)

The Core Fact

Earth year 5300 A.D. (as used to date the War of IFTR) corresponds to approximately Maf year 2005.

This resolves the single largest unreconciled chronology question in the archive: Maf does not use Earth's actual calendar year-for-year. Instead, Maf has its own internal calendar (which uses Earth-like structure — years, months, etc., per prior confirmed canon) with its own epoch, running on a completely different numbering than Earth's calendar. "5300 A.D." was Earth's own dating of the War of IFTR; from Maf's internal perspective, the same event occurred around Maf year 2005.

Why This Matters — A Striking Cluster

With this correspondence, three previously separate "big events" now fall within roughly two years of each other on Maf's own calendar:

  • War of IFTR: ~Maf year 2005 (per this correspondence)
  • Galactic Civil War: official start date Maf year 2006 (though deliberately fuzzy per the creator's "fog of history" design choice)
  • MACOFS founding: January 1, 2007 (Maf year)

This is very likely not a coincidence — though not yet explicitly confirmed as causally connected. It's plausible the humiliating collapse of IFTR and rise of the Empire of Man around Maf year 2005, combined with the Galactic Civil War destabilizing the Milky Way around 2006, contributed directly to the political pressures that led the NWMG to dissolve and MACOFS to form in 2007. Flagged as a strong candidate for future confirmation, not yet stated outright by the creator.

Practical Guidance for the Archive

  • When source material gives an Earth-dated year (like "5300 A.D."), convert to context using this correspondence when placing events on Maf's internal timeline
  • When source material gives a Maf year (like "1976," "2007") — the vast majority of dates encountered so far — no conversion is needed
  • Do not assume every future large date gap is unreconcilable; check whether one date is Earth-styled and the other Maf-internal first

Open Questions

  • Exact conversion formula/epoch offset not given — only the single data point (5300 A.D. ≈ Maf 2005) is confirmed. Insufficient to calculate a precise formula (would need at least one more data point to confirm linearity, offset, etc.)
  • Is the ~2005–2007 cluster (War of IFTR, Galactic Civil War, MACOFS founding) causally connected, or coincidental proximity? Not yet confirmed.

New Clue: Calendar Epoch

ChatGPT export material ("Government to Commercial Shift") reveals that Whyncloss International University's founding, on January 1, Year 1, was one of three factors that determined Maf's current calendar. ✅ A second factor is now confirmed: Ejon Krino's conquest of Kila Vas (a Kaolsan settlement since 1300–1100 BC) is also fixed as the calendar's epoch point, January 1, Year 1 — see The Calendar Accord of 1888. This mirrors the pattern seen in 1888, where three separate historical events (the Sandbar Treaty, Kila Vas's capture, and Whyncloss College's founding) were all treated as calendrically coincident despite being genuinely different events. It's not yet confirmed whether "WIU's founding" and "Whyncloss College's founding" (mentioned in the 1888 Accord) are the same event, but this is plausible. The third epoch factor remains unspecified. This doesn't resolve the Earth-year correspondence above, but confirms Maf's calendar has a distinct, in-universe-defined epoch rather than simply mirroring Earth's calendar numbering by coincidence.