History Main / HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt

* One of the proofs that the Holy Britannian Empire is ''the'' most dominant force on Earth in Anime/CodeGeass universe, the calendar doesn't follow the real world AD/CE - instead, we have A.T.B, for "Ascension to Throne, Britannia", counting from the establishment of the first Celtic King in the Britannian royal line, rather than the birth of Christ. (For those wondering, 1 A.T.B. - 50 B.C., which means the series is set in an alternate 1967/68.) Closer to this trope is the Revolutionary Calendar used by the EU, a variant of the French Republican Calendar that sets its first year to 1790, the year after the French Revolution.
* The calendar was reset at some point in ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'', due to the [[EverybodysDeadDave long dark ages of mass slaughtering by psychics]]. They're currently in the 200s. [[spoiler:It actually seems to have been running for roughly the length of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Tomiko's life]], and may have been reset again because of K's rampage.]] There doesn't seem to be much communication between distant villages, either, so they may all be using different calendars.
* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' once used a different dating system for years, but this ended about the time alchemy rose to prominence. [[spoiler: Since the 2003 anime is based in an AlternateEarth, years were at one point measured in the Anno Domini system, but this faded away at the same time Christianity did.]]
* The Franchise/{{Gundam}} franchise loves using alternate calendar systems, but the only one that really matches this trope is ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'', which is set in '''A'''fter '''W'''ar 0015, 15 years after the [[ApocalypseHow disastrous end of the 7th Space War]] which wiped out 99% of humanity living on Earth. Some fan theories suggest that ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]''[='s=] '''A'''fter '''C'''olony calendar started with the launch of Skylab, but there isn't any official proof that this is true or not. Special mention to ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', which implicitly has several dozen calendar changes in its backstory, to the point where this trope is the only explanation. [[spoiler: Every single timeline will eventually have a version of the Turn A, which inexplicably causes a timeline reset into a new alternate universe through massive destruction.]]
** Some Gundam universes have more concrete explanations. The '''F'''uture '''C'''entury of ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' is based on the establishment of the world government that currently oversees international affairs as well as calls for the Gundam Fight every four years to determine which Neo Nation has ruling power for the interim. This after apparently lots of brutal fighting finally brought those countries to the peace table to hammer out some way to institutionalize their constant conflicts. The series takes place throughout the year [=FC60=], which is marked as the year of the 13th Gundam Fight. ([[AllThereInTheManual The backstory]] establishes that the first Gundam Fight was in [=FC8=], and the 12th Fight was postponed four years over the tensions that arose after Gentle Chapman's third consecutive victory for Neo England.)
** ''Anime/{{Mobile Suit Gundam 00}}'' [[AvertedTrope sticks with Anno Domini instead]].

* ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'' is set in the Year 300 of the Divine Era. The prequel light novel, ''Nogi Wakaba Is a Hero'', tells the story of the end of the [[ThePresentDay Anno Domini Era]]. The Divine Era begins [[spoiler: after the last vestige of humanity agrees to give up the divine weapons bestowed on them by the Shinju-sama in return for a cease-fire with the Celestial Gods who are trying to wipe out humanity. As it turns out, the Taisha secretly broke the agreement and continued to develop the Hero System, leading to the events of ''Literature/WashioSumiIsAHero'' and ''Yuki Yuna Is a Hero'']].

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' takes place at some unspecified year in the future. No one ever refers to a specific year; it's always in reference to other events. At one point, we're told that a [[HumanPopsicle Revival]] truly lost it when she asked what year it was, and "they told her." It's not stated outright, but what they probably said was "we have no idea."
* The ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'' seen in ''Timestorm 2009-2099'' includes a brief scene set some years earlier with a holographic teacher modeled on Reed Richards explaining that it probably isn't ''really'' 2085 because they started counting again from the last date ''before'' the disaster.

* The propensity for this in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is referenced in the [[TheAbridgedSeries abridgement]] The Entire Silmarillion of J. R. R. Tolkien in One Thousand Words:
-->'''Gondorians''': *change calendar*
* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Professor Oak's research in making wild Pokémon less aggressive was very important to society. In fact, it was so important that when he succeeded in his endeavor (around forty years ago), it was dubbed the start of the Oak Era.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Enlightenments}}'', Wander asks what year it is at one point. Dormin, an extremely old deity who has seen more than their fair share of mortal calendar systems, responds by asking him "by whose count?" Wander settles on essentially asking for the regnal year of the Queen of the Castle in the Mist (making it Year 365 by that count, for the curious).
* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', the new Norse calender has the year zero corispond to 1044 on the Christan Calendar. 1044 is the year that Norse holy texts get published making the beging of the Norse Reformation in the story.

* ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'': The movie begins A.D. 3028 and ends 15 years later, in the year 15 A.E. (After Earth).

* Similarly, in ''Film/CloudAtlas'' (both the book and the movie) some of the events take place 106 years After The Fall. What exactly was the Fall is never explained, though.
* In the [[TheFifties '50s]] movie ''Film/WhenWorldsCollide'', a rogue planet passes by Earth and destroys it due to tidal effects, but the passing planet itself is inhabitable. In the end, a few people land on it to [[strike:re]]populate it, and an ominous Bible-like title card says this is Year One.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_in_Year_Zero! film]] ''Panic in Year Zero!'' gets its title from the decision of the United Nations to reset the calendar after WorldWarThree went off-the TitleDrop is a declaration heard by the main characters on an update broadcasted through the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONELRAD CONELRAD]] emergency broadcast system.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', the calendar was reset to 0 after the destruction of the Death Star, with dates either being labeled with BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or ABY (After). This, however, only applies to the ExpandedUniverse, and is never mentioned in the films themselves. The calendar reset was only applied after the Galactic Civil War ended, by which time a second Death Star had also been destroyed.

* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' books did something analogous, resetting the calendar when the Spacing Guild established its monopoly (which was about 108 years after what might have been regarded as the "apocalypse" -- the end of the Butlerian Jihad). Many people misinterpret the series' start in the Year 10,191 (A.G. -- After Guild monopoly) as Anno Domini (A.D.) because the latter was used in the introduction scene of the David Lynch film adaptation.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story ''Living Space'' shows a society which has discovered travel between parallel Earths, mostly empty, which means that everyone can have a world of their own. Until they run into one populated by Germans who use a calendar starting from the birth of Adolf Hitler. [[note]] The title is a translation of the German word ''Lebensraum'' which is what caused World War Two in the first place.[[/note]]

* In ''Literature/TheStand'', Randall Flagg tells the date as "this thirtieth day of September, the year nineteen hundred and ninety, now known as The Year One, year of the plague."
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium''
** Arda, Tolkien's world, uses two series of ages based on important events in history. First there is the Ainulindalë, the period before and during the creation of the world. The next, top-level ages are named after the methods the immortal Valar used to light the world. First are the Years of the Lamps. Once those are destroyed by Melkor, the calendar switches to the Years of the Trees. Finally, once those are destroyed (again by Melkor), they change to the current Years of the Sun.
** Each of those ages is then further divided into ages of their own. These ages are used to count years by men and elves. The First Age of the Sun begins when the sun first rises and men are created, and ends after Melkor is finally defeated (as detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion)''. The Second Age lasts until Sauron is defeated (the first time) and his Ring is claimed by Isildur. The Third Age, which ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' take place at the end of, ends when the ring-bearers leave Middle-earth after Sauron's final defeat, officially lasting 3021 years.
** As Arda was intended to be Earth in the distant past, Tolkien had ideas about further ages. He estimated that the ages were getting shorter as time went on. Thus, 20th century Earth would be set in either the sixth or the seventh age. No times for when these ages changed over has ever been given, though.

* In the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel "Reckless Engineering", the year 2003 has become the year 160 following the Cleansing, a devastating event in 1843 when Time mysteriously accelerated across several dimensions, causing every living thing on Earth to age forty years in seconds. As a result, all adults and most animals withered and aged, children grew to adulthood almost at once, and the babies and other children under five years old who found themselves in adult bodies became capable only of breeding and feeding, with their descendants now being known as the Wilde Kinder, or Wildren, subhuman cannibals little better than animals. When the Doctor arrives in this reality, humanity has regressed to more primitive dwellings with most groups restricted to vegetarianism due to the lack of any alternative source of food, society having turned to religion to explain such a devastating event as God's will as the human race was 'reborn in innocence'.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', the historical records show several calendars being used. This has happened 3 times in recorded history: The end of the 2nd Age and the Breaking of the World, the Trolloc Wars, and the Hundred Years War. The story occurs at the end of the 3rd Age, so the calendar is likely to reset again.
* In Creator/CharlesStross' novel ''Scratch Monkey'', by the time of the book's setting (several thousand years from now), there have been so many rulers declaring new eras and new calendars that "Year Zero Man" has become the standard term for a totalitarian dictator.
* In Creator/TamoraPierce's Literature/TortallUniverse, the numbers of the years are followed by "H.E.", short for "Human Era" -- the time after the Immortals were banished to the Realms of the Gods.
** In her Literature/{{Circleverse}}, the years are dated "K.F.", counting "after the fall of the Kurchal Empire".
* In the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series, it is eventually revealed that the calendar is reset by the events of the series.
* The hyperconsumerist society in ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' worships Henry Ford, and dates its calendar from the release date of the Model T.
* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and its sequel, ''The Mallorean'', the calendar used dates the year 0 to be when the evil god Torak cracked the world. This particular calendar is referred to as the Alorn calendar, implying that other nations may have different systems.
** The Tolnedrans at least are implied to date by dynasty.
** The Dals measured time in "Ages", which only ended when something momentous to their grand mission occurred. The cracking of the world corresponded to the end of their First Age, and the books take place in their Fifth Age.
* The ''Literature/MortalEngines'' quartet by Philip Reeve have all dates measured from TE - Traction Era, ie. the time from which cities started moving around gobbling each other up.
* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', there are numerous different calendars in use by humanity across the galaxy.
** The galaxy at large uses the Ante/Post-Diaspora (AD/PD) calendar, which shifts the epoch to 2103 CE at the launch of the first colony ship, the ''Prometheus''. The calendar measures time in [[FutureSlang T-years]] (Terra years) and T-centuries, but the months are unnamed. This is used for almost all communication between different star systems and practical planning and coordination.
** Most planets have their own local calendars, based on the local year and usually dating from their founding. Manticore has the After Landing (AL) system, based on the arrival of the ''Jason'' in the Manticore Binary System and keyed to Manticore's orbit of 1.7333 Earth years to the year. This is primarily used for government work and official documentation.
** Grayson is the only planet which still uses the pure Gregorian calendar with no local calendar at all. This calendar does not align with Grayson's orbit or seasons in the slightest, but they refuse to change. Their continued use of AD (''Anno Domini'') is also confusing for other people, as to the rest of the galaxy that means 'Ante-Diaspora'. The year 4000 AD for Grayson -- the approximate time era of the series -- reads as approximately ''six thousand'' years in the past for everybody else (2000 BCE as we currently measure it).
* ''Literature/RiddleyWalker'' uses the O.C. system, which stands for "Our Count."

* The far-future bits of the [[Literature/EndersGame Enderverse]] (''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'', ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheMind'', and some short stories) dates events from the foundation of Starways Congress, the interstellar pan-human government established 1180 years after Andrew "Ender" Wiggin defeated the Buggers (an event implied to occur sometime between the 24th and 27th centuries AD). ''Speaker for the Dead'' starts in the late 20th century SC.
* Creator/HBeamPiper's Terro-Human Future History used Atomic Era dating, with 1942 AD [[note]]the first successful artificial nuclear fission reaction[[/note]] as Year 0.
* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Svetz the Time Traveler'' use Atomic Era dating as well, with the same starting point.
* Ian Stewart's ''Hoard of Mathematical Treasures'' includes a "Future History of Mathematics", which parodies the genuine "History of Mathematics" earlier. Towards the end (after 11828 AD) we get "0: Reformation of the calendar", but what caused this is unknown. (Although it does seem to occur shortly after human civilisation rebuilds itself from machine rule.)
* In ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'', the people of the parallel world Greywall'd count years since Signus' Fall. Lu, the protagonist, came from Earth, and is a bit surprised to hear it's not the year 2012...
* In Creator/RobertBrowning's poetic retelling of "Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin", the townspeople make a decree that every legal document should contain a reference to how many years it has been since the Piper took their children. There's a [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory possible element of]] TruthInTelevision there, as the official town records of Hamelin contain an entry from 1384, saying: "It is 100 years since our children left."
* Creator/SMStirling's Emberverse, set after the laws of the universe are suddenly and inexplicably altered, features the "Change Year" at the beginning of each chapter.
* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', time is divided into BBY and ABY, before and after the [[Film/ANewHope Battle of Yavin]] (in order to distinguish prequels from the original trilogy).
** ''Legends'' gives at least two more times this happens prior to Yavin (namely, the respective foundings of the Republic and the Empire). Luke complains about it in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', as it makes reviewing historical records rather tedious.
** Both ''Legends'' and the current ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' give us a lot of various calendars, which when you're talking about a galaxy-wide civilization across over 35,000 years of history, millions of planets and quadrillions of beings, makes sense. You've got the Tho Yor Arrival calendar, dating from when the first arks brought the pilgrims to Tython that would eventually found the Jedi Knights roughly 35,000 years before the movies, then you've got the Republic Year calendar dating from when the Galactic Republic was founded (roughly 25,000 years before the movies), the Tapani Calendar (started roughly 12,000 years before the films, used in one sector dating to when settlers first arrived there, and using a different length of year localized to the area), the After the Treaty of Coruscant dating to the treaty that set in motion the events of the ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' MMO, plus the Great Resynchronization calendar, an in-universe attempt to create a new standard calendar to cut through the variety of calendars in use (it puts Year Zero as 3 years before [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Episode I]]), and the Imperial Year dating to Palpatine's declaration of a New Order in [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Episode III]], and lastly the Before the Battle of Yavin/After the Battle of Yavin calendar dating to the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, which is taking the calendar most widely used by fans and making it an in-universe calendar.[[note]]For a while, official out-of-universe timelines had used before and after [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Episode VI]] instead as their dating system, though this was never used as an in-universe calendar. Even though it would've been a more logical choice, seeing as that year saw the death of the Emperor and the establishment of the New Republic, significantly more momentous events on a galactic scale than the Battle of Yavin.[[/note]] It's a lot of systems, but it's a big galaxy with a lot of history.
* Becomes a plot point in the later ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' novels, when the main protagonists find out about the Archangels' promise to "return" in a thousand years. The Church of God Awaiting counts years from the end of the War Against the Fallen, not from the day humanity awakened on Safehold -- so is the return scheduled for the year 915 (1000 years after the "Day of Creation"), or the year 1000?
* ''Literature/{{Seveneves}}'' uses dates starting from the moment the "Agent" blew up the Moon. The story begins TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture (the [=ISS=] still exists but has a small centrifugal section and an attached asteroid) but no real-world year is ever stated.
* The world of ''Literature/TheSupernovaEra'' starts numbering years from the titular supernova era rather than the birth of Christ. In the epilogue, it's mentioned that there is some debate as to whether the beginning should be the first sighting of the supernova, the death of the last adult, or the start of the Great Migration; majority opinion seems to favour the middle one.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]
* The German RPG ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' had the main realm count the years by the current Emperor. By now reckoning has been changed (back) to the 'BF - Fall of Bosparan' reckoning, counting from the fall of the former empire. There are also numerous other calendars around in that world, counting from the first landing of gildenland settlers, the independence of countries, the threat of a catastrophe by a messenger of the gods to a city, and so on.
* Years in ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' are numbered from the [[WorldSundering Cataclysm]].
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' uses AF (after the Fall), mostly as a way to avert ExtyYearsFromPublication. ("The Fall" being when a bunch of crazy [=AIs=] nearly wiped humanity out.)

* One of TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms' [[AlternativeCalendar several calendars]] is "Present Reckoning", started on Time of Troubles. This fact is mentioned only once in the 3rd Edition books and everything else from then on is only the standard Dales Reckoning.

* On Dominaria, the default world of TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering, most nations use the Argivian Reckoning calendar, which sets Year 0 at the year the Brothers, Urza and Mishra, were born (Urza on the first day of the year, Mishra on the last). They were the leaders of the opposing forces in the Brothers' War, which destroyed multiple kingdoms, wrecked the continent of Argoth, and ushered in the Ice Age.
* First Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Dates were sometimes in the form of "Year 214 of the Computer"; i.e. 214 years since the Big Whoops (destruction of world civilization) and the takeover of Alpha Complex by the Computer.
** It became even weirder in later editions where it was implied that, due to some sort of glitch, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour EVERY year is "Year 214 of the Computer"]]. Although anyone who pointed this out would be implying that the Computer is defective, which is, of course, treason. In the 2017 Kickstarter edition it is explicitly stated that the Computer decided every year should be 214.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'s'' Post-Apocalypse calendar came about when enough people realized that they had enough time and energy left over from trying to survive after TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt (two or three centuries after it actually happened) to care about trivial matters like what year it was. The P.A. calendar is distinctive to North America, specifically the Coalition States and the surrounding area however. Some nations that weathered the Great Cataclysm better, most notably the New German Republic, are still using the Gregorian Calendar.
* Surprisingly ''averted'' in TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}, which still uses our current calendar without even a token epoch shift (the "40,000" in the name refers to the 41st Millennium, the closing years of which form the current setting). Though heavily modified (not only are date stamps ''decimal'' it also takes into account the uncertainty of timekeeping in the multistellar empire where [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace warp travel]] does all kinds of screwy things to causality), it's still the good old Gregorian calendar based on the Earth year and the birth of Christ. Probably they still use it because it's one of the few things they've managed to keep from the Dark Age of Technology, Humanity's lost Golden Age.
** Played straight in that most worlds completely lost contact with each other during a time known as the Age of Strife, and among other problems such as [[LostTechnology losing the knowledge and/or means to produce most high-tech equipment]], developing completely different languages, or spending a few thousand years being the repeat targets of [[AlienInvasion marauding Xenos]], was the fact that most developed unique calendars. While some still maintain local, informal calendars - especially worlds whose year lengths differ drastically from Imperial norm - they're almost never brought up in fluff or official literature as having the official calendar override everything else is part of the Imperium's attempt to "unify" all Mankind.
** Played straight in the Dark Imperium era. After the Primarch returned and took over the Imperium, he found out that not only had recent events caused a serious TimeyWimeyBall effect on the last few centuries, ten thousand years of flawed record keeping and deliberate redactions meant that current date even on Terra itself had a margin of error of ''a thousand years'' in either direction. He ended up just giving up and declaring that the new calendar would start from when the new Warp Storm visible in the sky of every world first appeared there and count in local years. It's less precise and requires constant conversions, but it's a hell of a lot more accurate. For out of universe convenience, this method started on 000.M42, essentially making it so that each planet is able to give how long they spent subjectively in-between contacts with the nearest Imperial Astropathic office, who then inform the planet of what year it actually is.

** Conversely, ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' uses '''A'''fter '''G'''ap, referring to a calamitous Gap in both historical records and the living memories of sufficiently long-lived beings, during which the planet Golarion (''Pathfinder's'' primary setting) disappeared.
* The Third Imperium in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' calls the year of its founding Year Zero. Given the Long Night that the Third Imperium ended, it seems appropriate. Local governments signaled their cooperation by accepting this calendar reform. The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Solomani]], being the elitists (and speciesists) they are, never formally adopted it and still use the Gregorian calendar.

* Referenced in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''. When a guy called The Truth gets something CJ stole from a government base, he says, "They shall call this Year 0."
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' timeline is divided into "Eras," which each beginning and ending due to major events.
** The Dawn Era is Nirn's TimeOfMyths, where Mundus (the mortal plane) was still settling following the events of creation. The et'Ada ("original spirits") who participated in that creation walked the earth, with some further sacrificing themselves to become the "Earthbones," the laws of nature and physics that would allow for life, while others made children with one another, who would become the Ehlnofey, ancestors to all the mortal races of Nirn. The Dawn Era came to an end when Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, established linear time as a concept.
** The Merethic Era, the era of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Mer (or Elves)]], then followed. Fleeing some unrecorded threat to their ancient homeland of Aldmeris, the Aldmer (ancestors of the modern races of Mer, whose closest living relative is the Altmer,) came to the continent of Tamriel and established a new homeland in the Summerset Isles. Over time, typically due to [[OurGodsAreDifferent religious differences]], the other races of Mer (the Bosmer, Dunmer, Falmer, Ayleids, [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orsimer]], and [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]]) all split off and settled different parts of Tamriel. The Merethic Era came to an end when the Camoran Dynasty was founded in Valenwood, forever after limiting the influence of the Altmer on their mainland brethren.

** The 2nd Era saw the [[{{Wutai}} Akaviri]] [[RegentForLife Potentates]] rule for the first several centuries of the new Era in a continuation of the Second Empire until they too were assassinated. Tamriel experienced the "Interregnum," their own version of the [[DarkAgeEurope Dark Ages]] where petty kingdoms fought in fruitless wars and Tamriel was under attack from all manners of threat, including both mundane and supernatural. The 2nd Era came to an end after Tiber Septim successfully completed his conquest of all of Tamriel, becoming the first person to ever succeed in this feat, establishing the Third Cyrodiilic Empire. The spin-off game ''Redguard'' and ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' take place during this Era.

** The 4th Era is the current Era of the series as of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. The Third Cyrodiilic Empire is in [[VestigialEmpire dire straights]] as internal strife, the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]], and the return of the dragons all stand against it as major threats.
* Both ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' share the same in-universe calendar "Transcend Christ." It is identical to the Gregorian calendar, but it reset the year numbers so that AD 2510 is year one. A short time after the new calendar is chosen, humanity leaves Earth.
* In the ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' games, the calendar was reset in 2091 so that 2087, the year of the invention of the first FTL engine, was year one. Dates are marked as 'SD' - spacedate.

* The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series measures time against the establishment of the [[TheChurch Andrastian Chantry]] and the crowning of the first [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Divine]], with the current "age" (a period of one hundred years) used as an additional reference. Thus, something that occurred three years before that would have taken place in -3 Ancient (Age). ''Origins'' takes place in 9:30 Dragon (the 30th year of the Ninth Age, or "Dragon Age," 829 years after the crowning of the first Divine). The [[TheEmpire Tevinter Emperium]] measures time from its own establishment (TE), while the elves count the years from the founding of Arlathan (FA)--the ancient capital of the elves that has since been long wiped off the face of Thedas by the Tevinters.

* The ''[[VideoGame/EscapeVelocity EV Nova]]'' universe measures the New Calendar years against 2780 AD, the year FTL inventor Omata Kane died. At this point, a wave of offworld colonization began.

* ''VisualNovel/AnalogueAHateStory'' has an unspecified drastic change in society on the spaceship, leading to a new year zero.
** The sequel, ''VisualNovel/HatePlus'', explains that the reset was due to an armed rebellion that, while ultimately failing, resulted in the computer records being wiped.
* ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'' takes place in the year 500 A.K. '''A'''fter '''K'''erafyrm. The awakening of an extremely powerful dragon named Kerafyrm in ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' set into motion a series of events that changed the face of Norrath forever, including deadly cataclysms that shifted the face of Norrath and broke up its continents; the Second Rallosian War, in which the nigh-unstoppable Ogre army steamrolled their way across most of Antonica, only to be felled by divine intervention; and finally the destruction of the moon, Luclin, and the Lunar Armageddon that followed. Even for the Ogres themselves, they used their own calendar system during the war, because they signaled it as the beginning of a new empire that would control all of Norrath.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' starts off in 3AF, or [[spoiler:After (the) Fall (of Cocoon)]], three years after the end of the first game. [[spoiler:Not only was everyone forced to start over entirely, leaving their past way of life behind, but time was literally warped as well, shaving the length of day down from twenty-six hours to twenty-four.]] Of course, it seems they also didn't really keep track before in the first place, with someone mentioning in the prequel novella that people from Cocoon don't even know exactly how long it's been since [[spoiler:Cocoon was almost completely destroyed the ''first'' time.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has this in its backstory to such an extent that it's out-right ''expected'' to reset on a regular basis. The world of FFXIV regularly goes through cycles of "Astral" and "Umbral" Eras, which are used to date its calendar. Umbral Eras are triggered following a Calamity of some such that radically changes the world (known Calamities include the world being flooded from an overuse of the land's aether in a war between magic-users and the lesser moon Dalamud [[ColonyDrop nearly being dropped on the planet]]), and are then followed by more peaceful and prosperous Astral Eras. Version 1.0 of the game starts off in the ''Sixth'' Astral Era [[spoiler:until the Seventh Umbral Era is set by the Calamity of Bahamut's revival.]] 2.0 then picks up in the Seventh Umbral Era, and the Seventh Astral Era is declared upon completing the 2.0 Questline. While the Seventh Umbral Era only lasted about ~5 years, it's never said if there's any exact average; only the length of the Sixth Astral Era is known, and even then not exactly (just that it was almost 1600 years).
* The world of Enroth in (the old universe, obviously) ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' measured years in A.S -- ''A''fter the ''S''ilence. The Silence, in this case, is the year when Enroth lost contact with the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]]. It is entirely possible that analogous calendars (just with different names for the Silence) was used on many other worlds, considering the Silence spanned ''an entire galactic arm''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' had the calendar reset ''six'' times. The First Age (World Creation); Second Age (Era of the Gods); Third Age (The Cataclysmic God Wars); Fourth Age (Rebuilding civilization); Fifth Age (Age of Man); and the penultimate Sixth Age (Return of the Gods).
* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, a human starship lured a rogue terraformer fleet away from Earth and then blew up the Jump Gate behind them, but believed their gambit failed and [[ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts that they were the only human survivors]]. They reset their calendar in 2170 AD to year zero and began to [[FutureImperfect purge all mentions of Earth]], then renamed themselves the Argon.
* ''Videogame/GearsOfWar'' uses BE and AE, for Before And After Emergence Day. It's not shown how they counted years before Emergence Day happened.
* As revealed in [[https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/story-time-with-jythri/1552310 a visit by Randy Varnell]] at the [[AllThereInTheManual Battleborn Discord server]], the [[AlternativeCalendar Standard Codex Reckoning (C.R.) calendar]] of ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' came about because of a few very extra-ordinary things. One of those being the natural death of the star Celestis, leaving 1 million active stars to be tracked by the Eldrid on Codex. Other reasons that make year zero big are when the Varelsi first appear and begin darkening uninhabited systems; and Lenore discovering the science of Sustainment.
* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Anbennar}}'', the elf mage Ducaniel [[ColonyDrop crashed a flying city]] onto the [[{{Precursors}} Precursor Empire]] of the elves, said crash triggering a FantasticNuke wiping out all civilizaton and the majority of life on the continent of Aelantir. The rest of the planet was hit by earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and a century long rain of ash in what became known as the Day of Ashen Skies, marking the year 0 of the calendar.
* ''VideoGame/ProjectWingman'' takes place in 432 AC, or "After Calamity," an event that involved many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, large areas of land being submerged, and new islands forming.
* The in-game library for ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'' mentions a regional variation of this trope: the Shepherd Republic's calendar starts from when the republic itself was founded (127 years prior to the game's events), following the Shepherd Revolution and the toppling of the prior Kingdom of Shepherd's royal family. Given that Shepherd is already a FantasyCounterpartCulture to France, it's likely that this factoid is meant to [[HistoricalInJoke reference]] the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar French Republican calendar]] that was created during the real-life French Revolution, prior it to being abolished when Napoleon later became emperor. That being said, the Japanese-only ''Daybreak'' [[AllThereInTheManual art book]] clarifies that Shepherd's calendar uses the same measurements that we do, in contrast to how the French Republican calendar used decimal measurements instead.

* In ''{{Webcomic/Drowtales}}'', when the vast majority of the elven race was driven underground, the entered a new age of their calendar, 'The Moonless Age' since they no longer can see the moon(s). It has been 1100 years since and the kingdoms of drow now cover the underworld.
* In ''Webcomic/LeavingTheCradle'', the [[AllThereInTheManual wiki]] describes the raharrs as having this when they discovered the stabilizers. The realization of their artificial nature threw the world into chaos and it led to mass hysteria, riots, and suicides. Their calendar got reset afterwards and they now refer to their history with P.R. and A.R. (Prior Realization and After Realization, respectively.) By the time the webcomic started, it's been 756 years since then.
* ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': Something drastic happened 508 years before the beginning of the comic events that compelled the Meditans to change their calendars. The Lusitanians don't seem to give it the same importance and continued to count the years as usual, so by the time the story starts they are in the year AD 2805.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is set in the year 1183 (now 1184). The calendar appears to date from the creation of the world. (Or its recreation, as the original world was destroyed.)
* In ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', the calendar got hit so hard it restarted back to the Biblical Genesis.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'' uses a calendar that denotes years as C.Y. We only know for certain it's at least 127 years after what event caused the calendar to reset, as a school lesson shown says that it was in that year a more democratic system was established. Months seem to be the same, though, as the comic takes place in September.
* PlayedForLaughs in [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/epochryphal this]] ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' strip, in regards to OrphanedEtymology. Since ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' uses A.D. and B.C. despite not taking place on earth, the author jokingly speculates that 1 A.D. was when donuts were invented, and A.D. stands for 'After Donuts'.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/OrionsArm'' uses the Lunar calendar based on the landing of Apollo 11 in Tranquility basin (years denoted AT, After Tranquility), after the [[GreyGoo Nanodisaster]] and the evacuation of [[EarthThatWas Old Earth]].

* The world of Roleplay/{{Shadowside}} marks the start of Evo's Dawn in A.E. 2007 with "P.E.D. 0". (Post-Evo's Dawn)
* Parodied in the post-apocalyptic Episode 10 of [[Podcast/KnoxKastRadio Knoxkast Radio]], where Knox wonders if they should reset the calendar to Year 0. Jason instead decides to "do things differently this time" and declares that it is the year 8,036.
* ''WebVideo/DirigibleDays'' starts in the year 997 from the CometOfDoom-induced collapse of civilisation.
* ''Roleplay/AsteroidQuest'' numbers its years in "B.W." and "A.W." (Before/After Warp), since the invention of the Warp Drive ushered in a new Space Age.

* ''WebVideo/TheTourettesGuy'': Downplayed. Danny says a [[AtomicFBomb great big "PISS!"]] so loudly the calendar flips its page.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', the calender was reset when [[BigBad Aku]] conquered the world, as shown when a scientist scans Jack with a device that says he's from the year 25 B.A. (Before Aku).

** Although UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates doesn't use this in everyday business, formal Presidential proclamations and other official federal documents (e.g. legislative bills and stuff like a certificate an attorney gets when they are licensed to practice in a federal court) will give years in both the Gregorian calendar year and the year of America's independence (which is, rather obviously, equal to the Gregorian year - 1776).

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the {{Ancient Egypt}}ian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still had intercalary days for any future Pontifex Maximus to potentially abuse, and the dates would still get out of line with the seasons--albeit at a much slower rate.[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. After all, their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had just finished or was closing in on finishing its second such 1,460-year cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted. (The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.)[[/note]] To address the first problem, he distributed among the months of the year. As February was considered to be an unlucky month, it was knocked down to only having 28 days with the remaining two spread out across the year, bringing the number of 31-day months up to seven. To address the second problem, a sixth additional day to the year was added every fourth year at the end of the now-shorter February.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] After Caesar was [[EtTuBrute assassinated]] in March of 44 BC, the Roman senate renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, to ''Iulius'' in his honor. His hand-picked successor [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Octavian]] would then have the following month, ''Sextilis'', get renamed to ''Augustus'' after his honorific title. Contrary to popular belief, this was not done in honor of his birth month;[[note]]He was actually born on September 23, 63 BC.[[/note]] it was instead to commemorate the annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt on August 30, 30 BC following the deaths of his rivals UsefulNotes/MarkAntony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII.

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still had intercalary days for any future Pontifex Maximus to potentially abuse, and the dates would still get out of line with the seasons--albeit at a much slower rate.[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. After all, their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had just finished or was closing in on finishing its second such 1,460-year cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted. (The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.)[[/note]] To address the first problem, he distributed among the months of the year. As February was considered to be an unlucky month, it was knocked down to only having 28 days with the remaining two spread out across the year, bringing the number of 31-day months up to seven. To address the second problem, a sixth additional day to the year was added every fourth year at the end of the now-shorter February.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] After Caesar was [[EtTuBrute assassinated]] in March of 44 BC, the Roman senate renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' in his honor. His hand-picked successor [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Octavian]] would then have the following month, ''Sextilis'', get renamed to ''Augustus'' after his honorific title to commemorate the annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt on August 30, 30 BC following the deaths of his rivals UsefulNotes/MarkAntony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII.

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still had intercalary days for any future Pontifex Maximus to potentially abuse, and the dates would still get out of line with the seasons--albeit at a much slower rate[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. After all, their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had just finished or was closing in on finishing its second such 1,460-year cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted. (The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.)[[/note]]. To address the first problem, he distributed among the months of the year. As February was considered to be an unlucky month, it was knocked down to only having 28 days with the remaining two spread out across the year, bringing the number of 31-day months up to seven. To address the second problem, a sixth additional day to the year was added every fourth year at the end of the now-shorter February.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] After Caesar was [[EtTuBrute assassinated]] in March of 44 BC, the Roman senate renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' in his honor. His hand-picked successor [[UsefulNotes/Augustus Octavian]] would then have the following month, ''Sextilis'', get renamed to ''Augustus'' after his honorific title to commemorate the annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt on August 30, 30 BC following the deaths of his rivals UsefulNotes/MarcAntony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII.

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing Pompey around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still meant the dates would get out of line with the seasons, albeit at a much slower rate,[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. After all, their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had just finished or was closing in on finishing its second such 1,460-year cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted. (The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.)[[/note]]) and the concept of days with no month annoyed him for some reason. To address the first problem, he added a sixth additional day to the year every fourth year.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] To address the second problem, the six days were distributed among the months of the year. To commemorate these changes, Caesar then renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' after himself. Augustus would then rename the following month ''Augustus'' after himself to commemorate the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium Battle of Actium]].

* The in-game library for ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'' mentions a regional variation of this trope: the Shepherd Republic's calendar starts from when the republic itself was founded (127 years prior to the game's events), following the Shepherd Revolution and the toppling of the prior Kingdom of Shepherd's royal family. Given that Shepherd is already a FantasyCounterpartCulture to France, it's likely that this factoid is meant to [[HistoricalInJoke reference]] the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar French Republican calendar]] that was created during the real-life French Revolution, prior it to being abolished when Napoleon later became emperor. That being said, the Japanese-only ''Daybreak'' [[AllThereInTheManual art book]] clarifies that Shepherd's calendar uses the same measurements that we do, in contrast to how the French Republican calendar used decimals instead.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' uses the Lunar calendar based on the landing of Apollo 11 in Tranquility basin (years denoted AT, After Tranquility), after the [[GreyGoo Nanodisaster]] and the evacuation of [[EarthThatWas Old Earth]].

* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', the new Norse calender has the year zero corispond to 1044 on the Christan Calendar. 1044 is the year that Norse holy texts get published making the beging of the Norse Reformation in the story.

* The Chrono Quake in the ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'' games.

* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in WebVideo/TheTourettesGuy: Danny says a [[AtomicFBomb great big “PISS!”]] so loudly the calendar flips it's page.

** The Romans did not usually use a continuous numbering system for their years, the way we do. Unique years were identified with reference to the political leadership of the state. Under the monarchy, this meant regnal years (the Xth year of King Y's reign). Under the Republic, they referred to the years as "[the year] ''X'' and ''Y'' being consul," which, naturally, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin was the year when the two individuals in question were consul]]. (During UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar's first consulate in 59 BCE, his co-consul Bibulus was so unpopular and so thoroughly stymied in his first attempt to seriously exercise consular power early in the year[[note]]Within a month of their taking office, Caesar had called a vote of the Plebeian Assembly on his signature piece of legislation, a land reform bill. Bibulus showed up to the assembly to veto the vote, but the crowd attacked him and dumped feces on his head, at which point Bibulus and his conservative supporters (including Cato) departed. Bibulus claimed that he was vetoing the proceedings the entire time, but Caesar claimed that even if Bibulus had been doing that, neither he nor anyone else could hear him over the roar of the crowd. Bibulus was unpopular enough (and Caesar popular enough) that we really can't tell what actually happened. It also raised a question of Roman law which the Romans never got around to answering--is a consul's veto effective when the consul issues it or when it is received and understood by the official whose actions are being vetoed?[[/note]] that he retreated to his house for the rest of his term; this left the field solely to Caesar, and people jokingly started to call 59 BCE "the year of Julius and Caesar being consul.")[[note]]The Romans loved this kind of simultaneously exaggerated and understated humor; one imagines that if you dropped a Roman into modern UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} with a working knowledge of English they'd find themselves right at home.[[/note]] The consular-year naming continued after Augustus overthrew the Republic and established the Principate form of the Empire (in which the Republic nominally still ran like it used to and the Emperor was JustTheFirstCitizen). However, after the Crisis of the Third Century, Diocletian's Dominate (basically the Empire saying, "why yes the Emperor is a king"), regnal years came back into use. When the Romans had to use a continuously-numbered calendar (e.g. in histories), they counted years from the foundation of the city of Rome -- ''AbUrbeCondita'' or A.V.C.

--> '''Creator/NeilGaiman''': ''"As best we can tell, the gods of Asgard came from UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, spread into Scandinavia, and then out into the parts of the world dominated [[HornyVikings by the Vikings]] -- into Orkney and UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} and the north of UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom -- where the invaders left places named for Thor or Odin. In English, [[HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt the gods have left their names in our days of the week]]. You can find Tyr the one-handed (Odin's son), Odin, Thor, and Frigg, the queen of the gods, in respectively, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday."''

** Arda, Tolkien's world, uses two series of ages based on important events in history. First there is the Ainulindalë, the period before and during the creation of the world. The next, top-level ages are named after the methods the immortal Valar used to light the world. First were the Years of the Lamps. Once those were destroyed by Melkor, the calendar switched to the Years of the Trees. Finally, once those were destroyed (again by Melkor), they changed to the current Years of the Sun.
** Each of those ages is then further divided into ages of their own. These ages are used to count years by men and elves. The First Age of the Sun began after the sun first rose and men were created and ended after Melkor was finally defeated (as detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion)''. The Second Age lasted until Sauron was defeated and his ring was claimed by Isildur. The Third Age, which ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' take place at the end of, ended when the ring-bearers left Middle Earth after Sauron's defeat.

** On a smaller scale, though the Third Age continues for some years afterward, Gondor under King Aragorn declares a new year to have begun on the day of the Ring's destruction (March 25 in the Shire reckoning) and dates its own calendar from that point going forward.

* The setting of ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Last Order'' marks time according to the Era Sputnik, counting from the launch of the ''Sputnik 1'' in 1957. The story also informally refers to years in the "Anno Koyomi" -- because the background character Koyomi, was born the same year that the series began with Alita's rebirth.
* Nobody remembers what year it is in ''Anime/TheBigO'' because everyone was hit with LaserGuidedAmnesia forty years ago. As a result, people tend to refer to the date by referencing the loss of memory "X years ago".
* One of the proofs that the Holy Britannian Empire is ''the'' most dominant force on Earth in Anime/CodeGeass universe, the calendar doesn't follow the real world AD/CE - instead, we have A.T.B, for "Ascension to Throne, Britannia", counting from the establishment of the first Celtic King in the Britannian royal line, rather than the birth of Christ. (For those wondering, 1 A.T.B. - 50 B.C., which means the series is set in an alternate 1967/68.) Closer to this trope is the Revolutionary Calendar used by the EU, a variant of the French Republican Calendar that sets its first year to 1790, the year after the French Revolution.

* The calendar was reset at some point in ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'', due to the [[EverybodysDeadDave long dark ages of mass slaughtering by psychics]]. They're currently in the 200s. [[spoiler:It actually seems to have been running for roughly the length of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Tomiko's life]], and may have been reset again because of K's rampage.]] There doesn't seem to be much communication between distant villages, either, so they may all be using different calendars.
* Some unknown event caused the calendar to reset in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' over 850 years ago. Oddly this doesn't match up to when the titular titans appeared or when they they built the walls that protect the last [[VestigialEmpire vestige of humanity]].
* ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'' is set in the Year 300 of the Divine Era. The prequel light novel, ''Nogi Wakaba Is a Hero'', tells the story of the end of the [[ThePresentDay Anno Domini Era]]. The Divine Era begins [[spoiler: after the last vestige of humanity agrees to give up the divine weapons bestowed on them by the Shinju-sama in return for a cease-fire with the Celestial Gods who are trying to wipe out humanity. As it turns out, the Taisha secretly broke the agreement and continued to develop the Hero System, leading to the events of ''LightNovel/WashioSumiIsAHero'' and ''Yuki Yuna Is a Hero'']].

* ''Literature/TheOrphanMastersSon'' is set in North Korea, where the calendar is dated from the birth of Kim Il Sung in 1912 (see RealLife below).

* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' books did something analogous, resetting the calendar when the Spacing Guild established its monopoly (which was about 108 years after what might have been regarded as the "apocalypse" -- the end of the Butlerian Jihad). It is notable that many people misinterpret the series' start in the Year 10,191 (A.G. -- After Guild monopoly) as Anno Domini (A.D.) because the latter was used in the introduction scene of the David Lynch film adaptation.

* ''Literature/TheLegendOfRahAndTheMuggles'' has the calendar being reset by a nuclear war. The problem is that they talk about the "year of the purple haze" [nuclear fallout]. Every single year in living memory has been the year of the purple haze!
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' (as well as ''Literature/FireAndBlood''), the years are dated from the Targaryens' conquest of Westeros. This actually troubles maesters, as several years went by between the time Aegon declared himself King and his actual coronation in the Starry Sept of Oldtown.
* In ''Literature/TheStand'', Randall Flagg tells the date as "this thirtieth day of September, the year nineteen hundred and ninety, now known as The Year One, year of the plague."

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story ''Living Space'' shows a society which has discovered travel between parallel Earths, mostly empty, which means that everyone can literally have a world of their own. Until they run into one populated by Germans who use a calendar starting from the birth of Adolf Hitler. [[note]] The title is a translation of the German word ''Lebensraum'' which is what caused World War Two in the first place.[[/note]]

* First Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Dates were sometimes in the form of "Year 214 of the Computer"; i.e. 214 years since the Big Whoops (destruction of world civilization) and the takeover of Alpha Complex by the Computer.
** It became even weirder in later editions where it was implied that, due to some sort of glitch, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour EVERY year is "Year 214 of the Computer"]]. Although anyone who pointed this out would be implying that the Computer is defective, which is, of course, treason. In the 2017 Kickstarter edition it is explicitly stated that the Computer decided every year should be 214.
* In a fairly realistic fashion, the ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' campaign setting actually has several calendars, most of which are associated with ancient and now-defunct civilizations. The "Common Year" calendar currently used by most of the Flanaess is based on the crowning of the first Overking of the [[TheEmpire Great Kingdom of Aerdy]], which was the first major nation to emerge in the aftermath of what was basically a magical nuclear war that forced lots of people to migrate to new lands.

* One of TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms' [[AlternativeCalendar several calendars]] is "Present Reckoning", started on Time of Troubles. This fact is mentioned only once in the 3rd Edition books and everything else from then on is only the standard Dales Reckoning.

** The main setting's calendar has gone through several iterations, with setting books pointedly avoiding giving specific timeframes for most of them in order to preserve Storyteller's freedom. It was initially measured in years pertaining to the Age of Man, when the Primordials were overthrown and the Solar Deliberative was established. When the Solar Deliberative fell during the Usurpation, the Shogunate fiddled with an alternate calendar. At least until the Great Contagion ruined that as well and the Scarlet Empress ended up unifying various daimyos into the Realm, which is why the calendar currently uses RY (Realm Year) to designate how many years it's been since she took the throne. The end result is a calendar system that basically says, "It has been [[XDaysSince X years since]] the last world-shaking cataclysm."

* The German RPG ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' had the main realm count the years by the current Emperor. By now reckoning has been changed (back) to the 'BF - Fall of Bosparan' reckoning, counting from the fall of the former empire. There are also numerous other calendars around in that world, counting from the first landing of gildenland settlers, the independence of countries, the threat of a catastrophe by a messenger of the gods to a city, and so on.
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' uses AF (after the Fall), mostly as a way to avert ExtyYearsFromPublication. ("The Fall" being when a bunch of crazy [=AIs=] nearly wiped humanity out.)

* In a fairly realistic fashion, the ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' campaign setting actually has several calendars, most of which are associated with ancient and now-defunct civilizations. The "Common Year" calendar currently used by most of the Flanaess is based on the crowing of the first Overking of the [[TheEmpire Great Kingdom of Aerdy]], which was the first major nation to emerge in the aftermath of what was basically a magical nuclear war that forced lots of people to migrate to new lands.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' uses the Lunar calendar based on the landing of Apollo 11 in Tranquility basin (years denoted AT, After Tranquility), after the [[NanoMachines Nanodisaster]] and the evacuation of [[EarthThatWas Old Earth]].

*** The reason the Republican months still remain well known is that it was introduced in the famous year of 1793-1794, the year of the Terror, and several months and dates, have become proverbial in terms of its gravity of impact. The most well known dates on the calendar is 9 Thermidor year II, the Fall of UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre, and 18 Brumaire year VIII, the coup that brought UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte to power. ]

*** Interestingly, this is almost ''exactly'' how the Ancient Egyptian solar calendar worked--12 months of 30 days, each month consisting of three 10-day weeks, the 10th day of the week being a day of rest, with five festival days at the end of the year. The only significant differences were that (1) the Egyptians also took the ninth day of the week as a day of rest (at least for artisans during the New Kingdom) and (2) the Egyptians didn't have leap years (for reasons still not fully understood) until (as mentioned elsewhere on this page) Augustus forced the issue. Even more fascinatingly, the architects of the French Republican calendar were at best only vaguely aware of the Egyptian calendar; while records of its later forms were available, they were obscure, and they may not have said anything about the 10-day weeks. Great minds think alike, one supposes.

*** Interestingly, this is almost ''exactly'' how the Ancient Egyptian solar calendar worked--12 months of 30 days, each month consisting of three 10-day weeks, the 10th day of the week being a day of rest, with five festival days at the end of the year. The only significant differences were that (1) the Egyptians also took the ninth day of the week as a day of rest (at least for artisans during the New Kingdom) and (2) the Egyptians didn't have leap years (for reasons still not fully understood) until the Ptolomaic or Roman period. Even more fascinatingly, the architects of the French Republican calendar were at best only vaguely aware of the Egyptian calendar; while records of its later forms were available, they were obscure, and they may not have said anything about the 10-day weeks. Great minds think alike, one supposes.

** The calendar entirely operated in decimal measures. Each Day had 10 Hours, Each Hour Had 100 Minutes and Each Minute Had 100 Seconds. Each month had thirty days organized in three weeks called Decades, the tenth day of each week was called the decadi and a public holiday. Five extra days were added to the end of the year to make a total of 365 days a year. A leap year likewise had six extra days. Each year had 12 months divided into sets of three months to reflect the four seasons of Autumn (Vendémiaire [[note]]from Latin vindemia, "grape harvest"[[/note]], Brumaire [[note]] From brume, French for "fog"[[/note]], Frimaire [[note]] (From French frimas, "frost")[[/note]]), Winter (Nivôse [[note]] from Latin nivosus, "snowy"[[/note]], Pluviôse [[note]]from Latin pluvius, "rainy"[[/note]], Ventôse [[note]](from Latin ventosus, "windy")[[/note]]), Spring, (Germinal [[note]]from Latin germen, "germination"[[/note]], Floréal [[note]]from Latin flos, "flower"[[/note]], Prairial [[note]](from French prairie, "pasture")[[/note]]) and Summer (Messidor[[note]]Harvest[[/note]], Thermidor[[note]]summer heat[[/note]], Fructidor[[note]]Fruitful Month[[/note]]). The real problems with the use of the calendar aside from widespread cultural inertia with the Gregorian calendar, is that the new months while corresponding well, more or less, with the seasonal structure of France was not quite as appropriate to the colonies where a Snowy Month (Nivôse) doesn't snow and so on. The other issue was that there were only three weekends or ''decadis'', rather than the four-to-five Sundays per month in the Gregorian leading workers to complain about having their free time taken from them.
** The reason they still remain well known is that it was introduced in the famous year of 1793-1794, the year of the Terror, and several months and dates, have become proverbial in terms of its gravity of impact. The most well known dates on the calendar is 9 Thermidor year II, the Fall of UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre, and 18 Brumaire year VIII, the coup that brought UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte to power.

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing Pompey around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still meant the dates would get out of line with the seasons, albeit at a much slower rate,[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. After all, their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had finished or was closing in on finishing its second such 1,460-year cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted. (The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.)[[/note]]) and the concept of days with no month annoyed him for some reason. To address the first problem, he added a sixth additional day to the year every fourth year.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] To address the second problem, the six days were distributed among the months of the year. To commemorate these changes, Caesar then renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' after himself. Augustus would then rename the following month ''Augustus'' after himself to commemorate the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium Battle of Actium]].

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing Pompey around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still meant the dates would get out of line with the seasons, albeit at a much slower rate,[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems. (Probably because their civilization [[TimeAbyss either had finished or was closing in on finishing its second such cycle by the time Caesar rolled around]] depending on how you counted.[[note]]The Julian reform was effected in 45 BCE. [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Narmer unified Egypt sometime around 3000 BCE, and Egypt's Old Kingdom--and Netjerikhet Djoser's Step Pyramid--date from the 27th century BCE]]. So yeah.[[/note]]) and the concept of days with no month annoyed him for some reason. To address the first problem, he added a sixth additional day to the year every fourth year.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] To address the second problem, the six days were distributed among the months of the year. To commemorate these changes, Caesar then renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' after himself. Augustus would then rename the following month ''Augustus'' after himself to commemorate the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium Battle of Actium]].

Caesar found what he was looking for in Egypt. While chasing Pompey around the Eastern Mediterranean, he encountered the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which ignored the Moon completely and simply made every month 30 days long, with an additional 5 days belonging to no month as a kind of festival time at the end of the year. Caesar liked this system, although he had two problems with it: it still meant the dates would get out of line with the seasons, albeit at a much slower rate,[[note]]The Egyptians knew this, but didn't care as much because of some religious stuff they had about the first rising of Sirius, plus the problem fixed itself every 1,460 years, which the Egyptians were OK with it seems.[[/note]] and the concept of days with no month annoyed him for some reason. To address the first problem, he added a sixth additional day to the year every fourth year.[[note]]Which one of the Ptolemaic Greek Kings of Egypt had tried to do about 200 years earlier, but the Egyptians had resisted for the aforementioned religious reasons, and probably also as a way of thumbing their noses at the Greeks.[[/note]] To address the second problem, the six days were distributed among the months of the year. To commemorate these changes, Caesar then renamed ''Quintilis'', the month in which he had been born, ''Iulius'' after himself. Augustus would then rename the following month ''Augustus'' after himself to commemorate the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium Battle of Actium]].

** Regnal dating, combined with the loss of historical records for ''entire periods of reign'' makes the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Egyptian dynastic timeline]] a matter of ''extremely'' hot debate in Egyptology circles. While some gaps are simply due to the loss of records over time, others are due to various pharaohs [[UnPerson purging the official records of any mention of their rivals or predecessors, and deliberately destroying or defacing monuments]]. It also doesn't help that the Egyptians had a strong aversion to--bordering on a taboo against--stating the date or circumstances of royal deaths in the annals and the royal funerary texts and inscriptions.[[note]]They usually didn't even depict the funeral in the extensive tomb decorations. Generally, the depictions would jump from "the deceased doing the awesome stuff they did in life" to "the deceased's journey from this tomb to the afterlife" without any details about how they got from the awesome stuff to the tomb. UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb is ''very'' unusual for showing his successor Ay presiding over his funeral.[[/note]] Thus what would be a pretty normal, even standard, entry in the annals of most other historical monarchies--something along the lines of "His Majesty died in the twenty-fifth year of his reign of [[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat a surfeit of palfreys]]"--would be a marvelous find (suspiciously marvelous, in fact) for an Egyptologist.

* All that fuss about the "[[MayanDoomsday End of the Mayan Calendar]]" in 2012? That was literally just this, not anything [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt apocalyptic]]. They had ([[TheRemnant and still have]]) one calendar for day-to-day use, but it reset every 52 years, so they had another one, the "Long Count", for recording historical dates. 2012 was just the end of the 12th ''b'ak'tun'' (394-year cycle) -- which isn't even a particularly significant number, as they go up to 20[[note]]The world before this one is said to have ended at the turn of its 13th ''b'ak'tun'', but there was no prophecy that the same fate awaited this world[[/note]]. Much more interesting a date is October 13th, 4772, the end of the first ''piktun'', 7885 years after Mayan Year Zero. Even that isn't the longest calendar they had -- an ''alautun'' is over 63 million years long.

* Multiple science fiction stories in the 1950s and '60s postulated that at some unspecified point in the future, mankind would reset the calendar to start with the detonation of the first nuclear warhead as year one. This went out of fashion rather quickly as soon as the dangers of fallout became widely known.

** Regnal dating, combined with the loss of historical records for ''entire periods of reign'' makes the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Egyptian dynastic timeline]] a matter of ''extremely'' hot debate in Egyptology circles. While some gaps are simply due to the loss of records over time, others are due to various pharaohs [[UnPerson purging the official records of any mention of their rivals or predecessors, and deliberately destroying or defacing monuments]]. It also doesn't help that the Egyptians had a strong aversion to--bordering on a taboo against--stating the date or circumstances of royal deaths in the annals and the royal funerary texts and inscriptions.[[note]]They usually didn't even depict the funeral in the extensive tomb decorations. Generally, the depictions would jump from "the deceased doing the awesome stuff they did in life" to "the deceased's journey from this tomb to the afterlife" without any details about how they got from the awesome stuff to the tomb. UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb is ''very'' unusual for showing his successor Ay presiding over his funeral.[[/note]] Thus what would be a pretty normal, even standard, entry in the annals of most other historical monarchies--"His Majesty died in the twenty-fifth year of his reign of [[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat a surfeit of palfreys]]"--would be a marvelous find (suspiciously marvelous, in fact) for an Egyptologist.