Late in some month of Great Synchronization Calendar Year 17.
That was the date displayed in the upper-right corner of the recording. Aphra had been right: the footage really was from exactly twenty years ago.
Deathstroke twisted his mouth as he watched the imposing-looking man on the screen prepare to record. In movies, these formal videos documenting archaeological discoveries usually ended up as a series of last words.
The Star Wars Universe had a bewildering number of calendars. As a traveler from another world, Su Ming was more accustomed to the Galactic Standard Calendar, which used BBY and ABY and took the Battle of Yavin, when the first Death Star was destroyed, as its dividing line.
"After the Battle of Yavin" was abbreviated ABY; before it was BBY. The current year was 2 BBY.
The Battle of Yavin marked the point when the Galactic Empire began its decline. But people living in this universe now could hardly see things from the perspective of future victors. The Galactic Empire was still in power, and the Imperial Calendar was the one most people used.
The Galactic Empire had been founded in 19 BBY, making that Year 0 of the Imperial Calendar. The Imperial Army and the galaxy's inner regions now used it almost exclusively.
The Jedi had another system, the Tayoh Arrival Calendar. Its first year was the ancient year when the Tayoh Ship brought Force-sensitive people to Tython, giving rise to the Jedi. In the Galactic Standard Calendar, that was 36,463 BBY.
Before the Empire was founded, around 35 BBY, the Old Republic had launched a Great Synchronization initiative to put the entire galaxy on one calendar. That was how the Great Synchronization Calendar came about.
It had spread widely, and plenty of people still used it. Under its rules, the