The longevity of the Elven Empire has made the Elven Age the most reliable way of knowing when something happened. An Elven Age ends only once no living elf can remember the previous age's leaders. The first Elven Age was not called such at the time, referring to themselves simply as the “Elven Age.” Only by the Third Elven Age did this parlance come into common use within the empire, and by the fifth it was the standard across the oceanic expanse.
The longevity of the elves due to their proximity to the Feywild makes many of these Elven Ages typically last about two-thousand years. However, there are some exceptions to this rule of thumb. Particularly the great third age, the sixth age, the seventh age, and the cursed ninth age. So years in the “Age of the Empire” might be written like this:
223 EA11
The campaign world is currently in the 223rd year of the eleventh Elven Age.