Fire Emblem Awakening is set 2,000 years after the original Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Gaiden.
The earlier games established the world of Archanea and Valentia, although Awakening presents those lands under later names: Ylisse and Valm. This enormous time gap lets the game revisit familiar mythology without simply retelling the older adventures. Legendary figures, nations and weapons survive as history, religion and inherited symbols.
The most important surviving legacy is the conflict involving the Divine Dragon Naga, the Falchion and the Fire Emblem. In the distant past, Naga helped the First Exalt defeat the Fell Dragon Grima and send it into a long slumber. Awakening's plot begins when that ancient threat starts to return.
The number is sometimes confused with the game's later time travel. Lucina and other children travel from a future devastated by Grima, but that future is only a branch of the Awakening storyline. It does not replace the game's stated historical setting, which is approximately 2,000 years after the original Fire Emblem and Gaiden.