Touching the River of Time

Birth of a Calendar:

So, the basics;

1 year is 396 days divided into 3 sections containing 3 months each, totalling 9 months in a year.

1 month is 44 days divided into 4 weeks of 11 days each.

Years do tend to acquire names unofficially, like - year of floods therefore the Floodin etc.

Months are named after trees and plants as per druid insistence and of no real concern to the merchants.

Weeks are named after the elements as again insisted upon by the druids and ignored by the merchants as of no real importance.

Days are numbered only, by consensus of both parties as the merchants didn’t want any further names to remember and the druids see each day as belonging to the season and pattern.

Each new year starts mid-winter and is measured from the year of first settlement when the ancestors that founded Vhelahn first moved into the area.

For those who require a finer sense of time, like traders, clerical administrators, and town officials, each day is broken up by 9 units (hours)of 44 (minutes), a simple circular repeat of the yearly calendar. Years, days and hours are longer than our own. So seasonal cycles are relevant to the world in which they exist.

For extremely short measures of time, each section can be broken down by a further cycle of the calendar. (seconds and fractions of seconds) rarely used except perhaps in music which is held in high regard as anywhere people exist and science of which there is almost none.

As for the druids, they have other ways of accounting for time and cycles based on a much more fluid and accurate relationship with the land. Far too changeable for ordinary folk to coordinate trade and custom.

The calendar as used by officials from Kolandis and other towns was designed over time for commerce and official records and is therefore very regimented and organised. As such it is relatively inaccurate and a standing contention with the druids that also had some input but were largely ignored. With a year being three hundred and ninety six days the council wanted an equal division of days and moths to better facilitate record keeping.

The druids came up with the nine months of equal days that the council readily accepted as practical and a good idea. Without too much depth to their scrutiny the council failed to realise the druids had in fact divided the year into nine months which in turn were grouped into three periods,

Dei – Rebirth. The period from midnight on the longest night of winter to the rebirth of spring and new life on summers doorstep.

Sae – Growth. The period throughout the summer months when life grows and fulfils the cycle.

Adra - Recycle. The period from Autumn when life slowly goes to sleep falling quietly into the chill depths of winter.

This represents the druid affinity for three, three periods of three months adding up to nine in keeping with the three hundred and ninety six days, and a symbolic recognition of the druid tri-union.

In the beginning, both druid and merchant councils spent many months debating the creation of a unified calendar with neither side overly happy with the results which still stand many hundreds of cycles later. Even with the druid influence, the regimented order of days in months, and months in seasons, means the calendar remains inaccurate to the natural cycles and their fluctuations. Something the druids were less than pleased with at the time. Consequently they have their own system of seasonal representations which is far more complex and much too confusing for the council who’s interests didn’t include the progression or regression of seasonal patterns on their own calendar, their only concession that summer was a longer season than winter which was hard to dispute.

The idea that the calendar keep track of cycles that move across decades or centuries was something the council found irrelevant and left them exposed to drought and flooding they took as random occurrences. That the druids were able to predict the increased likelihood of these occurrences was something the council believed was to do with their magic and therefore not part of councils business.

Most recorded calendars are represented in pyramid form either on parchment as triangles or in the more artistic form of a regular tetrahedron or (pyramid). Often elaborate in design and materials, they can be found in rich merchants houses or on trading ships sitting in a place of pride that represents the need for such devices and therefore the importance of the persons life.

At some point I might make one of these and post pics to this site.

To understand the naming of dates the following examples can be compared to the calendar graphic above.

Example:

Ariana: Born - 3rd AirThorn 4500

Therefore the 3rd day of Air Week in the Month of Thorn - in the year 4500 from Settlement Day. (SD)

From Mysia’s diary;

Mysia; 10th Air-Fern 4490

10th day of Air week, month of Fern in the year of 4490

Some dates are naturally worded slightly different. Like in the months of Black Heart from a tree of that name and Dead Wood after the fall of leaves in winter. These month names precede the week name and so for the 5th day of Fire Week in the month of Black Heart 4511 you will have - 5th BlackFire 4511.