Calendar

All human survivors use the hegemonic calendar to measure and define their years. This calendar is related exclusively to Atheron’s relationship to the sun. An Atheron (solar) year is about 385 days, with a leap day added approximately every 3 years. Humans break down their calendar year into 4 ‘cycles’ or ‘seasons’. Each season has three months consisting of 4 eight-day weeks. Each day is broken into 8 bells and each bell has 64 chimes (a chime ~ 3 minutes). Each city state or region has its own names for the seasons, months and days. These names are typically quite poetic and beautiful, if cumbersome. In the centuries since the Grand Caravan began, many travelers and merchants have begun using a universal calendar system that utilizes a numeric name for each day of the week (Firstday, Seconday, Thirday, Fourthday, Fifthday, Sixthday, Seventhday, Eigthday), and then a numbered date for the season. Using this system, the names of the four seasons have narrowed to some version of Darkness (Winter), Awakening (Spring), Light (Summer) and Slumbering (Autumn). For example; a day might be described as being Seconday (of the week), the 74th day of the Cycle of Light. The new year is celebrated by a single day that is not in any season, placed between Slumbering and Darkness. This ‘Dying Year Day’ is universally a holiday. Because of the intensely-magical nature of the Dragonwar and Sundering, the various city-states cannot agree on how long the war took or how many years passed between the Sundering and the founding of the Grand Caravan. As a compromise, the majority of city states have begun a count of years beginning with the founding the Grand Caravan. The cities now agree that the year is 1217 GC (at the beginning of the campaign.)