Tihagi Calendar

Telling Time in Saleh'Alire

Saleh'Alire » Introduction Calendars Tolara


Structure of the Day

  The Aliran day is equal to approximately 30 hours in length. However, the Tihagi Calendar itself has no actual concept of hours, minutes, or even seconds. Instead time is told based on the placement of the sun and moons in the sky. They day is then divided into four main sections based on which is positioned highest- and when.  
Name Time Activity
Light's Crest Midnight ➤ Sunrise Sleep / Leisure
First Breath Sunrise Waking / Breakfast
Last Dew Sunrise ➤ Noon Market / Work
Sun's Kindling Noon Lunch / Bread
Late Blaze Noon ➤ Sunset Work / Market
Last Light Sunset Dinner / Curfew
Night's Shade Sunset ➤ Midnight Leisure / Sleep
Most of Aliran society lives and operates by these four daily quarters, creating little need for more precise measurements. However, more precise measurements do exist even if rarely used. This manifests as a simple cross-quartering of the day in order to insert and additional 4 subpoints between the four standard quarters. Any further need for precision is measured by the phrases "just past", "half passed", and "nearly"- and their variants.  

Structure of the Week

  Like with hours, the Tihagi Calendar has no concept of weeks- let alone any further divisions of time within a month. Viewing it as unnecessary since each one follows a relatively consistent cycle, the passing of time throughout the monthly (and yearly) cycle is simply marked by what day it is within the month.   In terms of cyclical occurrences, or other consistent public events that may occur with within any given month (such as market days or worship days), Alirans prefer to schedule them in increments of two, three, or even five. For instance, in Saethar'Kori, Market Days are held every 3rd day- and the Executioner's run is held every midpoint. In Rothshield, however, Market Day is every 2nd day; alternatively they may be held on certain lunar cycles- or in line with the significant celestial events.

Origins

  The Tolaran Calendar, formally called the Tihagi Calendar, was developed by the Orkind people of the Talaina'Vao region in Tolara; specifically it originated with the Rokur Clan, whose current tribal lands are located in the Hiatal mountains, on Tolara's isolated Southern Peninsula.   Seeking to create a time-telling system that could easily be used by anyone of any status or profession, Voltak Tihagi of Rokur Clan simply observes how her told time amongst themselves. It was from her Clan's folk methods of time-telling that the Tihagi Calendar was eventually derived.   The final calendar uses both the rotation of the world's two visible moons (Dhea and Tau) and the continent's three seasons (Cold, Wet, and Dry) to count the passing of time in terms of daily, monthly, and yearly cycles- leading to a calendar that remains surprisingly precise despite being highly simplified.   Its simplicity made it easy to use across a wide variety of cultures, languages, and customs during the early days of Tolaran settlement. As a result, many adopted it as their official calendar on the southern peninsula, where it spread north via the Adventurer's Guild. Eventually it became so widespread within Tolara as to become the only calendar used on the continent- becoming officially adopted during the signing of the Astrantia Charter. Since then its use has expanded to other areas in the world, leading many to simply call it the Common Calendar.

Monthly and Yearly Cycles

 
The Tihagian year follows the flow of the seasons. As a result, the year begins with the Wet Season and ends with the Cold Season- with the Dry Season marking its midpoint; while the length of these seasons can vary per year, each lasts for aproximately 4 months, and the entire process of season progression takes an average of 360 days.   Nowadays the days of the year, as well as the alignment of the heavenly bodies in the sky, are meticulously tracked by Archivists and Arcanists alike, and days are added or removed from the end of the year as necessary to maintain consistent seasons.   Within the length of the year, time is further divided between 12 months following the cycle of Saleh'Alire's two moons. Dhea, being the largest of the two, is used to determine a monthly length of 30 days (or one full rotational cycle)- while its smaller twin Tau, with its shorter 15 day rotation, is used to mark each month's midpoint; each of these months begins and ends with a double dark moon when neither Dhea nor Tau are illuminated, and the midpoint occurs when Dhea is full and Tau is absent.
Rotation Name Season Avg Temp Avg Precip Activity
1 Jenethi Wet Cold / Brisk Heavy Rain Herding
2 Fenet wet Brisk Heavy Rain Gathering
3 Marca wet Temperate Showers Lambing
4 Amir wet Temperate / Warm Showers Sewing
5 Moras Dry Warm Rare Maintenance
6 Jenia Dry Warm / Hot Rare Maintenance
7 Javir Dry Scorching Drought Butchering
8 Alarius Dry Hot Rare Harvest
9 Sarnathi Cold Temperate / Brisk Light Snow Inventory
10 Oboron Cold Cold Light Snow Storage
11 Nedalia Cold Freezing Heavy Snow Spinning
12 Dariven Cold Freezing Ice Maintenance
 

Putting It All Together

 
Each year, or seasonal cycle, is assigned a number stemming from a single point in history considered the Beginning of Known Time. This point in history, 1 Jenethi 0, was the first date for which Saleh'Alire has any record of civilization on the planet at the time of its global adoption. From there, all dates increase in number. So the 4035th year after 1 Jenethi 0 is just that: The 4035th year.
 
If an Aliran wanted to write the date for the 20th day of the 11th month of the year 6624, they would write it as 20th Nedalia 6624; alternatively, if a celestial event had occurred on that day, then Archivists could choose to write the date as Nedalia's Double Eclipse of 6624 instead.
If an Aliran needed to tell someone to meet them at noon on the 13th day of the 8th month of the year, they would say "Meet me at Sun's Kindling on 13th Alarius"; if the time sits somewhere between a quarter and a crossquater, they would say "I rise half between Light's Crest and First Breath".


Cover image: Trinity College by Henry Be

Comments

Author's Notes

▼ Please Read Before You Comment ▼
I absolutely love getting feedback on my setting and its worldbuilding. I love it even more when people poke and prod at it, and ask questions about the things I've built within it. I want both. I actively encourage both. And it makes me incredibly giddy whenever I get either. However, there's a time and a place for critique in particular- mostly when I've actually asked for it (which usually happens in World Anvil's discord server). And when I do ask for critique, there are two major things I politely request that you do not include in your commentary:   ➤ The first is any sort of critique on the way I've chosen to organize or format something; Saleh'Alire is not a narrative world written for reader enjoyment... It's is a living campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. To that end, it's written and organized for my players and I, specifically for ease of use during gameplay- and our organization needs are sometimes very different than others'. They are especially different, often-times, from how things "should be organized" for reader enjoyment.   ➤ Secondly, is any critique about sentence phrasing and structure, word choice, and so on; unless you've specifically found a typo, or you know for a provable fact I've blatantly misused a word, or something is legitimately unclear explicitly because I've worded it too strangely? Then respectfully: Don't comment on it; as a native English speaker of the SAE dialect, language critique in particular will almost always be unwelcome unless it's absolutely necessary. This is especially true if English is not you first language to begin with. My native dialect is criticized enough as it is for being "wrong", even by fellow native English speakers ... I really don't want to deal with the additional linguistic elitism of "formal English" from Second-Language speakers (no offense intended).   That being said: If you want to ask questions, speculate, or just ramble? Go for it! I love talking about my setting and I'm always happy to answer any questions you have, or entertain any thoughts about it. Praise, of course, is always welcome too (even if it's just a casual "this is great", it still means a lot to authors)- and if you love it, please don't forget to actually show that love by liking it and sharing it around. Because I genuinely do enjoy watching people explore and interact with my setting, and ask questions about it, and I'd definitely love to hear from you... Just be respectful about it, yeah?


Please Login in order to comment!