Keeping Time and Recording History

Keeping Time

The day and night cycle in the Shattered Oceans actually lasts for 7 days, and a month is 42 days, meaning there are 6 weeks in a month.

In the Northern Tripartite, the months always begins on the Day of Sunrise. Because on the 6th week, the moon is actually rising, the 42nd day of each month begins the Week of Darkness. For that week, the people prepare for the next month ahead and perform Moon Rituals. The next month would begin when the sun rose, 6 days later. There are 10 months (or 420 days) in one year.

It is the opposite in the Southern Tripartite, where the months still begin on the Day of Sunrise, but it is a week of light.

The most common way of keeping time in the world is through tide clocks. The second is hourglasses. The hourglasses are less favored because they are only as reliable as the person who is turning them. The tide clocks are reliable in that they will always be correct when there is a New Moon, but there may be some inconsistencies in between the moons, depending on the tides. Shops, homes, and individuals may favor hourglasses but towns and villages typically have tide clocks. The citizens and villagers can sync their hourglasses up the tide clocks if they lose track of time.

Since the world entered Stasis in the Final Year of the Age of Twilight, the people were keeping track of time by the rate of growth or decay of local flora and fauna. They would also track local natural phenomena such as rivers rising, volcanoes or geysers erupting, or trees shedding their leaves. Things also still age normally so time can be roughly gauged by the aging of a creature.

Another anomaly of time that people are unable to explain is that if a creature moves from another planet that has shorter years, and comes to the Shattered Oceans, their lifespan is altered (and often lengthens) to the span of a year in the Shattered Oceans and not their home planet. Chronomancers claim this is evidence of the power of their time magic.

Recorded History

Recorded history is divided by Eras of the Ancient Times, and Ages of the Modern Times. The Eras and Ages are separated by The Rift, which occurred and marked the end of the Era of Reckoning. The historical periods are divided acccordingly: Era of First Light, when the Shattered Oceans were created and the world was first being formed. At this time, many of the continents were much larger and did not have as many surrounding islands as the maps of current day. The only technology that existed in the world was Clockwork Technology and the general understanding of Chronomancy was very basic. Gastromancy was very common during this time due to its survivability benefits, and the first school of magic that was discovered and developed uniquely by The Shattered Oceans. The Era of First Light was followed by the Era of Mists, a time of heavy arcane growth and development in the world. There were many supernatural happenings that occured during this time. The end of the Era of Mists was marked by the Wall of Mists that sat at the border of the Expanses dissipated.

After the Era of Mists came the Era of Radiance. This was a period of Enlightment for the world and the era when Dragon Riders were most common.

Then there was the Era of Reckoning. The Era of Reckoning was as chaotic and catastrophic as it sounds. There were many natural disasters, including the Shattering of the continent of Gholurai, the many tidal waves and tsunamis that caused massive floods destruction, and sunken islands and cties. There were also several Wars that took place during this time. Rivers and lakes dried up, populations suffered droughts, plagues, and many believed that the world was cursed in some way during this period. The end of the Era of Reckoning was marked by The Rift, which was the massive earthquake that cause the continent of Andalus in the Central Tripartite to split into two different landmasses. The stretch of water that exists between the two continents, where the chunks of land (and everything and everyone who lived on them) fell into the sea, is still called The Rift.

After the Rift was the Age of Twilight, where the world was said to go dark, both figuratively and literally. There were periods of worldwide darkness that were said to be the gods blotting out the Sun from the Shattered Oceans and the oceans were very violent and dangerous during that time. In addition the world was said to have lost its way during this time. Following that period was the Age of Exploration, where the population of the Shattered Oceans were finding themselves and their ways after the period of darkness. However, the dragon populations began to noticeably dwindle during this time and many blamed the expansion that was happening as a resut of the exploration. Finally is the current age in history: the Age of the Ethereal, sometimes resentfully called the Age of Oblivion by those who believe the predecessors and ancestors throughout history got it right, and that the progress of the world was the wrong kind of progress.

History has been recorded through storytelling and oral traditional, the written word, art, and bardic recounts of historical events. Divination is a largely respected practice because with the presence or detailed knowledge of an artifact can provide a connection with history and truth that documents and libraries cannot always provide.

In addition to the world currently being in Stasis, other anomalies of time have occurred in the past as well. For a period, the North and South half of the worlds were out of sync, and where it was night it one, it was day in the other, and vice versa. The Center Tripartite was at its height of Clockwork Magic during this time and maintained an accurate representation of time through their powers of Chronomancy. There have also been prolonged periods of sunlight and darkness (both during this Time Swap and in other unrelated events), but never a true stasis. Because of these prolonged periods, when Andalus and The Center Tripartite regulated their time flow, it was found that both the North and the South were wrong, but adapting to time as it was passing for them respectively.