ZEITGEIST Calendar Question.

[Crispy120286]

Hey all, simple question here.
Frequently throughout the modules it references Months. however it is shown that the calendar is 4 Seasons of 91 days each with a single day for new year. Each season comprising 13 weeks.

My exact question is about the Kaybeau Fair in module 3. It says it's going to last throughout the month. Does that mean, End of Autumn? so 13 weeks? Or typical month of 4 weeks or so?

I attached a copy of the calendar i made for my campaign if anyone wants to use it.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, I basically didn't want to come up with new month names, and didn't have a reason to invent an earth-moon system different than ours, so 29-ish day months exist.

I think at some point I published what the everyday folk in Risur call the different moon phases, sort of giving names to weeks. You might have something like "the maiden's moon." Maybe that's in the hardcover's player's guide?

 

[arkwright]

I got you.

Calendar.
The region generally uses a simple calendar devised over a millennium ago by the skyseers of Risur. This calendar divides the year into four 91-day seasons, each starting on an equinox or solstice. After the 91st of Winter, one extra day is used to celebrate the new year. The most common celestial rhythm is the cycle of the moon over 29 and a half days. People might say something happened “a month ago,” but individual months are not named. Instead dates are referenced in the format “17 Spring 473 a.o.v.”

 

[Crispy120286]

Excellent, thank you very much

 

[RangerWickett]

Except at Edna's suggestion, we're removing the periods in AOV.

 

[Lylandra]

But...but.... why would Risur even use the Crisillyiri term AOV? Wouldn't they rather count AK (after Kelland) and BK (before Kelland)? They wouldn't call the Malice "our Victory", would they? Also, Kelland's founding happened even before Crisillyir was even a thing.

 

[RangerWickett]

In a real world, there certainly would have been a lot more variation and complexity. I could imagine something like every country having its own calendar, but then when the Great Malice is a global shock that affects all nations, they all start tracking time relative to it.

The terminology would have been different, as you say, but right after the Second Victory the Clergy would have been pretty ascendant, and their system probably got a foothold in Drakr and even Danor (where a lot of people would still have been loyal to the Clergy). Risur has a whole different language, but over time the language of global trade would be Common, so Risuri scholars would adopt the term AOV.

 

[arkwright]

This does lead to the awkward situation where it suggests that even the Elfaivarans are using 'AOV'. In one draft stage of the setting book, I came up with an alternate calendar for them to use, 'BGB' and 'AGB'. But even then the entire Elfaivar section would be in AOV to reflect the dominance Lanjyr calendar, and to reflect that fact that plenty of Elfaivarans would have grown up with the AOV scheme after living overseas, in Kellandia, etc. BGB/ABG did not make it into the final draft.

Also it's good to remember that even before the Victories, the Clergy was crazy strong. They ran an empire that stretched across Danor, Drakr and Crisillyir. That's a lot of economic, political and cultural weight, more than enough to standardize a few Clericist-origin words and schemes across the Avery Sea, even if only after that empire came apart, as a bit of cultural momentum.

 

[Lylandra]

Well, countries that were heavily dominated by the Clergy / had been part of Crisillyir before would certainly adopt their calendar. They also adopted common as their primary language (well, Drakr didn't, but Danor and Crisillyir had once been one nation).

I specifically meant Risur, the "oddball backwater nation" as some of the "enlightened Northeners" would call them. Yes, they use their own language in their day to day lives and they'd certainly use their own calendar. I also consider the fact that even in our modern, globalized world, nations like China or the nations that had once been Persia still use their own traditional calendars, plus the fact that our "counting point" is not linked to something that calls a mass genocidal event "Our Victory" (and i if so many people speak common, then they will know what that term means). So if others would adopt their calendar, they'd at least call it "AM" and "BM".

I understand that it makes less hassle to use one term for all nations from a gaming perspective, but it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Also, in our campaign we shifted to a new calendar system after

Spoiler

saving the world from the Gyre

: Counting the years "After Dawn" and "Before Crisis". The events surrounding the Starfall event had a much bigger impact on the world and its political systems than the Malice.

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

I do not know if it is going to make it into the final book, given that Ryan Nock still wishes to trim or revise certain material, but I inserted a small snippet of:

Far more so than any other nation, Risur has ardently sympathized with the post-Malice plight of the Elfaivaran elves, and politely resented Crisillyir’s hand in it; Risuri diplomacy almost succeeded in abolishing the ‘After Our Victory’ naming scheme of the calendar, but an alternate name ultimately failed to stick.