JDJblatherings
First Post
You can keep time with candles of a specific size and keep track of the burn rate. Will not be 100% accurate but certainly close enough.
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Underground Calendars?
- Thread starter Ace32
- Start date
JDJblatherings
First Post
as for "days" ... yeah how days work her eon the actual earth it'd be hard to know but in a fantasy world it might be pretty darned obvous when the subn god starts his chariot each morning or maybe angels blow trumpets that all clerics can hear. no reson to be mired in reality.
Ace32
Explorer
Tian Zi said:
I did ponder this one too. It could easily be done, there is a moon with a similar pattern to ours. Of course, there is also a second (smaller, but closer) moon. However, this second moon travels very slowly (it was created to only be full every 100 years - magic, I have no other way to explain it), so I imagine its effects could be accounted for from day-to-day.
On the surface, the rhythms of life are determined by the rise and fall of the sun - days, months, and season determining when folks can get work done, and their ties with their agricultural needs and the limitations posed by certain seasons.
Down below, those particular rhythms may not mean much. You need to determine what rhythms do mean something, and base the calendars upon that.
These folks have to be getting their food from somewhere. That food gets its energy from somewhere - if that energy source has regular seasons or periodicity, their calendar might be matched to it. Or maybe the tides have some impact down below, to impose a calendar.
If their life doesn't have something like seasons, or other periodicity, maybe they don't have calendars at all. This is not the same as having no concept of time - time's passage is still important for anything that depends on chemical processes - like cooking, and making pottery. But those can be handled with short-term items (like candles, or the slow decline of the glow from a gland of a particular phosphorescent cave-fish, or something).
Down below, those particular rhythms may not mean much. You need to determine what rhythms do mean something, and base the calendars upon that.
These folks have to be getting their food from somewhere. That food gets its energy from somewhere - if that energy source has regular seasons or periodicity, their calendar might be matched to it. Or maybe the tides have some impact down below, to impose a calendar.
If their life doesn't have something like seasons, or other periodicity, maybe they don't have calendars at all. This is not the same as having no concept of time - time's passage is still important for anything that depends on chemical processes - like cooking, and making pottery. But those can be handled with short-term items (like candles, or the slow decline of the glow from a gland of a particular phosphorescent cave-fish, or something).
I remember Northern Exposure did an episode where they had a week long day, and Joel went crazy with insomnia. (Seems also the movie Insomnia did something with this.) I wonder what the flipside of that is, say for people who live close enough to the arctic circle to be in periods of extended night. It wouldn't matter much to underdark races who've never had much exposure to regular periods of day and night, but it would make for an interesting point for surface dwellers on an extended foray into the UD.
phindar said:
Well, one possible issue is seasonal affective disorder. In extreme cases, it is a pretty hefty form of depression, and can even result in people becoming suicidal.
Vraille Darkfang
First Post
If you are going to use the D&D rules as is....
Remeber Magic Spellcasters who Memorize Spells (Clerics & Wizards) do so once per day.
Clerics have a Set Hour Each day that they re-memorize spells.
If you use this as is: Any Advanced Magical Society will develop a measurement of time around Spellcasting if no other source of time interval is present.
In fact, Magical Spell Rules could sort of be an "Atomic Clock" across all societies & cultures.
It would also make the ease of trying to balance 15 different Calenders a lot faster.
Remeber Magic Spellcasters who Memorize Spells (Clerics & Wizards) do so once per day.
Clerics have a Set Hour Each day that they re-memorize spells.
If you use this as is: Any Advanced Magical Society will develop a measurement of time around Spellcasting if no other source of time interval is present.
In fact, Magical Spell Rules could sort of be an "Atomic Clock" across all societies & cultures.
It would also make the ease of trying to balance 15 different Calenders a lot faster.
Frostmarrow
First Post
phindar said:
With housing and electricity, periods of extended night matters little. You simply stay indoors and watch telly. You learn to live with it fairly quickly. If the TV is broken you stay indoors and tell tall tales. It won't make you go crazy.
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