Timekeeping on Aereth

Chronicles of Aereth Timekeeping on Aereth

The Calendar

When Aereth was first conceptualized, I took the time to do a wonderful fantasy calendar for it that no one would use because they found it confusing. Since then, I simplified the calendar so it corresponds with our Earth calendar better.

Aereth’s months are called Moons. For example, September on Earth = 9th Moon on Aereth.

Aereth’s days of the week are simply numbered. For example, September 8, 1250 on Earth = 8th Day of the 9th Moon, 1250 on Aereth. It works, it’s simple, it’s not being changed.

Current In-Character Timeline

Age of Steel

First Turn
Year: 1250
Month: 5th Moon (May)

General

This document will give you the basics of how Aereth tracks time. For simplicity's sake, time keeping has been kept as close to the real world formats as possible.

Although each of Aereth's cultures may have their own way of naming months and days of the week, they all keep up with the modern common calendar. Aereth's orbit around the sun, the moon's orbit around Aereth, and the brightening and darkening of the Ley dictate the cycles of time.

At the end of the last Long Winter (i.e., the last Turn of the last Age), as trade resumed and by unspoken agreement, most nations began using the simplified common or Trader's Calendar.

Legend

When you get to Aereth’s Timeline document, this is the format we’re using for thousands, millions, billions of years, etc.

BYA = billion years ago (ex. 10bya = 10 billion years ago).
MYA = million years ago (ex. 2mya = 2 million years ago).
TA = turns ago (a turn is 4,000 years; ex: 2ta = 8 thousands years ago).
KYA = thousand years ago (ex. 25kya = 25,000 years ago).
YA = years ago (ex. 200ya = 200 years ago).
CE = Common Era
BCE = Before Common Era
Ages = How Turns are tracked in the modern era.

Ages

In the far distant past, an Age could last many thousands of years or, in some cases, millions of years. The Ddraig do not pay much attention to the passage of time, but the human species likes keeping track of what happened and when it happened leading to the creation of various calendar systems.

Currently, the common or trader's calendar, the one developed by humans, is the one that prevails. The Cult of Ceros, the predominant religion on Aereth, has tried to impose their own timekeeping system that dates from the advent of their god, Ceros, to no avail. The one superstition/belief system they have not been able to override is the influence of Gwydion's Rings, the Ley, on Aereth and her people.

Nowadays, an Age encompasses three full Turns (12,000 years) and is how the year/date numbering system differentiates which Turn an event happened in. These will be outlined in the main history timeline of Aereth.

Turns

One turn is equal to four-thousand years and is divided into periods based on the Ley’s cycle of waxing and waning. The Ley are the bands of magical energy that encircle the gas giant planet that Aereth orbits. These are also called the Rings of Gwydion as that is how they would appear to observers. Put it down to geophysics, astrophysics, magic or a combination of the all three, Aereth's climatic seasons are influenced by the Ley.

Argent (Brightest) = 1,000 years: The rings or Ley are said to be Argent when they are at their zenith. All three rings rings are bright and luminous. They can be seen during the day and at night as bands of shimmering blue, gold, and silver-white auroras.
- Seasons: There are four distinct seasons throughout most of the known world although, depending on a land's longitude and latitude, winters tend to be very mild. Days shorten and lengthen on a normal cycle (i.e. shorter days in the winter months, longer days in the summer months).
Waning = 1,000 years: After a thousand years, the Rings begin to dim. The darker bands of energy that flows between the Ley can be seen flickering, sort of like sullen sparks of lightning.
- Seasons: The world's tilt is starting to shift slowly and inexorably. Winters are getting longer, summers are getting shorter. Daylight hours are getting shorter and the sun seems less bright.
Obscura (Dimmest) = 1,000 years: The period that is called the Obscura is when the rings are at their dimmest. Only flickers can be seen here and there. The innermost ring is barely visible at night.
- Seasons: By the time the Ley are at their dimmest, the world has tipped into an almost perpetual twilight (similar to when the sun barely rises in the arctic regions). The daylight hours noticeably dimmer than during other Turns. Summer never comes and the majority of Aereth is blanketed by ice and snow. These Ages of Ice are brutal and Aereth's people are threatened with extinction. Yet, they manage to prevail and survive to the next Age of Summer.
Waxing = 1,000 years: This is the period of time when the Ley are gradually brightening. The innermost ring (band of energy) is always faintly visible although at the Ley’s dimmest, it can only be seen at night.
- Seasons: Winters become milder and begin to shorten. The day / night cycle evens out.

Note: Each Turn in an Age is numbered 1 - 3 followed by the number of years into the cycle we are. Essentially, the calendar "resets" every 12,000 years which, coincidentally, corresponds with some of the worst glacial periods on Aereth.

Example: We're starting play in the first thousand years of the Age of Steel. We are in year 250 of that. Hence, the year is 1250 CE. If we were in the 3rd Turn of the Age, our year would be 3250 CE, Age of Steel.

Years

Aereth’s orbital period is known as a year.

Orbital Period: 365.26 days.

Months

Aereth’s months are dictated by the orbital period of its moon, Aine. Each month is numbered (1 -12) and would be written as 1st Moon, 2nd Moon, etc. If writing out a full date (MM/DD/YYYY), it is 1st Moon, 2nd Day, YYYY or 02-1st Moon-YYYY

Orbital Period: 36 days, 1 hour, 30 minutes.

The Shroud

Each month, the fluctuation of the darkest Ley - no matter where they are in their cycle - blots out the sun and the moon in a total eclipse. During this period, the people of Aereth believe that the Veil Between the Worlds is at its thinnish allowing for easier incursions by the Shadowborn. It may or may not be the time when the Forerunner’s ancient portals are the most unstable.

Needless to say, each Age of Ice brings with it even darker Shrouds.

The Eclipses (Shrouds)

Midwinter Moon: Beginning/end of year, peak eclipse around Noon. (visible)
End of 1st Moon: Peak occurs around 10pm. (not visible)
End of 2nd Month: Peak occurs around 8am. (visible)
End of 3rd Moon: Peak occurs around 6pm. (beginning visible)
End of 4th Moon: Peak occurs around 4am. (end visible)
End of 5th Moon: Peak occurs around 2pm. (visible)
End of 6th Moon: Peak occurs around midnight. (not visible)
End of 7th Moon: Peak occurs around 10am. (visible)
End of 8th Moon: Peak occurs around 8pm. (beginning visible)
End of 9th Moon: Peak occurs around 6am. (end visible)
End of 10th Moon: Peak occurs around 4pm. (visible)
End of 11th Moon: Peak occurs around 2am. (not visible)

Days

Aereth’s rotation is the rotation of the planet around its own axis. It rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the north pole star, Aereth turns anticlockwise.

The universal calendar in use by the residents of Aereth does not give names to the days of the week. They are simply numbered from 1 - 30. This means that weeks are generally not used as part of their calendar or timekeeping methods.

1 Day = 24 hours.