Calendar & Time

A world this large needs a shared way to say when the train leaves, even if it does not agree on what the year means.

Exact calendars and era names were previously undeveloped. The following system is now established as the common civil framework while leaving room for strong regional and religious calendars.

Sundering Reckoning

The established international scholarly dating system is:

SR — Sundering Reckoning

The Sundering is Year 0.

The first complete year after the catastrophe is 1 SR.

Events before the Sundering are normally written as Pre-Sundering or PS in scholarly work.

Example:

412 SR — signing of the Covenant of Stewardship.

87 PS — an inscription dated approximately eighty-seven years before the Sundering.

Current Year

The present year is:

1004 SR

This is the international standard, though many cultures use additional local dating traditions in ordinary life.

The Common Civil Year

The Common civil calendar contains 365 days.

It is divided into:

• twelve 30-day months; and
• five Turning Days outside the ordinary month count at the end of the year.

This produces an easy 360-day commercial calendar plus five culturally important year-end days.

Month Names

These names come from temperate Aldaran and central Caeloran usage. In Tsukara, the Amber Expanse, Southern Fenlands, and other climates, names are conventional rather than literal descriptions of local weather.

The Five Turning Days

The five days after Deepnight and before Firstlight are collectively called the Turning Days.

They are not assigned to a month.

Regional customs differ dramatically.

The Common names are:

1. Day of Names — remembrance of the dead and family history.
2. Day of Hearths — household, hospitality, repair, and winter charity.
3. Day of Roads — travelers, messages, absent family, and safe return.
4. Day of Lanterns — reflection, truth, hidden things, and hopes for the coming year.
5. Turning Day — the final day of the old year and threshold into Firstlight.

These are broad civil names, not one universal religion.

Aureonites, Old-God communities, Durakhal Holds, Tsukaran islands, beastfolk clans, and secular Caelorans may all interpret them differently.

Weeks

The Common civil calendar uses a seven-day week.

International Common typically calls them simply:

Firstday, Secondday, Thirdday, Fourthday, Fifthday, Sixthday, Seventhday.

Local languages have their own names.

This deliberately avoids making one religion's weekday names universal.

Markets, temple services, rest days, and work schedules vary by region.

Local Calendars

Solvarra

Solvarra uses SR for international diplomacy but also maintains an Aureonite liturgical calendar organized around feast days, royal observances, and Church cycles.

Formal documents commonly include both civil date and regnal year.

Ardaren

Ardaren uses SR increasingly in trade and administration but rural records may still date events by reigns, harvests, wars, floods, or local noble succession.

Valemere

Valemere strongly favors SR because bankers and merchants dislike ambiguous dates.

Valemerian contracts helped make SR internationally common.

Durakhal

Durakhal records often include SR plus Hold-specific archival notation and office terms.

Dwarven archivists may be able to date a contract more precisely than the government that issued it.

Karthain and Tharakai

Both use seasonal and clan dating in traditional contexts, while Common SR appears in international law and trade.

Elderwood

Elven communities frequently describe time through seasonal, astronomical, biological, and event-based references in addition to SR.

An elf may consider "the winter after the silver birches flowered twice" perfectly useful local history.

Formal dealings with outsiders use conventional dates when necessary.

Caelora

Caelora uses SR as the national civil standard.

Its government, schools, Signal Line, Arcrail, courts, and technical records all require standardized dating.

Tsukara

Tsukara uses a sophisticated island calendar and may also date official events by Imperial reign year.

International documents include SR equivalents.

The exact Tsukaran month names remain open for a dedicated Tsukara expansion rather than inventing an entire second calendar here.

Hours

The day is divided into 24 hours for international and technical use.

This does not imply every peasant owns a clock.

Aldara

Towns use:

• church or civic bells;
• mechanical clocks in wealthier settlements;
• sun position;
• watch changes; and
• customary meal/work times.

Precise minutes matter mostly to specialized work.

Caelora

Rail, Signal Line, hospitals, factories, and administration make precise timekeeping ordinary.

Pocket watches and household clocks are common enough in developed regions to be normal middle-class possessions.

Tsukara

Precision chronometers are a major technical strength because navigation depends upon accurate time.

Crown Standard Time

A continent-sized rail network cannot function safely if every town sets its clocks independently.

Caelora therefore uses Crown Standard Time, fixed to the national administrative meridian.

Arcrail, Signal Line, military operations, national government, and long-distance commerce use Crown Standard Time across the country.

Local communities may still informally speak in solar time, especially far from central infrastructure.

Major stations display official Crown time prominently.

This produces a distinct Caeloran cultural habit: people may ask whether an appointment is "local" or "Crown."

Tsukaran Sea Time

Tsukaran naval and merchant fleets use a standardized Imperial Sea Time for logs and coordinated operations.

Local island time remains culturally important, but ships need a common reference when crossing long distances.

Calendar Note

The month names, Turning Days, 1004 SR current date, Crown Standard Time, and Imperial Sea Time are established civil conventions. Local religious and regional calendars remain valid alongside them.