Fantasy Calendars

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So for all the world builders out there...

How do you guys like to set up your calendars for your game world? Do you go with basically the Gregorian calendar just with "fantasy" names? Lunar calendar? Something else entirely?

How many days do you have in your year? Do you basically emulate our world and use a 365 day spread? Make it easy on yourself and do something so all the months have an equal number of days?

Dish! :)
 

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So for all the world builders out there...

How do you guys like to set up your calendars for your game world? Do you go with basically the Gregorian calendar just with "fantasy" names? Lunar calendar? Something else entirely?

How many days do you have in your year? Do you basically emulate our world and use a 365 day spread? Make it easy on yourself and do something so all the months have an equal number of days?

Dish! :)
Calendars
 

So for all the world builders out there...

How do you guys like to set up your calendars for your game world? Do you go with basically the Gregorian calendar just with "fantasy" names? Lunar calendar? Something else entirely?

How many days do you have in your year? Do you basically emulate our world and use a 365 day spread? Make it easy on yourself and do something so all the months have an equal number of days?

Dish! :)

I use a lunisolar staff calendar with archaic germanic names. :)

[sblock=Fantasy Calendar]
The Lunisolar Calendar
People of the Middle Kingdoms rely on “stave calendars”, or when wood is scarce they adopt the dwarven “rune stones”; this method of keeping time involves complex carvings denoting the seasonal cycle, yearly cycle, and 19-year lunar cycle, along with rituals, planting and harvest dates, and holy days. Each year has a “golden number” representing where in the 19 year cycle it lies before the full moon returns to the same day it filled the night sky 19 years ago. The 19 year cycle contains 235 synodic months, including 7 embolismic months.

Month Names
January Eismond (ice moon)
February Hornmond (hornet moon)
March Lenzmond (spring moon)
April Machonmond (making moon)
May Wonnemond (abundant moon)
June Brachmond (fallow moon)
July Hertmond (hay moon)
August Erntmond (harvest moon)
September Scheidmond (separating moon)
October Weinmond (wine moon)
November Nebelmond (fog moon)
December Julmond (yule moon)

Celestine Year
The Celestine Year measures from the end of the mythic age and falling of the Veil roughly 3300 years ago. When the first Celestine temple burned the records were lost so the exact date may never be known.

Aquiline Year
The empire adopted the Celestine calendar for its own use, resetting it at the founding of the empire 577 years ago with the “Aquiline Year” designator.

Druidic Reckoning
Druids are master timekeepers and use a system more complex and more accurate than most, having originated the rune staff. Time is grouped into named centuries (the current is the 9th year of Embers) which are governed by a certain arrangement of stars in the sky. The position of the moon in relation to its 19-year cycle is called the House (currently the moon is in the 9th house). In addition, druids do not use the normal months but rely on a system of 13 which do not require the insertion of holy days. These divisions also correspond to a type of zodiac system based which tree is flowering at that time of year: Ash, Birch, Alder, Rowan, Willow, Holly, Hawthorn, Oak, Hazel, Reed, Vine, Ivy, and Elder.
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I make my own calendars for each setting. Rhunaria's most-used calendar is the Common Measure, which has 8 months of 28 days, each separated by a day that is separate from them, for a total of 232 days in each year. Each month is 4 weeks of 7 days each, and a day is 24 hours of 60 minutes each and 60 seconds per minute, so the basics are similar to Earth's.....

It's wierd, though; there's a solar eclipse 4 times each year in Rhunaria, marking 4 'dread days' on which folks tend to stay inside and lock the doors. Evil spirits and nocturnal creatures like orcs are believed to prowl about on those days. The day after each new moon is the start of a new month, and every other new moon occurs on the eve of a 'dread day'. However, on the other 4 days of new moons are 'festival days', where there is no solar eclipse, and these are celebrated in an appropriate manner for the season. In fact, each of those 4 new moons occur on the eve of an equinox or solstice, marking the longest and shortest days of the year. Fest Day on the vernal equinox, Midsummer's Rejoice on the summer solstice, Resting Day on the autumnal equinox, and Midwinter's Solace on the winter solstice.

Months have simple names; Fallow for the 1st month, which is the start of spring; Seeding for the 2nd month, end of spring; Suncrest for the 3rd month, start of summer; Heatwrath for the 4th month, end of summer; Harvester for the 5th month, start of autumn; Gatherfast for the 6th month, end of autumn; Cloudblight for the 7th month, start of winter; and Culling for the 8th month, end of winter. The days are pidgin names; Dayun for 'day one', Daytu for 'day two', Dayri for 'day three', Dayir for 'day four', Dayev for 'day five', Dayas for 'day six', and Dayen for 'day seven'. Specific holidays vary from one country or culture to another, of course.


Other Rhunarian calendars include the Divine Measure of Time used in the human Theocracy of Riza, the Dalechron Annum used by dwarves of the Ur-Dalechron Hegemony, the Imperial Calendar used by the human Hirotashi Empire, and Elvish Reckoning, plus whatever the dragons use, if anything; they certainly haven't bothered to share much of their lore with humanoids. These are calendars I haven't finished detailing yet, as they haven't come up in-play; though the group did pass through both Ur-Dalechron and Riza, there wasn't any point in which they actually needed to refer to those regional calendars.

Elvish Reckoning has no months, dread-days, or festival-days, just 4 seasons of 58 days each. The day after the vernal equinox is the 'start' of Spring and the new year in Elvish Reckoning. Each season is divided into 5 weeks by the elves, and an elven week is 12 days, except for the 2nd and 4th week of each month, which have only 11 days (a bit odd, of course). Elves refer to each day of the week by its number in the Elven language. Elvish Reckoning uses a series of 3 cycles, however, that they mark as significant. Every 100th year starts a new cycle, based on the position of the star elves call the Eye of the Spirit King.

During the Cycle of Dawn, first of the series, the Eye of the Spirit King is visible in the early mornings for a few hours past dawn, shining brightly in the north. That cylce is said to be a time of good luck and growth. During the Cycle of Dusk, it is visible in late afternoon to the southeast. Finally, in the Cylce of Twilight, before the 'rebirth' of the Cycle of Dawn, the Eye of the Spirig King is visible in the eastern sky past midnight. The Cycle of Twilight is said to be a time of ill fortune and diminishment.


The other Rhunarian calendars are only partially finished in my notes, and Elvish Reckoning still has a few minor details to iron out.

I have several vague calendar ideas in the works for Aurelia, but haven't ironed them out yet as I did for Rhunaria (but then, I haven't run a campaign in Aurelia yet either, unlike Rhunaria). Mostly just names so far. Dosa Garan, the Seasonal Record of Neharon and Urun humans' common ancestors. Imperial Standard Reckoning, timekeeping measure of old and modern Thessk and other human countries. Kehemet Uroth Basra Sajik, the Annals of Basra and Her Kin and What Came Before, for Basranni and Mitajji human countries. Mentari Tenzeki Kodamaru, the Mentari's Heavenly Motions Record of Time. Zurgithras Crenastis, the Time of Gith's Rise and All That Follows. Fey Nelerist, the Fey Reckoning in Elven. Inferna Metra, the Infernal Measure of time. And numerous others I haven't even gotten as far as naming yet.

I haven't finished anything yet for my Azeria setting's calendar, or at least can't remember, because the majority of my Azeria notes are on my old computer and I'm not even sure its data would still be recoverable from the hard drive, given how long I was missing the cords and other components needed to plug the thing back in and hooked up to a monitor and junk.
 

So for all the world builders out there...

How do you guys like to set up your calendars for your game world? Do you go with basically the Gregorian calendar just with "fantasy" names? Lunar calendar? Something else entirely?

How many days do you have in your year? Do you basically emulate our world and use a 365 day spread? Make it easy on yourself and do something so all the months have an equal number of days?

Dish! :)

Heh, looking at all the responses... mine is different. I use the normal Gregorian calendar without even changing the names of the months. It is a convenience thing - neither myself nor my players have to look up whether it is summer or winter - we know right away, because I use the real-life seasons and months. Time is a scale, where, as far as I am concerned, changing it for the purposes of flavor has a relatively low return in terms of flavor gained, but a high potential for confusion. Then again, I change some other things with impunity, so I guess it is an individual preference.
 

My world has nine gods, so I divided into 9 months of 42 days each, with a 21 day lunar cycle. I had wave the 13 day difference in year length.

The Queen of Evil, was imprisoned in the moon, so full moons were bad good gods and happy for evil gods.

Each month was given 1 holy day dedicated to the god (if good or neutral) the months of the evil gods had days dedicated to human saints instead. I loved creating the holy days;
Memorial Day for the god of War, Feast of Fools for the god of illusions and deceptions, a week of fasting for a Saint martyred feeding the poor and wrongly imprisoned. The Sale of Iutar (god of trade) was always popular because PCs could both sell and buy magic items at 85% of base value.

It was confusing at first, but I usually said something like "first month of winter" and that was enough detail until the players got used to it.
 

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