I do believe we need a timeline of the Mythic Archipelago

[Mythos]

Not sure if I should or can post this, please delete if not, but I think that we should make a timeline of events that affect the whole archipelago starting from year 1 to 311. That way the rest of us can create timelines for our individual civilizations around that.

Things to include would be:
-Treaties
-Catastrophic Events
-Wars
-Geographical Events

Another thing is, why would all our civilizations use them same calendar? Maybe the beginning of Year 1 was marked by a big cataclysm or treaty. Just a few ideas. What do you guys think? Do we need one, or should we all create our own and then combine them into one?

 

[myrddin173]

This is a really great idea, and yes you were right to post this. Maybe the cataclysm that started Year One was the eruption of Kaellpae's volcano. It could theoretically affect them. What to the rest of you think?

As for why we all have the same calender, may be before Year One the islands all had their own distinct reckoning of time but after the event they came together and created an international calender which started in Year One.

 

[Kaellpae]

I think an eruption would be great. It would explain how we got to be on the same calendar.
I can write in a different volcano for 300 years ago. It would explain why nobody went to colonize my island until "recently."
not quite sure when to place Staccoy's founding. The natives of my isle could be descendants of that catastrophe.

What say you?

 

[Donny Bruso]

Another option is to do a 'tower of babel' scenario, where each of the islands are colonized by survivors of this disaster. This allows for a certain degree of similarity is pretty much anything, but allows for differences as well, as civilizations developing differently will change different things.

 

[Kaellpae]

I like that. Would 311 years be enough for that type of event though? I guess for either type? A world still in repair.. ish?

 

[myrddin173]

@Kaellpae

It would be plenty of time. In 1815, the volcano Tambora in Indonesia erupted. 1816, was known as the Year Without a Summer, frost and snow were reported during June and July in both New England and Northern Europe. Since there is currently no snow outside my window I feel confident saying the world has recovered.

@Donny

I have a feeling that there would already be people on the islands so I am a bit iffy on the tower of babel scenario. I think that this sort of event would have happened much earlier in the world history. I have a feeling the Years One - Year Three Eleven would be "modern history." The tower of babel would be better for medieval/ancient times I think.

 

[Kaellpae]

Alrighty. How big of a volcano blast are we talking? Bigger than Mount St. Helens? Crater Lake size maybe?

 

[Donny Bruso]

Yeah, I can see your point there, but you're basically talking about medieval to pre/semi-industrial countries organizing a meeting such as the UN or NATO. Based on Earth history there isn't a lot of that going on until the 20th century. You have a lot of one-on-one diplomacy, perhaps a few extras here and there if there's a big enough war going on. I'm just not seeing ten nations coming together to agree on a bloody calendar. From a standpoint of pure reason, which your people are supposed to follow, what does it matter what other islands call the months? A day is a day, no matter which week or month it's in. If you tell your business partner that 'the shipment will be here in twenty days' that's pretty unambiguous.

Also, it kind of robs a society of a point of individuality. Maybe one of them is controlled by the church, so all the months are religiously named, maybe another has them named for past kings or heroes. Sorry, I can see the need for agreeing what year it is, overall in the world, but I can't see the point of the world coming together to make a unified calendar at this stage of its development.

 

[Kaellpae]

I see what you mean Donny. My people will most likely only use seasons/harvest times, as they haven't had much interaction with the outside world.

 

[myrddin173]

@Donny

I understand where you are coming from. In the post where I brought up the volcano eruption I had mentioned that the islands would have had there own calenders, but after the eruption they came together and made a "universal calender" I probably should have made that clearer. I phrased it so that people could come up with a calender and have it be there "traditional calender" or go with the "universal calender" if they didn't want to.

Also in my opinion it makes no little rational sense to have two things doing the same thing (one reason why I think America should convert to the metric system, we use the English system, and even Britain uses metric). So I could see my people trying to create a universal calender. Maybe the islands that have a traditional calender they still use it for domestic uses and then use the universal for international uses.

For why they would come together, the aforementioned Tambora eruption caused the Year Without a Summer, no summer means a shorter or non-existent growing season. Probably not a big problem for the Big Island they are closest to the equator so they would still have plenty of food, but for the northern islands they would probably be experiencing food shortages, maybe the islands banded together for survival.

I originally thought of having the universal calender to make it simpler for us when making histories, so we didn't have to keep converting between different calenders when making an international event. Don't want one person saying a war started on one day in their calender and another person said the same countries signed a treaty on a day in their calender and then we find out they are actually the same day.

@Kaellpae

Originally I was going to suggest an eruption between Krakatoa-1883 and Tambora-1815 but when I checked this list of volcanic eruption rankings I saw that Crater is right near them so I would say go with that.

 

[Kaellpae]

Mount Mazama would be the perfect size. Big enough for our islands to notice, and small enough not to kill everyone on my island.

If we agree on this I'll start working it into my history. The eruption could very well be the reason nobody went to inhabit the island until fairly recently. I certainly wouldn't want to live on an island set on self destruct.

 

[Donny Bruso]

Yes, America should probably just convert to the Metric system, but the problem is we have so many freaking idiots who can't understand it. Oh wait that's because our leaders want to fix every other country on the planets problems while increasing our own.

But I digress. Worse, I digress politically.
Anyway, I can see your point, that you want historical continuity, and that's a good thing. I never argue with continuity. My point is that it doesn't matter if I say something happened on the 16th day of Flipple, and you say it happened on the 1st day of the month of the sword, as long as we agree it's the same day in the summer of year 208.

I guess what it boils down to is that I just don't see the need for a universal calendar beyond agreeing on a common year. If you'd like to make one, more power to you. I certainly won't stop you from exercising your creativity. Reknahl can take on the role of the US and do everything in a different way just to piss people off, lol.

 

[myrddin173]

How about we compromise, we agree that in Year One they made a universal calender but it turned out like America and the metric system. The government at first tried to force a change but people were happy with the system they had been using and basically ignored the new one. So while the universal calender is the "official" calender few people actually use it.

 

[Mythos]

A universal calendar could mostly be used by merchants and people that interact with other countries, like a trade language, while everyone else uses their traditional calendar. Just like science teachers in the U.S. use the metric system to measure out chemicals and such.

 

[Donny Bruso]

I will agree to your compromise in this instance. However, be warned, my people are evil and vindictive, and will denounce your calendar from the highest rooftop to the lowest gutter.

 

[myrddin173]

And my people will label your people as irrational hooligans, and say they didn't want them using the calender anyway.

 

[Donny Bruso]

Lol good deal!

 

[myrddin173]

After what you wrote, I couldn't resist. Anyways I'm going to PM the other editors so they can weigh in on the calender/volcano debate.

 

[Donny Bruso]

Sure thing. I'm writing my hooligan calendar based on the fact that there are 365 days in a year. I will agree that even between rational and irrational people we can probably come to a consensus on how long a year is, lol. If people decide it needs to be longer/shorter, my irrational hooligans can probably live with that.

 

[myrddin173]

Well a rational person would point out that sometimes there are 366 days to the year . Anyways I'm thinking the universal calender should be based on the French Republican Calender. In format but not names.