I do believe we need a timeline of the Mythic Archipelago

[myrddin173]

I was actually pulling for the leap years for that taste of reality. I concede on that point, however I feel shortening the year to 360 days is just to convenient. I really think that we should keep it 365. Say the world didn't fully recover from the eruption for five years, the five days could be in homage to that.

 

[Kaellpae]

5 Days of remembrance for those lost? My people can agree to that, being at ground zero and all.

 

[desertrunner]

We can grudgingly agree to that. 5 Long days of no profits is a hard pill to swallow, but it does seem to improve relations.

 

[Telcontar]

Dunno. Having the entire world celebrate the same event in the same way is just... weird.

Also, are we agreed that the huge eruption is the start of our calendar? Cuz I've already put it into one of my culture's history...

 

[Kaellpae]

I was planning on having a second eruption not too long in my past. Not nearly as big as the first, but I believe you could feel it on your island.

 

[Eliazar]

I'm good with the 5 days of celebration, too. Though I think my people might change their meaning to fit their needs and decided to celebrate something else some decades ago.

 

[myrddin173]

Dunno. Having the entire world celebrate the same event in the same way is just... weird.

Also, are we agreed that the huge eruption is the start of our calendar? Cuz I've already put it into one of my culture's history...

Well it could give you a way to explore your islands grieving rituals. On Earth, there are many different funerary practices. Maybe one island fasts for the five days while another has extravagant feasts, so no I don't think the islands would all be celebrating the same way.

 

[JCFarnham]

In the grand scheme of things all you really need in the way of a common calender is the year, if we're talking historically of course. I personally vote for keeping things simple, that meaning sticking to a calender that people know by heart - just rename a few bits and pieces

I understand that its not "simple" simple if you want to get technical, but its what people are familiar with, right? Besides I have trouble with leap years even at my age so you know ... haha

 

[Ravana]

The calendar doesn't need to match the year. Historically, it took a long time for that to happen even in civilizations with sophisticated astronomy—and in some cases, it still doesn't: the Jewish and Moslem calendars are lunar, and don't match up with the Western year at all. So what's needed is a determination of how long the year is… how your culture's calendar fits into that is up to them.

Which brings up the question of whether we have a moon… or moons. Has this been addressed elsewhere?

 

[Kaellpae]

I think it would be cool to have a small, reddish moon and a normal sized, white moon.

 

[desertrunner]

I agree with Kaellpae. Multiple moons would be cool. Perhaps to elaborate on his idea more have the smaller moon orbit the larger as it orbits the planet. Two full moons or new moons could have some religious or superstitious meanings to different cultures.

 

[Kaellpae]

@desertrunner: That's exactly what I was thinking. My lack of sleep was keeping me from explaining it like that though.

 

[Ravana]

From a strictly scientific point of view, that sort of system wouldn't actually be possible, unless the larger moon were very far away from the planet, and the small one very near the large one: otherwise, the smaller one would have been drawn into the planet or ejected from the system by its gravity. And if the larger moon were sufficiently far from the planet for it to have its own satellites, they would either be invisible or barely visible—possibly only when they passed directly in front of the moon—and the moon itself would appear awfully small as a consequence of its distance. Of course, we're writing fantasy, so we aren't necessarily bound by such considerations, but I figured they were worth mentioning.

The reason I brought up moons is because the lunar cycle is the basis of our months (though the months of the Western calendar no longer match up with them). If there were no moon, there would be no particular reason for anybody to divide up the year along the same lines. Unfortunately, there isn't a good "rational" way to divide a 365-day year, since 365 is the product of two primes: 5 and 73. Unless we wanted the year to consist of 73 five-day weeks, that is… or five 73-day divisions of some sort or other.

If the planet has more than one moon… all bets are off as to how its natives would divide things.

For those who want 30-day months, I'd suggest the remaining five days might be better split up than being used for a single 5-day correction period. Tack one on at the beginning or end of each 90-day period—the obvious places being the solstices and equinoxes; alternately, if slightly less intuitively, they could be placed exactly halfway between the solar events, for mid-spring, midsummer, etc. holidays. That only leaves one extra day that needs to be added somewhere… the obvious, again, would be the last/first day of the year, though I'm sure everybody would be able to come up with at least one holiday they wanted to insert in their calendar somewhere.

All of which assumes, of course, that our world also has not only a nearly-circular 365-day orbital period, but an axial tilt in the vicinity of 23.5°, so that we can expect something resembling the seasons we're familiar with.…

(It's worth noting that not even all of Earth has the same "seasons." While you can divide the solar calendar by the same four events—equinoxes and solstices—everywhere on the planet, there are far more places where there are only two seasons: "wet" and "dry," or "frozen over" and "not frozen over." And in few of these cases are the seasons of equal length. So we're not exactly bound by the familiar four, no matter what other parameters we choose.)

 

[myrddin173]

I think it would be best to keep the axial tilt the same as earth as that would place most if not all of the islands in the temperate zone. Also I'm liking the idea of splitting up the five days. The calender would be as follows, I'm going to steal the names that Telcontar came up with for the months. Each month would still consist of three ten-day weeks.

Winter Solstice (1st day of year/winter)
Snow
Ice
Thaw
Vernal Equinox (1st day of spring)
Rain
Sow
Sprout
Summer Solstice (1st day of summer/half way point)
Flower
Pasture
Harvest
Autumnal Equinox (1st day of autumn)
Wind
Fog
Frost
Years-End (Last day of year)

 

[Ravana]

Well, 60° (that is, just above the top of our map) is pretty far north: the southern coasts of Finland, Norway, Greenland and Alaska all fall right about there. So we may want to tilt the planet slightly less. Though I suppose a warm ocean current coming up from southwest to center-north could accomplish much the same thing. Or you could just have really long, harsh winters.

(Not that anyone's ever going to ask what our world's axial tilt is. We have seasons, so there is one… about all the detail that's required. For reference purposes: nearly all of Europe is above the 40th parallel… whereas two-thirds of the continental United States is below it. For our southerners: 40° south passes just below the southern tip of Australia, and passes (mostly) between the two main islands of New Zealand. Gives you some idea of how much variation you can expect even along the same lines of latitude. )

By the way, my desert nomads pretty much divide the year into "the time we go to Gathering" and "the rest of the time." Not much changes from month to month where they hang out.…

 

[myrddin173]

I am planning on having my island pretty cold so I'm fine with keeping the tilt where it is.

Also does anyone want to come up with names for the ten days of the week? Do we want to name them?

 

[Kevlar]

Just got around to reading this whole thread. Funny thing is my main world has the EXACT same calender, save the names, and that a leap day is added before the summer solstice every four years. Needless to say, I shouldn't have a problem using the system. As far as the names of the weekdays, I think it's probably a good idea to name them. This will especially serve desertrunner's civilization, and all merchants. Naming a day is easier than naming a date if you know what I mean. Most people I talk to always know what day of the week it is, but have to think about or check for the day of the month. Plus many cultures have specific rituals for specific days of the week. Christians go to church on Sundays. Vikings bathed on Thursdays. We could work the weekdays into our cultures in similiar ways.
As for the names of them, I'd suggest thinking up something important to the whole archipelago.

And it is alright for me to design a seperate calender as long as I have a formula for conversion right? I'm thinking, to add to the contrast between the factions of my civil-war engulfed island, I can have the Kingsmen adhere to an irregular calender like our own, which would be the Harronyne's traditional calender. On the other hand, the Queensmen will have converted.

 

[JCFarnham]

You bring up a good point there Kevlar!

Surely not all of our civilization would have interest in new calender, more so than we've indicted so far perhaps?

 

[desertrunner]

A good point indeed. Not every culture may use the same calendar but every culture expects their goods to get there on time. So that shipment had best be in on Friday (or the archipelago version of it) or there will be he'll to pay!

 

[myrddin173]

Yah the calender was envisioned as an international/trade calender. That way people could come up with traditional calenders for their island if they wanted to.