Calendar's of Erehwon
There are several calendars in operation in Erewhon. The oldest is the elven calendar which dates back more than 15,000 years to the founding of Vel"Nethwe the greatest of the elven realms. The elves have divided their calendar into three Ages based upon important events in elven history. The elves first began to record the passing of time with the founding of the city of Tun'Qweth and the proclamation of the creation of the Empire of Vel’Nethwe and their sages have kept accurate time and astronomy records ever since.
The dwarves too have their own calendar but unlike the elves who adopted a universal calendar which is recognised and used by all the elven realms, each separate dwarven kingdom, or in some cases clan hold, has its own way of recording the passing years. In almost all cases the dwarves divide their calendars into a roll of years commonly known as the Roll of Kings. Each ruler has his own calendar named after him and the passage of time is marked by the length of the reign of the king. In the Iron Kingdom for example, the year Druthnar 127, or the 127th year of the reign of King Druthnar is the equivelent of the year 210 WR. When a king dies the current Calendar continues until the end of that year and the new king is ordained, and the calendar begun, on the first day of the following year.
The most recent kings of the Iron Kingdom and their calendars are:
There are a variety of calendars used by the human kingdoms however the most commonly used calendar, at least in the West, dates back to foundation of the Drutni Empire. Until that time the human kingdoms didn't use a universal calendar, and in the case of the Skelts didn’t have any written records at all. The Druthnians, like the Dwarves marked the passing of years after the name of the current ruler but they too had few written records. The lack of a universal calendar made the job of the monks and scribes whose duty it was to record the passing of years and record important events in other parts of the world extremely difficult. Thus at the Summit of Kings held in the autumn of the 18th year of the Reign of King Klovic, at which the Great Peace was declared, it was agreed to adopt a new universal calendar beginning with the first day of following new year.
Thus on the first day of the new year the Western Calendar (WC), also known as Western Reckoning ( WR) was adopted. However the desert realms south of Erehwon continue to use their own calendars most of which are based on the foundation of a particular Kingdom or ruling dynasty.
Months and Seasons
Each year in Erehwon is a uniform 360 days in length as it takes the planet this amount of time to complete one revolution around its sun. The planet has but a single moon, Celeste. Celeste circles the planet on a fixed path that takes 30 days for it to do one complete orbit of the planet. Thus the cycles of the moon have been used as the basis to note the passing of the months and seasons in Erehwon. Each year is divided into twelve months. Each month is further divided into five weeks, each of which is six days in length. Five days are for work and the sixth day, Godsday is a day of worship and of leisure. Each day is further divided into hours, minutes and seconds, much the same as the way time is divided on the planet Earth.
Days of the Week
Different countries have different ways of naming the days of the week but most Western countries have adopted the calendar of the Druthnians which usses the following days:
The Months of the Year
The calendar is divided into twelve months called tynes. Each tyne is 30 days long. The names of the Tynes, and the corresponding seasons are as follows. Each month begins with New Orb, the only day of the month when the Orb is completely hidden from view.
Phases of the Moon
The moon Celeste travels around the planet once evey thirty days. Thus the four phases of the moon- New, Quarter, Full and Three Quarter- occur every 7 1/2 days. The following chart is an approximation of the cycles, accurate enough for most mundane purposes.
| Kingsday | Starday | Sunday | Moonday | Earthday | Godsday |
| 1 (New moon) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 8 (1/4 Moon) | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 (Full Moon) | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 (3/4 Moon) | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
This page was last updated on
Wednesday, 10 October 2001