Pero_Gamechuck
Gamechuck
Hi guys.
So, calendars in fantasy RPG/action/whatever games set in an imaginary world... An imaginary world can't have "July" if it never had Julius Caesar, right?
Anyway, we were trying to figure out it for our own game, and came up with a... turtle. Bear with me.
In our world, the turtles have since antiquity been known to be scholars and keepers of knowledge. Their job on the Ark Fantastic was measuring time, so much so that the calendar of the Kingdom is designed on their backs.
The month was thus divided into 13 months, with 28 days each – 4 weeks of 7, accounting for 364 days in total.
After the end of each year, there is the Lion’s time. It is usually just one day, the 365th day of the year. However, when princes are born or kings pass away, this period of mourning or celebration is prolonged to as long as is needed.
The Lion’s time is a period which also helps align with the solar calendar: when a King who ruled 25 years passes away, the period of mourning lasts 6 days, to make up for the lack of leap years. Other civilisations also have this, and it’s usually called an intercalary period, and it’s usually mid-winter or whenever the days start becoming longer, so it coincides with the re-birth of nature and all the rites and rituals that occur at that time…
So we decided it happens right at the end of January, or, as we decided to call it – Cubbary. It’s the month when statistically, most cubs are born (well, cubs of some animals at least). That symbolises rebirth as well, and a new start, so it makes sense the year would start with that month, and end with the celebration of the most important animal in the Kindom hierarchy – the lions.
Since the gestation period for great cats is around 100 days, the period 4 months before that (corresponding roughly to our September-October) is adequately called – Ruttery. This is influenced by the various eastern European and Slavic calendars which all have the month rije or rujan which means rutting, or – mating).
We have also played with words a bit and called the July-August month Whest as a combination of the words harvest and wheat, since that month was usually called by either of those two words (žetvar – harvest month in Macedonia, followed by žitar the month of wheat, žnjenc – sowing month in Lusatia, serpen – the month of the sickle in Russia, et cetera).
So, in summation:
What do you think about this concept? Should fantasy games have fantasy calendars? Have we gone too far?
So, calendars in fantasy RPG/action/whatever games set in an imaginary world... An imaginary world can't have "July" if it never had Julius Caesar, right?
Anyway, we were trying to figure out it for our own game, and came up with a... turtle. Bear with me.
The month was thus divided into 13 months, with 28 days each – 4 weeks of 7, accounting for 364 days in total.
After the end of each year, there is the Lion’s time. It is usually just one day, the 365th day of the year. However, when princes are born or kings pass away, this period of mourning or celebration is prolonged to as long as is needed.
The Lion’s time is a period which also helps align with the solar calendar: when a King who ruled 25 years passes away, the period of mourning lasts 6 days, to make up for the lack of leap years. Other civilisations also have this, and it’s usually called an intercalary period, and it’s usually mid-winter or whenever the days start becoming longer, so it coincides with the re-birth of nature and all the rites and rituals that occur at that time…
So we decided it happens right at the end of January, or, as we decided to call it – Cubbary. It’s the month when statistically, most cubs are born (well, cubs of some animals at least). That symbolises rebirth as well, and a new start, so it makes sense the year would start with that month, and end with the celebration of the most important animal in the Kindom hierarchy – the lions.
Since the gestation period for great cats is around 100 days, the period 4 months before that (corresponding roughly to our September-October) is adequately called – Ruttery. This is influenced by the various eastern European and Slavic calendars which all have the month rije or rujan which means rutting, or – mating).
We have also played with words a bit and called the July-August month Whest as a combination of the words harvest and wheat, since that month was usually called by either of those two words (žetvar – harvest month in Macedonia, followed by žitar the month of wheat, žnjenc – sowing month in Lusatia, serpen – the month of the sickle in Russia, et cetera).
So, in summation:
- Cubbary – January 4 – January 31
- Lion’s time – February 1 + February 29 (as many of those as needed to sync up)
- Sunnary – February 2 – March 1
- Wake – March 2 – March 29
- Grassery – March 30 – April 26
- Bloom – April 27 – May 24
- Shine – May 25 – June 21
- Middary – June 22 – July 19
- Scorch – July 20 – August 16
- Whest – August 17 – September 13
- Ruttery – September 14 – October 11
- Leafall – October 12 – November 8
- Foggery – November 9 – December 6
- Pallidy – December 7 – January 3
What do you think about this concept? Should fantasy games have fantasy calendars? Have we gone too far?