Calendar and Timekeeping

## Calendar Organization

Each year is divided into twelve months, and each month is divided into four weeks. Weeks are seven days, but special days that fall outside the normal week occur at the end of the second and fourth weeks, rounding the month out to thirty days. As a result of this layout Imperial calendars are extremely convenient. Every month has the same number of days, organized in the same fashion each month. Thus the fourteenth day of the month will always be Saintsday regardless of whether it is in Frostmoot, Highsun, or any other month.

Other nations, races and religious orders often have their own variant calendars which break up the year in a generally accurate and more or less organized fashion.  The dwarves in the halls of the Steamhollow mountains break time down in a logarithimic fashion, generally ignoring the passage of the sun or moons from their homes beneath the earth.  Halflings of Shadetree are often seen using a simple seasonal calendar with only four months and subject to constant edits based on climate and weather.  As a result of these wildly varying standard the Imperial calendar is often used a common ground for scheduling meetings or arranging trade deliveries.  Names are often modified or changed outright but the underlying format remains the same.

## Days of the Week

**Sunsday** is considered the first day of the week in the Empire and also the day of worship for many Imperial citizens, especially farmers.  **Moonsday** is the first workday for followers of Pelor who spent the previous day at the temple, but is otherwise just another workday.  Militia troops, reservists and veterans are expected to muster and drill at local garrisons on **Towersday**.  **Wivesday** used to be a separate day of rest for women who were too busy looking after the household otherwise. **Thundersday** was historically used to take care of as many errands and chores as possible, with citizens sometimes working well into the evening and or night to make **Freeday** as truly relaxing as possible. After the leisure and libations most folk who don't find themselves in the Order of the Sun attend their temples or shrines on **Saintsday**, making good for the start of the next week.

### Travel Days

Special days exist on the fifteenth and thirtieth of each month, **Marketsday** and **Lastday**. The former is used to provide an extra day outside the normal routine for travel, extended errands or, as the name implies, shopping at the market. The latter is often used in much the same way, but is also a sort of extra rest day which is used for local holidays and festivals. It is a general superstition that journeys departing on Lastday will be particularly auspicious and many travelers will alter their schedules when possible in order to facilitate a departure at the end of the month.

## Timekeeping

The craftsmanship and technology necessary for precise timekeeping is largely unavailable in the Empire, leading to most citizens relying on other means to keep time.  For measuring the passage of time hourglasses, water clocks or candles are often employed.  When coordinating with others or breaking up the day the sun is often used, either by approximation or with the aid of a sundial.  In settlements larger than a hamlet some form of temple or monastery is often relied upon to announce the divisions of the day.  These divisions, known as watches and described in greater detail below, are usually announced through the tolling of bells, but horns, chants, gongs and even fireworks are not unheard of in some regions or temples.

### Watches

Days in the Empire are generally broken in eight segments of unequal length, known as watches.  These breakpoints are based entirely on the position of the sun and thus can vary significantly over the course of the year, especially in regions further from the equator.  In the winter watches can come right after one another, separated by less than two hours.  In the summer those same periods can drag on for four hours.  Some orders have attempted to fix this by standardizing watch times and unlinking them from the position of the sun, but the ever-popular Church of Pelor has been strongly resistant to such measures.

The commonly accepted watches through the Empire are:

* **Matins**:  Morning watch, starting at first light and ending at dawn.
* **Prime**:  "First Hour".  Dawn.  The ringing of this watch marks the rising sun.
* **Terce**:  "Third Hour".  Mid-morning - the sun is halfway between the horizon and its highest point.
* **Sext**:  "Sixth Hour".  This watch is marked by the noontime sun.
* **None**:  "Ninth Hour".  Afternoon - the sun is halfway between its highest point and the horizon.
* **Vespers**:  Dusk.  The ringing of this watch marks the setting sun.
* **Compline**:  Nighttime.  This watch is rung a couple hours after dusk, once the sky is completely dark, and is often used as a signal to sleep.

Note that timekeeping concept of watches is distinct from the watches described in Travel and Exploration - those are four hour segments regardless of the time of year and are largely a mechanical construct instead of in-game lore.