Time Keeping

Originally, within the early form of the Moon Kingdom Astorians called ***Chroniclers*** were the first to begin recording history and created the main methods of time keeping. Before structures of time keeping were put into place, an assortment of loose systems of time were present across the continent of Stora in it's various tribes and proto-kingdoms.

## **Planetary Factors**

Typically the planet of Stora completes a rotation on it's axis every 24 hours, and completes an orbit around it's sun every 1,200 days, which is equal to 3.3 earth years.

Days in Astoria are known as light cycles, these cycles are split into two phases, ***day time*** and ***night time***, which are shortened to DT and NT respectively.

As light cycles across the continent of Astoria are staggered, time zones have been implemented across the three Kingdoms to avoid confusion.

Stora experiences seasonal changes roughly every 600 days, these seasons are referred to as the ***long dawn***, and the ***long dusk***. The long long dawn season has typically longer days and warmer weather, where as the long dusk has typically shorter days and colder weather. The seasonal transition from the long dawn to the long dusk is referred to as the ***cold fall***, and similarly the seasonal transition between the long dusk to the long dawn is referred to as the ***warm rise***. Additionally, as the axial tilt on the planet is minimal, there is very little seasonal variations between upper and lower parts of the equator.

## **Calendar Origins**

Initially Chroniclers within the early Moon Kingdom created a system where by the changing of the season could be more accurately tracked by observing lunar phases. These phases outlined an early version of a week which was 10 days long, with each day relating to the corresponding lunar phase.

#### **Old Moon Kingdom Days**

Not long after the creation of the basic week Chroniclers observed when typical changes in the seasons occurred and determined further segmenting of the year was necessary. Chronicles noted that seasonal changes repeated around a 1200 day cycle consistently which denotes a full year, with this knowledge they segmented the year into 12 months made up of 10 weeks.

These months were initially named after various sources which had cultural significance at the time.

#### **Astorian Months**

Now satiated with how the year should be tracked this calendar was officially put into place across the Moon Kingdom at the beginning of the year by Queen Rose the First, and consequently marked the first year in Astorian history to be recorded. To mark the beginning of this recording dates which reference the year will need to specify whether it is ***after time*** is being recorded (AT), or a year ***before time*** was being recorded (BT).

### **Cultural Differences**

While interest in recording and marking points in history was prominent in the early Moon Kingdom, the same couldn't be said to the same extent in either the early Sun or Earth Kingdoms.

The attitudes towards the seasons were mainly religiously motivated. The early Sun Kingdom inhabitants interpreted the sun as their lone deity, the Almighty Blaze. Within the religious doctrine the Blaze's behavior had to regularly interpreted, and could be fickle, as such less or more sun could be due to this fickleness, and it was not for the followers to judge only to appease. This attitude generally meant that most followers lived on a day by day basis with minimal long term planning.

Within the early Earth Kingdom however was a basic week made up of 7 days, this time span mimicked the life cycle of the box flower, which is a frequent symbol in the doctrine of the Merciful Earth Mother's church. This week denoted days in which followers *must* rest and attend sermons.

#### **Old Earth Kingdom Days**

The long dusk season was a notable time of the year within the early Earth Kingdom, as it was believed that the Earth Mother was resting during this time, which was the cause in the change in weather.

## **Modern Astorian Calendar**

As of 029AT the trinity pact included the reformation and standardization of time keeping across the three kingdoms. This reformation mainly focused on the days in a week, and the names of said days, as neither the Sun or Earth Kingdom had months within their own calendars.

The length of the week was kept at 10 days, however the days themselves were altered to be more universal, by being based on universal elements used in soul casting and rune crafting. As mentioned previously the month length, number and names were unchanged and simply adopted instead.

### **Universal Days**

With the finalization of a standardized week, both Oerday and Chaoday have been designated days of rest with prompting from a proto-Council of Commerce guild.

### **Date and Time Formatting**

When writing the date it is standard practice to write the day, month then year. This can be written either in short hand, i.e. 14/05/004 or long hand, i.e. 14th of Univer 4AT. When writing a time however the standard practice is to write the hour, minute(s) and the phase, i.e. 11.20 DT.

## **Trivia**

* Typically DT ranges from 5am to 5pm Earth time, and NT ranges from 6pm - 4pm Earth time.