Time and Date

Each polity in Chronicle has its own time and date system, reflecting its history and culture; the world is not yet so tightly-connected that this is widely impractical. However, in order to effectively arrange international communication, there is some standardisation.

The world is large enough that, for the occasions when standardisation is needed and employed, it is divided into a series of timezones, following Archival hours. These hours change in length across the world at the same rate as in the Archive, even where this means that they do not map precisely onto local sunrise and sunset.

The Archive understands that its contributors come from all over the world; in order to manage this, it organises its meetings on a slightly irregular schedule, so that contributors from any one region are not consistently logging on in the middle of the night. That said, meetings are not compulsory – most attendees genuinely enjoy the opportunity to discuss their work and their findings, and learn more about other cultures around the world.

Most of this page is to provide hooks for roleplaying; you do not need to memorise it. The longer sections, on Nemeus and Endring, will be most relevant to characters interested in either astronomy and/or the religion of these regions. In our announcement at the start of each uptime we will specify what time of year and time of day it is in each region. We will also give you the equivalent of the time of day in OC time. We encourage players to note which timezone their characters are in during the meetings, and roleplay accordingly – not everyone will be wide awake at 3am, for instance!

At the time of its foundation, the Archive had no regular timekeeping system. However, the need to accurately record the date of newer documents, along with the desire to compare the time at which different pieces from around the world were created, drove the creation of a much more precise system.

Starting from nothing as it was, the first Archivists took inspiration from the world around them to mark time passing. Consequently, the fundamental division of Archival time is the season. Initially, a season was the time taken for a tree which stood where the Source now does today¹⁾ to change between four states:

1. Summer: from the appearance of the first green leaf, to the moment that year's first leaf withered and died.
2. Autumn: from the death of the first leaf, to the moment the tree was left without any leaves at all.
3. Winter: the period during which the tree was leafless.
4. Spring: the period from the blooming of the first blossom, to the unfurling of the first green leaf.

The seasons were subdivided into days (the 12-hour periods between sunrise and sunset) and nights (the 12-hour periods between sunset and sunrise). A year, moreover, comprised the span of time from one summer to the next.

However, these seasons could be extremely irregular, or even non-existent in some years. Eventually, a more abstract system was created, dividing each season into 92 days, regardless of the actual progression of the weather.

The time and date at game start is: 354-01-15 (the 15th day of summer in the 354th year since the Archive's foundation).

Session 1 will take place in summer, session 2 in autumn, session 3 in winter, session 4 in spring, session 5 in summer, session 6 in autumn, and session 7 in winter.

The time-measuring techniques of the Nemeans derive from the star-chart calculations of the Alaxian navigators, who divided the endless strangeness of the mirrored sea and sky into hours and miles in order to calculate and survive it.

Nemean time partly follows the motions of the moon, the best guiding light for sailors at sea, and the mysterious power which controls the tides. The notion of the sea as the sky's mirror, and the moon as the sun's, has long been important in Nemean myth. The moon's cycles produce periods called months; the number of days per month is determined purely by the cycle of the moon.

The other part of Nemean time concerns the fifteen constellations, or 'houses', through which the moon and the planets pass. These are associated with various legendary heroes, commonly the founders of influential merchant-dynasties. The constellations Nemeans identify tend to be smaller and less elaborate than those Endringians point to, single images rather than great conglomerates of meaning. There is a particular story associated with each. A year is the time it takes for the moon to pass through all fifteen houses and return to its initial position, about twenty months.

The planets, meanwhile, are associated with the major Nemean gods. As the islands are the gods' bodies in the ocean, so the planets are their bodies in the sky. When a planet passes into proximity with a constellation, it is said to be 'in its house'. This brings significant prestige onto the descendants of the hero, especially if it is the god associated with their island. As in the stories, heroes entertain gods and offer hospitality, so their descendants are expected to lead divine ceremonies, and put on banquets and lavish spectacles for the people.

Nemean years are also named for the gods, on a five-year cycle. Therefore, the ceremonies actually celebrated in any given year are those that honour the god whose name has been given to the year. Because this is such a short cycle, the year is further clarified by specifying the name of the ruling family, who take on the title of 'Archons'. The original method of determination of this cycle has been lost to time.

The time and date at game start is: the 14th day of the 16th month in the second year of Baggaban under the house of Antithanes.

Session 1 will take place in the 16th month in the year of Baggaban; session 2 in the 20th month in the year of Baggaban; session 3 in the 6th month in the year of Yuu; session 4 in the 12th month in the year of Yuu; session 5 in the 17th month in the year of Yuu; session 6 in the 3rd month in the year of Xheech; and session 7 in the 9th month in the year of Xheech.

Endringians measure days as a full rotation of day and night, as the Archive does. Liria preaches that this cycle mirrors the time the gold-bedecked Trickster-powers spent on top of the world, and the time in which the rebel-gods bided their time, drawing reflected power from the moon, before they finally set the old order ablaze. Given Endring's heat, Endringians tend to rest at midday and again later at night, not dividing the hours of productivity in accordance with whether or not the sun is up. They do not focus as much as the Archive and Mayton Greynes on the division of day and night.

For Endringians, time lives in the stars, a product of the border-place where they bleed out into the timeless light beyond. The dancing constellations mirror the greater gods, who are living symphonies. Each new pinprick star marks a new opening, through which a small god might slip. Only one, however: it is Kleiops' gloomy maxim that ‘there can only be one god to a New Star’, and history has borne this out. Each time the stars bend themselves into a new constellation, it coincides with the arrival of an Incarnate Deity.²⁾

Endring derives much of its measurement of time from Nemeus, though it has simultaneously stripped elements from it and added further layers of complexity and symbolic meaning to it. The motions of planets through the houses are rejected as a guide to time. The planets are viewed as the manifestations of the Trickster Gods, blocking out true light, stealing potency from the multiplicity of stars.

The moon, however, is given heightened significance, but for its motions through the houses, not for its own fluctuating brightness. It is seen as a reflecting mirror which brings the light of the gods closer to us, no matter if it needs to hide itself from the Trickster Gods or not. The greater gods are associated with the constellations, and the Moon is seen to channel their power down onto the earth like a mirror-tower (another Endringian innovation), so that whichever god is currently pre-eminent controls the current shape of Endringian time.

The Moon is the mirror that channels the divine light of the constellation it currently dwells with into the world while it passes into its domain of the heavens. This heightens the power of that particular constellation's god, making time in Endring sing in harmony with their influence until the next sign has been passed into.

Though Endring's people are less given to sea travel than Nemeans, they are very given to the construction of astronomy-towers in a number of their Temples. This practice dates back to their Trickster-beguiled forebears; the repeated phrase 'star-bound fate' has survived from the scrap-records of those doomed dynasties.

The Endringian year is determined by the path of the moon through a seven-fold division of the sky into 'houses'. Six of these are centred on the major constellations the Endringians associate with their six major gods. The seventh reflects the time the Moon isn't in the house of any clearly-formed constellation, but adrift in a sea of stars.

In a gesture that infinitely irritated most non-Endringians, the priesthood of Alaxus long ago declared the terms 'house' and 'month' synonymous, as it is the moon's motion that governs the power the houses provide. For an Endringian, a month has nothing to do with lunar rotation, everything to do with the moon's position in relation to the stars.

On average these are roughly 50 to 60 days per house. However, this varies, accounting for the yearly variance in the time-spans of planetary pre-eminence. Fluctuation is prioritised over standardisation.

Six gods currently have the honour of dividing history's houses between them, with the last month left open for the many nameless gods who flow through everything without being able to make their intentions clearly known. These associations have not been constant even since Endring's founding, but it has been this way for some centuries.

1. Kleiops. In the Archive's Winter. A time to end the celebrations and frivolity, and return doggedly to the work that Kleiops teaches grants life its deeper meaning.
2. Liria. Between the Archive's Winter and Spring. A time to contemplate meanings, to stand back and reflect, listening to the birds in the hedgerows as they begin their songs anew.
3. Obix. In the Archive's Spring. A time for new shoots, new discoveries, new pursuits. People are encouraged to change their lives, to reassess and refocus on the pursuits that truly drive them.
4. Itztapex. Between the Archive's Spring and Summer. A time for experimentation and tests, in the wake of new Obixian resolve. A time to try your new ambitions against others in affable contestation.
5. Alaxus. In the Archive's Summer. The climax of the year's personal ambitions. A time to bring creations into fruition, to make research breakthroughs, to finally beach your ship on new shores.
6. Mumnos. Between the Archive's Summer and Autumn. The time of harvesting and food-gathering, when distinctions and personal endeavours are set aside; when all we have to give is given to the collective. A time to pay your debts, or forgive those who owe.
7. The Month of the Many, after harvest-time. Between the Archive's Autumn and Winter. A time of carnival, when work is set aside for purest rest and leisure. When the Many remember that the year is truly theirs, by the bounteous blessing of the gods.

The Endringians differ from the Nemeans in the counting of the years. These they date to the burning of the state records of the nameless tyranny before. It has been over a millennium since then.

The time and date at game start is: 38th Itztapex 1397.

Uptime 1 will take place in Itztapex, uptime 2 in Mumnos, uptime 3 in Kleiops, uptime 4 in Obix, uptime 5 in Alaxus, uptime 6 in the Month of the Many, and uptime 7 in Liria. The intervening houses will pass by in downtimes, like so:

• Uptime 1: Itztepex
• Downtime 1: Itztepex to Alaxus
• Uptime 2: Mumnos
• Downtime 2: Mumnos to Month of Many
• Uptime 3: Kleiops
• Downtime 3: Kleiops to Liria
• Uptime 4: OBIX
• Downtime 4: OBIX to Itztepex
• Uptime 5: Alaxus
• Downtime 5: Alaxus to Mumnos
• Uptime 6: The Month of the Many
• Downtime 6: Many to Kleiops
• Uptime 7: Liria
• Downtime 7: Liria to OBIX

If pushed, most people would give the date in Archive time. However, as all but everything in Mayton Greynes is timestamped in seconds since the founding, there isn't much need for the exact date.

In regular life, dates are given in relative time (for example “at 3:26, 21 days ago”) or by using important events (for example “on your birthday”).

The time and date at game start is: Today