The Calanders of the Races

Many of the calendars of the civilized world owe their origins to the ancient elves, who used astronomic evidence to impose a structure on time and its relationship with events in the world. It was the great elf astronomer and mathematician, Pharom, who observed that when the brightest star, Elain, rose above the Eastern horizon over the ancient capital of Layagat, Mathenna*, that before sunrise on that day, the Agat Amood* began to rise. The ancient elves marked this as the beginning of a new year - for with the periodical flooding came renewed life, which was to be celebrated. The Agat Amood was symbolic of the great cycle of birth, life and death.

The months were similarly calculated, but instead based on the cyclical nature of lunar activity. In the early days, the arrival of a new moon ushered in a new month. This cycle was either 29 or 30 days. If on the 31st day a new moon had still not been seen (due to cloud cover, for instance), it was declared to be the last day of the month and the following day the start of a new month. This led, eventually, to a fixed calendar of twelve months to each year, plus a special celebratory month called Mood in which saw out the old year and celebrated in the new. Each year started with the rise of the Agat Amood and each month started with a new moon.

When it became necessary to calculate the divisions of the daylight hours, the ancient elves used great obelisks. Originally, this was used to divide the day into two parts - Uwld and Enther. Uwld was sunrise to the sun's peak, Enther the decline from the sun's peak to sunset. Slowly, greater divisions occurred and calculations, using celestial bodies, were used to set divisions during the night. This ultimately evolved into a 24-hour day, with each hour represented by sixty minutes.

The precision of the Pharomean Calendar is good, being both accurate and consistent. So much so that it has been adopted, with some cultural and local variations, by most cultures. However, close time keeping is not a perfect science. Once time keeping below the 1-minute division is required, perfection is not guaranteed and only the most skilled are accurate. For most, mistakes at this level of accuracy are more than likely to occur.

The dwarven calendar diverges significantly from all of the other races and cultures and is the oldest of the surviving calendar systems still being used. Instead of adhering to Pharomean calculations to signify the divisions of time within space, the dwarves prefer their ancient Lydominakk calendar, which has no relationship with either lunar or seasonal activity, for which the dwarves care nothing, but instead upon the cycles of the Shallod Tree.

The Shallod Tree was crafted specially by Shylar as a gift for Kavak. It was designed so that it did not require light to survive in the darkness of the dwarven realms, but instead shed its own silvery light. The leaves were said to be silvery-white and like velvet. Every fifty days, the Shallod Tree would bloom with mauve and red flowers, the scent of which was so sweet that even the dwarves were enthralled by it. On the 478th day of the cycle, the leaves would suddenly fall from the tree and it would become lifeless, for a period of 10 days, before the shoots would reappear and it would once again begin its long cycle. The Shallod Tree grew deep within the halls of Lima and was lost when that place was destroyed.

Long before its destruction, however, the dwarves built their entire calendar system around the cycle of the Shallod Tree, with nine months of fifty days, one of 28 days and one of 10 days. A dwarven year starts when the Shallod Tree emerged from its hibernation and ends on the last day of its hibernation. As such, the dwarven year is exceptionally long and bears no relationship to the seasonal or climate changes. For the dwarves, there is no concept of winter or summer or any of the other seasons and they have no interest in lunar activity or the stars. However, due to the great length of the dwarven year, the arrival of the new year has great significance to the dwarves and they celebrate its arrival with gusto.

* Mathenna was the capital city of Layagat, the greatest of the early civilizations. Layagat developed upon the banks of the Agat Amood, a great river which divided what is now called The Kera Desert. The snaking, slow river gave life to the banks and its importance was central to the culture and identity of Layagat. Several great cities developed and Layagat enjoyed high culture and great status for hundreds of years. Layagat was eventually overrun by the keradinn, their fiercest enemies, and the kingdom smashed. Gradually, over a long period, the Agat Amood began to dry up and the desert slowly reclaimed the land. Now there is nothing left of either Layagat, except for bizarre ruins lost in the sands, or Agat Amood.