Calendar

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History: Calendar Calendar of Aleen-gha There are many different calendars used by varied organizations and empires. However, the calendar used throughout these archives is the most well-known throughout three northern continents and is the preferred method of dating by the School of Threnos. And for the sake of clarity we decided it best to use the Threnalian Calendar for the purposes of our historical collections.

Threnalian Calendar
Created in the wake of the most recent cataclysmic events known as the Great Freeze, this calendar marks three major epochs and spans over 19,000 years all the way back to what is thought to be the dawn of time. For proper Threnalian dating, the epoch notation is written first, followed by the year, month, day, and the name of the day, which is optional in most academic settings.

Example: AB 2119, Syk 17, Sehaninus

Days
Each day is represented by a different unaligned god, except for the Raven Queen. It is said that when one dies, he/she finally reaches the day of the Raven, the seventh day that supposedly doesn’t exist. These six days make up a hexus (a week). Also, hexus is spelled in this way as both a singular noun or in plural form. Some more zealous individuals refuse to call the days by these names and refer to them as either good or evil deities. This gets to be fairly confusing so most people just adhere to the 6 of 7 unaligned deities or just avoid naming the days altogether and keeping them numbered for simplicity’s sake. [rewrite the gods in this or think of a different concept since all the gods will eventually be homemade -- perhaps after Threnalian gods or heroes]


 * Iounus (1, 7, 13, 19, 25)
 * Corellonus (2, 8, 14, 20, 26)
 * Erathisus (3, 9, 15, 21, 27)
 * Kordus (4, 10, 16, 22, 28)
 * Sehaninus (5, 11, 17, 23, 29)
 * Melorus (6, 12, 18, 24, 30)

Months
Each month has 30 days, 5 hexus divided into 6 days. For example: Fallrun 22 would be the 4th day of the 4th hexus, Kordus. Holidays vary between different geographical and cultural locales. Most believe that the months of the year were named after the twelve districts that once divided the Astral Sea many, many years ago.

(For the reader's sake, each month corresponds to the earthly months of the Gregorian Calendar and will carry those names throughout these archives.)
 * Felorn (January)
 * Kendrix (February)
 * Heil (March) - Hiel 19 Spring Equinox
 * Indril (April)
 * Greenlid (May)
 * Mesnin (June) - Mesnin 20 Summer Solstice
 * Syk (July)
 * Ibek (August)
 * Vespre (September) - Vespre 21 Autumn Equinox
 * Fallrun (October)
 * Taev (November)
 * Boreaus (December) - Boreaus 20 Winter Solstice

Epochs
According to the Threnalian Calendar, there are three distinct ages that have been recorded in history, the knowledge of which are still found in the oldest tomes in the most expansive libraries. Threnalian historians argue over the existence of a fourth age that dates back before time itself, marking the beginnings of the universe. However, nobody has any documented proof of such an age.

Shargas
Marked SH 0 – 3549

The Age of the Settled Flame. Historians agree that the beginning of this age was marked by the discovery and application of magic by mortals. Before this time, mortals were thought to have no souls and were forsaken by the gods and all other spirits. By some miraculous event, the gods, spirits, and other such mysterious entities blessed the mortal races with arcane and divine gifts. This initial wave of power was given only to a select few. Some say that these few magi became great emperors and that their families became the rulers of vast realms and were worshiped as gods by the lesser folk. Great wars were fought with arcane prowess and divine intervention and the skies rained magical fire for the first many hundreds of years. Legend has it that a great central civilization built of magic reigned for the first thousand years of this age but fell for reasons yet unknown. The first detailed recordings of events in this epoch can be read on the Heroes & Traitors campaign page. The Air Islands of Nack campaign also takes place during this era.

Abstratia
Marked AB 0 – 5296

The Age of the Dreamer. After the fall of the first great civilizations, many of the inhabitants of Aleen-gha became dispersed and the ruins of the once-great empires were overtaken once again by nature's grips. Small pockets of civilization emerged here and there for hundreds of years at a time, but the peoples of this epoch faced a plethora of earth-shattering turmoils that prevented any single organization to truly rise to the power and influence of the fabled Shargathan Empires.

Threnos
Marked TH 0 – 10058 & beyond

The Age of Lament. This fabled age is by far the longest in the Threnalian Calendar and marks its beginning when Bottenhavet was cursed with the Great Freeze. While the northern continent was going through drastic environmental changes, the rest of the world still seemed to be going on about their own business. However, nearly all Threnalian historians believe that the Great Freeze eventually covered all of Aleen-gha.

Blossom of Time
The Flower that Encompasses All Time

Threnalian scholars believe in an overarching theory of time in Aleen-gha known as the Blossom of Time. This theory presents time in a cyclic fashion, rather than in a linear format. Just as the light of Aleen rises and falls each day and the seasons of the year slowly rotate, time itself comes full circle after an unfathomable length of time. Without this eventual cycle, eternity cannot truly exist, according to Threnalian academics. The Blossom of Time is represented usually as a flower with a million petals. Each petal represents some span of time -- whether that be a day, year, or millennium. Each petal carries within it a million smaller petals, and within that a million smaller petals, down to the most infinitesimal measurement of time and back again to eternity itself. Each of these petals acts as a singular cycle of life and of time. As in many individual cycles, these petals overlap countless times, creating the all-encompassing, overwhelmingly complex, yet elegantly simple Blossom of Time. Indeed, the whole of Aleen-gha is wrapped up in the Blossom, beyond the understanding or recognition of any pantheon of divinities.

When the three known epochs are put into the perspective of the entirety of the Blossom of Time, they represent a minuscule portion of the smallest of petals.

Ideologies abound of the concepts of the "beginning" and "end" of time, such as the origin myth of Aleen, but further academic investigation into these myths suggest that even those thought to be the "creators" of Aleen-gha were themselves created by even more ancient entities. Therefore, most peoples under the influence of Threnalian lore have adhered to the concept of cyclic time and have only guessed as to the true length of a complete time cycle in Aleen-gha. That is not to say that other theories exist among academics of all stripes differing from Threnalian scholars.

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History: Calendar