Calendar
The basic calendar used across Noefra was developed by the old western empire, Tibor Imperia and standardized during the first year of the Biblia Dynasty, 1286 BC. The "year zero" was reset at the Cataclysm, dividing the years into BC (Before Cataclysm) and AC (After Cataclysm). The result is the Reformed Imperial Calendar. Other regionally-used calendars are mentioned below. This wiki uses Reformed Imperial measures across the board for all dates.
Years, Seasons, Months, and Weeks.
Each year is a single orbit of Quartus around Eua, which has a period of 384 days, exactly. The year is divided into 12 months of 32 days, each one matching a complete cycle of Quella, the larger red moon. Three months form a season. Each month is divided into 4 8-day weeks, each matching the complete cycle of Teki, the white moon. There are no calendar adjustments like leap years.
The year begins with 1 Spring Dawning and ends with 32 Winter Dying. Thus, the months roughly correspond to March - February in order, although their lengths are different from Earth months. Each month corresponds to the peak influence of an elemental plane.
| Month | Season | Element | Earth Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Dawning | Spring | Clay | March |
| Rebirth | Spring | Stone | April |
| Spring Dying | Spring | Coal | May |
| Summer Dawning | Summer | Lava | June |
| High Summer | Summer | Flame | July |
| Summer Dying | Summer | Lightning | August |
| Autumn Dawning | Autumn | Smoke | September |
| High Harvest | Autumn | Wind | October |
| Autumn Dying | Autumn | Cloud | November |
| Winter Dawning | Winter | Ice | December |
| Silence | Winter | Ocean | January |
| Winter Dying | Winter | Mud | February |
Weekdays are simply the ordinal day number, followed by Day: First-day, Second-day, Third-day, Fourth-day, Fifth-day, Sixth-day, Seventh-day, and Eighth-Day. Generally, 4th and 8th are "holy days" in many religious traditions.
Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds
Each day is 24.00 hours long. No leap seconds. Each hour has 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds, just like Earth. For practical purposes, 1 Quartus second == 1 Earth second.
Other Calendars
Worldwide, most calendars agree on the division into months (although some use fewer seasons, such as the tribal calendars of the equatorial Great Rift, which only recognize Dry and Wet). The traditional Byssian calendar simply uses the element names, but otherwise agrees. The largest variations are in
- Month names
- Day names
- Year Zero--non-Noefran calendars rarely use the Cataclysm as the zero point due to the much lighter effects of that event outside the Noefran continent. For example, the Ikelan calendar reckons in years CE (Current Era) or BCE, where 1 BCE is roughly 100 AC, dating from the fall of the dragon-tyrant Kozhun.
