The Calendar of Haylene

The Roll of Years

There are three common ways of keeping track of the changing of years and the marking of history in Haylene, although usually this is the province of sages and scribes, and not the common man.  Most peasants have no idea what year it is; for them “three years ago” is a perfectly valid method of keeping track of the passage of time.  As such, the most common method of tracking the years and centuries is very inconvenient for anyone who isn’t a historian… the tradition is to note a monarch and the year of their reign, such as “The Third Year of Esinaan III.”  This, of course, requires detailed knowledge of when the third year of Esinaan III was… it’s much easier to say “about four hundred years ago.”  However, if one reads a historical tome, it is extremely likely it uses this convention of dates.  

Two other calendars exist, however, one extremely old, and one relatively new, which both keep time in a much simpler fashion.  The first is the Guild Count, which is a count of years from the Great Conflagration and the death of Emperor Aasiman I, the last Emperor of Rhysone.  By the Guild Count, the current year is 324 (commonly annotated 324 GC).  The second such calendar is the Elven Count, kept by the high elves of Prydain.  The Elven Count is far more complicated, based on the phases of the various moons, and goes back over 12 millennia.

The Months and Weeks

The only commonly agreed upon convention in Haylene is that the year is 363 days long… this happens to coincide with with five & half cycles of Io, the Dragon Moon.  The weather of Haylene depends very strongly upon how Io aligns with the Winter Solstice (which is almost universally viewed as the start of the year).  In years where Io is Full, the weather is generally very wet, while in years when it is New, the weather tends to be very dry.

The matter of months is less of an agreed upon matter.  The dwarves, who give little care for the phases of the moon, divide the year up into 11 months, each with three tendays and three feast days (the first, last, and middle of the months).  While this convention is uncommon outside of Haylene, the strength of Dwarven trade and the popularity of the festivals meant that the Rhysonian calendar (which is far more popular), also uses three tendays and three festivals, although their festivals are three days long (and much less festive than the dwarves).  The Rhysonian month follows Titania, the Fey Moon, which has a 39 day cycle. 

In order to keep the months (based of Titania) and the years (based off of Io) loosely in synch, the Rhysonian calendar borrowed the elven month of Enandin, which occurs every three years during summer.  As such, the Rhysonian year typically has 9 months of 39 days each, and every three years has 10 months.  

The third moon, only called the Dark Moon (or the Dark), has a much longer cycle, taking 595 days to complete an orbit.  There are no commonly used periods of time based off of it, although it factors prominently in the Elven Calendar.

Conjuctions

Titania, the Fey Moon, Io, the Dragon Moon, and the Dark Moon do sometimes come into conjunction (periods where they are in the same phase).  With periods of 39, 66, and 595 days respectively, these conjunctions occur in four ways.

• An Arcane Conjunction, or conjunction Titania and Io, occurs every 7 years (7 years and 33 days, to be exact).  This is supposedly a time of great magic.
• A Strange Conjunction, or a conjunction between Titania and the Dark Moon, occurs every 63 years (63 years and 336 days, to be exact).  This is a period associated with death, and in particular the undead.
• A Terrible Conjunction, or a Conjunction of Flame, is a conjunction of Io and the Dark Moon.  This will occur every 108 years (108 years and 66 days) and be a time of great upheaval
• The Grand Conjunction, which has not happened in recorded human history, would be a conjunction of all three.