The Seasons and Calendar
To begin with, the current year is 120 of the Sixth Age.
There are four seasons in Atharen, following roughly the same pattern of progression and change as our world. These four seasons are Glade, the spring season, Searing, the summer season, Ash, the fall season, and Frost, the winter season. Three of these seasons last for 91 calendar days, with Glade lasting 92, for a total of 365 days. 'Seasons' are very important to the flow of how the world operates, with banks and governments using them for a variety of different purposes, including holidays. There will almost always be some sort of holiday on the first day of a new season, often in celebration of the solstice.
Threads should always be timestamped with the season, day and year attached, such as: Glade 21, 4620. This is for organizational and tracking purposes, and is mandatory.
Timestamp Formatting
- 31st of Searing, Year 4621
- 31 Searing 4621
- Searing 31, 321 AV (As in 321st Year of the Age of Industry)
The calendar of Atharen is also based upon the seasons. While it follows years and ages, calendar pages tend to be quite long as they will usually only have four, one for each season. These seasons almost act as months, and they are commonly used in similar terms; appointments will be scheduled for 'Glade 26', and marked in the calendar thus. There are also weeks in the calendar, thirteen of them per season, as each week is seven days. Glade, being 92 days long rather than 91, has one week that is eight days - the final day of the season. Rather than having a name like the other weekdays (which will be listed below), it is considered a holiday, called 'Summer's Precession'. Considering the first day of Searing is also a holiday, this is often a very festive time of year.
The days of the week are: Venadas, Kyrikas, Maztyras, Quarynas, Sarynen, Jaxetas, Evitrad, named after the Creator-Gods, long before the fall of many of them. Weeks are commonly used in Atharen, referenced consistently in daily life, particularly for scheduling. Venadas, dedicated to the Corrupted God Venadak, is generally a day of rest where pious followers of the Adac focus their day on worship and communal gathering. As such, many businesses are closed on this day, and it is often spent as a day of leisure for Atharens regardless of their faith.
Atharen also has months, and there are twelve of them, three each season. The months are as follows:
Solace, which begins the Season of Glade. It is 30 days.
First Bloom. It is 30 days.
Hunter's Bounty. It is 32 days.
Sundered Rise, which begins the Season of Searing. It is 29 days.
Sun's Zenith. It is 31 days.
Calid March. It is 31 days.
Cinderfall, which begins the Season of Ash. It is 28 days.
Earth's Rest. It is 32 days.
Wither. It is 31 days.
Final Solstice, which begins the Season of Frost. It is 31 days.
Rime. It is 30 days.
Glacial Dusk. It is 30 days.
Like the weeks, these are optional for play and are only meant to be used for flavor and immersion purposes by a PC who wishes to utilize them. They are not necessary for thread dates or even birth dates for PCs or NPCs.
Rules
• Players must, unless doing memory threads, RP in the season they're in. The seasons fall into a real-world time frame: Glade begins Mar 1, Searing Jun 1, Ash Sep 1, and Frost Dec 1.
• Players cannot do memory threads in seasons they played in. They may do memory threads in seasons where they were approved but did not play, however this is meant to be limited to threads meant to 'catch-up' on their story and improve their plot cohesion. If this privilege is abused to influence the current season in an unfair way, thread outcomes from these threads can be revoked.
• The year is always 2600 years higher than the current earth year. If it is 2020, it is 4620 on Atharen.
