The Calendar

The World has no seasons, and it orbits far from its suns. Its moons are small and visually insignificant. Hence any calendar is purely a matter of convenience.

Human Calendar

The Mižinē (ancestral humans) used a calendar based on the year, day, and month of their original home world. The year was 623 days long, and was made up of 15 months of 42 and 41 days alternating: Unsor (42 days), Vor (41 days), Lavor (42), Zor (41), Kanor (42), Dor (41), Fator (42), Bor (41), Ansor (42), Nor (41), Halor (42), Sor (41), Pavor (42), Lor (41), and Ullor (42). This corresponds to the knuckles of a five-fingered hand, with the 42-month days matching the knuckles of the closed fist, and the 41-month days to the valleys between the knuckles (and the space between the two hands).

The days themselves were approximately 1.8 times as long as a terrestrial day, and were divided into ten hours of 100 minutes each. There was also a week of 6 days, with the days of the week named for the major gods of the human pantheon.

Verē Calendar

The Verē discarded the human calendar entirely, substituting a completely artificial one of their own. Their year (viusai) has 512 days (garai), which is "1000" days in the octal number system. This year is divided into 16 months (kykai) of 32 days each.

Note that 16 is "20" in base 8, and 32 is "40". Thirty-two is also half of 64, which is "100" in base 8. So a month is "40" days long, two months are "100" days long, and "20" months of "40" days each make a year of "1000" days.

The following table shows the months of the calendar, in order, and the unofficial "seasons" (kaδai) of convenience. The season names date back to prehistory and the reasons behind them are forgotten. The names of the months are all flower names: eheđai, for instance, is a five-petaled white or yellow flower whose petals spiral out to the right from the center, with a delicate fragrance in the smaller varieties.

	Month (Kykai)	Season (Kaδai)
1	Dolai	Krevai (Search)
2	Jazai
3	Karθai
4	Husai
5	Ĵimai	Honai (Plant)
6	Wekai
7	Xyřai
10	Sθenai
11	Vyrδai	Ĵanai (Teach)
12	Lu°nai
13	Heđai
14	Borai
15	Talai	Jořai (Friend)
16	Simai
17	Novai
20	Dirai

The days of a month are not numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. The first day of a month is Galestai (Beginnings, from gala, to start). Eight days later, the ninth day of the month is Numestai (Second Starts, from numa, to reconsider). Eight days after that, the seventeenth day of the month is Xidestai (Middles, from xida, to cut in half). The other days of the month count down until the next Galestai, Numestai, or Xidestai, as shown below for the month of Dolai. Galestē Dolao means "On the Galestai of Dolai". Garē pen Numestô Dolao means "On the day before the Numestai of Dolai".

Dec.	Oct.	Day of the month (Dolai)	Abbreviation
1	1	Galestē Dolao	Gal. Dol.
2	2	Garē ĉušol pen Numestô Dolao	7 Num. Dol.
3	3	Garē kysol pen Numestô Dolao	6 Num. Dol.
4	4	Garē vîsol pen Numestô Dolao	5 Num. Dol.
5	5	Garē negol pen Numestô Dolao	4 Num. Dol.
6	6	Garē harol pen Numestô Dolao	3 Num. Dol.
7	7	Garē keŧol pen Numestô Dolao	2 Num. Dol.
8	10	Garē pen Numestô Dolao	p. Num. Dol.
9	11	Numestē Dolao	Num. Dol.
10	12	Garē ĉušol pen Xidestô Dolao	7 Xid. Dol.
11	13	Garē kysol pen Xidestô Dolao	6 Xid. Dol.
12	14	Garē vîsol pen Xidestô Dolao	5 Xid. Dol.
13	15	Garē negol pen Xidestô Dolao	4 Xid. Dol.
14	16	Garē harol pen Xidestô Dolao	3 Xid. Dol.
15	17	Garē keŧol pen Xidestô Dolao	2 Xid. Dol.
16	20	Garē pen Xidestô Dolao	p. Xid. Dol.
17	21	Xidestē Dolao	Xid. Dol.
18	22	Garē kym-ĉušol pen Galestô Jazao	17 Gal. Jaz.
19	23	Garē kym-kysol pen Galestô Jazao	16 Gal. Jaz.
20	24	Garē kym-vîsol pen Galestô Jazao	15 Gal. Jaz.
21	25	Garē kym-negol pen Galestô Jazao	14 Gal. Jaz.
22	26	Garē kym-harol pen Galestô Jazao	13 Gal. Jaz.
23	27	Garē kym-keŧol pen Galestô Jazao	12 Gal. Jaz.
24	30	Garē kym-jedol pen Galestô Jazao	11 Gal. Jaz.
25	31	Garē kymol pen Galestô Jazao	10 Gal. Jaz.
26	32	Garē ĉušol pen Galestô Jazao	7 Gal. Jaz.
27	33	Garē kysol pen Galestô Jazao	6 Gal. Jaz.
28	34	Garē vîsol pen Galestô Jazao	5 Gal. Jaz.
29	35	Garē negol pen Galestô Jazao	4 Gal. Jaz.
30	36	Garē harol pen Galestô Jazao	3 Gal. Jaz.
31	37	Garē keŧol pen Galestô Jazao	2 Gal. Jaz.
32	40	Garē pen Galestô Jazao	p. Gal. Jaz.

A period of eight days is called a tavai or kymgarai, either of which may be translated as "week". However, the days of a "week" have no names, and "weeks" are never marked on calendars.

The day itself is divided into "20" hours (rosai), 8 of day and 8 of night. Each hour is divided into "100" (64) minutes (jeimai), and each minute into "100" seconds (fu°rai).

Applicability of the Verē calendar

The Verē calendar is the universal calendar of the First History. In the Second History, it's the calendar used by the Verē privately during their enslavement, and adopted publicly after their liberation. Their masters continued to use the ancient 622-day calendar until their overthrow.

On Kantos, Êstâz's kingdom used the Verē calendar from the day the Râńē accepted his leadership against the Ĉundē and Girē. The Tlâńē and the Anθorâńē used the human calendar until their incorporation into the Kingdom. The Ĉundē and Girē had no calendars, and little sense of time; a given event was said to occur "in the reign of King So-and-so" and can rarely be pinned down more exactly, unless it corresponds in some way with an event or date in the calendar of a civilized society. After their conquest, they use the same calendar as the rest of the Kingdom.

On Syorkai, the priest-kings of Aatu invented their own calendar, completely different from any other. Without going into detail now, they had two different cycles of months: a religious cycle of 13 months and an auspicious cycle of 27 months. A day was named by its place in both cycles, and since 13 and 27 are both prime numbers, a given date would take 351 months to recur. The months themselves are 43 days long, so the resulting "year" was 15,093 days long, about 29.48 times as long as the years of the Verē calendar.

The Iñgrē adopted the Verē calendar as the universal calendar of the Second History. Colony planets used it as well, rather than set up calendars that would be unique for every planet; the colonists were accustomed to the idea that the calendar was artificial and need not reflect local astronomical constants. Aatu continued to use its own calendar, but used the universal calendar as well. Alien races also adopted the Verē calendar when dealing with the Iñgrē, or even with each other.

Chronology

Chronology is too large a subject to be included in a discussion of calendrical units, but perhaps a brief sketch of the origins and frameworks of the ones in use is in order. The Mižinē counted their years from an event far back in the First Universe, whose significance has long been forgotten. They continued this reckoning, using ship's time, until they finished their jumps through the years of the Second Universe and began permanent habitation of Taol Vrydda. Then they started a new reckoning from the date their ship landed.

In the First History, the Verē continued the human reckoning, in their own fashion. They also counted from the settlement of the planet (which they called Eoverai, Verē-world), but did so with their own calendar and in base 8. Thus Iheđai Vîdai's reign as Speaker begins in the Verē year "10,001", which is 4097 in decimal.

In the Second History, the Verē decided to date events from Herâk's explosion, again using their own calendar and in base 8. An additional consideration is that Herâk exploded about "1300" years earlier in the Second History. The invasion from the Universe of the Long Time, if it occurs in the Second History, and if it occurs at the same time, is expected in 2412.

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