Tallonai Calendar
The circle of time
T
he Tallonai calendar is the standardized method by which all casterway societies track days/months/years. Because Auld Cervia was the first true civilization on the planet, and because that society's founder and matriarch (Cervia Polonosa) was born and raised on the alien planet of Tallon, the Tallonai calendar has become a planetary convention nearly by default.
The calendar is divided into 6 months, with each month containing 60 days. Therefore, a year on Excilior consists of 360 days. Each month is named after a god from the pantheon of ancient Tallonai deities - although there are no casterway societies that actually worship those gods and it's not believed that anyone on the planet ever did. In fact, it's doubtful that many of the planet's current residence even realize that their months are named after archaic gods from an alien planet that they have never seen and have no way of reaching. The months, from the original Tallonari are:
- Peniel
- Achiel
- Hielach
- Rielel
- Gagavr
- Zielaph
Global Adoption
Disparate nations and ethnic groups across the planet, having their own languages and traditions, also have their own names for these months. But even if they refer to the months by different titles, they all comply with the 6-months-per-year/60-days-per-month cycle, and they all begin-and-end their years on the same days. So although they may employ different naming conventions, they are all following the same yearly/seasonal/monthly system. In more recent times, this has proven to be a useful aid in the burgeoning realm of international commerce.
The calendar has no concept of weeks, and thus it has no equivalent of "weekdays". Dates are simply referred to as "7 Peniel" or "52 Rielel". The assignment of weeks and weekdays - with their associated names - varies from country-to-country. Those countries consisting of a primarily-Tallonai ethnicity tend not to even bother with the entire idea of weeks. Other societies apply their own conventions, although it doesn't seem to have much effect on international conventions since everyone is abiding by the same standard for the months.
Connection to Tallon
Cervia Polonosa was instrumental in making this calendar a standard for all future societies. Although the calendar is still formally known as the Tallonai calendar, it's doubtful that the solar cycle on the planet Tallon matches up perfectly with that of Excilior. But there's no record of any conscious tweaking that Cervia, or any of her lieutenants, might have done to the system to make it fit properly with the yearly cycle on Excilior.
Given the annual weather patterns across the planet, it's generally understood that Zielaph and Peniel constitute winter, Achiel is associated with spring, Gagavr is the month of fall, and Hielach and Riele are known as the summer months.
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