Shadowlands

Time, Calendars, and Shadow
Or how I manage and account for time in common shadows in my campaigns

Background

Time is a concept in both the Amber books and in the DRPG that's loosely referred to and then brushed under the carpet, often with strange consequences. On thing which illistrates this is that Corwin loses his memory as a result of contracting the plague in 1665, then mysteriously is involved in a car accident and place in an Asylum in New York but appears to have only been missing from Amber for a few years. This is at odds with the accepted notion that Earth time flows about 1.5 times as fast as in Amber.

There are lots of references to fast time shadows, a few references to slow time shadows,  and another general acceptance that time flows in the Courts about 10 times faster then in Amber.  There is also a vague notion that your can get from Amber to the Courts in 3 weeks, but no mention as to how that 3 weeks is measured.

This is just one of the minor holes relating to time. There is no mention anywhere as to how long a day is in Amber, or in the Courts. Nor is there any mention as to how long a week, month, season, or year is, nor how time is accounted in any of these places.

Implementation

What follows is what I use in my campaigns.. it adds flavour but can be a real headache when players move time streams(shadows) and more often than not I forget about timezones when players move to Earth time - technically I use GMT(BST) which means PST is GMT-8, MST is GMT-7, and EST is GMT-5.

So Standard Time, Amber time is 1.0, Earth Time is 1.5 Amber, Carnelian Time is 4 Amber, Elysium Time is 8 Amber, and Courts Time is 10 Amber. Carnelian Time and Elysium Time are very much non-canonical in terms of the books and DRPG, particularly the latter. There are also a few other time ratios that I use specifically as and when needed and a few I have used that I actually need to find the notes for and record.

So we have some ratios but these are all pretty much meaningless without some form of date accounting, or Calendar, and some sort of fixed reference point in time that defines how these calendars relate to one another.

Now an Earth year at 365.25 days, the time it takes to complete one orbit around the sun, is a real pain in the butt when it comes to counting time. Therefore a year everywhere else, other than another shadow Earth, is 360 days, just because it makes life easy. Also to make life easy a day is 24 hours no matter where you are and an hour is an hour is an hour. The same goes for minutes, seconds, milli-seconds, micro-seconds............

However, because I really hate making my life easy I mess about with the Calendar and the year, and various other things in different shadows.

Amber and the Golden Circle

So in Amber and most of the Golden Cirle a year is 360 days. The year is broken down into 10 months of 36 days. Each month is 6 weeks of 6 days. People (typically) work 5 days a week with 1 day off. The months are accounted for as
  1 Javich   5 Maivich   9 Novich  
  2 Fevich   6 Juvich   10 Davich  
  3 Mavich   7 Savich        
  4 Apavich   8 Otavich        

Carnelian

As in Amber a year is 360 days. The year is broken down into 12 months of 30 days. Each month is 5 weeks of 6 days. People (typically) work 5 days a week with 1 day off. The months are accounted for as
  1 Tihax   5 Mavax   9 Nokax  
  2 Zavax   6 Juvax   10 Decax  
  3 Divax   7 Savax   11 Sohax  
  4 Fevax   8 Otavax   12 Petax  

Courts of Chaos

A year in the Courts is 360 days. The year is broken down into 15 months of 24 days. Each month is 4 weeks of 6 days. People (typically) work 5 days a week with 1 day off. The months are accounted for as
  1 Jenhi Kohn   6 Ik Lot Kohn   11 Tar Ram Kohn  
  2 Youn Jik   7 Karfa Jik   12 Nar Ti Jik  
  3 Kel Mai Ghet   8 Alg Knet Ghet   13 Ti Mai Ghet  
  4 Frar Et Youn   9 Bok Gof Youn   14 Frar Bok Youn  
  5 Ik Lot Pel   10 Tar Ram Pel   15 Jehni Pel  

This is where things start to get a little complicated as a "year" in the courts is actually 15 cycles, with the cycle names being (mostly) the first elements of the month names reversed:-

  1 Kohn Jenhi
  6 Kohn Lot
  11 Kohn Ram
 
  2 Jik Youn
  7  Jik Karfa
  12 Jik Ti   
  3  Mai Kel
  8 Knet Alg    13 Mai Ti   
  4 Youn Et    9 Youn Gof    14 Youn Bok   
  5  Pel Lot
  10 Pel Ram    15 Pel Jehni   

Elysium

Elysium has the most complex calendar of all the shadows, mostly because I really wanted a unique calendar for the shadow, but a year is still 360 days. The year is broken down in 4 seasons of 21 days broken by festival days. The 21 day month between the festival days is broken down into 3 weeks with people working 6 days with 1 rest days. People gnereally do not work on the festival days, and definately not the 2 mid-year festival days(Maram Sham Drey, Maram Sham Cotil).
The four seasons are :- Jerit Ta’arm, Nusome Ji’tal , Terong Foo’Pil, Slavam Ni’Teng
Each Season is broken down as follows :-

  Maram Fey   Maram Lok   Maram Tor   Marem Oten  
  1 Fey   1 Lok   1 Tor   1 Oten  
  2 Fey   2 Lok   2 Tor   2 Oten  
  3 Fey   3 Lok   3 Tor   3 Oten  
  4 Fey   4 Lok   4 Tor   4 Oten  
  5 Fey   5 Lok   5 Tor   5 Oten  
  6 Fey   6 Lok   6 Tor   6 Oten  
  7 Fey   7 Lok   7 Tor   7 Oten  
  8 Fey   8 Lok   8 Tor   8 Oten  
  9 Fey   9 Lok   9 Tor   9 Oten  
  10 Fey   10 Lok   10 Tor   10 Oten  
  11 Fey   11 Lok   11 Tor   11 Oten  
  12 Fey   12 Lok   12 Tor   12 Oten  
  13 Fey   13 Lok   13 Tor   13 Oten  
  14 Fey   14 Lok   14 Tor   14 Oten  
  15 Fey   15 Lok   15 Tor   15 Oten  
  16 Fey   16 Lok   16 Tor   16 Oten  
  17 Fey   17 Lok   17 Tor   17 Oten  
  18 Fey   18 Lok   18 Tor   18 Oten  
  19 Fey   19 Lok   19 Tor   19 Oten  
  20 Fey   20 Lok   20 Tor   20 Oten  
  21 Fey   21 Lok   21 Tor   21 Oten  
      Maram Sham Drey          
      Maram Sham Cotil          

Reference Date

So how does this all tie together.. Well I use the following reference date(s) based on my original campaign, as the reference date(s) for all of these Shadows.

Amber: 34th Juvich PF 5 = Earth: Jan 1st 2004 = Carnelian: 10 Decax 19 = Courts: 16 Bok Gof Youn 273 Jik Karfa
Amber: 18 Savich 08:00 PF5 = Earth: Feb 1 2004 = Carnelian: 1 Divax 20 08:00 = Courts: 9 Frar Et Youn 273 Ghet Knet = Elysium: Oten 14 Jerit Ta’arm 2 16:00

There is a caveat here.. Elysium does not come into existance until Amber: 7th Savich 16:00 PF 5 = Earth: 00:00 Jan 16th 2004 = Carnelian: 00:00 20 Tihax 20= Courts: 00:00 22 Frar Bok Youn 273 Jik Karfa = Elysium: 00:00 Maram Fey Jerit Ta’arm !



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