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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