Gendaran Calendar
Years
All dates in Gendaran history are listed as either occurring in Œ or Æ - Œ being shorthand for Conventus Empirae (Creation of the Empire) and Æ being short-hand for Aetas Empirae (During the Era of the Empire).
The Aetas Empirae system of reckoning is considered to have formally begun at the very moment that Adrian Blackburn first declared the Kingdom of Gendara an Empire, and accepted the position of First Imperator of the Holy Empire of Gendara. That year became known as Year Zero (or The Fundamentum).
In later years, it became obvious that a system would be necessary to describe the events that occurred before the Fundamentum - at least without using one of the inferior systems of telling time invented before the establishment of the empire. It was then that the Conventus Empirae system was established. Using the Fundamentum as year zero, each year is given a number in Œ. Thus, five years before the Fundamentum would be 5Œ, whereas ten years before the Fundamentum would be 10Œ.
Because of the nature of Œ and Æ numbering, it is accurate to say that 0Æ or 0Œ represent the same year - in practice, however, the year is only ever listed as 0Æ, or described as the Fundamentum.
Months
| Month | Meaning of Name |
|---|---|
| Wolf Moon | Old Moon |
| Snow Moon | Hunger Moon |
| Worm Moon | Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sugar Moon, Sap Moon |
| Pink Moon | Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon |
| Flower Moon | Corn Planting Moon, Milk Moon |
| Strawberry Moon | Rose Moon, Hot Moon |
| Buck Moon | Thunder Moon, Hay Moon |
| Sturgeon Moon | Red Moon, Green Corn Moon |
| Harvest Moon | Corn Moon, Barley Moon |
| Hunter's Moon | Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon |
| Beaver Moon | Frost Moon |
| Cold Moon | Long Nights Moon |
| Dark/Black Moon | Final Moon |
Gendara uses a lunar calendar, based on the phases of the moon. As the moon cycle is 28 days, there are 13 months in a full year. Each month is divided into 4 weeks, with 7 days in each week.
Each month begins at the moment of Dark Moon, and cycles through the next 28 days, as the moon waxes to Full, then wanes back to Dark.
Unfortunately, the lunar calendar results in a year of 364 days - 1.25 shorter than the actual solar year. This means that the calendar does not actually correspond to the seasons - over time, the seasons will seemingly creep forward in the year, until they make a full cycle. For most citizens this is a matter of academic curiosity - for those involved with agriculture, however, this is a more vital issue. For this reason, farmers maintain a seasonal calendar of their own, which matches the solar year.
