The Story Calendar

The story of Descending Road takes place in the years 1522-1564 of the Fourth Dynasty, usually written as 1522-1564 4D. Since the calendar structure dates back to just after the Colonization, the correspondence of years is consistent throughout most of the recorded human history of Tarnus. What follows here is taken from Baumesser‘s History Briefs for the Overworked Student. We note that whenever one can easily check Baumesser‘s information against other more definitive sources such as Divaian, Baumesser somehow gets it right.

The colls forged the greatest unifying entities of Tarnus during its long, turbulent history. The First Dynasty, ruled by the Arcus Coll and its clans, lasted for over 3200 years, starting in year 1801 AC (After Colonization). The Arcus rulers established their own dating, using the same calendric structure as before but starting the count of years at their ascendancy. In 530 Arcus, the Peace Republic began, converting an autocratic rule into an oligarchy, but still under Arcus domination.

In 5042 AC the Argazindar Coll overthrew the world governing body and declared its own rule, lasting 787 years until 5828 AC. This was the Second Dynasty, notorious for its rule by terror and violence. The social order fragmented, the flagrant misuse of genetic material by the Argazindari and others led to waves of increasingly-destructive epidemics, and the slide into anarchy culminated in the Genedriver Plague in 6037 AC.

By 6218 AC the world had begun to recover population and function, and once again the Arcus Coll rose to power, establishing the Third Dynasty by that year, and beginning another long era of relative stability and slow advance back to a level of civilization not seen since the Peace Republic. This period of growth lasted 2338 years, ending when a small cadre of opportunistic experimenters unearthed secrets of genetic weapons used during the Genedriver Plague. Their materials, stolen by thieves and mishandled, resulted in the Inside-Out Plague in 8556 AC, or 6756 Arcus. This catastrophe shattered the frail web of human civilization then being rebuilt, and forced communities to isolate themselves and apply stringent health measures for years.

Regarding calendars, the designation ‘3D’ was never used for the Third Dynasty. The Arcus Coll preferred to date matters from their first dynasty, using the same designation ‘Arcus' for the calendar being referred to.

In 8575 AC the Fandarinn Coll arose to take over the healing process of the world’s genomic library. The Gene Laws were put into effect in 8641 AC, or 66 4D. In 9676 AC, or 1102 4D, the governing system in effect in the time of the story, the Security Arch, was put in control.

The year 1522 4D, or 10096 AC, is the year of Andrew‘s birth.

The Daily Clock

There are 24.92337 Earth hours per Tarnus day, making 1.038474 Earth seconds per Tarnus second. The clock runs in a 24-hour cycle, with six spans of four hours each, each hour 60 minutes, each minute sixty beats. Since the day on Tarnus is longer than an Earth day (in Earth hours), the second is made correspondingly longer to allow the same structure of hours, minutes, and seconds. Tarnus time units in physics and other sciences have been uncoupled from the time units of daily life from the beginnings of the Colonization itself.

The Visitor Calendar

The Visitor is a tiny, brilliant moon of Tarnus that orbits the planet at a much greater distance than does Lulith, the Moon. One Visitor month takes very close to six Moon months. The Visitor Calendar is a closely-kept secret of three of the colls: Arcus, Fandarinn, and Kai Ren Hau.

The Moon Calendar (Calendar of Lulith)

The Moon calendar is the primary ceremonial calendar for the colls, except for the agricultural schedules, which follow the City calendar. Fourteen months per Moon year, over a sixteen-Moon-year cycle, yield only about a 0.053-day error, which is adjusted as required by the periodic great convocation of the colls about every nineteen Moon calendar cycles, or 304 Moon-years. The calendar is kept synchronized fairly well with the Moon phases by alternating long and short months per year, and long and short years per cycle.

The colls hold their general convocation every sixteen years.

Corsang Run, the Festival of the Mothers, is an annual event that takes place through the first several days of the ninth Moon month.

When the City new year coincides with the Moon new year, about every 43 City years, the Festival of the Mothers is begun at the exact moment when the Moon is in inferior conjunction with the Sun (as at the time of solar eclipse), and lasts several days longer than ordinarily.

MOON CALENDAR MONTH NAMES

Month	Month Name
1	Ajitan
2	Atandai
3	Shutan
4	Duretan
5	Etantaz
6	Tanij
7	Ustana
8	Metana
9	Tanzor
10	Tazinan
11	Joutan
12	Tanekh
13	Otanou
14	Vzitain

The City Calendar (Administrative Calendar)

The City calendar has uniform months of 32 days each, with an eight-day week used for business activity. The City calendar also has three nested cycles of years used to make adjustments to maintain seasonal consistency. The shortest (first) cycle is nine years, leaving over only about 0.06 of one day; the intermediate (second) cycle is 180 years long, leaving over only about 0.002 of one day; the longest (third) cycle is 4500 years long, leaving over only a fraction of a day that registers in the seventh decimal place. While accurate, the calendar carries complications with the intersection of the corrective addition and subtraction of days for the cycles. One day is removed every 9 years for the first cycle. One day is removed about every 16 years for the second cycle. And one day is added every 500 years for the third cycle.

The days are adjusted successively in successive months marked independently in each cycle, so that in a year in which all three cycles require adjustment of a day, three months scattered throughout the year may be of lengths different from the usual 32 days (two of 31, and one of 33, in such a case). No adjustment of more than one day is ever made. If the first and second cycles require removal of a day in the same month, the removal for the second cycle is advanced one month. If all three cycles require adjustment in the same month, or if the first or second cycle requires a day’s removal in the same month as the third cycle requires a day’s addition, the adjustments cancel. The City calendar uses number designations for the days and months. For the eight-day week, names are used.

WEEKDAY NAMES

Day	Weekday Name
1	Dibarr
2	Juadi
3	Kiudi-a
4	Dimani
5	Ididai
6	Diusin
7	Usoudi
8	Arija-ka