Athasian Calendar

Every city state has its own calendar, but that most commonly used and considered the Calendar of Tyr. In the calendar of Tyr, years are counted off using a pair of concurrently running cycles; one of eleven parts , the other of seven . The eleven - part , or endlean cycle, is counted and spoken first, in the order presented below. The seven-part, or seofean cycle, is counted and spoken second. The endlean cycle is complete when Athasí two moons, Ral and Guthay, meet in the heavensóa major eclipse that occurs once every 11 years. The seofean cycle is more abstract, meeting when agitation in the cos- mos leads to fury.   Every 77 years the cycle repeats itself, ending with a year of Guthay's Agitation and starting again with a new year of Ralís Fury. Each 77-year cycle is called a kingís age; there have been 183 complete kingís ages since Tyr adopted this calendar (more than 14,500 years).   So, the first year of each king's age is a year of Ral's Fury. The next year is a year of Friend's Contemplation, followed by a year of Desert's Vengeance, etc. The 76th year of each king's age is a year of Enemy's Reverence, followed by the 77th year, a year of Guthay's Agitation.   Superstition and folklore surrounds each of the years of the kingís age. Storms during a year of Windís Vengeance are believed to be more powerful and dangerous, so many overland trips are avoided. Sacrifices and prayers are called for to ward off the great beast during years of Dragonís Agitation. Years of Enemyís Contemplation are supposed to enliven treaties and alliances-the list goes on.   Each year is made up of exactly 375 days: the exact time between highest suns. Athasians have no seasons that govern their thinking of time-there is no marked difference in temperature or weather patterns. However, the year is divided into three equal phases: high sun, sun descending, and sun ascending. Highest sun is the first day of the year in the calendar of Tyr and lowest sun indicates the midpoint of the year (which, incidentally, occurs at midnight, and is generally observed in nighttime ceremonies).   Days are kept track of in a variety of ways. Merchants tend to identify days with phrases such as thirty five days past the high sun. Other schemes divide the year into 25 weeks of 15 days each, the names of those days associated with important person ages of a particular royal house. In DARK SUN campaigns, DMs may stick to seven day weeks with the standard Gregorian calendar names for simplicity.