How Time is Tracked

Throughout the many worlds of the Weave, the Rodinians use the Ninth Kellvassian calendar to track time. Due to the significant history of their collective civilisation, their calendar has been designed to break down vast spans of time into a legible format.   The Kellvassian calendar system has been in use ever since the Kellvass transitioned into a globalised post-industrial society 375 million years ago. With every species that rises from the Earth to join the collective, the calendar is revised to add an additional day to the tellum (analogous to a week). There have been eight Kellvassian calendars so far, as there have been eight species to rise from the Earth.     The Kellvassian day has remained unchanged since the calendar’s creation 375 million years ago. It’s based on how long a day was on Earth during that time period when the Kellvass first arose. Due to tidal effects with the Moon, and to a lesser extent gravitational interactions with other celestial bodies like the Sun and Jupiter, the Earth’s days get slightly longer with the passage of time (Due to the numerical properties of the number 24 though, Rodinians still split their day into 24 segments – or 24 Rodinian hours. The actual length of the time denoted by a Kellvassian day however is still 22 “human” hours – therefore a Rodinian hour is slightly shorter than a human hour).     A tellum is roughly equivalent to a week, both in length and purpose. It originally arose from long distant and forgotten industrial and religious cultural practices among Kellvass, and is now used to segment the solar year. It was originally five days long, but as the Creatures of Earth grew in number it was decided by an ancient Great House sovereign that the days would be renamed after each one – and then have an extra day added when the sixth race arose from the Earth.   There are currently eight days in a tellum, named as follows:  

• Kellvos
• Visentos
• Teneros
• Carnos
• Tithos
• Ophentos
• Paravos
• Rupentos

    The Kellvassian year is basically the same as everyone else’s year in terms of its real length (i.e. it is 365 human days), as the Earth has only drifted away from the Sun by approximately 5’625km over the last 375 million years (A mere rounding error given the semi-major axis of the Earth is currently roughly 149 million km). This means that the Kellvassian year is only ~31 minutes shorter than the year measured by humans currently on Earth.   Due to the Kellvassian day only being 22 human hours long as opposed to 24 human hours long, there are 398 Kellvassian days in a Kellvassian calendar year as opposed to the 365 that humans would be familiar with.   There are 49 tellums in one Kellvassian year, with six “free” days left over. Free days are incomplete tellums that are usually celebrated as public holidays and have special names – usually named after solar system bodies. These free days are located after the end of tellum 49 as an extra 50^th tellum. This is usually treated as a holiday celebrating the union of Earth's intelligent species.   Every two years there is an extra day, or “leap day”, added onto the end of tellum 50 called Solintus.     Years are typically grouped together into ‘Great Grossians’. A Great Grossian is analogous to (but not equivalent to) a millennium. Whilst a millennium is an expression within the base-10 decimal system meaning 1000 years (or 10³), a great grossian is an expression within the base-12 duodecimal system meaning 1728 years (or 12³). The Rodinians use the duodecimal system for their numbers, and so their measure of time is also expressed using it.   (This also means that tellums are expressed in base-12 as well, so technically rather than saying there are 50 tellums in a year, the Rodinians instead say that there are 42.)   As days are measured from the start of the current tellum, and tellums are measured from the start of the current year, years are measured from the start of the current great grossian. What are great grossians measured from?  

Epochs

  An epoch is a sociological-based time divider used to track timescales much greater than a year across the civilisation of Rodinia, and is based on when a new species arises from the Earth (with the exception of the current epoch; the Imperial epoch). All great grossians in a given Kellvassian calendar are measured from the beginning of the current epoch, and a new epoch marks the beginning of a new Kellvassian calendar.   Epochs vary greatly in length and are not based on geological or astronomical time periods, but are all roughly between seven and eight orders of magnitude in length when expressed in years. They are sub-divided into great grossians.   The current epoch is known as the Imperial epoch, denoted Im, which has so far lasted 3’352’982 years. In Rodinian duodecimal, this is 1'158'472 years. Previous epochs were:  

• Ke – The Kellvassian epoch.
• Vi – The Visean epoch.
• Te – The Tenerian epoch.
• Ca – The Carnian epoch.
• Ti – The Tithonian epoch.
• Op – The Ophidian epoch.
• Pa – The Paravian epoch. Sometimes also known as the Chicxulub Epoch.
• Ru – The Rupelian epoch.
• Im - The Imperial epoch.

 

Summary

  Most conventional dates are expressed as Day-Tellum-Year-Great Grossian-Epoch. For example, 7-25-81A-955-Ru reads as Paravos of the twenty-fifth tellum, within the eight-hundred and alpha year of the nine-hundred and fifty-fifth great grossian under the Rupelian epoch.   In decimal base, it would be 7-29-1174-1361-Re, or Paravos of the twenty-ninth tellum, within the one-thousand-one-hundred and seventy-fourth year of the one-thousand-three-hundred and sixty-first great grossian under the Rupelian epoch.  

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  On a day to day basis however, the Rodinians require a measure of time that they can use from moment to moment.   One Kellvassian day = 22 human hours = 24 Rodinian hours   As previously covered, one Rodinian day is equal to 22 human hours. However, the Rodinians use what's called the Rodinian Hour, which is slightly shorter than the familiar hour. There are 24 Rodinian hours in a Kellvassian day, but only 22 human hours in a Rodinian day. A Rodinian hour is therefore 0.916 of a human hour.   The reason for this is that even though the Rodinian day is shorter in real terms than the human day, the number 24 still holds superior numerical value that the Rodinians wish to utilise for their division of time.   A Rodinian hour is subdivided into 60 Rodinian minutes, which are further subdivided into 60 Rodinian seconds. These are also 0.916 times the length of the human equivalent.   The Rodinians also make use of smaller subdivisions due to their significantly faster awareness, thinking and processing speeds, reflexes and general mobility. Rodinian seconds are subdivided into great grosseth-seconds (Gg-seconds, or Ggs), which corresponds to 1000 subdivisions (1728 in base-10) of a Rodinian second.   Grand-grosseth-seconds are in turn 1000th of a Gg-second, or 1’000’000th of a Rodinian second (2’985’984th in base-10). Most Rodinians live and think in Gg-seconds or smaller (1/1886th of a human second or less).