Meledaqian Calendar
Creation
In service to the written word, their lord, and the preservation of history, the clergy and followers of Meledaq sought to create a single, simple, and unified system of assigning dates. Through the combination of astronomy and observation, an equal division of 400 years was found to stabilize the ebb and flow of individual years to the vagaries of the seasons and an imprecise end of a given solar year. Though this proper division took a great deal of effort and resources to discover, the historians shared it with the communities with which they interacted, and through such exposure it was widely adopted. By the time the existing cycle came to an end and the beginning of the first recorded cycle occurred, it was celebrated across half of Raan.
The months are as follows:
| Month | Common Name |
Length (Days) |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kipur | Frost |
31 |
The first month of the solar cycle coincides with the height of winter in Harar Bayith. Kipur, or "frost", sees the harshest of snows and the most deadly of freezes. |
| Lapshir | Thaw |
28/29 (leap) |
The second month of the solar cycle sees the end of winter and the beginning of spring. As the month of Llapshir -- or Thaw -- ends, so too do the snows. Lapshir is given an additional day on every fourth year that isn't divisible by 100, unless it's the quadricentennial (the final year of a 400 year cycle, and thus divisible by 400). |
| Gedvahl | Bloom |
31 |
The third month of the solar cycle sees the first blooms of the year take shape, and is indeed named after those first blooms. |
| T'zmyah | Verdure |
30 |
The fourth month of the solar cycle see the blooms grow into full verdure and is named for that growth. |
| Eliyah | Ascension |
31 |
The fifth month is the final month of spring, and a time when many cultures celebrate the coming of age of the young, and the retirement of the old. This month is named for it: ascension. |
| Lehazya | Sweat |
30 |
The sixth month is the first of summer's brutal heat, when those that work near to or on the surface start sweating in earnest during their toil. This month reminds us of this. |
| Zenyt | Zenith |
31 |
The seventh month marks the height of summer, when the sun is at its hottest. This zenith is celebrated by the month. |
| Siyerah | Storm |
31 |
The eight month marks the end of summer, and the beginning of the tempests that scour many areas of the world, bringing rain and thunder and lightning. |
| Quetzyr | Harvest |
30 |
The ninth month is the first of fall, and takes its name from the harvests that commonly begin in this month. |
| Rakab | Rot |
31 |
The tenth month bears the ominous name of rot, either of the harvest that were left too long in the fields, or the benevolent composting that best occurs in this month. For communities on the subterranean twilight, it also marks the month of the great mushroom harvests. |
| Quvmahl | Hush |
30 |
The eleventh month ends the process of fall as winter begins to take hold and the last deciduous growth withers away. |
| Shulig | Snow |
31 |
The twelfth and final month is also the month when the first snows cover the ground, and this month is named for those snows. |
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