Where Did the Year Come From?

[Gilwing]

I still have a Purify Blood potion tag.

I figured that it is like the Chinese calendar, Mayan Calendar or any other such calendars. That there are regions that may have their own calendar - especially remote areas that have a calendar but not a lot of contact with the rest of Fortannis. But feel that there is a "Fortannis Year" that is currently 617.

I can only find one reference to a year in the current (and the last three) rule books and that is under "How to Get Your History Rejected" where it says "...if you write that the Duke killed your father in the year 597..."

It wwould/should be in the players guide

 

[Alavatar]

So, it's 617, right (except in Barran, where it's 624, I guess, but still)?
Why?
What happened 617 years ago that made the date start counting up? Is it universally the same for all chapters? Is there an explanation in your chapter?
The trouble with that number is that it's low enough that it's fairly plausible for there even to be middle-aged PCs who are older than that. And I've definitely met older NPCs. So even if there are some races where that could count as history, there are some PCs who, even if they don't know, should just be able to ask their moms.
Or is it not 617 in your corner of Fortannis?

Calliphestus, if I recall correctly, is actually 10,617 CR (Calliphestus Reckoning). Just 617 became the common parlance. The 10,000 years prior had a rich history that I believe no one (as far as I am aware) delved too deeply into except for specific information (i.e. Ceriopolis reigned for over 4000 years, but fell almost 1300 years ago! The depths were a thing thousands of years ago! Stone Elves settled into the Odekraag almost 5000 years ago ... etc.).

 

[Samyania]

Calliphestus, if I recall correctly, is actually 10,617 CR (Calliphestus Reckoning).

...what?? Why did I not know this?? This feels like a thing I should have known. Since I'm, you know, from there.

I mean, you see why I was confused about the short, 600-year thing, given no significant cultural developments happened in Calliphestus in the past like. Well, around 1300.

 

[Alavatar]

...what?? Why did I not know this?? This feels like a thing I should have known. Since I'm, you know, from there.

I mean, you see why I was confused about the short, 600-year thing, given no significant cultural developments happened in Calliphestus in the past like. Well, around 1300.

...

We probably should have put a generic historical timeline in as a preface to each culture packet. Hindsight is 20/20.

I think we didn't make that knowledge readily available in published material because we wanted people to ask for it since a majority of characters were coming in from a previous campaign. And it didn't occur to us to explain it for characters created in the campaign setting.

 

[Draven]

...

We probably should have put a generic historical timeline in as a preface to each culture packet. Hindsight is 20/20.

I think we didn't make that knowledge readily available in published material because we wanted people to ask for it since a majority of characters were coming in from a previous campaign. And it didn't occur to us to explain it for characters created in the campaign setting.

I prefer the theory that calendars are secretly illegal in Calliphestus, and since nobody claims to have one, it never came up.

 

[Samyania]

Let's not bring up laws and legality in Calliphestus. :/

 

[Avaran]

Let's not bring up laws and legality in Calliphestus. :/

We could always talk about The Valley if you'd prefer....

 

[Samyania]

We could always talk about The Valley if you'd prefer....

Sure, I don't mind. All of my Tarndale PTSD is secondhand, and primarily schadenfreude. :|

 

[Grianadhmad]

Not to purposely dredge all this back up, but when I first joined the Traverse chapter back in August of last year, I referenced this thread (with gratitude) while determining the local calendar year there. I approach LARPing from a narrative perspective and I like to write out the journals so having a date system is helpful.

In Traverse the year is currently 1018 ᴠʀ (Valdannian? Reckoning which I think is a carryover from the previous campaign before the chapter changed its setting to Eloria / the Forgotten Lands don't quote me on that though).

I also play in South Michigan but never bothered to ask about the calendar there, just used the suffix ER (Evendarrian Reckoning) but I think accidentally confused it with Calliphestus Reckoning as I've been recording it as 10618 ᴇʀ.

...my actual question why I'm posting on this thread: Is there an official Alliance consensus on how long ago the dryads turned over guardianship of the forests to the elves, regardless of the calendar system used?

 

[Samyania]

...my actual question why I'm posting on this thread: Is there an official Alliance consensus on how long ago the dryads turned over guardianship of the forests to the elves, regardless of the calendar system used?

Unless that's something that appears in national race packets, I'm not sure that's a universal historical event in every land. It certainly isn't something that happened in the land my character's from, though I understand the west coast is weird and Calliphestus was especially weird. And I guess even if it is something that happened in the national race packets, even then sometimes things get weird.

I know that's kind of the opposite of a helpful answer, but to my knowledge there's not even an Alliance national consensus of such an event occurring...

 

[Grianadhmad]

It is in the national race packet (here, page 3, Lore), though I totally understand that it might have been something that occurred at different times throughout the different continents and lands, if at all. So I still consider that a helpful answer

 

[Avaran]

...my actual question why I'm posting on this thread: Is there an official Alliance consensus on how long ago the dryads turned over guardianship of the forests to the elves, regardless of the calendar system used?

I think this was left vague on purpose to allow chapters more creative freedom when establishing their various campaigns, and to allow players that same freedom when writing their backgrounds if a chapter doesn't specifically cover it.

Much like the various calendars used in the real world, they all start from some relatively important event/person/thing and then go from there; old calendars used to use the reign of whatever monarch was in charge (in the third year of the reign of Monarch In-N-Frothy, it was said that the Wild Plants of the Great Plane of Sweeping Trees came to the capital and dropped off a pizza). Some calendars are based on the lunar cycle, some on the solar cycle, etc. I like to think of chapters as having that same sort of flavor.

 

[Grianadhmad]

In the third year of the reign of Monarch In-N-Frothy, it was said that the Wild Plants of the Great Plane of Sweeping Trees came to the capital and dropped off a pizza.

As far as I'm concerned this is Alliance canon now LOL

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