Thread: World Building for Fantasy (Calendar Systems)

So it's been a good long while since I've been on this site, mostly because I haven't been doing any writing for awhile. Life kind of got in the way, but now I'm getting some really good ideas, so I'm working again.

Most of what I've been working on is world building. I've completely revised my working map, established a more complete political and legal system, and I'm currently working on creating a complete history. When I set down to build the history I realized that I needed a calendar system as a point of reference. I've got the basics down pretty well, but the calendar is only used by one of the cultures in this world called Elenia (the culture is analogous to Scandinavia and Northern Europe). In my notes, the calendar was created to be more accessible than the one used by the priesthood of the culture of Kheph (analogous to Babylon/Egypt/Maya) which is very complex and has to do with the 72 stations of the God-King battling the forces of darkness. Also, there is an ancient culture that has disappeared, but still plays a significant role in the history of the world (analogous to Atlantis/Anunnaki/Elven). I haven't named this culture or put down a lot of information about them, but I've been considering making them have a lunar calendar instead of a solar calendar.

So as a result, I've got three calendar systems that will end up overlapping to some degree, one of which won't even be based on the solar cycle. And if I'm going to expand my history to include those other cultures, I'm going to need some way of cross-referencing these systems so that they are consistent.

I was just wondering if any other fantasy writers out there have taken their world building to this level, what problems they've encountered, and what they did to resolve them. Thanks.

themooresho, thank you very much for making me feel less weird about this. The only real problem I've had was coming up with a calendar system that made sense for certain nations and don't seem too obvious. All types of peoples live in the forest, but the major distinction is between the living and the undead nations. For obvious reasons, it doesn't make sense for them to use the same calendar, but it didn't make sense to have vastly differing and complicated ones either. So, at the risk of being hokey, the living use (a slightly modified) Solar calendar. For the undead, since it seems terribly depressing to keep track of just how long you've been dead yet alive, but for keeping track of history and cultural things, they have a looser, simpler calender. I don't have all the kinks worked out, so it is a little hard to explain.

Why don't you just use the Julian calendar? It's not very imaginative, but creating a complicated mess of a system for the reader to work out certainly won't help your novel all that much. A reader is going to need a short-hand, easy method of figuring out "we are in spring" or "this character is middle-aged." Simple, important details like that will become muddled and incomprehensible without a familiar system of months and years.

However, you're certainly allowed to play with it; often fantasy authors use an effective four-month year - Winter Spring Summer Fall. You can certainly play around with the conventions here, as long as there are clear concepts for the reader to grasp.

Of course I'm not advocating changing your novel around - simply providing another viewpoint.

I would also suggest that having 3 or 4 different calendar systems might be too hard for the reader to follow. In my personal opinion -- while the bells and whistles are important for you to understand -- I want to devote my attention to the story, and not necessarily the mechanics of it. And I realize that there are readers out there who love the intricate details of a fantasy world, but for me personally, I try to keep my explanations of systems and processes as simplistic as possible; the mechanism of a story is passive in nature. Now, if there is something about your calendar system that directly affects the plot, or a character, then, and only then, would I take the time to explain it in detail. But again, this is just my opinion. =) And remember, it's your​ story! Cheers!

Yeah, I'm not planning on trying to explain it to the reader too much. It's just a world building exercise, like drawing a map, in order for me to keep track of everything. But certain features might show up here and there, and when cultures interact with each other, I'd like for things to remain consistent throughout the history.