Gloranthan Hours

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 14:01:51 +1300


Trotsky:

> > Mightn't the length of the hour change as well, so that the day was always
> > twelve hours? This happens in some RW systems.

>In *all* RW systems prior to the invention of clockwork AFAIK (though
>there may be some I'm not aware of). Which made reading water-clocks and the
>like a little complicated, since you had to figure out a way of reading off a
>variable-length hour from a constant-rate device - you generally had a sort
>of chart that an arm from the water-clock pointed at, which cross-referenced
>the date of the year with the length of the hour.

I've never heard of a water clock like this. Water clocks, hour glasses and time-candles keep constant time and were never corrected for the seasons. There _is_ a problem with water clocks in that they are not constant-rate devices but that the length of their hours changes with respect to the clock's water level. Thus to keep the hours constant, an additional mechanism must be added (such as a ballcock valve attached to a reservoir to keep the water level constant) to negate this problem.

>I'd be very surprised if Heortling hours (assuming they have such things)
>are of a fixed length. The Mostali would be bound to have them, of course,
>and possibly some others like the Malkioni, but constant-length hours would
>be rarity in Glorantha IMO.

The Hours for the Orlanthi, Pelorians, Malkioni and Dwarves are Heortling Hours are mentioned in pp30-32 of Book 1 of the Genertela Boxed Set.

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