History and Time in the West

From: Ian <ilikemonkeys.geo_at_LnIIbVt7IyNZ6nnvd03fjhJBdu5ho27QgQgPs3QtDXfd18mOBKgPVV-z6Iz>
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:54:13 -0000


The Yelmic Dara Happans keep time from the crowning of Yelm as King of the Universe, and so have dates in the 100,000 range. The Lunars have their own peculiar system based on the rise of the Red Moon. The Orlanthi use the practical method of dating since the Dawn, giving us the familiar 162X dates.

However, what year is it in the West? There's a line in Revealed Mythology that suggests that, for the Brithini, at least, the current year is in the 10-20,000 range. We know the Middle Sea Empire is responsible for our conception of Ages of Glorantha - but do God-Learner descendants do like Lunars, and reset the year whenever a new Age begins, making the current year in Seshnela in the upper 500s? Do the Malkioni conceive of the universe as a steady, unbroken progression like the Dara Happans, or do they have a Mythic/Time split like the Orlanthi, or a real-world Western conception of History/Pre-History with the events of the Five Actions getting the equivalent of BCE, and events since the Dawn as CE?

On the one hand, any society as math and book crazy as the Malkioni cultural axis seems to be should have incredible records, rivaling the Dara Happans in exhaustive detail. On the other hand, any people who have had their lands catastrophically destroyed with such depressing regularity as the Malkioni cultural axis may have lost more knowledge than they retained, and just use the ST system popularized by the Theyalans.

Anyone care to drop some knowledge, or even speculation?            

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