>The Orlanthi use the practical method of dating since the Dawn, giving us the familiar 162X dates.
Is there a reason why this system has to be "Orlanthi" in particular? As far as I understand it the Dawn, the birth of linear Time, and the final separation of the Middle World from the God Planes wasn't a local event that only affected people in the Theyalan highlands. It was a *worldwide* paradigm shift of universal significance.
Yes, some cultures interpret it differently, and have varying explanations of why it happened or what it meant. And yes, some societies might have other events that are more significant to them on a purely local level, and date their years back to that event.
For example, Plentonius wanted to prove that the newly-founded Dara Happan kingdom was "really" the successor to an ancient empire that dated back for countless millennia longer than the jumped up Orlanthi barbarians which had liberated it - ahem, sorry, "been invited to help liberate it". So from what I gather, he took their Theyalan calendar and added 100,000 onto the date to "prove" that Dara Happa was a thousand centuries older than the World Council. :-)
The thing is, though - while I can certainly accept some cultures in Glorantha to have their own idiosyncratic dating customs, it stretches my credibility to think that _every single one of them_ (apart from the Orlanthi) would ignore the single most important and noticeable event in mortal history... you know, that big light in the sky that didn't used to be there? ;-)
(Personally, I see the Solara Tempora dating system as being something else spread around the world by the Middle Sea Empire... which, granted, might be another reason for Third Age cultures to reject it.)
Stephen
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