Re: Sprucing up the Western Calendar

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_FMCMo-1UB2HNgBFaE9wg5_Esi3dtpmRPzOIbEHgo4NWg2v4z5skApBQx4-_NKs8NTJn>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:36:04 +1300


On 2/17/2012 9:31 PM, Jeff wrote:
>> Given Orlanthi myth cites the Emperor as having 10 nobles and 294
>> commoners (KoS p57), it seems to me calenders of whatever sort existed
>> before the Great Darkness. I don't think it meaningful to argue about
>> whether who invented the standard calender (Five Seasons of Eight Weeks
>> and Fourteen Days). The Vingkotlings may have learned of it from the
>> Malkioni or vice versa or both may have stolen them from the Mostali.
>> The answers are lost in mists of antiquity.
> No so lost. Greg and I talked quite a bit about calendars, especially while we were putting together the Sartar Book. Here's the Orlanthi story:
>
> "At the Dawn, the god Time came with his 294 sons and daughters and told Orstohra, King of the Theyalans (the First Age Orlanthi), how to chronicle Time. Time introduced his sons and daughters to the king one after the other. Each backed into the room, bowed to the king, and told him how to speak their name in runes. Each day is associated with three runes: two elemental runes (denoting day and season) and one power rune (denoting week)."
>
> There it is. And the Theyalans spread this wherever they went.
>

I stand by my characterization as lost. All that you've shown is that the Orlanthi have a myth about the naming of the days. What's to stop the Malkioni or the Mostali having similar myths? We don't know who first invented it in the Storm Age and I strongly doubt that the Malkioni and the Mostali are going to say they received the knowledge from somebody else.

--Peter Metcalfe            

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