A year by any other name

[Monty Lovering]

As we all know, a Gloranthan year is an enviably slim 294 days compared to the relatively fuller-figured Terran year of 365 days.

So a Gloranthan year is 80% and shrapnel of a Terran year.

Does this mean that a Gloranthan 21 year old is as mentally/physically mature as someone approaching their seventeenth birthday on Earth? Let's ignore the fact people in primative societies are normally more experientially mature, I'm talking biological development.

Or does time just go quicker because of (waves hands around) all the magic and stuff?

Or that Gloranthan humans just age faster?

Or that Gloranthan minutes are 74.49 Terran seconds long?

Definitely overthinking things I know but *shrug* 

[g33k]

(waves hands back at you)

IMG, a "year" is a year.  20 = 20, nobody counts cumulative hours of maturity.  Because it just mythically is.

 

Honestly... the calendar is IMHO already enough too much of a "wtf, why bother" difference for the average gamer, yet another barrier to entry.  Clayday?  Dafuq??!?

Add on a sci-fi-ish "different length of year" feature, such that 21 = 17???   No thank you please!  Don't want it, don't need it... in fact, not willing to deal with it.

MGWV

Edited December 9, 2019 by g33k

[scott-martin]

18 minutes ago, g33k said:

Honestly... the calendar is IMHO already enough too much of a "wtf, why bother" difference for the average gamer, yet another barrier to entry.  Clayday?  Dafuq??!?

It can get zany. Remember how "key days are 20% longer than earth days" because "key years were 20% shorter," therefore everyone ages at the same rate after all?

[Eff]

At Sacred Time, every year, when the world is remade, the difference in time between Earth years and Gloranthan years is made up in an instant. This occurs, in Dragon Pass, at the part of the ceremony where people who believe blood has iron in it are ritually rebuked and cast out, to hearty boos.

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

Everybody knows blood has bronze in, that's why it's brown when it drys.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Orlanthatemyhamster

[Sir_Godspeed]

24 minutes ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Everybody knows blood has bronze in, that's why it's brown when it drys.

It's also why blood-drenched bronze swords gets extra swordy and awesome 'n' stufs.

[Sir_Godspeed]

On a related note, this reminds me of the LotR appendix dedicated to time-telling, where Tolkien spends several pages explaining how the hobbits worked to make sure every month began on a monday, or how the Numenorians and Gondorians struggled to keep their calendars accurate by tinkering with leap days. It can all get a bit complex quite fast. (And that was when Arda was identical to Earth for time-keeping purposes, the Lamps is when it starts getting close to Glorantha-weird.)

Edited December 9, 2019 by Sir_Godspeed

[g33k]

2 hours ago, scott-martin said:

It can get zany. Remember how "key days are 20% longer than earth days" because "key years were 20% shorter," therefore everyone ages at the same rate after all?

<plugs ears>  "la-la-LA-lala!  I can't hear you!!!"

 

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, Eff said:

At Sacred Time, every year, when the world is remade, the difference in time between Earth years and Gloranthan years is made up in an instant.

Before the Sunstop in 375, the year may have had more days. There have been theories about Luck and Fate weeks...

Kralorelan Sacred time is one (six day) week. Looks like the Creator has as much time in Glorantha to do his job as the one of Genesis.

 

For the following, insert the groans of a chemist:

3 hours ago, Eff said:

This occurs, in Dragon Pass, at the part of the ceremony where people who believe blood has iron in it are ritually rebuked and cast out, to hearty boos.

Blood contains more sodium than iron. We all know that sodium burns up when in contact with water, thus it is eminently sensible that in order to start a fire all you have to do is let a drop of blood fall into water.

3 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Everybody knows blood has bronze in, that's why it's brown when it drys.

Nah, that's just the color of Storm. General Storm stuff and Storm metal are easy to tell apart. If you let it fall on your foot and it hurts, it might be the metal.

[davecake]

23 hours ago, Joerg said:

Before the Sunstop in 375, the year may have had more days. There have been theories about Luck and Fate weeks...

Which would have given the Gloranthan year 52 weeks, and meant we didn't have to worry about this annoying issue. A missed opportunity for Glorantha that could have bbeen

[GianniVacca]

I'm pretty sure Greg said at one of the German cons that the Gloranthan days were longer, thus having the Gloranthan year and the terrestrial one of similar lengths.

[Sir_Godspeed]

On 12/9/2019 at 1:34 AM, scott-martin said:

It can get zany. Remember how "key days are 20% longer than earth days" because "key years were 20% shorter," therefore everyone ages at the same rate after all?

 

57 minutes ago, GianniVacca said:

I'm pretty sure Greg said at one of the German cons that the Gloranthan days were longer, thus having the Gloranthan year and the terrestrial one of similar lengths.

I believe Scott-Martin mentioned that (unless "key" refers to something I'm not aware of), and it wasn't meant as a satisfactory solution.

[GianniVacca]

1 minute ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

 

it wasn't meant as a satisfactory solution.

I'm not saying it is satisfactory. I just remember Greg saying something along those lines at a con.

Personally, whether a Glorathan year is or is not the same length as a RW year doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the game so who cares.

[Sir_Godspeed]

30 minutes ago, GianniVacca said:

so who cares.

No need to get defensive, clearly a fair few people do care at least a little.

[soltakss]

When Players ask about Days and Years, I just explain that a Day is a Day is a Day, a Week is a Week is a Week, a Season is a Season is a Season and a Year is a Year is a Year.

Really, that's as far as I go with this sort of thing.

I have known people to say "Well, a 16 year-old Gloranthan is under 13 years old in real life", normally when it comes to marriage etc. my answer is just that a 16 year old Gloranthan is 16 years old and looks, acts and behaves like a 16 year old here, except is Gloranthan.

 

[Kloster]

The only time (no pun intended) where the different year duration mattered for us was the sorcery spell duration in RQIII, starting at 10 mn and doubling duration for each point of duration. For all other purposes, my position was exactly the one described by Soltakss.

[jajagappa]

55 minutes ago, Kloster said:

The only time (no pun intended) where the different year duration mattered for us was the sorcery spell duration in RQIII

That and pregnancy, where it works out to a year vs. 9 mos. Of course, the Ernalda priestesses can help adjust that anyway to ensure the birth falls upon a propitious date.

[Kloster]

As Glorantha has no months per se, we had a different count, but I don't remember which one. Probably 4 seasons.

[Bill the barbarian]

7 minutes ago, Kloster said:

As Glorantha has no months per se, we had a different count, but I don't remember which one. Probably 4 seasons.

Well Kloster, in a manner of seeking we could say there are 40 moons err, months.

[Eff]

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Well Kloster, in a manner of seeking we could say there are 40 moons err, months.

Clearly, Time is flawed. There should be 7x7 months in a Gloranthan year, for 343 days of Lunar bliss. That means we need an additional season, and another week of Sacred Time...

[Tindalos]

There are 10 months, as is only logical! Or so say the Brithini and Lunars who both have 28 day months and then sacred time.

Of course there's other references to months in the guide, like Orlanthi holding festivals monthly, Oouri having a month long mating season, regional activity on the tables. Of course most of these are just per season (as the Kralori seasons are also known as months) there are the occasional outlier referring to months from our point of view.

[Joerg]

Here on our own planet, a biological phenomenon is another strong incentive to use the month as the intermediate measure of time.

The closest celestial phenomenon to measure the menstrual cycle would be Tolat/Shargash, usefully the blood red planet. Unfortunately, this is a male-associated body (and the only one of the 8 planetary sons of Yelm I haven't seen a female version of).

An approximate alternative would be the half-cycle of Entekos with 31 days, suitable because of the wifely connections.

[Akhôrahil]

16 hours ago, soltakss said:

When Players ask about Days and Years, I just explain that a Day is a Day is a Day, a Week is a Week is a Week, a Season is a Season is a Season and a Year is a Year is a Year.

Same here. About the year, I tell them "don't think about it, it doesn't make any sense".

Making the day longer is a horrible solution that leads to far more trouble than it fixes.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Akhôrahil

[Sir_Godspeed]

52 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Here on our own planet, a biological phenomenon is another strong incentive to use the month as the intermediate measure of time.

The closest celestial phenomenon to measure the menstrual cycle would be Tolat/Shargash, usefully the blood red planet. Unfortunately, this is a male-associated body (and the only one of the 8 planetary sons of Yelm I haven't seen a female version of).

An approximate alternative would be the half-cycle of Entekos with 31 days, suitable because of the wifely connections.

This could/should be a thread entirely of its own. Given how *massively* important the menstrual cycle is in religious symbolism and gendered cultural/social practices, it's worth looking into/speculating about.

[Tindalos]

14 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

This could/should be a thread entirely of its own. Given how *massively* important the menstrual cycle is in religious symbolism and gendered cultural/social practices, it's worth looking into/speculating about.

It was. You were there!