As most people can tell by looking up at the night sky, Ferdarchi has two moons. The larger moon, also called the first moon or the Greater Moon has a cycle of 15 Ferdarchi days. The smaller moon, called the second moon or the Lesser Moon has a cycle of 24 Ferdarchi days. The Ferdarchi year is almost precisely 12 cycles of the first moon.

The Ferdarchi day lasts 4 RL hours, usually evenly split between 2 hours of daylight and 2 hours of night, depending on the season. Available light will vary depending on cloud cover and the position of the celestial bodies. Noon will generally be the brightest time of day. At night, light will depend on the phase and position of the moons. The fuller and higher the moon, the more light it will contribute. A full moon will be directly overhead at midnight. When Riantide coincides with the middle of the second week of a Thorpian month, and both moons are full, it may approach daylight levels.

The presence of two moons has given rise to two major calendrical systems in current use in Ferdarchi. These are, naturally enough, out of sync with each other and generally incompatible. Not only do they base their months and years off of different celestial bodies, they date years from a different starting date. These two systems are referred to as the Common Reckoning and the Thorpian Reckoning.

The Common Reckoning:

The Common Reckoning is based off of the first moon. Each month has fifteen days and starts on the day when the first moon first shows a visible crescent after the new moon. This system was first invented by the elves, but was subsequently adopted by most of the races of Ferdarchi.

The names of the twelve months in general use are the Common names for them and generally reflect a firmly agrarian culture They are:

1. Frostflower
2. Ice Moon
3. Wolfmoon
4. Wintersebb
5. Saprise
6. Petalspread
7. Greentide
8. Midsummer
9. Berrymoon
10. Cornripe
11. Harvestmoon
12. Winnowing

Each month has fifteen days, each with its own name. The day-names are taken from the elvish names for the phases of the first moon. They are divided into two weeks, one of eight days with a three-day weekend during the full moon (called Riantide) and one of seven days with a two-day weekend during the new moon (called Goltide).

The Common Reckoning is dated from the end of the First Great Orc War, The Common year, as of this writing, is 368.

The Thorpian Reckoning:

The Thorpian Reckoning was invented by Rowans and is based off of the second moon. The Rowans, scholars and magicians that they are, use a base eight counting system, taken from the eight colors of magic (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and octarine). The Thorpian Reckoning is commonly used by Rowans and Mages.

Each Thorpian year consists of eight Thorpian months, named after the colors, beginning with Red. The Thorpian year has very little relation to the seasonal cycle of Ferdarchi -- it didn't matter to the non-agrarian Rowans that the first of the year did not match with the start of any season.

The secondary moon has a cycle of 24 days. The Thorpian month begins on the first day that the second moon shows a visible crescent after the new moon. It is divided into three eight-day weeks, and uses Rowan names for the date.

The Thorpian system begins year one from the discovery of the heartstone of Segliz. The Thorpian year, as of this writing, is 1145.

The new year is generally marked by introspection and meditation, as the cycle goes from Octarine back to Red once more.

The Thorpian year is twelve days longer than the Common year. This means that New Years for these two Reckonings seldom match, but do coincide once every 16 Common Years (15 Thorpian Years).

It is incessantly argued which of these systems is the elder, especially by Rowans and Elves. Only the gods know.

Time Conversions:

Calendar Help originally written by Ogma, April 2000