THE ORIGIN AND USE OF THE COMMON CALENDAR


The current time is Common Year 937 (written CY 937, or simply 937).


This was determined at THE COMMON CONVOCATION in 850.

Which is to say, the calendar was agreed upon in the year thereafter known as CY 850,
when King Declan IV of Feyl Donok (grandfather to the current monarch) invited
emissaries from all of Landen to participate in a "Common Convocation."

Prior to the Convocation, many different calendars were in use. For example, when
the emmissaries arrived in Ving Raute, they all named the date differently:
To the Elves, it was the year 26485.
To Dwarves, it was 18138.
The Halflings used 9245.
The Gnomes considered the year to be 11150.
The Suhndi called it 411 New Age, or 4411 Old Age.
The Vree were living in 2465.
Arcallan captains dated their logs 2466.

This difference complicated even the simplest communication, transaction, and research.

But there was no way around it until the Convocation.

So THE COMMON CONVOCATION accomplished three things:

1. It chose the Year Zero, or starting point of modern history.
2. It officially ratified the language "Common" as lingua franca.
3. It concluded that the territory of any ocean-front state extends forty miles
from its shoreline.

The Convocation is the only time in modern history that representatives of every
government (including the humanoid, and five Arcallan pirate captains) stood in a single
room. Even the Elves conceded that although a human idea, it was a high point in Landen
history, and for 20 years afterward Feyl Donok was looked to as the brightest beacon
of human civilization (at least by many).


THE COMMON CALENDAR

(Incidentally downloadable here, if you want to know the names of the months.)

After much debate, the Convocation decided that it could not name the present year Zero,
because the Calendar needed to respect that the present moment was preceded by
much history. Dwarves and Elves pushed for the universality of their systems, but other
races balked at using their unwieldy numbers. The logjam of debate only broke when the
Gnomes suggested a very recent year be named Zero--and that it be one of total
insignificance in all cultures, so the calendar would favor no one people over another.

The oldest known living person was an elf named Familittin Broad-Sky, age 768, so
the Zero would have to be set prior to his birth--it wouldn't do to have someone older
than history. Declan IV suggested the year Zero be set 850 years in the past, a point
apparently associated with importance in absolutely no one's history. After short
debate, it was agreed.

Declan IV was guilty of subterfuge, however. For 850 years prior, a year which the Vree
had until that day numbered 1615, the First Great War began--an historic fact unfamiliar
to all non-Vree present. The Four Great Wars of the Vree home continent were the
cataclysm that sent them as refugees to Landen, as surely as the destruction of the
Suhndi continent had launched that civilization's new destiny, but the rest of the world
took Declan IV at his word, and so ever since, in a way, the world has kept time by Vree
standards.

Elven scholars discovered Declan IV's deception in CY 858, and a small band of
mixed protesters traveled Landen for the next ten years, seeking signatures on a
document denouncing the king of Feyl Donok. But by then the world already happily
counted its birthdays in Common, and though ten thousand signatures were collected,
not one second of common culture was reversed.

Today, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings and some humans keep other calendars as well,
but all refer to dates in Common Year to simplify their interactions with each other.

Some basic dates in Common History:
(Presently it is the summer of CY 937, or VC 2552 and SY 4498)
CY 266 = the Vree first arrive on Landen (671 years ago).
CY 429 = The Suhnden first arrive on Landen (508 years ago).
CY 180-210 = Approximate arrival of the Arcalla on Landen (about 740 years ago).
In Elven reckoning (ER), the year is 26572.
In Dwarvish reckoning (DR), the year is 18225.


A detailed timeline will be posted soon, showing key dates in VY, SY, CY, ER, and DR,
whether anyone cares or not. I just love this crap. Wheee!

But here's an important note, especially for Suhndi players:

When the Suhndi first arrived on Landen, it was SY 3990. Their home continent sank
ten years later, in SY 4000 (CY 439). The Caliph redubbed SY 4000 as SY Year Zero,
to mark a new Suhndi age. So SY 4000 became SY 0, which then at the Convocation
became CY 439. Salaman's worshippers, however, are well aware that today it is SY 498,
and they fear the year SY 500 (CY 939); that ominously round number feels likely to
bring cataclysm such as SY 4000 saw. Thus the next two years are likely to be a
period of growing anxiety for the Suhndi--a fact which makes no sense to an observer
who knows the approaching time only as 939.


And as for...

THE COMMON LANGUAGE

The Common language developed gradually over the centuries. Before humans arrived,
Halflings were already mixing Elven, Gnome and Dwarven words and concepts into their
speech. The earliest Arcallans learned this language--and gradually altered it--to
facilitate their trading on the continent. From CY 266-432, parts of the Vree language
entered general usage among the Arcallans long before the Vree had any personal contact
with the Arcallans--spread through the Halflings. But the Vree and Arcallan native
tongues had a natural similarity that made them easy to blend. When Halflings first
met the Suhndi in 432, that language was a little harder to add, but the Halflings
proved deft adapters. As early as 696, Half-elves in Exley had produced the first
known Common Dictionary, with 5,000 entries and notes on grammatical structure. For
years, it was displayed in the court at Pipedown, but it was stolen in 780. The book's
existence, however, testifies to the fact that Common was already widely in use--the
Convocation just ratified it.

In short, Common owes its existence to the Halflings, and its basic structure to the
Arcallan speech (similar to the Vree). Its vocabulary descends from, in order: Arcallan,
Halfling, Vree, Gnome, Suhndi, Dwarvish, then lastly the very difficult Elvish. The blend
makes it relatively easy for all comers to learn.


And if you're wondering about the ocean territory stuff...

NAUTICAL BORDERS

Were set mostly to regulate pirate relations. The kings and zyiphs wanted a set distance
from shore in which their merchants could be considered protected, and the pirates wanted
a safe distance from shore past which their ships would be considered a legitimate presence.
In practice, though, pirates don't respect the boundary when they don't want to, and navies
hunt them even on the open sea. The nautical borders have come in handy more as a
diplomatic concern--one king gets annoyed at another and fires off a letter complaining
about hostile ships too close to his shore, so forth. The oceans remain essentially
lawless. Advantage: pirates.

But there is an important significance: this aspect of the Convocation is the only instance
in history of all the civil states of Landen agreeing to abide by a single law.
However unenforced today, it remains the world's only "international" law.


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