Planescape Setting Calendar

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Planescape Setting Calendar

For those interested, I've put together a 365.25 day calendar for use in the Planescape campaign setting. I originally created it eight or more years ago, but I'm only now running a Planescape campaign so I've put some effort into reformating into a PDF format to be sent out to my players.

Although I know that other calendars exist for the setting, I was seeking to make a calendar that I felt was more in keeping with the abstract philosophic theme of the setting, one that might be in use across the planes rather than just just within the City of Doors. I also wanted it to reflect both a predictable (i.e. orderly) timekeeping system while including an ever-changing (i.e. chaotic) element.

Here's a rundown:
The Cage is eternal, so much so that no one knows the date of its creation or founding. The Lady surely was present, but whether she and Sigil came into being simultaneously or she preceded the city is not know except by her. Those who stay in the city long enough realize that with the constant changes in Sigil it doesn’t matter too precisely how long ago something happened, but there are always those who take a keen interest in attempting to carve up eternity into manageable portions. Within the Cage, the modrons who operate the temple of Primus in the Lady’s Ward are recognized as the city’s official timekeepers.

THE CONCEPTUAL CALENDAR
A Guvner invention, the conceptual calendar is meant to represent a symbolic passage through all the planes of existence as well as their associated ideologies. Some bashers believe that the city’s mood often changes to reflect the philosophy associated with a particular moment, but most consider that mere screed.
The clueless, along with some addle-coved berks, are often confused by the conceptual calendar. No surprise there; the Guvners have never been accused of making things easy for a body to understand. In truth most cutters don’t ever use the whole thing. Only detail obsessed graybeards delineate a moment as precisely as “the third hour before peak on chastity day, in the third rule of the state of Serenity, in the one hundredth and twenty-fifth year of Factol Hashkar’s reign”. Bar That. Most cutters simply use as little of the calendar as they need to be understood. Saying something like “last Lust night” or “in two rules and a day” is usually sufficient for most cagers’ needs.

Years
Also known as Cycles, each year is comprised of 365 days, including 17 months along with 8 or 9 civic holidays, known as cardinal days, which fall between every other state.
Years are measured, then, from beginnings of factols’ rules, most often according to those of the Fraternity of Order. The current date is the 127th year of Factol Hashkar’s reign (often abbreviated as FHR). Some berks instead keep a tally of years starting with an event known as the Great Upheaval which occurred in Sigil some 630 years ago (equivalent to -503 FHR) in which the Lady of Pain is said to have intervened to dictate the number of factions which would be permitted to operate within the city.

Months
Also known as States, each of the 17 months is comprised of 3 weeks and represents one of the seventeen outer planes, all arranged in a sequence which mirrors the position of the plane within the Great Ring. The first state of the year, Balance, displaces the state that would typically follow the last state of the previous year. The cycle then continues on to the following state and so on until the cycle ends with the initially displaced state. In this way, the order of the months change from year to year in a 17-year “Great Cycle”.
Since the order of months changes from year to year, they can be a confusing means of keeping track of yearly events such as anniversaries. In such cases most bashers simply count from the fixed cardinal days to keep track of specific events. For example, a cutter might remember his own birthday as being “one state and six days after Terra.”

State....................Associated plane
Balance................The Outlands
Order...................Mechanus
Concordance.........Arcadia
Exaltation.............Mount Celestia
Perseverance........Bytopia
Serenity...............Elysium
Savagery.............The Beastlands
Passion................Arborea
Valiance...............Ysgard
Chaos..................Limbo
Delirium...............Pandemonium
Depravity.............Abyss
Constraint............Carceri
Despair................The Grey Waste
Selfishness...........Gehenna
Dominance...........Baator
Conflict................Acheron

Cardinal days
These extra eight days in the calendar fall between states and represent the inner and transitive planes. Within Sigil they are observed as civic holidays of sorts, sometimes being celebrated with festivities which reflect the theme of their associated planes. Although the order of the states changes from year to year, the position of the cardinal days never waver. The first cardinal day, Astrum, occurs between the second and third state of the year. The following cardinal days then occur in order every two states thereafter. Once every four years a ninth cardinal day, called Prime, is added following the state of Balance.

Cardinal day.........Associated plane
Astrum.................Astral
Aer......................Elemental Air
Vita......................Positive Energy
Aqua....................Elemental Water
Aether..................Ethereal
Terra....................Elemental Earth
Mortis...................Negative Energy
Ignis....................Elemental Fire
Prime...................Prime Material

Weeks
Also known as Rules, each week within a state is comprised of seven days and is named after one of the three planar axioms.

Rules..................Associated axiom
1. Unity...............Unity of Rings
2. Center............Center of All
3. Third...............Rule of Threes

Days and Nights of the Week
Each period of light within the Cage is colloquially named after a virtue while each period of darkness is associated with a corresponding sin.

Day.....................Night
1. Chastity...........Lust
2. Temperance.....Gluttony
3. Charity............Greed
4. Diligence..........Sloth
5. Forgiveness......Wrath
6. Kindness..........Envy
7. Humility...........Pride

Hours
The bashers in Sigil base their timekeeping on hours relative to the peak hour of light. Peak is roughly equivalent to noon on a prime world; the six brightest hours in the City of Doors are the three hours before peak (BP) and the three hours after peak (AP). For the primes, this means 2 BP matches 1000 hours in military time, and 2 AP corresponds to 1400 hours. “Midnight” in Sigil is called antipeak. The six darkest hours come just before and after antipeak. Cutters should be aware that hours don’t have names or numbers, really (no Hour of the Weeping Crow, no terce or matins), just positions before and after peak and antipeak. This is clearest on the city’s clocks, which all have twenty-four increments and are shaded from black at the bottom (antipeak) to white at the top (peak).

And here's a link to pretty formatted PDF download. Please let me know what you think. Laughing out loud

inkoia's picture
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We like to track the

We like to track the adventures in a calendar, and after reading this calendar method, we decided to use it; in my opinion the idea is great.

We've put the calendar in an OOo calc sheet to print it and use it to make notations, but maybe could be an interesting idea to make it more artistic. Here is an idea (I've used Zen's artwork just for try), but I'd like to know if someone has done something like this and wants to share. 

sigil perpetual calendar

(the order of months change, so it could be done also in a generic way)

szass's picture
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Very good work for you too

Very good work for you too !

Thanks ! Smile

Jem
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Say, do you have that

Say, do you have that background by itself, too?  I recognize it and I like the format but I don't have that particular map.

inkoia's picture
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I forgot to add the link. I

I forgot to add the link. I meant Zen79's artwork Innocent, who has a deviantart account: http://zen79.deviantart.com

The multiverse map is located here: http://zen79.deviantart.com/art/The-Planescape-Multiverse-35619350

Anyway, I used that artwork as an example. I'd like to see a more artistic calendar, not one with the calc sheet squares. I was thinking in a series of gears representing the multiverse and each plane. And as the gears rotate, the months rotate.

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Very well put together.  I

Very well put together.  I am most impressed.

Anetra's picture
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During the brief

During the brief half-of-a-year when I adminned the Gatecrashers NeverwinterNights server, one of the other DMs (SylvanBlood) and I developed a calendar system as well which, not to steal your thunder, and not to claim that it's in any way better (it probably isn't) but: I figured it just might be interesting to enclose as well, for comparison, and, I know you say you made yours 8 years ago but if you want to steal anything we did then please do.

They actually look quite similar, though.

 

We nabbed parts of ours (particularly the month names) from, I forget the source, I think S.I.G.I.S. on mimir.net? The forum we did our brainstorming on is now lost, so I can't check back on where they were from. Ack.

 

Quote:
There is little that remains a constant in the Outlands-The terrain will shift beneath an unwary cutter's shoes, the borders between the planes constantly shift and warp, and portals never linger in the same spot for too long. How, then, is anyone supposed to keep track of the time? In a world utterly devoid of astronomy, the prime-world idea of calendars was entirely at fault, and you can only tell so much by watching the sky light up. The answer, of course, lie in one of the most utterly orderly places in the planes-The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus. There, planeswalkers found most immediately the answer to their woes, for the cogs of Mechanus-Infinitely variable as they are-proved just so convenient as to provide a chronological 'yardstick' for The Outlands. With enough dedication to find the perfectly shaped cogs, mirrors have long since been made of these indestructible milestones, measuring time in increments thus- MINUTE COG - 60 Teeth - "Clicks" forward 1 tooth per second - Full revolution every 1 minute HOUR COG - 60 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 1 minute - Full revolution every 1 hour 8HOUR COG - 8 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 1 hour - Full revolution every 8 hours DAY COG - 24 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 1 hour - Full revolution every 1 day WEEK COG - 20 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 1 day - Full revolution every 1 week SEASON COG - 120 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 1 day - Full revolution every 1 season YEAR COG - 90 Teeth - "Clicks" forward every 4 days - Full revolution every 1 year CYCLE COG - 289 Teeth - "Clicks" forward 1 tooth per year - Full revolution every 17 cycles This calendar is based around the Great Modron March, whick occurs once every 17 cycles, where 1 cycle = 17 years. The March, therefore, occurs approximately once every 290 years. The current date is typically given in both Date and Cycle. For example, "4 years and 8 cycles" would mean (8 cycles) + 4 years = 17(8 years) + 4 years = 186 years. The layman "resets" this clock every March, so one would go from "the 16th year of the 16th cycle" to simply "the year of the March", and then "the 1st year [of the 0th Cycle]." While "the 17th year of the 5th cycle" and "the 0th year of the 6th cycle" are technically the same thing, standard is to go from 16th year, to 17th year, to 1st year as opposed to 16th to 0th to 1st. With these measurements in mind, pocketwatches and simplistic clocks often appear as follows. Your standard Planar Pocketwatch would include mirrors of the... Hour COG 8Hour COG Your precise Planar Pocketwatch would include mirrors of the... Minute COG Hour COG 8Hour COG Your flamboyant Planar Pocketwatch would include mirrors of the... Hour COG Day COG Week COG With our 20 day "weeks", each week is named after / related to a certain plane. During the week associated with that plane, they are drawn closer to the Spire, and thus, the Outlands are characterized more with that plane than with others -- think Seasonal Affective Disorder. So, there are 16 20-day weeks to a year as well as four 10-day "halfweeks" that are associated with the Outlands. Week Pandemonium, "Mayhem" : 20 days Week Abyss, "The Rotting" : 20 days Week Carceri, "Ironskies" : 20 days Week Hades, "Forlorn" : 20 days HalfWeek Outlands: 10 days, "The Netherward Cessation" Week Gehenna, "Infernus" : 20 days Week Baator, "Hecatomb" : 20 days Week Acheron, "Spar" : 20 days Week Mechanus, "Revolvis": 20 days HalfWeek Outlands: 10 days, "The Condignly Cessation" Week Arcadia, "Halcyon" : 20 days Week Celestia, "Nimbus" : 20 days Week Bytopia, "The Blooming" : 20 days Week Elysium, "Zenith" : 20 days HalfWeek Outlands: 10 days, "The Heavenly Cessation" Week Beastlands, "The Flocking" : 20 days Week Arborea, "Exhilarus": 20 days Week Ysgard, "Bravura" : 20 days Week Limbo, "Fracas" : 20 days HalfWeek Outlands: 10 days, "The Anarchic Cessation" Our Outlands Calendar is made up of 3 seasons: Barren (winter), Seeding (spring), and Harvest (fall). The year is divided into seasons as follows: The Barren: Pandemonium, Abyss, Carceri, Hades, (Outlands,) Gehenna, Baator The Seeding: Acheron, Mechanus, (Outlands,) Arcadia, Celestia, Bytopia, Elysium The Harvest: (Outlands,) Beastlands, Arborea, Ysgard, Limbo (, Outlands) Those are, however, the seasons of the "countryman". The every day seasons most people go by. The Fraternity of Order are not most people. They do not use those seasons. They, instead, divide the calender year into eight sections. Four "seasonal" quarters, and four "non-seasonal" halfweeks. The Sanguine Quarter: Arcadia, Celestia, Bytopia, Elysium - The Heavenly Cessassion and-or Suspension of Ambiguous Alignment: Outlands The Choleric Quarter: Beastlands, Arborea, Ysgard, Limbo - The Anarchic Cessation and-or Suspension of Ambiguous Alignment: Outlands The Melancholic Quarter: Pandemonium, Abyss, Carceri, Hades - The Netherward Cessation and-or Suspension of Ambiguous Alignment: Outlands The Phlegmatic Quarter: Gehenna, Baator, Acheron, Mechanus - The Condignly Cessation and-or Suspension of Ambiguous Alignment: Outlands Questions and Answers: Question: Why Multiples of Three? Answer: Rule of Threes. Question: 17 years per 1 cycle? 17 cycles? Why are the modrons using the number 17 for both? Answer: There's plenty of Guvners who'd like to know, too. Question: Why are there more "Outlands" days than there are of the other, specific, planes? Answer: The Outlands, while still being central to The Planes, is not, in fact, a blend of them all. A plane of its own alignment, it is subject to 'native' seasons moreso than 'foreign' ones. Question: Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic-What? Answer: In medieval medicine, up until the late eighteen-hundreds, it was believed that certain elements in the human body comprised a personality, mainly an excess in blood, phelgm, black bile, and yellow bile. These names have been applied to the planes as are appropriate. Question: "- The Netherward Cessation and-or Suspension of Ambiguous Alignment?" Answer: Guvner-Speak.

 

The "wonkiness" of the three-season year was primarily due to that I'd wanted to be remembered as The Admin Who Stole Summer. Tragically, none of the current players, or even DMs or the current admin, use the calender or keep track of what the current date is. It fell completely out of use when I quit. Sadface.

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