Sigil Calendar

There never was an official Sigil calendar; just fan created ones. I'm working on one myself, based on a seventeen month cycle (one for each outer plane) of 21 days apiece. Once I review and clean it up, I'll be posting a pretty download of it in the Sigil Ressources section.

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).