LogFAQs > #896999670

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Also, as a complete aside (well, not a complete aside, it sort of ties into the whole worldbuilding thing we were talking about), before I started thinking about working out the Paladin in my head, I was thinking about the idea of constructing an entire fantasy calendar and zodiac based on different assumptions (namely, a universal 30-day month model with each month consisting of three "tendays", with solstices and equinoxes as separate days, ignoring the unaccounted for 1.25 days because fuck it, it's not Earth).

Fantasy calendars have always been a bit of a sore spot with me. While they make sense from a worldbuilding perspective, I find them unnecessarily confusing as a reader because I often can't remember the context (ie, the order of days and months, how months correlate to times of year, etc).

More annoying still wold be the notion that there likely wouldn't be any accepted universal calendar in a fantasy setting since nations would more likely style the days and months after their own kings and/or gods.

In general, it partly falls into the notion of, "Should a horse be called a horse?", where language should have developed differently within that world but, for the benefit of the reader, English words are used to describe the vast majority of things. The only real tipping point comes when readers *know* that the given word is associated with something decidedly real-world where you're either stuck incorporating a variation of that source into the work or coming up your own stuff to avoid spoiling the immersion (or people just do that for the sake of immersion).

That said, you presumably have a great deal of latitude when it comes to hours, days, and months since they don't actually need to correlate with any fixed thing because the size of the fictional planet and its orbit can be different. But, at the same time, readers are used to the notion of a 24-hour day and a 12-month year so eschewing that can be distracting.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

And I was basically thinking about this in spite of knowing I'm literally never going to use it in a game or as backstory for a novel or whatever. It's just random musing that will never go anywhere, which exists solely because I have more creativity bursting the seams of my brain than I ever really get to use these days.

Same boat. I don't have much follow-through with that sort of stuff.
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