A Comparison of Calendars in Amber, Rebma and Chaos

The Dworkian Calendar

In Amber, time is measured from the city’s founding, held to be New Year’s Day, year 1. The Amber year is 365 days divided into 13 months each of 28 days plus New Year’s Day. The months in order are 1 Dragon, 2 Bull, 3 Serpent, 4 Crab, 5 Sphinx, 6 Bear, 7 Eagle, 8 Raven, 9 Scorpion, 10 Centaur, 11 Satyr, 12 Unicorn and 13 Dolphin.

Amber weather is seasonal; Spring consists of Dolphin, Dragon and Bull; Summer of Serpent, Crab, Sphinx and Bear; Autumn of Eagle, Raven and Scorpion; and Winter of Centaur, Satyr and Unicorn. The climate is typically Mediterranean with hot, dry summers but the winters can be cold, with snow usually falling on the castle but it only falls in the city in exceptionally cold winters.

There are eight festivals celebrated throughout the year…

Date Festival Description

New Year’s Day Festival of the Founding between 28^th Fish and 1^st Dragon – a very formal festival, the Spring Equinox

13^th Bull Beltane The lighting of the needfires heralding the imminent summer when cattle are moved to summer pastures

8^th Crab Midsummer Summer Solstice – Dancing, revelry, many summer marriages, a time of fun

21^st Sphinx Lugnasadh Commemorating the Sacrifice of King Lugh of Tir-na-N’Ogth, the start of the harvest

16^th Eagle Harvesthome The end of the harvest – the Autumn Equinox

28^th Raven Samhain The end of the stockslaying in preparation for winter, a time of death when the spirit world is closest to the real world

23^rd Centaur Yule Festival of the Winter Solstice, much feasting and merriment over twelve days and nights, 6^th Satyr is the twelfth night

9^th Unicorn Imbolc Festival of the Bride, a celebration of the Unicorn, heralds the coming of Spring

The eight days of the week are named, apparently arbitrarily Sunday, Moonday, Seaday, Midweek, Starday, Fishday, Martday and Sabbath. Martday in Amber brings merchants from Rebma who convey their goods home to sell the next day, called Bazaar in Rebma.

The first of Scorpion 3656 is Martday. Each day is held to start with the first hour at dawn.

The Moon shows no change of phase and always appears full. But it does move in the sky, which affects the times of Moonrise and Moonset. The stars move seasonally with the Sun visiting the sign of the Zodiac corresponding to the month.

The Chaos Calendar

In contrast, the Courts of Chaos has nothing worthy of the name calendar. Instead past time is referenced entirely by important events such as the coronation of a king, the Day of the Broken Branches, The Night of the Demons, etc, etc. It has been observed that time seems to extend or contract as convenient; that sometimes dual timestreams occur simultaneously, so that two people holding hands cannot agree on the time passed together. It is even possible to change the past to a limited degree, though this requires great effort and power, often human sacrifice.

The Rebman Calendar

Seasons: The Rebmans have little knowledge of the heavens and their calendar is influenced by marine events and the tides, of course. The seasons are named after characteristics of the deep water environment.

Rebma’s Spring is called Plume, as the Oisen brings cold fresh meltwater. Sediments in the water raise nutrient levels in the waters above and around Rebma. Plume consists of the months Pristis, Tiamat and Archelon.

Summer is called Bloom, for the sharp increase in jellyfish, which feed on plankton populations themselves feeding on the nutrients brought by Plume – the jellyfish draw other summer visitors such as the huge whale sharks and more fantastical sea creatures. Bloom consists of the months Leviathan, Hydra, Kraken and Cetus.

Then the Autumn is called Red Tide, as the plankton populations shift and the great die back begins, turning the surface waters red. Red Tide consists of the months Nautilus, Triton and Stingray.

Finally Winter is called White Tide – Amber winters are pretty cold, though rarely cold enough to form sea ice it sometimes freezes on the beaches. Also this is when the cold northern currents coming down the coast bring in huge shoals of sardine and similar, which can make the surface waters sometimes look silvery from above and below. White Tide consists of the months Seahorse, Sea Goat and Narwhal.

Months: Rebmans have different names for the months, though their calendar is otherwise similar.

Amber	Dragon	Bull	Serpent	Crab	Sphinx	Bear	Eagle
Rebma	Tiamat	Archelon	Leviathan	Hydra	Kraken	Cetus	Nautilus
Amber	Raven	Scorpion	Centaur	Satyr	Unicorn	Dolphin
Rebma	Triton	Stingray	Seahorse	Sea Goat	Narwhal	Pristis

Days of the Week: different to Amber: Ahad, Ithrin, Thulatha, Arbeia, Khamis, Jumea, Saboath and Bazaar.

Day/Night: Rebma lies in the euphotic zone, at a depth of 100-150m. Although it appears dim and dark compared to the surface, sunlight still penetrates and there is usually a clear difference between night and day.

Time of Day: The passage of the hours in Rebma are marked by the shifting of the tidal currents, which reverse direction with the tide. Amber was created as the major trading hub for the Golden Circle and its tides are utterly predictable. Since Rebma experiences the same tides they serve as a functional timepiece – ‘as trusted as the tides’ is a common epithet in Amber and Rebma.

The day starts at dawn with the tide high. In Amber ships leave port at or just after dawn, riding the ebbing tide. The first low tide occurs at noon and incoming vessels typically ride the incoming tide until the second high at dusk. Then the cycle begins again with the ebb tide reaching a second low at midnight and then the flood tide rising to dawn’s high.

Rebmans measure time using the tides: dawn happens at Brightening High, subsequent hours are called the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc hours of the Light-Ebb until the Bright-Low at noon. Then come the hours of the Light-Flood until the Darkening-High marks the start of night, measured as the hours of the Dark-Ebb to the Dark-Low of midnight. Finally the hours of the Dark-Flood augur the return to a new day at the Brightening High again.

Rebman use of imprecise time often unsettles surface dwellers who find the Rebman refusal to use seconds or minutes strange. Amber hours are very rarely used and this can cause Amberites to lose track of time in Rebma.

Rebman Festivals

Date Festival Description

New Year’s Day Festival of the Founding a much more informal festival than in Amber, a joyous celebration of Plume and the New Year

28^th Tiamat Tiamati a Plume festival climaxing in a ceremony celebrating the return of the light – at the turn of the tide at midnight, people release swarms of bioluminescent fish from special mirrored cages filled with sorcerous light – the released fish swim away, flashing and shining in a myriad scintillating electric colours

1^st Leviathan The Medusaed celebrating the start of Bloom, jellyfish captured or bred for the purpose are released an hour after dawn, to float away on the ebb tide, the morning light catching their various colours

24^th Hydra The Well-Dressing the Queen leads a ceremony outside the city to Hydra’s Well in which the crumbling masonry around a bottomless pit a dozen yards across is covered with a net woven from kelp stalks decorated with bright shells and little golden bells. Apparently this is a bit of sympathetic magic that keeps the denizen of the well – and similar places, by sympathetic magic – constrained for the next year.

21^st-25^th Cetus The Nuptial Games women watch men compete in the games, wrestling, sparring, etc, over five days. The only events in which women partake are the dolphin races. Traditionally a woman in the audience can select a contestant who impresses (not necessarily a winner) to be her consort and this still happens today

7^th-10^th Triton Kathaliri to music from massed drums reverberating through the waters, over 4 days formal dancers depict the battles and ultimate defeat of the Tritons – it takes decades to master the intricate steps, finger positions and facial expressions – Amberites will note the prominence of the six Heroes of Amber: Benedict, Deirdre, Caine, Corwin, Eric and Oberon in roughly that order of importance

21^st Stingray Festival of Colours a euphemistic title for a celebration of the defeat of the Tritons with cups of different food colourings cast into the waters, taken to represent the ichor of the executed Tritons but its origin is now familiar only to scholars – lobster battles are common at this time

15^th Seahorse The Silvering a celebration of the arrival of sardine and herring with the cold northerly currents, prominent members of the Royal family and the Dames of the thirteen great houses lead a procession to Seahorse Spur, a high place overlooking the city from the north

1^st-9^th Narwhal Tise Layal a celebration over nine nights of the Seahorse’s victory over the spawn of Cthulhu, again featuring ritual dancers, ending in the Feast of Reliance, marking Cthulhu’s defeat and incarceration in R’Lyeh – this is as important as Yule in Amber but celebrated at Amber’s Imbolc

Months:

Amber	Dragon	Bull	Serpent	Crab	Sphinx	Bear	Eagle
Rebma	Tiamat	Archelon	Leviathan	Hydra	Kraken	Cetus	Nautilus
Amber	Raven	Scorpion	Centaur	Satyr	Unicorn	Dolphin
Rebma	Triton	Stingray	Seahorse	Sea Goat	Narwhal	Pristis