When the starship from earth was closing into orbit about Star B, 512 colonists were hatched, almost full-grown (i.e. as late adolescents). The DNA of fertilised human egg cells was computer-stored in nanowombs. The colonists were reared in six ‘families’ or clans, each destined for specific duties.
Once they had been landed at a base on Aganip, automated construction units began the building of the EOS, using local stellar material. Owing to difficulties and set-backs, construction took eight E-years. The colonists were then ferried to their new home on Avernus to begin an intensive study of Helliconia.
Information transmitted back to Earth takes a thousand years to reach its target. So the early signals sent in Spring are received on Earth in approximately AD 6344.
By the time of ‘Helliconia Summer’, Avernus has been in orbit for thirty-two E-centuries. Its population now numbers close to 6000 people. Copulation is taught from the age of eight, but all procreation is by extra-uterine birth.
Among the six clans, the PIN family is the ‘Cross-Continuity Family’. Its duty is to follow the unfolding of one or two Helliconian family groupings through generations over the cycle of a Great Year (60 generations).
The GO family deals with questions of theology, philosophy, ontogeny, phylogeny, etc.
The TAN family studies the origins of long-standing quarrels, from personal to national and specific.
As a safety valve against confinement sickness, Avernians can enter a ‘Helliconia Holiday’ lottery; winners are allowed to visit the planet below. This is a one-way ticket.
The colonising starship left Earth in the year AD 2100, arriving in the vicinity of Star B in AD 3600. The journey of 1000 light years took 1500 years to accomplish. Avernus was operative by AD 3608. On the Helliconian Great Year, this is 500 years After Aphelion.
In Book 1 Avernus has already been operative for more than a Great Year.
i.e. about 2592 + 134 E years = 2726 E years
In Book 2 Avernus operative for a further 543 years = 3269 E years
So dates now will be:
On Earth, AD 6877
On Helliconia, 1177 E years AA
On Avernus, 3269
In Book 3 Avernus operative for a further 696 years = 3965 E years
So dates will now be:
On Earth, AD 7573
On Helliconia, 1873 E years AA
On Avernus, 3965
Myrkwyr is an ominous day in 1873. Freyr sinks below the horizon on the Polar Circle, not to rise again for a further eighteen or so human generations.
Helliconian Time reckoned as Earth Time
| Helliconia units | Equivalent Earth units |
|---|---|
| 1 small year | 480 days or 10 tenners |
| 1 day | 25.92 hours |
| 1 hour | 1.04 hours (62.4 minutes) |
| 1 minute | 1.56 minutes |
| 1 second | 0.936 seconds |
A Helliconian inhabitant living to the ripe old age of 70 would be 99.4 E years old
The Earth–Avernus method of reckoning Helliconian years is simply to date them After Apastron (AA). On Helliconia itself, various nations have, at various times, their own means of reckoning calendar time. Generally, such calendars begin from the start of the reign of a local despot.
For example, in ‘Summer’ four different calendars are mentioned. Taking these into account, Book 2 opens in
(Terrestrial dateline AD 6877)
Earth years AA
1177
Helliconia year AA
‘Denniss’ calendar
828[1]
Oldorando-Borlien After Union
381 (some claim 408)
Ancipital year
749[2]
Because the Small Year on Helliconia is longer than a terrestrial year, age differentials exist.
The following table (years) gives comparable ages of humans on the two planets.
| Earth | Helliconia |
|---|---|
| 5 | 3.5 |
| 10 | 7 |
| 12 | 8.45 |
| 15 | 10.56 |
| 18 | 12.67 |
| 20 | 14 |
| 22 | 15.49 |
| 25 | 17.6 |
| 30 | 21 |
| 35 | 24.67 |
| 40 | 28 |
| 50 | 35.21 |
| 60 | 42 |
| 70 | 49 |
| 75 | 52.8 |
| 80 | 56 |
Life spans are longer in summers of the Great Year
APPENDIX 2
Phagors
The struggle for supremacy on Helliconia is between humans and phagors. Phagors, a two-horned, shaggy-coated species, were the original dominant inhabitants of the planet before Batalix (Star B) was captured by Freyr, the supergiant sun (Star A). They are also known as ancipitals (two-edged), a reference to their sharp horns.
This cowlike species probably evolved from flambreg, vast herds of which graze the northern wilds of Sibornal. They are kin to older pre-Freyr species, such as the kaidaws.
Kaidaws are the large horned animals, somewhat resembling horses, which phagors ride. These older species have physical traits in common, such as ball-joints at knees and elbows. This greater dexterity is counterbalanced by a sporadically firing nervous system; hence frequent bursts of immobility.
1
The legendary King Denniss was ruling in Year 249 before apastron, and foresaw disaster. His calendar has been discarded.
2
The full and correct name of this year in the Ancipital calendar, forged in the ancipital cotemporal brain, is: ‘Year After Small Apotheosis of Great year 5,634,000 Since catastrophe’. That is, since Freyr’s capture of Batalix, some 8,000,280 years previously.