After it falls below the equator, once again the Aspects of the Months are Feminine, as Anuropia moves in its Descendent state moving towards Submissive when it will dare to climb into Uropia’s sky, forty days after disappearing. Naturally, if one lives south of the equator, things are simply reversed.
Example of weekly calendar for the Uropian month of Infiernan, which has two Anuropian months, Vulcus and Phoen. Infiernon is the first month of the year on the above calendar.
Notes on Aspects and Phases: One thing to note is that Anuropia is rarely completely dominant, as half the time that it is in the night (or day) sky, Uropia is also in the sky. The height of the Masculine aspect occurs when Uropia and Anuropia are on opposite sides of Astlan, (e.g. Positive Anuropia and Negative Uropia or vice versa). The strongest such occurrence is with Uropia in the Negative Submissive Aspect, and Anuropia in the Positive Dominant Aspect. This is occasionally a time of greater strife; in the Northern Hemisphere it also occurs in the last week of each season, in the Southern Hemisphere during the first week of each season (except that in this case Uropia is in its Dominant Phase rather than submissive).
One other thing to note is that due to Anuropia’s motion, Anuropian Eclipses of Fierd are not uncommon. More uncommon is an Uropian Eclipse of Fierd, and most uncommon and always of great import is a dual Uropian-Anuropian Eclipse (when Fierd, Anuropia, Uropia and Astlan are all aligned). Other rare but important moments also occur when Uropia and Anuropia are on exact opposite sides of the planet, with Fierd also in complete alignment (major upheavals usually occur).
Notes on Southern Hemisphere: In the Southern Hemisphere the Masculine-Feminine Aspects are reversed. The Polarities however, stay fixed. The phases of Uropia stay the same, since its orbit is equatorial. Thus, quarter-month 20 is Morthus, which in the NH is Negative Masculine Spirit, whereas in the SH, it is Negative Feminine Spirit. Further, note that in the SH there is no month of Hearth before Winter. Rather after Winter there is the long period of Sustenance. The reason for this is that due to the elemental oppositions; in the NH the long cold, but dry season of Hearth comes before the wetter and harsher season of Winter. In the SH, on the other hand, the cold dry season, Sustenance, comes after the coldest and wetter weather of Winter. At least this is the general case, and obviously local weather conditions may vary from season to season, and no place too near the equator gets cold or snowy, but it does get wet in Winter.
Finally, in the NH, Anuropian months begin when Anuropia is at the North Pole, while in the SH, Anuropian months begin when Anuropia is at the South Pole.
Weeks: Astlanian weeks are based upon the Uropian month and her phases. Each week corresponds to a phase of Uropia. The names of the weeks are thus Desen, Subime, Asen and Domine. Each week is 10 days long and is exactly one half of an Anuropian quarter.
Days: There are 10 days in a Uropian week. The ten days are Fierday, Desday, Anday, Suday, Restday, Landay, Asday, Urday, Domday, Godsday. In many lands, Restday is a day of relaxation, and Godsday a day of religious celebration. Different lands and cultures, however, do tend to vary from this.
The numbering of the days is generally done in either one of two ways. Most commonly the days are numbered 1-20, in accordance with the days of the Anuropian quarter-month, and the date is written as QM/Day/Year, where QM is the quarter-month (1-20) and the day is the day of that quarter-month. A more archaic form is to number the Uropian months (1-10) and the days of the Uropian month (1-40). However, since mixing both can lead to confusion, the general convention if using the Uropian system is to give Day-Name of Month-Year. From a practical point of view, the first system based on the Anuropian quarter-month is usually preferred, since among the common people, more people can count to twenty than can count to 40.
Every five years is a leap year. At this time, a single day is added between the 20th and 1st quarter months (10th and 1st Uropian month). In other words, add an extra day between the fifth and sixth years. This day does not fall on the regular calendar, and even has a special name, so that the names of the days of the week will not get out of synch from year to year. The name of the leap day varies from place to place, but is usually either referred to as Leap day or Festival. The second name is more common because in most places, great carnivals are given at this time. It is also a popular time for Coronations, if the demise of the previous ruler can be arranged conveniently enough.
Hours: Time keeping in many parts of Astlan, is not always an exact science. Most common people divide the day into quarters or fifths with major meals or getting up and going to bed marking the turning point. More precise measurements are done using clocks and other devices, however, the scaling factors on these devices tend to vary from maker to maker. However, logically, and from a Ropian point of view, it would make sense to divide the day into 20 hours. This accommodates both people who divide days into fifths and those who use quarters.
The one surety in all timekeeping is that during the Positive Masculine Aspect of the moons, Anuropia is directly overhead at midnight. During the Negative Masculine Aspect, both Fierd and Anuropia lie in a line in the sky directly overhead. This fails, of course, during the Feminine months and when Anuropia is at the Pole.
Chapter 50
The new clothes actually felt rather nice for a change. Jenn simply wished she’d been able to clean up better before putting them on. They’d managed to scrounge up some rags and get some well water to wash up with, which she’d promptly done in the kitchen, but a full bath with warm water would have been nice. The shopkeeper had looked at her strangely when she’d insisted on getting pants and blouse rather than a dress, but Jenn was determined that if she could only afford one set of clothes, those clothes were going to be suitable for riding and any other activities. A good chunk of their remaining silver had gone to getting her and Gastropé new clothes. Fortunately, Rupert could make do with his, and Edwyrd’s seemed in pretty good shape, if poorly fitting.
Actually, Edwyrd’s were in amazingly good shape. Apparently, he had no baggage or other clothes, and was just out wandering the countryside as is. Given that strangeness, she didn’t know if it was any stranger than the fact that his clothes were remarkably clean for having been wandering the countryside. She pondered over the rather strange young man walking a little bit ahead of her as the made their way down the narrow winding street down to the dock. He was really quite an anomaly. While she couldn’t deny a definite family resemblance, the strange coincidence of Rupert encountering him immediately after entering town, was incredible. Further the disappearance of the demon and the strange behavior of both Rupert and Edwyrd were all hard to understand.
For a short while, she had the paranoid notion that Edwyrd was really the demon in disguise. That the creature had somehow managed to assume human form and was trying yet another scheme to wrangle its way in to her confidence. She realized of course that this was completely ludicrous; still, if it weren’t for the fact that any demon capable of doing such things would be able to come up with better lies than Edwyrd and Rupert had been telling, she’d almost be tempted to indulge her paranoia.