THE WORLD OF AERTH
Aerth is a world of land masses amid vast oceans. Approximately 3/4 of the world's surface is water. There are three major continents and many large islands.
Aerth has a circumference of over 13,000 miles [making it significantly smaller than Earth]. It orbits a single yellow sun and has one small moon. Partial solar eclipses are quite common, but a full eclipse occurs in each part of the world very rarely, perhaps every 4 or 5 years.
There is an unusual cycle of prolonged darkness however. Every ten years or so the sun vanishes for a much longer period of time. Most of Aerth knows these times as "The Drowning" though in various parts of the world it is called the Freeze or the Long Night, and many name it in reference to one of the evil gods (Norgorber's Walk, the Shadow of Asmodeus, Rovagug's Feast, etc). The Drowning usually lasts about ten days, though stretches of darkness lasting up to a month have been recorded. During this time magic has been know to fail or go haywire, and pleas to many gods go unanswered. No one seems to know what causes the Drowning or exactly when the next one will arrive and the gods remain silent to any questions about it, though it is possible that most people simply lack the astronomical knowledge or the magical skill to find the answers for themselves.
People of Aerth observe 12 months of 30 days each in a year. Each month is split into 3 ten-day periods. These are known as a week, a crossing or "cross", or a tenday. [But note most importantly that a "week" on Aerth is ten days long.]
While a year is 360 days long, when a Drowning occurs this span of time is considered outside of the regular calendar year. (If one began on April 12th, when it ended 10 days later people would begin counting from April 13th). This causes some confusion but seems not to affect the cycle of the seasons.
The current year is 3308 AS (After Starfall) as measured in most nations of Aerth, though a few places measure their own. It is also:
717 YB (Years In Bastion)
Aerth has a circumference of over 13,000 miles [making it significantly smaller than Earth]. It orbits a single yellow sun and has one small moon. Partial solar eclipses are quite common, but a full eclipse occurs in each part of the world very rarely, perhaps every 4 or 5 years.
There is an unusual cycle of prolonged darkness however. Every ten years or so the sun vanishes for a much longer period of time. Most of Aerth knows these times as "The Drowning" though in various parts of the world it is called the Freeze or the Long Night, and many name it in reference to one of the evil gods (Norgorber's Walk, the Shadow of Asmodeus, Rovagug's Feast, etc). The Drowning usually lasts about ten days, though stretches of darkness lasting up to a month have been recorded. During this time magic has been know to fail or go haywire, and pleas to many gods go unanswered. No one seems to know what causes the Drowning or exactly when the next one will arrive and the gods remain silent to any questions about it, though it is possible that most people simply lack the astronomical knowledge or the magical skill to find the answers for themselves.
People of Aerth observe 12 months of 30 days each in a year. Each month is split into 3 ten-day periods. These are known as a week, a crossing or "cross", or a tenday. [But note most importantly that a "week" on Aerth is ten days long.]
While a year is 360 days long, when a Drowning occurs this span of time is considered outside of the regular calendar year. (If one began on April 12th, when it ended 10 days later people would begin counting from April 13th). This causes some confusion but seems not to affect the cycle of the seasons.
The current year is 3308 AS (After Starfall) as measured in most nations of Aerth, though a few places measure their own. It is also:
717 YB (Years In Bastion)