Creating Fantasy Calendars - Videos

[FifthView]

This topic has popped up multiple times. Today, I discovered three videos on YouTube by the same YouTuber that might help anyone trying to create a fantasy calendar. In the description under each video is a link to a simple spreadsheet used in all three videos. They're easy-to-use methods with simple and direct instructions.

I thought I'd post the videos here in case anyone might want help on creating calendars.

 

[Skybreaker Sin K'al]

I've been watching Artifexian for a while. His videos are very comprehensive, but I've never been able to get the stuff he says through my head. They're useful resources, but he really knows what he's talking about.

 

[Miles Lacey]

I ended up creating a calendar that has 364 days divided into thirteen months of 28 days each and a stand alone New Year's Day called Hadis. Every fourth (leap) year an additional stand alone day called Kenini Yirak'U is added. However I could not figure out the moon phases in a world with two moons - until now. Great videos! Very helpful!

 

[CoffeeFlower]

My world has a very specific time measurement formula. We go from bits, 360 in a day, which is called a session. 15 sessions are called a match 25 matches are equal to a season and four seasons are a Cup

 

[FifthView]

I've been watching Artifexian for a while. His videos are very comprehensive, but I've never been able to get the stuff he says through my head. They're useful resources, but he really knows what he's talking about.

I was in the midst of a detailed outline for my WIP when I realized I wanted to start a timeline using Aeon Timeline, mostly to help track various characters because my cast of characters is exploding. (Most are side characters or incidental characters.) Aeon Timeline allows the tracking of characters for scenes, for instance, and has a better system for classifying characters than Scrivener does. (Scrivener is leading to multiple folders, one for each of these characters, only.)

But then I was faced with the issue of needing to create the unique calendar for one society on this world, since I needed to set the Aeon Timeline project up with that first. This has sapped some of my time, distracting from the outline that had been proceeding relatively quickly.

Long story short: These videos gave me some ideas, but I've ended up fudging some things, going with simplicity, rather than worry overmuch about leap months and leap years and irregular months. I do have one short month, half as long as the others, but otherwise my lunisolar calendar has months of equal length based on the idea of one week = 1/4 of the lunar cycle.

I do have a second moon, but it's a small, irregular moon, prograde eccentric orbit, and fills a special role in the various societies in this world. The two cultures in the land where my story is set use the main moon for their calendars, and I'm not going to try and bother to set up a rational orbit for this second moon, hah.