Welcome to today’s lecture. If I asked you what time it is, it would be an easy question. To say more, unnecessary – almost all of you have arrived, nomen omen, on time. And that will be today’s topic. There have been numerous approaches to measuring time throughout the history of Aedilër, and I will tell you about the most prominent of these. When did it all begin? That’s the tricky part…
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The Times before Time
In the earliest ages of civilization, inhabitants of Aedilër and the Islands alike used the simplest way of measuring time – hardly measuring it at all. Before the creation of the Calendar, the only way to determine time was in relation to sunlight – there was no more precise expression than sunrise, sunset or noon. This was often sufficiently accurate, and if a meeting or event was to proceed at a very exact time, it would be arranged for one of those key points. The inability to describe the course of the night was not an issue – very few had any business after sunset, and those who did had their secret ways to solve it. The situation only changed about two centuries into what is now called the First Era.
Divide and Conquer
By the year 200 since the Calendar, life had become more dynamic, and the need to schedule multiple appointments started to become noticeable, especially among the wealthier members of the society. In consequence, the scholars of the young Academy in Annyeohan began to study day and night. Dozens of them made measurements using water clocks and other improvised devices for over five years. After that time, they shared the system they had devised.
The basic concept of their time measure was dividing both day and night into eight equal periods, called stances by them. They had created tables that described the length of day and night stances throughout the whole year. Their proposal quickly gained popularity and recognition in all countries of the South. It allowed significantly greater precision than relying on the somewhat unstable daylight cycle. It was, however, still far from perfect. The devices used to measure the passing of stances were relatively complex, and their operation required an educated person with access to the tables created by the academics. For this reason, every city had a few such clocks at most, often only a single one somewhere in the central part, so that people living further outside could not hear its sound. While the availability of clocks would rise, the system itself was not to change for millennia.
In the Far West
A few centuries later, Ansha made their move in the field of time measurement. The system they created was significantly different from the one from the South. It is uncertain how it came to be – it might come from the Queen’s court, but also from merchants desiring more organized schedules. What’s certain is that it was born more of practicality than curiosity, as Ansha could not be deemed a philosopher nation at the time.
The core idea of this system was dividing the time from sunrise to the next sunrise into four quadrants, called rising, falling, glooming and shining. These were further subdivided into three phases, named early rising, middle rising, late rising and so forth. Ansha inventors created contraptions that could indicate the passing of quadrants with relatively high precision, and the only drawback was that they needed to be set at least once a day to stay in line with the Sun. Some tried to solve this issue by making self-calibrating clocks, but these were not very successful while the system was in use.
After the Arrival
When the combined armies arrived in the East, the Admiralty had not yet established any measure of time. After gaining more knowledge about the systems used in Aedilër, our people temporarily adapted the Southern clock, but cultural differences and technical difficulties led to the desire for change. Many options were tried over the course of a century. Ultimately, one of the new systems was adopted, and it was, in its essence, a hybrid of the two previous ones.
The Eastmen were inspired by Ansha’s concept of measuring time sunrise to sunrise, but wanted a uniform and precise division, so they split the day into twenty equal units – hours – each further divided into forty aen, each lasting a hundred ticks [1]. Their knowledge of mechanics was more than sufficient to construct appropriate clocks. This way, time became accessible for most, and clocks were easy to find. However, the issue of changing sunrise remained. This would not change until centuries later.
A Gold Standard
Slight differences in sunrise were not a burning issue. They would not impact normal activity, and some even disregarded it completely and would wind clocks only often enough to keep them running. However, some would still be bothered by the slight discrepancy – mostly scientists and military commanders. Hence, in the middle of the Third Era, the High Chamber of the Union received a request to establish a sun-independent time standard. The proposal had a low priority compared to other issues reviewed by the Chamber, so it was only resolved after a few years. The final version of the resolution was accepted unanimously.
A state-of-the-art clock was set up in central Aggermaille and calibrated exactly at sunrise that marked the beginning of year 568. Since then, the standard sunrise has become the main way of measuring time, uniform in all places for the whole year. Initially, only the Union and its close neighbor, the Capes, used the standard, but other realms of the Continent noticed its practicality and, over time, adopted it as well. Since then, Aedilër has used the time we know today.
That’s the end, thank you.
Aedilër 