Timekeeping is an important aspect of Electric Fencer‘s worldbuilding, making the world feel just that little bit more immersive. Hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, even. What you may have noticed is that the months here are different from the ones in the real world. Sestius, huh?
There are 12 months over the course of a year, and though many of the names are different, they correspond to one of the months in the real world. Likewise, each quarter of the year is broken up into seasons, governed by three of the four classical elements in natural and magical lore. Here, the seasons start on the first day of the first month of their respective quarter, whereas in the real world, they start between the 20th and the 23rd.
Unlike the real world, spring is the beginning of the year in Salem and the rest of the northern hemisphere. Spring is ruled over by the elements water, earth, and fire, and contains these months: Primus, Secundi, and Tribius. On a real world calendar, they line up with March, April, and May, respectively. 1 Primus being the beginning of the year would be like New Year’s Day being March 1st. Primus has 31 days, Secundi has 30, and Tribius has 31.
Summer kicks off the second quarter of the year, governed by the elements of earth, fire, and air. Quartius is the fourth month, Quintius is the fifth month, and our oh so relevant Sestius is the sixth month. They correspond with the real world June, July, and August respectively and have 30, 31, and 31 days. Autunna Falls hosts the Summer in the Falls Festival, late in the summer, every 1 Sestius. Sestius is also the month when Wayland met his end, making it a particularly painful month for the Alexanders and Garcias.
Autumn starts the third quarter of the year, represented by the elements of fire, air, and water. This is when the months September, October, and November occur. Instead of being the ninth, tenth, and eleventh months, in this world, they are months 7, 8, and 9. If you’re wondering when a holiday like Halloween might occur, it would still take place on October 31, but the date would be written XXXX-08-31 as opposed to XXXX-10-31. Autunna Falls is named for this time of year. Similarly, there’s a city named Primavera Springs about a hundred miles out from Autunna Falls, named for the season of spring.
The final quarter of the year, governed by air, water, and earth. Here we find the months, December, Undecember, and Duodecember. December matches its real world counterpart, while January and February are effectively the eleventh and twelfth months of the year as Undecember and Duodecember. Christmas and other various winter solstice holidays would still take place in December, though it’s now the tenth month of the year. The winter holidays we’re used to are also a little different as New Year’s Eve is now 28 Duodecember. On a leap year, New Year’s Eve would be 29 Duodecember.
If you’re wondering about how this might affect your zodiac sign or something like that, this world has drastically different star signs, but since Pisces rules over most of March in the real world, it might help to think of Pisces as ruling over most of Primus and then taking it from there with Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.
To review:
Spring
Primus ⇒ March (31 Days)
Secundi ⇒ April (30 Days)
Tribius ⇒ May (31 Days)
Summer
Quartius ⇒ June (30 Days)
Quintius ⇒ July (31 Days)
Sestius ⇒ August (31 Days)
Autumn
September (7th month) ⇒ September (9th month) (30 Days)
October (8th month) ⇒ October (10th month) (31 Days)
November (9th month) ⇒ November (11th month) (30 Days)
Winter
December (10th month) ⇒ December (12th month) (31 Days)
Undecember ⇒ January (31 Days)
Duodecember ⇒ February (28 Days, 29 on a leap year)
If you’re in the southern hemisphere, the seasons and their respective months follow a similar pattern to the real world:
Spring
September
October
November
Summer
December
Undecember
Duodecember (Year End)
Autumn
Primus (Year Start)
Secundi
Tribius
Winter
Quartius
Quintius
Sestius
One fun thought experiment might be to figure out when your birthday or other holidays fall on the Electric Fencer calendar. Give it a try! âš¡
