The Grayhaven Reckoning

The Grayhaven Reckoning

364 days per year
13 months × 28 days
7 days per week
52 weeks exactly
2 moons: one associated culturally with order, seasons, and agriculture; the other with magic, omens, secrets, and the supernatural.

Days of the Week

Sunsday is the traditional day of worship and rest, although temples dedicated to individual gods may observe additional rites.

The Thirteen Months

This gives the calendar a natural narrative:

Dawnrise → growth → summer → harvest → darkness → Starfall → Dawnrise.

The Thirteen Months

This gives the calendar a natural narrative:

Dawnrise → growth → summer → harvest → darkness → Starfall → Dawnrise.

Secular Holidays

The Two Moons

Selûra — The Silver Moon

The larger and brighter moon.

Cycle: exactly 28 days

Because every month is 28 days, Selûra's phases correspond perfectly with calendar dates.

Farmers, sailors and ordinary people rely heavily upon Selûra.

A common Grayhaven expression could therefore be:

"Meet me on the next Fullmoon."

Everyone immediately knows that means the 14th.

Vael — The Wanderer

The smaller moon has a much stranger orbit.

Cycle: 26 days

Unlike Selûra, Vael's phases constantly drift through the calendar.

This is important culturally because Vael becomes associated with:

magic, prophecy, monsters, secrets, lycanthropy, strange births and supernatural events.

Its approximate phases are:

That creates a beautiful astronomical feature:

Selûra completes 13 cycles per year.
Vael completes 14 cycles per year.

So Grayhaven astronomers speak of:

The Thirteen Silver Moons and the Fourteen Wandering Moons.

The Conjunction

Because their cycles are 28 and 26 days, both moons return to the same phase relationship every:

364 days.

That means there is one great lunar alignment every year.

On Dawnrise 1, both moons are New.

Over the course of the year they slowly drift apart before eventually returning to alignment at the beginning of the following year.

The Night Between Years

On Starfall 28, both moons approach darkness.

Tradition holds that during the final night of the year the boundary between the mortal world and the supernatural becomes unusually thin.

At midnight, Yearsend becomes First Light.

Aurelion's priests light a flame in the central temple.

That flame is carried through Grayhaven.

Hearths extinguished during Yearsend are relit from the sacred flame.

The symbolism is:

Darkness → Flame → Dawn → New Year.

It also explains why Aurelion's First Light became the traditional beginning of the year.

A Particularly Rare Lunar Event

A Full Selûra occurs on the 14th of every month.

A Full Vael moves through the calendar.

When both moons appear full together, Grayhaven calls it:

The Twin Crown

A night of tremendous magical significance.

Astraea's priests believe the heavens are briefly in perfect balance. Valeth's scholars attempt dangerous experiments. Nysera's followers exchange secrets. Umbros's cultists consider it an exceptionally powerful night.

For adventurers, a Twin Crown might affect:

• ancient seals
• portals
• undead
• divination
• magical artifacts
• lycanthropes
• fey crossings
• forgotten ruins
• celestial events

Calendar shorthand

Grayhaven scribes could write dates as:

14 Greenrise, 327 GR

or formally:

The Fourteenth Day of Greenrise in the 327th Year of the Grayhaven Reckoning

Common speech would simply be:

"Greenrise fourteenth."