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The Sartoran year is 441 days, with New Year's Week in winter in the south, and in the north those who keep Sartoran time (not all nations do) New Year's Week is a summer festival, and the south's Midsummer Day is Midwinter Day. The first day of the year always begins on a Firstday (Monday).

The 24 hour day was brought to Sartorias-deles, and as threes and twelves stayed culturally important numbers (for example, the number three as in three distinct objects, is na, sometimes nana, the number for a trinity is beth) time measure is pretty much everywhere counted in combinations that add up to twenty-four. See below for Time Keeping in Remalna.

For some cultures (and most farmers) daybreak begins the day. When night lifts, the previous day ends. For mages, midnight is the beginning of a new day--measured by dividing a day from noon to noon. Farmers just ignore the distinction, or grow up used to a kind of double-think, as when dawn bells ring before sunup but they begin the new day anyway.

One of the duties of mages is time-keeping. These mages are hired by cities. They are in charge of overseeing the making of time measure candles, which means making candles that burn as close to the same time as possible. Still, candles are regarded as conveniences rather than trustworthy, for most. People trust bells, and in most places, bells are rung at various points in the day. Some bells are carillons--a tuned set of bells (in twelves and twenty-fours) that play melodies not just to signify time changes, but other events such as Official Announcements, royal births, marriages, deaths, and of course various types of alarms. Carillons will play on special days, and there is fierce competition in places like Alsais and other cities with excellent bells to write new carillon music that is well-received enough to be put into canon.

Other places have change ringing, which are not quite melodies, but mathematical intervals. These bells still must be tuned, though not as closely as carillons. Again, different patterns are rung at different times, and change-ringing can go all day, with teams trading off (or competing) on special days.

Other cities have one great bell, or a series of single bells that are rung in simple combinations: one ring at midnight, for example, three (or three threes) at six a.m., and twelve at noon, then one or two sixes at nine at night. In Marloven Hess, everything is organized around military changes of watch, which are signaled by double-tangs. Alarms are a steady tolling, and a slower tolling for other serious events.

For smaller measures of time, there are color candles, which could be defined as "hour" candles--usually in ones, twos, and threes, each hour marked off with a bit of salt worked into the wax so that the flame changes color and hisses. There are also various sixes of glasses, which are sandglasses. Again, the making of these is overseen by time-keeping mages. Glasses are most common on ships, where candles can either blow out or set fire to a ship.

Glsses on land tend to be used only for small increments of time. Most frequently the equivalent of a tenth of an hour,called a the or a half-glass meaning half-hour (sometimes called a three for three-tenths), and a sixty is a minute glass. There are also thirty second glasses with various slang names.

Glasses are most common in Sartor, with bells. In other places, candles are common.

Mechanical clocks do exist, owned by the wealthy, usually. And servants are hired to wind them. But the clock has never taken on--it's never been an object of art--and most are so aware of the changing of light or the movement of stars when the sun is out that the sense of where one is in a day is ubiquitous.

There have been other forms of time keeping, invented by mages for the delectation of the wealthy and art-minded, but they rely heavily on magic. For example, one queen of Sartor liked a clock that told the time in the birdsong of creatures whose voices were normally heard at that time of day. But she'd get tired of the same trills, so mages had to go out and capture in a magic spell various lark trills, for example, and switch those out. So when the spells wore off at last after she died, the clock was stored as a curiosity and an anecdote about the exasperating whims of a monarch, and the idea never caught on.

Time-keeping in Remalna

This division of hours is common to many parts of the world, especially in the south, though the colors might change.

12am -> First White Candle

2am ->Second White Candle

4am ->Third White Candle

6am -> First Gold

8am ->Second Gold -> (personal calls)

10am -> Third Gold -> (fencing practice)

12pm -> First Green

2pm ->Second Green -> (Renselaeus open court)

4pm -> Third Green

6pm ->First Blue -> (usual hour for formal suppers)

8pm ->Second Blue -> (usual hour for balls to begin)

10pm -> Third Blue

Time-Keeping in Colend

6am -> Daybreak (first public hour, or civilized hour)

7am -> Hour of the Bird (city announcements made in town and city squares)

8am -> Hour of the Leaf

9am -> Hour of the Deer

10 am -> Hour of the River

11am -> Hour of Stone [in Court, the Hour of the Rising; can be when appointments are made for unpleasant subjects, or reprimands]

Noon -> Noon

1pm -> The Hour of the Wheel

2pm -> The Hour of the Quill [a complimentary hour for various appointments)

3pm -> The Hour of the Seal

4pm -> The Hour of Spice

5pm -> The Hour of the Lily

6pm -> The Hour of the Cup

7pm -> The Hour of the Harp

8pm -> The Hour of the Cherub/Crown

9pm -> The Hour of the Lamp

10pm -> The Hour of Song

11pm -> The Hour of the Rose

12am -> The Hour of the Moon (became Midnight, as 'moon' was a Chwahir symbol)

1am -> The Hour of Willow

2am -> The Hour of Pecan

3am -> The Hour of the Reed

4am -> The Hour of the Thorn

5am -> The Hour of Repose

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