Pocket Watch Time Sand Clock  - anncapictures / Pixabay

As this week was the release of a big o’ PDF, with the POD version in the last stages of prep, the topic of the week was a little bit up for grabs. So after a few mins of brain wracking I decided on this week being about “Time” – A fairly open-ended subject for sure, but one that is essential to be aware of in world-building. Time travel/temporal manipulation will be covered in another post.

  1. Is there a single world-spanning calendar or time system or do different cultures use their own?
  2. What is the “year 1” for the system and how long ago was it?
  3. Compared to Earth, how long are the various periods? (year, day etc.)
  4. What is the preferred method of keeping track of time?
  5. How is the day divided up?
  6. What are the names of the various units of time?
  7. How in synch is the calendar with astronomical reality?
  8. Does the calendar change, such as leap years, or is it fixed?
  9. Are there times of the day/week/year/etc that have cultural significance?
  10. Is there a group that keeps track of what the time is so others can have accurate clocks/calendars/etc?

Bonus Question – How do various groups or cultures value being punctual/on-time?

 

The ongoing & growing list of world-building prompts & questions can be found HERE.

World Anvil gives you a series of tools, templates and prompts to help manage and build your world – See more HERE (Affiliate Link)

What world-building topic would you like to see next time? Let me know in the comments below or on social media like Twitter.

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