D'ni time operates on a much different system than surface time does. Each system has a year of the same length, but the months, days, hours, and even the seconds are of different lengths in D'ni. There is also apparently no deliniation of a week's time. Timekeeping goes straight from days to months.
[h=2]Timekeeping Units[/h]
- The D'ni's largest amount of time is a hahr. The hahr is roughly equivalent to one Earth year.
- The D'ni hahr is divided into 10 equal segments called vaIleetee. One vailee is roughly equivalent to one Earth month.
- A vaIlee is further divided into 29 yahrtee. One yahr is equal to about 30 hours and 14 minutes of surface time. (1.26 Earth days) There are 290 yahrtee in one hahr.
- Yahrtee are further divided into 5 equal segments called gahrtahvotee. One gahrtahvo is equal to about 6 hours and 3 minutes of surface time.
- Gahrtahvotee can be further divided into 5 equal segments called pahrtahvotee. One pahrtahvo is equal to about 1 hour 13 minutes of surface time.
- Pahrtahvotee can be further divided into 5 equal segments called tahvotee. One tahvo is equal to about 14.5 minutes of surface time.
- Tahvotee are further divided into 25 equal segments called gorahntee. One gorahn is equal to about 35 seconds of surface time.
- Gorahntee are further divided into 25 equal segments called prorahntee. One prorahn is equal to about 1.5 seconds of surface time.
For practical daily timekeeping, the D'ni divided the yahr into 25 pahrtahvotee, ignoring the gahrtahvotee. The pahrtahvo is the "bell" time unit described in MYST: The Book of Ti'ana, though this fact was not known until the release of the brochure. The clocks found in some of the D'ni neighborhoods use this bell system of timekeeping, seperating the day into 25 equal segments.
The ten D'ni months (vai-lee-tee) are named below, with their respective surface dates:
- Leefo: April 21 - May 27
- Leebro: May 28 - July 3
- Leesahn: July 3 - August 8
- Leetar: August 9 - September 14
- Leevot: September 14 - October 20
- Leevofo: October 21 - November 26
- Leevobro: November 26 - January 1
- Leevosahn: January 2 - Febuary 7
- Leevotar: Febuary 7 - March 15
- Leenovoo: March 16 - April 21
During the course of Mysterium 2006, RAWA revealed that the length of the D'ni year is equivalent to the precise number of seconds in the Mean Solar Tropical Year in 1995. In October 2007, he revealed in correspondence to explorer RIUM+ that the exact value is 31556925.216 seconds, or 365.24219 days. RAWA also disclosed the day and time at which the D'ni and Gregorian calendars converged exactly: April 21, 1991 at 9:54 AM Pacific Standard Time (UTC-0800), which is the date/time stamp on the original HyperCard Stack file for MYST.
For more information on converting between the D'ni and Gregorian systems, please consult the article [article id=17]Date Conversion Techniques for the D'ni Scholar[/article].
[h=2]Journal Dating System[/h]
The journals that appear in Riven, Exile and Revelation are dated using an odd sort of shorthand that doesn't seem to match up to the actual surface dates of the events. However, this is due to the way in which D'ni dates (written in base 25) were converted to our numeric system of base 10. Here's how it works:
These dates are given in year.month.day form. For example, Gehn's journal in Riven states that Catherine arrived on "86.9.29", which is Leevotar 29, 9461 (surface date March 15, 1806). However, the year part of the date is in shorthand form, much as we surface dwellers might write "04" instead of "2004", leaving off the century part of the year.
The shorthand is based on the D'ni century (hahrtee fahrah), which is 625 years long, or [1|0|0] years in base-25 notation. The current D'ni century began in 9375 DE ([15|0|0] in base 25), or 1719 CE. (This would be the first hahr of the 16th hahrtee fahrah, since the D'ni system began in 0 DE, unlike our Gregorian AD/BC system, which has no year 0.) The hahr 9461 DE is [15|3|11] in base 25. Dropping the century leaves [3|11], or 86 in base 10.
For more information on converting between base 25 and base 10, please consult the article on [article id=807]D'ni Numerals[/article].
[h="2]Timekeeping Devices[/h]
Several examples of D'ni clocks, watches, and timers are known. The relevant D'niPedia Archive articles are:
- [article id=460]Gehn's Watch[/article]
- [article id=459]D'ni Watch[/article]
- [article id=536]D'ni Tahvo Timer[/article]
- [article id=543]D'ni Public Clock (Gorahyan)[/article]
Recommended Comments