The Imperial Calander, The Moons, and How people much or little emphasis GM's place on these details

By Solomonhiram, in WFRP Gamemasters

Really one of the few complaints I have with the core set is that the background is fairly vague and some of the important details are glossed over or abscent. Those of us who are new to the setting probobly don't really notice things like the names of the months of the year, or the days of the week, or the fact that a week in the Old World is 8 days long, not 7 like in the real world. Thinking on it some I decided that I would try and get a topic started to try and compile some of the smaller details of the setting that are'nt covered by the core sets or in Warhammer Army Books.

To begin with a year in the Old World is 400 days long (as oppose to 365). It has 2 moons; the larger called Mannslieb, meaning beloved of Mannan, that take approximately 25 days to cycle from full to full, and Morrslieb, beloved of Morr which is far more erratic appearing closer or farther away seemingly at random. There are two primary legends regarding the origins of Morrslieb, the first tells that it was a gateway in the sky which daemons poured through and Morr inflicted a terrible punishement upon them locking the gateway and banishing them from whence they came, fashioning the second moon from the gateways wreckage. The second legend (favoured by worshippers of Chaos) says that Morrslieb is in reality a giant block of warpstone that broke loose when Chaos first came to the Old World and it now circles endlessly spreading chaos with its passing.

The Imperial Calander is broken down into 12 months of 32 or 33 days respectively with 6 days that fall between months that are'nt numbered. These days are feastdays that mark the winter and summer solstice and the spring and autumn equinoxes, and the other two mark the days where both the moons are full at the same time. As far as corrisponding to our months, this is a best guess based on the fall of the "between days" and a rough comparisson to the celtic calander with the additional days added in there. So if someone knows better please post!

Hexenstag or Witcher's Day (first time the moons are both full)

Nachexen or After-Witching (Feb)

Jahrdrung or Year Turn (Mar)

Mitterfruhl or the Spring equinox

Pflugzeit or Ploughtide (April)

Sigmarzeit or Sigmartide (May)

Sommerzeit or Summertide (June)

Sonnstill or the Summer solstice

Vorgeheim or Fore-Mystery (July)

Geheimnistag or the Day of Mystery (second time the moons are both full)

Nachgeheim or After-Mystery (Aug)

Erntezeit or Harvest-tide (Sept)

Mittherbst or the Autumn equinox

Brauzeit or Brewmonth (Oct)

Kaldezeit or Chillmonth (Nov)

Ulriczeit or Ulrictide (Dec)

Mondstille or Winter solstice

Vorhexen or Fore-Witching (Jan)

Finally like I said above there are 8 days of the week:

Wellentag or Workday

Aubentag or Levyday

Marktag or Marketday

Backertag or Bakeday

Bezahltag or Taxday

Konigstag or Kingday ( a name likely dating back from the time the Empire was little more than waring tribes)

Angestag or Startweek

Festag or Holiday ( this is a day technically reserved for worship, a rest day like sunday is supposed to be for us but whether or not that happens is really in the hands of the local authorities as well as the amount of pull the churches have in the area).

So anyway here's a start anyway for those who are interested, and like I said Im very curious to know how many GM's out there track the days and months and moon cycles etc and how much precision is brought to the task?

That was real helpful thanks!

(My first post here!)

A week is eight days long in the Empire? Ooops, I did not know that. Thanks for the information! This simple fact could easily ruin my murder mystery (at least if other groups were to play it).

/Carl - enjoying WFRP - and the forum!

re 8-day week, I explained to my players it's such a grim world, you get every 8th day off (maybe) not every 7th.

FYI, the back portion of signs Of Faith has an Imperial calendar in it, as well as some information on holidays, etc.

Thats fantastic news dvang! Im sure in future supplements we will see more and more of the little things get some attention but for now I figured let us GM's unite and use this resource we have here to gather together what we can now.

@Sunatet those are both terrific links, another one I would suggest is www.warpstone.org/ which leads to the homepage of the sadly now defunct but fantastic warpstone magazine which more or less kept WHFRP alive through some long dark times in the past.

Thats fantastic news dvang! Im sure in future supplements we will see more and more of the little things get some attention but for now I figured let us GM's unite and use this resource we have here to gather together what we can now.

@Sunatet those are both terrific links, another one I would suggest is www.warpstone.org/ which leads to the homepage of the sadly now defunct but fantastic warpstone magazine which more or less kept WHFRP alive through some long dark times in the past.

Solomonhiram said:

@Sunatet those are both terrific links, another one I would suggest is www.warpstone.org/ which leads to the homepage of the sadly now defunct but fantastic warpstone magazine which more or less kept WHFRP alive through some long dark times in the past.

I was under the impression that there would be one more issue of Warpstone, eventually.

fair point, I have heard rumors of one last issue too, but just the same that is the most we can hope to see at this point.

Edge of Night has detailed information on the (very nasty) effects of Morrslieb being constantly in the sky.

Rob