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Time and Measurements
14 years ago
General
Here is a question for my readers.
What are your thoughts on how fantasy or scifi handles units of measurements?
The two extremes are...
A: Use ones we are all familiar with. Hours, days, weeks. Miles, kilometers, feet. "It took me three hours just to walk a mile!"
B: Make up new words or terms. "It took me three tocks to walk single hoof-trail!"
I've read plenty of stories that do both. The first can be a bit jarring I think to have fantasy characters using english measurments and names like Sunday or December. But of course it's as confusing as hell if you have to remember a whole set of measurements. A book I read recently used metric time and measurement and was really confusing to try and remember what the hell a megacycle was.
I have mostly avoided the problem, using hours and seconds and vague terms like "moons" for "months" and "seasons" for "years" but have not decided on what to do about naming days of the week or months.
A funny related thought, I wonder how furry cultures WOULD figure out measurements. Here on earth a foot is based on, duh, the length of an average male adult foot. What does that mean for say a rabbit and a horse? :)
What are your thoughts on how fantasy or scifi handles units of measurements?
The two extremes are...
A: Use ones we are all familiar with. Hours, days, weeks. Miles, kilometers, feet. "It took me three hours just to walk a mile!"
B: Make up new words or terms. "It took me three tocks to walk single hoof-trail!"
I've read plenty of stories that do both. The first can be a bit jarring I think to have fantasy characters using english measurments and names like Sunday or December. But of course it's as confusing as hell if you have to remember a whole set of measurements. A book I read recently used metric time and measurement and was really confusing to try and remember what the hell a megacycle was.
I have mostly avoided the problem, using hours and seconds and vague terms like "moons" for "months" and "seasons" for "years" but have not decided on what to do about naming days of the week or months.
A funny related thought, I wonder how furry cultures WOULD figure out measurements. Here on earth a foot is based on, duh, the length of an average male adult foot. What does that mean for say a rabbit and a horse? :)
If you don't want to use so many systems, a good one to use is old measurements such as leagues, cubits fathoms etc. They're quantifiable to the reader with a little bit of research, but still give enough sense of distance so as not to break the flow of the story.
I could use feet and miles and that would work for everyone but the USA.
"Miles? How quaint..."
Rabbits use carrots and paws and ears
Dargons use wings fire and tails and claws
Sunday uday
SATURDAY IS URDAY
fRIDAY IS iDAY
tHURSDAY AND HURDAY
TUESDAY as esday
Unicorn use Horns Manes tails and time Magic hour
Tauren use bulls and cows for girls Bath room
Tauren use bull shit as (fuck)
Cows go got milk as pregant
Mares whinny for a waiter
Stalions bite for power and free will
I don't know you do what you thing best happy eater hope your well Dany Highfield look forward to more take care all the ebst of luck to your.
B contains a well defined alt guide to relate to, such as Forgotten Realms in D&D a week in 10 days instead of 7. And there is a breakdown on the months, holidays, etc.etc.
Also think of the oldest empire or civilization in your universe, slightly bastardize it to compensate for age and use what they would use.
That's my 2 cents at least.
Seasons are divided into three moons of the four elements. Earth - spring, Fire - summer, Air- harvest, Water - rains. So a day would be called 14th day Second Moon of Fire. The days of the week are not named.
For days, inventing your own is fine, just make them contextually plausible. the Elder Scrolls do a nice job of blending invented day names into and understandable week (Sundas, Morndas, Tirdas, Middas, Turdas, Fredas, Loredas)
For measurements, use terminology that can be easily explained in context and has easy-to-relate meanings: Feet or Hands are a good short distance, because everybody has some. for very short distances, Finger (be sure to specify width or length) is quite adaptable. For a larger distance, Span (as in a full spread of the arms) is a good substitute for Yard or Meter. For longer distances, Shot (as in the length of a single bow shot) is good, and for longer distances still, Quiver (as in archer shoots, advances to arrow, shoots again, repeat until quiver is empty) is useful.
Day name, strangely, are pretty universal around the world. The day of the sun usually is followed by the day of the moon. Thor and Freya (dad-day and mom-day) are before son-day.
So, if you've got a local deity triad day names might need changing. If you're using "Sun" and "moon" you can stick with same day names.
Months... well, we number the last 4 (sept, oct, nov, dec 9-12 {thank you Julius and Augustus Ceaser for July and August screwing things up})
It's all arbitrary, anyway. Seasons can be called the same thing (summer, fall, winter, etc) or new things (growth, bloom, decay, death).
Measurements... cup, bucket, barrel, cask. For weight "stone" works or "measure" or "standard weight", etc.
I get annoyed if it's not intuitive. I hate Harry Potter currency for this reason.