Whispering Realms calendar

The months of the Whispering Realms calendar are inspired by the plant phyla:

Gingko
Bryum
March
Pine
Magnoli
Gnetum
Lycoph
Anthoce
Cycad
Fern
Chara
Chlorophyt

(Note: these month names are also used for the Leap Game calendar)

Variable months[]

The length of Gingko, Bryum, Chara and Chlorophyt vary between 29 and 32 days depending on the first day of the year and on leap days. Each pattern is named after a genus of cycad or the word for cycad in Vanuatu where it is a symbol of peace, namele. On a leap year the pattern shifts at the end of the year.

Month length
Pattern	First day of the year	Gingko	Bryum	Chara (leap year)	Chlorophyt (leap year)
Namele	Thursday	32	32	29	29 (30, Stangeria)
Stangeria	Friday	32	31	29	30
Zamia	Saturday	31	31	30	30 (31, Bowenia)
Bowenia	Sunday	31	30	30	31
Cycas	Monday	30	30	31	31 (32, Dioon)
Dioon	Tuesday	30	29	31 (32, Encephalartos)	32 (Encephalartos)
Encephalartos	Wednesday	29	29	32	32

This variable pattern ensures that the months from March to Chara have the same days each year, although Chara doesn't have a fixed length.

Invariable months[]

Leap years[]

The Whispering Realms calendar has a 124-year leap cycle called a drysage. There are thirty leap years per cycle. Inside a drysage leap years are arranged in a seventeen-year pattern of four or five year intervals. There isn't a whole number of pattern occurrences in a cycle which is why two leap years come in succession whenever a new drysage begins.

A leap day is added in year 1, year 5, year 9 and year 13 of the pattern. Years within the pattern start with the following days:

Leap year pattern in a drysage and first day of the year
Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Start day	Mon	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Year type	leap				leap				leap				leap

The leap year cycle repeats for 1792 years; that length of time is called a biotan cycle. Like with drysage, the start of a new biotan cycle is marked by two leap years in succession.

The average year length in a drysage is:

$365+{\frac {30}{124}}=365.241935$ days

The average year length in a biotan cycle is:

$365+{\frac {30\times 14+14}{1792}}=365.242188$ days

The start of current biotan cycle is Monday 1 January 1900. Year 2024 is a leap year and the beginning of a drysage, which means 2023 was leap year too.

Trivia[]

Plant phyla[]

The main non-marine plant phyla are:

Angiospermae, previously magnoliophyta, includes most terrestrial plants. It is the phylum of flowering plants
Bryophyta is the phylum for moss of which bryum is one genus
Polypodiophyta is the phylum for fern
Marchantiophyta is the phylum for liverwort
Chlorophyta and charophyta are the main phyla for freshwater algae

Moss, liverwort and fern are among the oldest land plants (> 400 million years). Next come pine, cycad and gingko (>290 million years). Flowering plants only appeared around 130 million years ago.

Cycad[]

Cycads were common in Jurassic times when dinosaurs were alive. They now live in temperate and tropical areas. They are gymnosperm which means the unfertilised seed is exposed to air for fertilisation in the form of a cone, which differs between male and female plants. The cycad has a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria living in its roots. Most cycads have a stout trunk and a palm-like frond.

Drys[]

Drys means oak in greek and gave the word dryad (nymph of the trees). The word has the same root as tree in English. An oak tree takes about 120 years to mature and bear fruit.

Seventeen year pattern[]

Periodical cicadas are one of the longest living insects, although they spend most of that time as nymphs underground. They emerge after 13 or 17 years to reproduce depending on the species. Cicadas are harmful to trees: the nymph feeds on roots and the female injures the tree by laying eggs inside small branches that fall off later. However other animals appreciate them as a food source.

Biota[]

A biota is the total collection of organisms of a geographic region or a time period, from local geography and current instant all the way up to whole-planet and whole-timescale. It evokes the relationship between different lifeforms at a particular time or place.