Subject: (whorl) The Whorl's Calendar? Directions? Shade Rotation?

From: Talarican <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 18:24:24 +0000

I have been rereading BLS and BSS to look for answers for various
questions related to the passage of time for the _Whorl_ and its voyage.

Has anyone perchance picked up on any clues regarding the length of the year
on the _Whorl_? Would it perhaps be equal to an Typhon-era Earth year - and
would that be substantially the same as that of twenty-first century Earth?
(no, I'm not asking about relativistic time dilation here; this would be
strictly the subjective time as perceived by the Cargo)

What determines the length of the year on the _Whorl_ — I thought I read
somewhere that the Shade actually narrows and widens in a cycle to vary the
lengths of day and create seasons.

Has anyone figured out the Whorl's calendar, and what determines the
"months", given the lack of anything like Lune?

Are years and months in the _Whorl_ just arbitrary groups of rotations of
the Shade, to mimic the diurnal rhythms of Typhon's Earth? I saw one named
"month"(?) ("Nemesis", of all things) in _Calde_.

Mantis, in _Lexicon Urthus_ describes a lunar, 13 month x 28 day = 364 day
Urth calendar; if this was Typhon's calendar, there shouldn't be any problem
with installing it in his generation starcrossers.

Otherwise, I suppose we are to assume an Urth or _Whorl_ year is essentially
the same as that of Earth of your time; besides, spacefaring cultures might
be more interested in true orbital periods.

Also, does anyone have any insight as to why the direction toward Mainframe
was named "east", rather than "north" or "south"? (Because the Long Sun
"originates" there? I think it actually would originate in the "west", at
the reactor, if anything) One would think "west" would be the direction in
which
the Shade rotates, so that "east" would be "toward" Shadeup (i.e. sunrise),
hence "North" is to the left of east. But Wolfe chose to do otherwise.

For that matter, in which direction does the Shade rotate?

Talarican

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