elemtilas wrote:Spiff! Definitely looking forward to reading more about this.
I have some idioms in mind—
you don't go launching balloons in a windstorm 'don't go off half-cocked',
a balloon offensive 'a situation that goes wrong but somehow still succeeds',
floating in the air and sitting on a fire 'this isn't going to end well',
attacking [city name] with balloons 'a stupid idea (especially one with popular support)', and
piloting your balloon too high 'trying to work harder than or outperform everyone, leading to negative results'.
(Unrelated to that incident, there's also
tëk mûr 'kick a tree', meaning 'make no progress'. You get things like
ha3ál tëk n úmir 'tree-kicker', 'someone who can't/doesn't make any progress despite taking action' > 'obstinate person', 'powerless person', 'ineffectual person', 'bureaucrat (
pejorative)'.)
elemtilas wrote:And anyway, airships are just so all that and a kettle of crisps. Any ideas what these early airships look like? Have you sketched any pictures?
I have some vague ideas. No sketches though.
OK, so calendars. I could use a
lot of help on this, especially checking my math.
A few relevant pieces of information:
- Local (solar) day is 22.10 hours.
- Planet orbits primary every 398.27 local days.
- Primary moon orbits planet every 29.81 local days.
- Secondary moon orbits planet every 46.88 local days.
Selected calendar systems
Classical Khaya – 13 months, thirty-day months with every fifth month having twenty-nine days. Ten extra days a year leads to a leap month every three years. After five years, short months create thirteen extra days (close enough to fourteen, or two weeks), leading to a leap month every ten years. Each thirtieth year therefore has two extra months. At some point during the history of the calendar, leap years become an issue, so every forty-eight years, each of the thirteen "prime" months is given an extra day.
O – 10 months, eight of which have forty days and two of which have thirty-nine. When leap years became a problem, the system was changed so that, every eight years, all months have forty days—unless the year is also divisible by six (i.e., every forty-eighth year).
Waqwaq – 14 months, twenty-eight days per month. Six extra days per year, leading to a leap month after five years. This leaves two days left over during each five-year cycle, before the quarter-annual orbital lag is deducted. Every two decades, three days are added to the calendar, typically during the first, sixth, and eleventh months.
Xiaoxiao – 13 months; even months have thirty days, odd months have thirty-one. Every fifth year, all months have thirty-one days. Every twenty-eight years, odd months have thirty-two days.
Jädewan – 12 months, thirty-three days each, except the two months have thirty-four. At some point leap years get added, in which case a different month receives an extra day; later on than that, the system is adjusted for the extra 0.02 days—every fifty years, an additional leap year occurs; every two hundred years thus receives two extra days.
Dujajikiswə – 13 months, alternating between thirty-one (odd months) and thirty days (even months). An extra week's worth of days is intercalated in a cycle of six years, six years, five years, six years, five years.
Caber – 15 months, odd months have twenty-six days, even months have twenty-seven. A leap day is added to the ninth month every four years.
Täptäg – 12 months, thirty-three days each. Nine days are added every four years.
I'm not sure which system I want the Tim Ar to eventually use. The Tim Ar are descended from the same culture as the O, but the Tim Ar's forebears in particular were conquered by many groups, the Khaya being the first such invaders. I could also see them adopting the Täptäg system due to trade (or conversely the Täptäg abandoning theirs in favor of whatever system it is the Tim Ar are using). Less plausible, but still an option, is the Caber system being imported. Thoughts?