Aruscio's Archives

With the advent of Black and White and the seasons mechanic, it's clear that my calendar for Aruscia needs to be rethought again, in order to be [roughly] compatible with the seasons mechanic. I've also added some elements Here's what I've come up with:

The reason why Aruscia's seasons fluctuate three times a year isn't because of tilt, like Earth's, but instead because Aruscia has an epicycular orbit, meaning that it loops around itself as it loops around its star. Imagine the cycles the (IRL) Moon makes. Relative to the (IRL) Sun, the Moon has an epicycular orbit.

Anyway, Aruscia orbits in epicycles because it is a moon of a dark matter planet. Dark matter is a variety of matter that doesn't interact with light and passes right through regular matter, but interacts with gravity as does regular matter. Thus, even though the planet is invisible, its gravitational effects can be felt because Aruscia orbits around it.

Aruscia's star is very small, a white dwarf in fact. Thus, it has a very small habitable zone. Aruscia's movement outwards and inwards through its epicycles are enough to change the seasonal temperature because the star is so small and gives off little heat.

If you're confused, this GIF should help you understand the concept of epicycles. Imagine Aruscia as the small red dot, and the origin of the graph as the center of the Sun. The black dot is the dark matter planet, and the black circle is Aruscia's orbit around the dark matter planet.



Each orbit of the dark matter planet is 128 days long, containing four months of four eight-day weeks. Each month experiences one of the four seasons, so it's roughly analogous to one year on earth, except a third of the length. This period of four months is called a "kevier". Since each season matches up EXACTLY with a month, the months are simply referred to by their season names, starting with spring. One kevier is one orbit around the dark matter planet. One kevier is as follows:

Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

Another unit, the year, is made up for three keviers and is 384 days long. Since the seasons cycle three times in one year, each season appears three times. Since the season names are the month names, this could cause some confusion, so in the context of years each month is referred to with a prefix which tells which cycle it's from. If you're confused, let me explain:

First Spring
First Summer
First Autumn
First Winter
Second Spring
Second Summer
Second Autumn
Second Winter
Third Spring
Third Summer
Third Autumn
Third Winter

IMPORTANT: The dark matter planet is orbited three times each year. Thus, one kevier = one seasonal cycle = one dark matter planet orbit. Therefore, one year = three seasonal cycles = three keviers = three dark matter orbits = one stellar orbit.

Here's a frame from the GIF above which shows the approximate starting and midpoints of each season. The small dots are the starting points and the large dots are the midpoints. Each small dot corresponds to the beginning of a new month as well as a new season. I know it's rough, but it's the best I could do with a laptop trackpad.



Green = Spring, Orange = Summer, Brown = Autumn and Blue = Winter.

So, there's the explanation for the seasons and whatnot! I'll have to retcon in these explanations when I rewrite A Brief History of the Universe.

As a last addition, I'm remixing the weekday names with some references to ABHotU. Black are workdays, blue are off-days.

Arceusday
Crystanday
Antonday
Loranday
Hovenday
Tohjohday
Reshiday
Zekroday

The day names refer to, respectively, the creator of the universe, the emporer who first united the world, his two sons who started the greatest civil war ever seen, the Hovenite Empire, the Tohjohan Empire, and the two beasts that ended the civil war.

Hope you like! Oh, last note. "Kevier" was derived from the Dutch phrase "keer vier", which means "four time". Four months, eh?