Grains of Sand: Time in Rise of the Runelords

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – J.R.R. Tolkein

The first adventure of Rise of the Runelord begins in the year 4707 AR (Absalom Reckoning). Years of this nature are measured according to the time since the fall of the empire of Aroden, the namesake of a once-living living god.

In particular, the adventure starts in the thick of things on a very significant annual event on the Autumnal Equinox; this is on the 22nd of the month of Rova ¹. As Rise of the Runelords occurs in the world of Golarion, it thus follows that those in the country of Varisia follow Golarion’s calendar.

The 22nd of Rova falls on a Moonday. In Golarion, calendar weeks are comprised of seven days, as it is in our world, with the seven days of the week being very similar to our own:

• Moonday corresponds to Monday, a day of work and religion at night,
• Toilday corresponds to Tuesday, a day of work,
• Wealday corresponds to Wednesday, a day of work,
• Oathday corresponds to Thursday, a day of work,
• Fireday corresponds to Friday, a day of work,
• Starday corresponds to Saturday, a day of work, and
• Sunday corresponds to Sunday, a day of rest and religion.

Similarly, there are 12 months in the year each comprised of, on average, 30 days. The months of the calendar are:

• Abadius corresponds to January,
• Calistril corresponds to February,
• Pharast corresponds to March,
• Gozran corresponds to April,
• Desnus corresponds to May,
• Sarenith corresponds to June,
• Erastus corresponds to July,
• Arodus corresponds to August,
• Rova corresponds to September,
• Lamashan corresponds to October,
• Neth corresponds to November, and
• Kuthona corresponds to December.

Each month is etymologically associated with a deity (for example, the deity of Sarenrae corresponds directly to the month of Sarenith) and therefore the passage of the year is perceived by many as an analogy to a variant pantheon.

The passage of time in the coming adventures will be denoted using this vocabulary and calendar, so be aware of the fairly simple correlations to our world. When describing your characters’ backgrounds, it would be a nice touch if you referred to past events using this representation of time as well. As the events of the campaign start on a Rova, an arrival in Sandpoint will be somewhere relative to this date.