Sylvierian Time

Time was dreamt of before Time existed. Time was conceived by Aopros, the son of Ao and Pryiam (as Pryma). Before Time began, Aopros slept on the underside of the Starstone and dreamt of his own death at the hands of Pryma. Aopros foresaw his bronze form being melted by jealous Pryma using the heat of the Ao, and predicted how his remains would be fashioned into the complex Clockwork torture keeping Ao and Iori apart. Aopros realized that the motion of Ao and Iori's Pursuit could be used to measure the passage of events. Aopros' dream led him to create the Bronze Chroniker, a device measuring twenty hours, each hour consisting of one hundred minutes made up of one hundred seconds each. The hours measured by the Chroniker were based on Aopros' dream of the Pursuit, breaking Ao's run over Pryiam into ten hours and breaking up Iori's run in the same manner. The Bronze Chroniker was measuring time that did not yet exist. Aopros became known as Aopros the Clockmaker.

Eventually, Aopros' dream came to pass, and Pryma did murder him and use his remains to buld the Bronze Clockwork, keeping Ao and Iori apart on the bronze ring called the Pursuit. Aopros was dead, but the memory of Time lived on in his unshackled soul, Zimri, and in the ticking of the Bronze Chroniker. When Ao rose on the Pursuit for the first time, the memory of Zimri and the Time built into the Bronze Chroniker created a new being, The Memory of Aopros, Ophros the God of Time. Ophros knew of Aopros' dream of Time, and during the First Day, Ophros constructed the Watchwork Tower at the end of the Clockspine of Pryiam.

On the First Day, the Watchwork Tower was positioned next to the Duskside of the Pursuit. Behind the Watchwork Tower, Jhoerst, the first of the ten Decaphros was born. When Iori set at the end of the First Day and a new day began, the Starwheel portion of the Clockwork advanced and the Watchwork Tower moved with Pryiam's Clockspine. The Watchwork Tower's position delineated Time in the way Aopros had dreamed. It would be three hundred days before the Watchwork Tower would return to its original position aligned with the Duskside of the Pursuit. So as an entire revolution of Ao and Iori on the Pursuit amounted to a single day, an entire revolution of the Watchwork Tower along the Starwheel amounted to a single year. During the First Year, as the Watchwork Tower progressed along the Starwheel, a new Decaphrost was born every thirty days, hanging in the Void in such a way that a month could be measured by the Watchwork Tower's position relative to the Decaphrost's position in the sky. As the Decaphros came into being, the new months were named for their sky-bound ward. Jhoerst was followed by Feyhst, then Daeniol, Aadmol, Mastrol, Baummol, Chaerol, Tohlkoh, and Llewsol, with the year ending in Whilsst.

Each month consisted of thirty days, split into three weeks of ten days each. On the First Day, named by Ophros as 'Mariday,' to honor the Dreamer, Maria Calla, Ophros named each of the ten weekdays for one of the Old Gods of Sylvieria. Mariday was followed by Geniday, for Genevieve, Prymday for Pryiam, Aoday for Ao, Ioday for Iori, Prysiday for Prysius, Aoproday for Aopros, Mephiliday for Mephilista, Celeday for Celeda and the tenth day, he named Ophrosday, for himself.

The Bronze Chroniker, the artifact of Aopros, kept perfect time with the machinery of Sylvieria. It measured out the ten hour intervals of Ao's and Iori's runs on the Pursuit, and further split those hours into one hundred minutes each. Each minute was subdivided into one hundred seconds. The Bronze Chroniker is mounted in the Watchwork Tower and still serves as the standard of timekeeping for Sylvieria. It is protected by the Silpherenyes, Iriph and Elaph, guardians of Time that Ophros created from two of his original twelve eyes.

A Sylvierian year, then consists of ten months, three hundred days, six thousand hours, six hundred thousand minutes and sixty million seconds.

A Sylvierian day consists of twenty hours, two thousand minutes and two hundred thousand seconds.

A Sylverian hour consists of one hundred minutes and ten thousand seconds.

A Sylvierian minute consists of one hundred seconds.

In addition to the standard progression of Time, there are elements of Time that exist outside of its normal flow. Ophros' creation of the Silpherenyes created Hidden Time, in the forms of the months or Irist and Erast, and the days of Iriday and Eraday. These aspects of Hidden Time can only be accessed by magical or supernatural means.

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