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I feel like this should be known but had no luck.

Has anyone ever set down what the days of the week and months of the year are called?

Obviously this will vary from world to world blah blah blah, but it would seem the Imperium would need some sort of standard calendar just for stuff like paying guardsmen, knowing what day to clean the ship's plasma manifolds etc.

If nothing else it would seem a chance to show off some dog Latin and in-jokes.

I wanna say that it varies from world to world for some reason.

that said assuming a 12 month calender I imagine you'd have months named for important figures in Iom history, Primarchs etc.

Look up the 40k Imperial Date System, maybe?

Banville wrote:
Look up the 40k Imperial Date System, maybe?

This is noted as being primarily an admistrative tool, not a practical one. The year fragments are each a little over 8 hours long...


I think the Imperial calendar would look a bit like the liturgical calendars of Christianity. Each day would be an Imperial Saint's feast, with the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension being the most notable. I reckon the rest of the calendar would be divided up along religious means, with feasts and fasts, perhaps around some ancient, secular core of months or seasons. As an example, the period preceding the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension could be called the Circumsessent or something, and be followed by Thronetide.

The year probably has 4 seasons in the manner of Old Terra, because even being blasted during the Age of Strife won't change the seasons in relation to Sol, but perhaps with modern faux-latin names. The tropical seasons will be long gone with the boiled oceans.

How about nine months of forty days each. 9*40 = 360. One month for each loyal Primarch with the other four and a quarter days left over for the "Feast of the Emperor" or something.

Actually, I once heard somewhere that the Earth's rotation is slowing in relation to its orbit, so in forty thousand years, maybe there won't even be four and a quarter days left over.

Anyway, such a calendar would probably only be used outside of the Solar system for extremely pedantic Administratum reasons. Like you guys already mentioned, practical calendars are probably distinct to each world.

As for days of the week, what in the Emperor's name is a "week", citizen? "Weekend? Day off?" I don't know what those words mean, but they sound like blasphemy to me. I think it's time you found your way to an Imperial shrine and begged for the Emperor's salvation, son.

A standard calendar would also matter in space - ships, stations etc need some way to divide time and don't care about local conditions.

On planet any imperial installation/place that deals with off world stuff would probably have two clocks on the wall and two calendars on their desk.

It would be totally chaotic, absolutely in the spirit of 40k.

Indeed. Thousand-cycle is the primary tool for anywhere with no natural 'day' - ships, deep void stations, forgeworlds where the natural environment is a distraction....

Far as logistics, are we talking subjective or Terran Absolute time?

Can't use the latter surely for things like payroll, otherwise you're paying people for time they never experience whilst in the warp or whilst travelling at fraction-c speeds as they head in and out system. Plus some systems in 40K effectively live in the past or the future - depending on how the warp currents flow. If the only way to get to planet Chronomess is a route that takes 2 months but takes you 100 years into the past - Chronomess is going to operate like it is current with the Imperium because that's how travel works and information flows. But soon as something starts a sublight trip from there to the nearest location, they're effectively time travellers (and need to refund all the back pay they were given!).

Tastyfish wrote:

Spoiler:

Far as logistics, are we talking subjective or Terran Absolute time?

Can't use the latter surely for things like payroll, otherwise you're paying people for time they never experience whilst in the warp or whilst travelling at fraction-c speeds as they head in and out system. Plus some systems in 40K effectively live in the past or the future - depending on how the warp currents flow. If the only way to get to planet Chronomess is a route that takes 2 months but takes you 100 years into the past - Chronomess is going to operate like it is current with the Imperium because that's how travel works and information flows. But soon as something starts a sublight trip from there to the nearest location, they're effectively time travellers (and need to refund all the back pay they were given!).

Yeah, even maintaining a universal time in our own galaxy would be a mess due to the nature of relativity. Having time slow down and speed up due to gravity is already a pain, but throw in the vagaries of something as chaotic as the Warp, and it all get's a whole lot more... well, chaotic!

Still, I imagine that it's somewhat important for most Imperial worlds to have some idea of what the date is back on Terra, and I imagine that there may be some way to use the astronomican as a sort of clock. Maybe the choir chants to a regular beat?

In any case, such a time keeping system was utterly buggered during the Noctis Aeterna and is likely still completely buggered on the other side of the Great Rift.