User blog:Shaldemar/New World Calendar

Preamble
The following are my thoughts about the calendaric system in Overlord.

There are 3 different "times" with corresponding calendars:
 * 1) Calendar of the the futuristic Japan Satoru Suzuki lived in
 * 2) Calendar in the game YGGDRASIL
 * 3) Calendar of New World (NW)

For the first, it would be save to assume it is the same as the real-live earth calendar. 365 days a year with 12 month and 24 hours a day.

For the second, nothing is mentioned; and here it becomes complicated. Nazarik was transported to NW, but NW has many things, YGGDRASIL had too. Was the "sense of time" also "transferred"? And what calendar was used in YGGDRASIL. I leave that open for now, as I can't answer it. And for the following discussion, it doesn't weight much into it.

The third is the real deal. And the following will be about how I perceive the calendar in New World.

Documented
What is confirmed is that in NW there exists year, month, day and hour. As it is frequently used by residents of NW themselves (see especially the history lesson for Climb in LN Vol.5 Ch.2 Part 2 or the many intermezzos with King Lanposa III).

What also is confirmed are the names of some months. From LN Vol.5&6 Mid Fire Month (8th Month) and Lower Fire Month (9th Month). Also confirmed from the many Character Sheets is Middle Earth Month (Gazef), Lower Earth Month (Lakyus, Gagaran), Upper Fire Month (Renner, Imina, Raeven), Upper Wind Month (Hekkeran, Jircniv) and Middle Wind Month (Enri, Brain, Nfirea, Arche).

The highest numbered day confirmed is the 30th day from Raeven's Character Sheet.

The highest counted hour I could confirm is 23:30 from LN Vol.05 Ch.1 Part 1. Going with what is provided by the Light Novels of Overlord, I assume that one day has 24 hours. But it is also possible that one day could have 28h or 30h.

Venture
Based on this it is safe to assume that the calendar in NW is a four conventional temperate season calendar, where the seasons are named after elements. With Earth, Fire (Flame) & Wind (Air) there would only be 3 seasons. Going with the 4 classical elements and adding the missing element Water, there would 4 seasons. ''There is no source that confirms that there is 4th season Water until LN Vol.9! ''One season is divided by three into an upper month, a middle month and a lower month with the flow of time.

One element should corespondents to one season. Which element to which season is up to debate. Going with the Triplicities by Season it would be:
 * Spring = Wind
 * Summer = Fire
 * Autumn = Earth
 * Winter = Water

But what is confirmed from LN Vol.5&6 is, that: 8th Month = Middle Fire Month 9th Month = Lower Fire Month So going with 8th month (August) and 9th month (September) from the earthly calendar isn't working. The 8th month would be Middle Earth Month, and not Middle Fire Month as stated in the Light Novels.

The said above assumes an earthly calendar and that the year starts in January and ends with December. But I don't think that the calendar in NW is the same.

My conjecture is, that the New World Calendar is a (Tropical) Solar calendar and the seasons are divided by the Solstice and the Equinox.

The first month in the earthly calendar is January, but seasonal, it is still winter. In the New World Calendar, the first month is the Upper Water Month, starting with the winter solstice. Assuming 4 seasons divided into the months (upper, middle, lower) it would look something like this correspondingly to the earthly 12 months:


 * 1) Month: Upper Water Month (winter solstice)
 * 2) Month: Middle Water Month
 * 3) Month: Lower Water Month
 * 4) Month: Upper Wind Month (spring equinox)
 * 5) Month: Middle Wind Month
 * 6) Month: Lower Wind Month
 * 7) Month: Upper Fire Month (summer solstice)
 * 8) Month: Middle Fire Month
 * 9) Month: Lower Fire Month
 * 10) Month: Upper Earth Month (autumn equinox)
 * 11) Month: Middle Earth Month
 * 12) Month: Lower Earth Month

Seasonal, it starts in winter. Same as the earthly calendar too. It just looks a bit confusing, because the numbered months from the earthly calendar don't fit and earthly the seasons start with spring.

An example: The annual war between the Kingdom and the Empire would be in the harvest season of autumn (Earth Season). But do to Jaldabaoth, it has been moved into winter (Water Season). In LN Ch.2 Part 2 it's mention how the Kingdom has additional expenses for things like firewood, warm clothing and so on because it is now winter (Water Season). It also states how the Empire's declaration of war lies 2 months in the past (in the Upper Water Month?). One month before that, Jircniv "apologized" to Ainz (Ch.1 Part 2, Lower Earth Month?).

What is left is the quantity of days for one month. I think that one month has 30 days. That is most commonly used in this kind of settings (and I didn't found a source with a 31th day).

Summary

 * The calendar is based on the seasons
 * A season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) correspondents to an Element (Water, Wind, Fire, Earth)
 * One season is divided into thirds called Upper Month, Middle Month and Lower Month
 * One month consists of 30 days
 * One day has 24 hours

Postface
As known, Overlord borrows from D&D. If somebody is knowledgeable about the calendar in D&D, please share it with us to complete the picture.