Raven & Quill #6, vol. 2
The Meteor Crater and the Music of the Void:
Conflicting Calendars, Thermodynamic Magic, & Chapter 9
Fellow Worldsmiths,
How often do we let magic be "hand-wavy," or gloss over the logistical nightmare of how different cultures actually measure time?
In Raven & Quill Issue 6, I dive deep into the mechanics of Aithyris to address both of these issues, and I wanted to share some of that forge-labor with this community.
The Clocks of the Five Seas
If you've ever looked at the historical mess of the Julian and Gregorian calendars and thought, "I should do that to my characters," you'll understand "The Lag".
The ancient Shandaryn calendar of my setting uses a perfect 351-day solar year. But humanity couldn't leave the math alone. The trade-focused Therysians anchored their New Year to the Spring Equinox , while the traditional Vesprians anchored theirs to the Winter Solstice. The result? A predictable annual overlap where one nation is technically a full year behind the other for three months and a week. You can read the full mechanical breakdown in Calendars & Timekeeping.
The Somatic Economy & Thermodynamic Magic
I also touch on the physics of the "Shadow". Instead of treating darkness as just "bad lighting," I built it as an active endothermic vacuum. Because the medium of the Shadow is acoustically dead , moving a living soul through it creates intense "Friction of Identity". Magic isn't free; it's a zero-sum thermodynamic exchange.
The issue also features a personal journal entry about a recent lecture I attended, a fumbled question about entropy, and why the physical "connectedness" of the universe matters so much to the themes of my story.
If you enjoy deep-dive worldbuilding, strict causality models, and the emotional toll of the craft, you can read the full issue of
The Meteor Crater and the Music of the Void (and Chapter 9 )
I'd love to hear how you handle conflicting timekeeping or strict magical limits in your own worlds!
Shine Bright!
— VS
#Worldbuilding #FantasyFiction #MagicSystems #Lore #WritingCommunity #Aithyris #AmWritingFantasy
