MT: A Chronology of the Imperium possible erratum

[snrdg082102]

Evening everyone,

While trying to create a way to change June 19, 2008 into an Imperial date I pulled out
the MT: Imperial Encyclopedia, MT: Referee's Companion, and CT: Alien Modules. I'm
able to convert the month and day, but the year is something I'm still trying to work out.
So I started checking the year dates per MT: Imperial Encyclopedia and MT: Referee's
Companion. To my surprise and frustration I have not been able to get the time lines to
correlate. Here is an example:
MT: Imperial Encyclopedia pp. 6-7
Imperial date: -500,000 = Aslan date -560,000
Imperail date: -400,000 = Aslan date -530,000

From MT: Referee's Companion p. 42:
"Basic units: The Aslan year is the ftahea, 212.2 eakhau (Aslan day) long. A ftahea is 320
days long" on p. 45 is a table that also shows the an Aslan year is 320 Imperial days long.

This means that an Aslan year is 320/365 = (rounded to the fifth decimal place ) as .87671
of an Imperial year. The calendar advanceses 100,000 Imperial years which should, I think,
advance the Aslan calendar by 87,671 or from -560,000 to -472,330.

I've also checked the K'kree, Vilani, and Zhodani only to find out that my numbers don't
match with the ones in the Encyclopedia. Of course I may not being using the right
formula or numbers.

Can someone here either confirm the numbers or put me on the right track to convert the
numbers?

Tom Rux

 

[mmbutter]

According to http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Date_Conversion:

Solomani -> Imperial (x - 4518) / 1.0006644

(2008 - 4518) / 1.0006644 = -2508

If you want to get more accurate, calculate the day of year as a decimal portion.

(2008.4657534246575342465753424658 - 4518) / 1.0006644 = -2507.8680190634766918393665823769 or 048-(-2508)

 

[snrdg082102]

Hello mmbutter,

Thank you for the link to traveller.wikia this does help with the Imperial to Solomani
converstion. Did you notice if there are any for the other sophonts in the MTU? Oops
I should have used the link first and then asked if I did not see the information. Thanks
again for the link.

 

[rancke]

According to http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Date_Conversion:

Solomani -> Imperial (x - 4518) / 1.0006644

(2008 - 4518) / 1.0006644 = -2508

Actually, it is (2008 - 4521.0301/ 1.0006644). The reason is discussed on the discussion page of the page you referenced. In brief, there are a number of different canonical Imperial dates with their equivalent Solomani dates. Unfortunately, they don't match up. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of them, except that if some of them are right, others can't be and vice versa (And note that some of the contradictory ones are in the very same book!). So when we were working on GT:Sword Worlds I decided to pick one date as true and calculate everything else from that. It's hardly rocket science, but it is tricky. It's also the sort of thing that it's unlikely that "real" historians from the TU would get wrong, since presumably their computers are as capable of converting as ours are.

Anyway, the date I chose was 292-950 Imperial (13 March 5471 Terran), the date Margaret chose for decreeing the reintegration of the Solomani Sphere into the Imperium. The reason why I chose that date instead of, say, 001-0000 (Holiday, Year 0), is that it's one of the few canonical dates with the day as well as the year. Imagine my chagrin when someone pointed out that one of the other dates that does have days as well as the years is Year 0. According to CT:AM6 (p. 30), 001-0000 is 19 January 4521, not 11 january 4521, as the Margaret's Edict date, which came from the same book (p. 11), would make it.

If I had remembered about the Year 0 reference back when I was working on Sword Worlds, I'd certainly have chosen 001-0000 = 19 Jan 4521 over 292-950 = 13 March 5471. But I didn't, so the dates in Sword Worlds matches the second and not the first. That's really the only reason I suggest sticking to that, but I think it's a pretty good reason.


Hans

 

[DonM]

And one of the reasons why in my Timeline, I chose not to mess with foreign dates, and stick with Imperial dating only.

 

[rancke]

And one of the reasons why in my Timeline, I chose not to mess with foreign dates, and stick with Imperial dating only.

That works in most cases, but not in all. Margaret chose 292-950 to issue her edict because the corresponding Solomani date had a special significance to the Solomani. For Sword Worlds we came up with some holidays for the Sword Worlders, and since they use the Revised Gregorian calendar, anyone who wants to use them (anyone who cares about verisimilitude, that is) does need to know the correspondance between the Revised Gregorian and the Imperial calendars.

(Incidentally, here's a "fluff" TNS newsbrief I once made up for my campaign newspaper. The idea was that the TAS sent out these advisories in time for tourists within a certain distance to decide to visit (or not visit; I also has a warning about Rethe's Festival) a place for some special occasion.)

Regina/Regina 036-1120
¶ TRAVELLERS’ AID ADVISORY: This year the ancient, traditional Old Terran holiday known as Christmas falls on Thirday the 256th. Regina is famous throughout the Domain of Deneb for the splendor of its Christmas celebrations, which include elements dating back to Old Terra more than 5000 years ago as well as elements from Regina’s own 1045 year long history.
¶ The festivities commence on the eve of Tuday the 255th with the Lighting of the Tree and lasts until Senday the 267th, ending with the Twelfth Day Parade.​

In one sense it should make absolutely no difference to anyone whether a particular event took place 8 days sooner or later. But some people do care. And it's the sort of thing that tends to break suspension of disbelief, because who can believe in computers far more advanced than any we have today that can't do a simple little conversion? (note the plural. One misprogrammed computer is one thing; being unable to spot mistakes is quite another).


Hans