Chapter Text
Elvhenan
Cole: Look at all the stars. Their light is very far away. Some of them are gone.
Solas: Vast but still. Does it bother you, how different it looks than the sky in the Fade?
Cole: At first, I didn't remember. Now I just want to forget.
Before the Veil time was, shall we say, a nebulous concept. We know it existed in some sense from codices such as the Hundred Year Duel and Birds of Fancy , which both refer to “years,” indicating that the idea exists, but is treated much differently from how we might treat a year. There aren’t birthdays, traditional New Years, and everything else we associate with a calendar year. From what we know of Thedas, it takes the same amount of time for the plant its on to rotate around the sun as Earth, and I think Elvhenan were cognizant of that fact but didn’t consider it particularly remarkable. If they had anything resembling months, I think there would only be four— spring, summer, fall, and winter, beginning on the equinox and ending on the solstice, or vice versa.
Rather than measure time based on the rotation of the planet, or even the rotation of the moons around the planet, Elvhenan measured time on other celestial bodies. The elves and spirits of Elvhenan are consistently associated with the air and sky, in contrast to the dwarves, they also through the Fade seem to perceive the heavens differently than we do. As I highlighted above, Cole is aware of the fact that many of the stars they see are dead, and I think this would also mean that Elvhenan possessed knowledge of things such as the expansion of the universe, the the death of stars, the passage of comets, the rotation of whatever system their planet lies in around the universe’s center, et cetera. It was through these that they marked the passage of time and designated particular holidays. For example, a centenary comet which passes beneath the boughs of the constellation now known as Fervenial might kick off a holiday honouring the goddess Andruil.
In Elvhenan sacred space was also considered more important than sacred time. Pilgrimages were common and often important parts of the lives of the faithful, but there was never a set time of year in which to take them. It was always the where instead of the when, and I mean “where” in two senses of the word. Where could mean the sacred lands of Mythal, or the wooded paths in deep, dark woods, with only the distant stone gaze of Fen’ara to mark the wilderness, but “where” could just as easily be a state of being (or sometimes both). Attaining a particular state of mind through meditation was an important step in reaching the Deepest Fade , a mark of spiritual achievement that took years of work and practise. Being in the right emotional state of mind to embark on a pilgrimage was important, and failing to do so would risk the wrath of the god in question.
Elvhen Revolution
Vir sulahn'nehn
Vir dirthera
Vir samahl la numin
Vir 'lath sa'vunin'
Come the rebellion, time is measured differently. It begins first and foremost as a survival tactic and a war tactic, I’ve mentioned in prior headcanons that the rebellion employs guerilla tactics in order to get the edge on Elvhenan’s forces, which vastly outnumber theirs. One way they subvert the manner in which war is waged is making battles much shorter than is expected. We see in the Duel of a Hundred Years that some battles could last a century and the most noteworthy thing about them was not their longevity, but the reason for which they were fighting (preventing a war between the gods). By making battles that are expected to last years last weeks, days, hours, retreating into dreams as quickly as they manifested, they catch the enemy off-guard. By inventing the concept of weeks they’re living in a way that their enemy doesn’t even fully understand. It allowed things to be put on tighter schedules, enabled meetings to be arranged and carried out on short notice, enabled rotating shifts for things such as uthenera where oftentimes someone had to be the person to rise and make sure the others’ bodies would not starve to death in dreams.
And it enabled sacred time rather than sacred space.
Often deprived of the places they would consider sacred, the rebellion created their own sacred ceremonies from wherever they happened to be. Battles that were fought and won on one cold winter morning would be marked again the next year in celebration and memorial, but carried on no longer than the skirmish itself had. When it is their freedom upon the line what time they have cannot be eaten up by weeks or years of frivolity. Not when tomorrow could be their last day alive.
Their years began with summer and their weeks began and ended with sundown, each month contained twenty-nine or thirty days, divided further into two fortnights, and there are twelve to thirteen months in a year (every two and a half years an intercalary month is added).
Days of Week
The week begins with Saturday night/Sunday morning and continues on to sundown on the following Saturday.
- Sa’laia — First Night
- She’laia — Second Night
- Tanalaia — Third Night
- Nehlaia — Fourth Night
- Uylaia — Fifth Night
- Valaia — Sixth Night
- Var’laia — Our Night
Months
There are twelve to thirteen months in the year, with a leap month every two and a half years to compensate for the shift in the year.
- Enasalas — The Triumph of Joy Over Grief — Justinian-Solace / June-July
- Bella’serannas — The Time of Many Thanks — Solace-August / July-August
- Valelgar — The Sun’s Waning — August-Kingsway / August-September
- Adhalana — The Time of Trees — Kingsway-Harvestmere / September-October
- Elvhen’al — The Gathering of the People — Harvestmere-Firstfall / October-November
- Sethenerava — The Time for Dreams — Firstfall-Haring / November-December
- Estarasyl’an — The Month of Stars — Haring-Wintermarch / December-January
- Fen’banal’ras — The Wolf’s Shadow — Wintermarch-Guardian* / January-February
- Mi’avhena — Winter’s End — Guardian-Drakonis / February-March
- Thenalava — The Time of Waking — Intercalary Month, occurs every third year
- Ghilana’ma — The Time of Guidance — Drakonis-Cloudreach / March-April
- Anallas — The Month of Clouds — Cloudreach-Bloomingtide / April-May
- Balam’shivana — The End of Duty’s Chains — Bloomingtide-Justinian / May-June
* The month of Guardian is a remnant of the Elvhen calendar’s influence upon the Tevinter calendar, as wolves are/were considered guardians in Elvhen myth.
These calendars later went on to become the Dalish calendar. After the fall of the Veil, refugees from both Elvhenan and Fen’Harel’s rebellion were overtaken by Tevinter, and their traditions melded and informed what is now contemporary Dalish culture. It is likely this calendar fell out of use during the period where Elvhenan’s survivours were slaves of Tevinter, and picked up again after they won their freedom. Names and meaning likely also changed as memories of the evanuris and their tyranny faded from memory.