In the Middleland and in other cultures of The Continent that have adopted Middlelander timekeeping, days (one turn of their planet) are roughly 22 hours long, a month (one cycle of their only visible moon) is typically 33 of their days, and a year (one trip around their sun, which is only four hours shorter than an Earth year) lasts 12 months.
In addition to these 12 months, 2 annual holidays, which are not considered to “belong” to any of the months, mark the end of the year and the beginning of the next year respectively, making the yearly Middlelander cycle a total of 398 days (12 months of 33 days each, plus 2 monthless days).
Middlelander Minutes, Hours, and Sleeps
A Middlelander minute is 60 seconds long.
Rather than grouping these into 60-minute hours, Middlelanders tend to keep time by tracking what they call sleeps, which are 120-minute blocks of time. They are called this because Middlelanders sleep in two distinct 2-hour stretches at night, interrupted by a period of around 60 minutes (the waking hour). Traditionally, they sleep for another optional 2-hour stretch at midday, for a total of 6 hours of sleep (3 sleeps) per day.
Because of the waking hour, Middlelanders do indeed have a concept of a 60-minute hour, though the word for “hour” varies regionally. In the Northern Middleland, they merely call it a “half-sleep,” in the Southern Middleland, they use a dedicated word for “hour” partly due to contact with other nations, who keep different systems of time.
Middlelander days are thusly 11 sleeps or 22 half-sleeps (hours) long: 6 hours for resting, 6 hours for family and personal life, and 10 hours for working.
Because Middlelanders sleep much less than people from their neighboring cultures (only 4 to 6 hours per day), foreigners may have trouble adjusting to this schedule and time system–especially Upperlanders, who tend to be active mostly in the warm months, then retire into a state of limited activity during their freezing winter, when they may sleep 10 to 12 hours per day. In order to address this issue, foreigners are granted an adjustment period when they immigrate, where a social worker from the Middleland government may visit their home and train them to sleep “the normal way” instead of all in one single stretch.
Middlelander Weeks and Months
Months are divided into 3 weeks, each week lasting 11 days or 242 hours (traditionally, these are 10 days of work, and 1 day of complete rest, but in modern times this varies depending on the person’s job). The year is further divided into 4 distinct seasons, which the Middlelanders traditionally call Early Winter (similar to autumn), Late Winter, Spring, and Dry (similar to summer). In the Middleland territories, winter is cold and rainy, springtime is cool, and the dry season/summer is warm.
Middlelander Cycles and Eras
Middlelanders track years though a system of 11-year cycles which mirror their 11-day week. After every ten years, the eleventh year is a “break” year, where Middlelanders greatly reduce their active cultivation of yaw root to the bare minimum, allowing the land to rest. During these times, they rely on their vast food stores. Traditionally, Middlelanders reduced their active work load during this time as well, focusing more on making infrastructure improvements, though in modern times most Middlelanders are no longer farmers and therefore may do the same work regardless of the year.
Middlelanders further group these 11-year cycles into periods of time that are 11 cycles long (in other words, 11 of those 11-year cycles, for a total of 121 years), which are called eras. Each era has a name, but is only named once the era is over (during the holiday between transitioning years that marks the new era). An era is usually named after a high-status or influential priestess of the time who passed away during the period, but is never named after the High Priestess, whose personal name cannot be known publicly, even in death. The current era (which is not yet named) is simply referred to as “Current Era.”
Besides being mathematically convenient, an era of 121 years is also religiously significant, as it is roughly equal to the average lifespan of a priestess, and a priestess who ordained at the minimum age of 19 and spent two years as a novice will have served for 100 years if she reaches this age. Serving for over 100 years bestows a priestess with special status.