1. Turn of the Crown
White. Balance, center, unity, and ordered beginning.
THE TEN DRAGONS
The Calendar and the Great Comet
As recorded in the turning of years and the passing of the Comet
The measure of years within The Ten Dragons is not taken from kings, nor from wars, nor from the rise and fall of cities, but from the return of a single celestial body known to all realms as the Great Comet.
Its passing is certain. Its return is precise. Its meaning remains disputed.
The Great Comet
The calendar of The Ten Dragons is anchored to a recurring celestial event known as the Great Comet.
The comet appears once every one hundred years. It returns upon the exact same day. Its motion is predictable and precise.
Its motion can be calculated. Its arrival can be predicted. Its nature has never been agreed upon.
Some hold it to be a sign. Others, a remnant. Others still, a warning left behind by forces no longer present.
Year Zero
Year Zero is defined as the most recent observed passage of the Great Comet.
Yet the first recorded observance of the comet occurred three hundred and forty four years ago. This establishes that the comet cycle was known and tracked before the current calendar system took its present form.
This creates a layered understanding of time. The comet is ancient. The calendar is newer. Earlier knowledge of the comet may have been more precise than current understanding.
From this arises a question not settled among scholars: whether the present system preserves the truth of the comet, or merely a fragment of it.
Current Year Position
The world currently stands in Year 344, three hundred and forty four years after the first recorded observation of the Great Comet. Since that first record, the comet has appeared at least three times.
Some believe the ancients understood celestial motion better than modern scholars. Others believe current systems are more accurate and refined.
In this dispute, the comet is more than a marker of time. It is evidence, accusation, warning, and promise.
The Day of Great Silence
On the day immediately before the comet appears, all realms observe what is known as the Day of Great Silence.
It is a day of stillness, reflection, and anticipation.
No single meaning is agreed upon. In some lands it is treated as reverence. In others, fear. In others still, preparation.
Some claim the day proves ancient knowledge has been lost. No realm treats it lightly.
The Turning of the Year
The year within The Ten Dragons is divided into ten Turns.
Each Turn contains thirty six days. Each Turn is associated with a realm, but the names used in formal reckoning are older and more ceremonial than simple realm names.
10 Turns × 36 days = 360 days
The Ten Turns
The Ten Turns are now fixed in the calendar of The Ten Dragons. In common speech, people may still say White Turn, Red Turn, Green Turn, and so on. In formal record, temple reckoning, court dating, and learned histories, the ceremonial names are used.
2. Turn of Embers
Red. Courage, force, heat, conflict, and rising will.
3. Turn of the Forge
Orange. Labor, craft, shaping, trade work, and useful strength.
4. Turn of Gold
Yellow. Record, value, measure, learning, and exchange.
5. Turn of Roots
Green. Growth, land, food, healing, memory, and endurance.
6. Turn of Tides
Blue. Water, passage, travel, trade, distance, and return.
7. Turn of Veils
Indigo. Hidden knowledge, secrecy, depth, dreams, and guarded truth.
8. Turn of Amethyst
Violet. Prestige, height, ceremony, far sight, and noble display.
9. Turn of Ash
Gray. Fragments, remnants, witness, loss, survival, and what remains.
10. Turn of Night
Black. Boundary, pressure, danger, endings, and the encircling dark.
The Five Dragon Days
Beyond the Turns lie five days that do not belong to the year as it is formally measured.
These are known as the Dragon Days.
They are older than the calendar itself and have been observed for at least one thousand years.
They do not belong to any Turn, nor to any realm, and are held apart from the ordered flow of time.
Their meanings differ across cultures, but all agree that they are tied to dragons, memory, and events older than recorded history.
First Dragon Day: The Day of First Flame
The Day of First Flame is held to mark a beginning.
Not the beginning of the calendar. Not the beginning of kingdoms. But a beginning older than both.
It is associated with the first rising of power, the first shaping of will, and the moment when something became more than it had been.
In some lands, fires are lit and kept burning through the night. In others, flame is forbidden, and darkness is kept instead.
No agreement exists on which tradition is correct.
Second Dragon Day: The Day of Broken Sky
The Day of Broken Sky recalls a fracture.
Some say the sky itself was once whole. Some say it was never meant to be.
It is associated with division, separation, and the moment one became many.
Storms are common in many regions during this day, though no cause has been proven.
Some scholars claim this is coincidence. Others refuse to speak of it.
Third Dragon Day: The Day of Deep Silence
The Day of Deep Silence is marked by absence.
Not merely the absence of sound, but of something less easily named.
It is associated with stillness, loss, and the space where something once was.
Across many realms, bells are not rung, horns are not sounded, and voices are lowered.
Some claim that on this day, even the world itself listens.
Fourth Dragon Day: The Day of Returning Echoes
The Day of Returning Echoes is tied to memory.
Not memory as kept in books or speech, but memory that returns without asking.
It is associated with remembrance, recurrence, and the sense that what has passed is not fully gone.
Many report dreams on this day that feel more real than waking.
Some recognize faces they have never seen. Some remember things they insist never happened.
No authority has explained this.
Fifth Dragon Day: The Day of Veiled Passing
The Day of Veiled Passing is the last of the Dragon Days.
It stands nearest to the turning of the year and the approach of the Great Comet.
It is associated with transition, endings that are not endings, and the crossing from one state into another.
In some lands, it is a day of quiet travel. In others, no one leaves their home.
It is widely believed that what passes unseen on this day does not always remain so.
The Dragon Days and the Great Comet
The Five Dragon Days do not align directly with the comet, yet their presence surrounds its return.
The final Dragon Day, the Day of Veiled Passing, precedes the turning of the year. The Day of Great Silence follows before the comet appears.
Some traditions hold that the Dragon Days prepare the world, the Silence steadies it, and the Comet completes something not yet understood.
No single doctrine is accepted.
Total Year Length
10 Turns × 36 days = 360 days
+ 5 Dragon Days
= 365 days
Thus the calendar aligns with the solar year, while preserving traditions that predate the structure itself.
Structural Purpose
This system allows alignment with a solar year, structured gameplay and travel tracking, integration of ancient traditions into a formal calendar, and a clear anchor point for history.
It also creates conflict between ancient and modern knowledge, mystery around the comet’s true nature, and cultural variation in how time is understood.
On the Nature of the Record
The calendar is accepted. The comet is observed. The silence is kept.
What these things truly are remains a matter of dispute.