Dwarven Calendar advice [D&D]

[Scarey Nerd]

I'm trying to create a Dwarven calendar, but I'm coming up mostly blank. I'm not really sure how to even start going about it. All I can think of is that it wouldn't be based on the lunar cycle, since the phases of the moon would be largely meaningless to folk that live underground; and that the seasons would probably be "warm" and "cold", since they'd mainly only feel the cool or warm temperature of their mines. Would anyone know where I should start?

[Everyl]

Once you go a short distance underground, seasonal temperature variation is basically zero. Sorry, I don't have time to double-check that distance right now, but I do know that cave environments are rather temperature-stable all year round.

They might have something based around the wet/dry seasons, though. Caves and mines can be prone to flooding, so they'd notice a regular time period when that was more likely.

Or they'd just have to base their calendar around stuff they observe when on the surface. There's a lot more by way of clear signs of time passage up there.

[Murk]

Hm, yeah, ground water levels will be a major indicator underground. You could also take the growth of certain plant species, or even animals, as calendar indicators.
I'm not sure about dwarven physiology, but if dwarven women still menstruate on a moon-basis, well, that's a good one too.

It also strongly depends on their day-and-night cycle. Do your dwarven see sunlight? Do they have artificial nights? If not, then how do they mark the end of days?

[VoxRationis]

Your dwarves sleep, right? Which means they need to take rests at regular intervals. They probably have water clocks (or flat-out clockwork clocks) to standardize the times, but base them around their native circadian rhythms (or at least the circadian rhythms of whoever makes the clocks). Their concept of a "day" will be based on this. It's possible that the populace doesn't sleep all at once—they might have shifts—at which point the shift will probably be the basis of the calendar, followed by the unit of time that unifies the cycle of shifts.
As for longer time-scales, if your dwarves have some sort of underground agriculture, the basic month-analogue might be based on the growing cycle of whatever their crop is. Or maybe they just do a very long count based on regnal time. Or maybe their society just throws their hands up in the air and says "Does it really matter?"

[Grek]

The major inspiration behind having a calender is agriculture. Where are your dwarves getting their food? Does it involve the surface? If so, base it their calender off the surface. If not, is it based on some sort of mushroom? How long is the growing season on that? Base the calender such that 1 season = one growing season, with seasons divided into planting, growing and harvesting months.

[VoxRationis]

Incidentally, if they're growing something, please don't let it be mushrooms. Have some sort of chemosynthetic organism near volcanic areas instead.

[Murk]

Incidentally, if they're growing something, please don't let it be mushrooms. Have some sort of chemosynthetic organism near volcanic areas instead.

That does seem like a less reliable growth to base your calendar on ;)

[Everyl]

I have to say, I really like the idea of the dwarven calendar being based around their food production cycles, whatever those may happen to be. Without reliance on surface seasons and weather, crops could theoretically be started at any time, and would likely be staggered to generate steady harvests. If it takes, say, three and a half months to grow a crop of their staple food, then you wind up with a calendar that measures longish time intervals in units that convert to about 105 surface days, making translating between dwarven date reckoning and surface calendars interestingly complicated.

Unless the dwarves are completely cut off from the surface, they'd probably keep at least loose track of season-based calendars, though. Dwarven scholars could probably convert between harvest-count and years as counted by nearby surface populations in their heads, while everyone else would be baffled if asked when "in the last quarter of the seventeenth harvest of the reign of Thoradin" translates to in a lunar or solar calendar.

[Lord of Shadows]

Perhaps...

Dwarven days of the week and/or months of the year could be named after Dwarven Heroes and/or Dwarven Deities.

Holidays and festivals could be based on historic events. Dwarves could be notorious record keepers, and have histories going back a loooooong time. Great battles and discoveries are always good festival fodder.

While phases of the moon are probably out, there would be underground effects that might be similar: rising and lowering of underground waters, rising and lowering of lava pools, (water and lava could both be tidal effects caused by the moon/sun, but the Dwarves may not have made the connection), growth and death of certain underground plants, migration of certain subterranean creatures or races, etc.

There could be some big cycle that determines the length of their year, such as the appearance of sunlight down a long tube (perhaps illuminating a cluster of gems), or the eruption of a geyser, etc.
.

[Scarey Nerd]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys :) I really like the idea of basing their seasons off their food, so I'm going to look into crop growth underground, or perhaps herd migration of underground animals (Like midway between Underdark and surface). I totally agree on their holidays and festivals being based around historical events more than, for example, a harvest festival or midsummer etc.

The year of my world (Saere) is 364 days long, with a lunar cycle of 28 days. I figure the Dwarves would know that because whilst they don't spend that much time outside, and probably don't care about phases of the moon, they still know about it (doubling back on my original post simply because 364 doesn't divide nicely unless you use 28). And besides, it's like a space mountain, they gotta love that. That in mind, I think I'm gonna go with 13 months of 28 days, a nice regular progression. However, when it comes to naming the months, I'm getting stuck. Dwarven heroes or founding clans could work, though I am trying to create a unified calendar for all Dwarven realms, not just one (though of course a calendar has to start somewhere, we have Roman emperors in the Gregorian calendar after all). Deities are out since that's what I've done for my Human calendar (12 months of 30, one of 4 for the god of trickery that gets randomly placed each year).

As far as weeks go, I thought 7 weeks of 4 days would be a pleasant change of pace. Ridek (Craft Day), Aukek (Clan Day), Darek (Hearth Day), Helek (God Day); to represent the things Dwarves typically hold dear. It did occur to me that a 4 day week with a rest day on the "sabbath" would actually make the typically industrious Dwarves appear lazy to other races (2 rests every 8 days as opposed to 1 every 7), but I figure Helek doesn't need to be a day of strict religious observation - merely slightly quieter contemplation whilst working, and then each Dwarf taking a rest day as he or she needs it.

What do you guys think so far? And if anyone has more advice on how to establish a seasonal system based on mushrooms/chemosynthetic organisms/dwarf-wildebeest/whatever, that can work in an odd number of seasons, please tell :D

EDIT: And before anyone says it, the months cannot be called Thorin, Fili, Kili, Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur.

Probably.

[Lord of Shadows]

It did occur to me that a 4 day week with a rest day on the "sabbath" would actually make the typically industrious Dwarves appear lazy to other races (2 rests every 8 days as opposed to 1 every 7), but I figure Helek doesn't need to be a day of strict religious observation - merely slightly quieter contemplation whilst working, and then each Dwarf taking a rest day as he or she needs it.

Perhaps a "Day of Planning" or "Preparation" or something, moreso than a day of rest. After all, all that crafting has to be well thought out and planned in detail..
.

[VoxRationis]

For a lot of dwarves, the calendar will be arbitrary anyway if it's based on lunar cycles. They might just call the days "First Day, Second Day, Third Day," etc.

[Murk]

For naming months, there's plenty of options.
The most lazy one in real-life, of course, would be to name them in Dwarven language. They don't even necessarily have to mean something, as long as you can say "yeah, that used to mean something in their language".
Less lazy in real-life, more lazy in setting-life is numbering the months. Plenty of our months (october, september, november, december) are just named "the eighth" and "the tenth".
Next are month names depending on those few seasonal shifts the dwarves have left. I'm not really an expert on underground climate, but I'm thinking there would at least be a dry and a wet season, if not much else. The start or end thereof offers a nice name for two months.
Then, if you can find migrating underground animals, or animals with specific breeding periods, those are clear too: breeding month, or hunting month, or egg month, or scary month, or what have you.

There's more, of course. Naming them for famous people is indeed an option (naming one after yourself?), or other strange habits of your dwarves which I do not know of. Do they procreate only in certain months? Do they like to feast at certain times? Do they hate snow, and therefore only go to the surface in the summer? Strange cultural habits are always fun, and using them for months gives it a nice connection.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that, as far as I know, for a lot of medieval people, months didn't really matter that much. There were a lot of (religious) feasting or memorial days (I think almost every three days there was a day named after one saint or another) - for a lot of people it was much easier to say "Four days after St. Margareth's day" then "Ehm, the second day of the second month" and then having to do difficult things like calculating or remembering.
For dwarves, with their disconnection from growing seasons and climate changing each year, this seems fairly logical as well.