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Long Count

The oldest calendar, which is the main one used both in the story and through out their world is the “Long Count” which keeps track of Earth very closely, it is based on a 13 year cycle, where there is a coincidence of Lucifer in the same place in the sky, followed by annae and then days of the annae. It has been hypothesized by some that there was a calender of "Julian" days which did not even take into account the Ishtari year, and this was divided into sections to predict the movements of [[Icarus?]] as well as Lucifer.

The form is based on a [[Maya | Mayan]] type calendar, using the synodic period of Earth as the “long counter” of years. The Mayans followed Venus through the sky closely, and built it into their date system. The Long Count of Ishtar is similar, with 13 venusian years – here called “annae?” forming one long count. The long count date then is (13’s of annae).(annea remainder).(days). The Isthari think of one turning of the Long Count in a manner similar to the way we think of decades, and the tens as like a century. In short hand they often do not notate the first digit at all, though scholars and others that understand history do. The turning of the hundred’s place is a millennial event, since roughly 800 Earth years pass between such events. As with earth, the approaching of a millennium is viewed with alternate hope and religious implication, and theirs is, to their mind, an increasing presence, the way 2000 was in our year 1990.

The year zero is, as is made clear, very far back in the past, farther back than any existing civilization of Ishtar, and no one truly knows what the reason for the date was, or the selection of 13 years, except that it coincides with the period of Earth in the famous 13:8 ratio. Almost.