Setting Calanders---How does your world keep time?

[LordVreeg]

While direct links to lunar gravity and menstrual "tides" have never really been proven, I think that it does have good verisimilitude. I was originally thinking of having the cycles of elves and slower breeding races - e.g. dwarves, linked to Surnest, possibly the Burrowing Peoples as a whole and then linking that of Elves to the combined lunar phases - chart both as sine waves, only ovulate when both are near full at the same time and menstruate when both are near new. I need to actually plot this and look at it tho - it would create rather long "windows" of fertility in between even longer infertile phases - there would be very distinct "generational cycles" arising from the periodic "baby booms" it would produce. Not necessarily a problem tho - just that if the pattern is distinct enough (like 4 years every 150) it's going to have a very significant impact on Fehladurh culture and society. I need to look at the combined lunar patterns any way because of tidal influences - if I treat Melanar's gravity as roughly equivalent to our moon's (Panisadore is similar in size to Earth) then when I add Surnest's influence it can cause some helaciaous tidal effects. I thought to mitigate this by having Surnest full at apogee and Melanar full at perigee, but realized lunar visibility is actually irrelevant beyond observational purposes - gravitational effects of actual apogee and perigee cause the tides regardless of associated phase. On a planet where seafaring is a significant element this kinda *has to* matter, which has me pondering designs in the back of my mind for flexible floating wharfs and piers etc. to cope with the occasional "superhigh" tides. Part of the fun for me of creating my own setting - drop in a different element and trace the ripples that would result - little things can have some big effects. . .

Right.  tidal influences.  from what you describe, big ones.
I had everything and the math figured out for my binary suns...until someone reminded me that Celtricia being 2.5X earth sized screwed up all of my equations.  CRAP>>>>

[Snargash Moonclaw]

I haven't tried to work out solid equations - only went for conceptual consistency, not letting anything produce really blatantly glaring violations of physics. Truth is, to place a planet at the appropriate distance around a binary system as described would probably be even further out and require a much longer year (measured in equivalent days if I stick to 24 hour rotation of earth sized planet) and I highly suspect that the rotation of the twin stars about their common axis would have to be much faster to maintain separation - or a lot more separation pushing the planet out even further. . . And I am *not even* going to mess around with fluctuating albedo values from this much water and sunlight (the planet as described would be really cloudy, but then cooler. . .) followed by cooling/freezing and reduction in water vapor. In short - I would be amazed if someone could produce a set of equations by which Panisadore could actually exist (supporting life as we imagine it) and be anything like I've described! Hell, I'm not even sure if the wonky orbit of Surnest could actually work. But I think it sounds pretty good and makes for decent story. . . (Kinda like hearing Liberace and realizing he was a decent pianist if you just don't look to closely.)