alamutjones:

racefortheironthrone:

What calendar date was the basis pre-Aegon’s Conquest/Crowning? I think it may vary per kingdom. If you had to design one for each kingdom what would you have them be? 

North – The Wall being built? Northern Unification?

Vale – Andal Arrival or more likely Arryn Conquest

Iron Isles – Writing/time keeping is for Greenlanders

Riverlands – Varying between ruling dynasty

Westerlands – Lann the clever takes Casterly Rock?

Stormland – Durran Godsgrief’s reign?

Reach – Garth Greenhand’s Reign

Citidel – Founding of Citidel/Andal Invasion?

Dorne – Nymeria’s Conquest

Interesting question. I don’t think it varied by kingdom, because I’m pretty sure the maesters of the Citadel would have been in charge of the chronicles and thus the dating systems and would have wanted a uniform system.

I think Andal invasion would be the most likely. God knows how the First Men chose to keep count, but given that the first written records that the Citadel chooses to acknowledge are from the Andals, it would make sense if the calendar was formally codified at the same time. I DO think it’s a lunar based calendar, rather than a solar one – the year starts again every twelve new moons, so the length of days/winter vs summer doesn’t matter.

There may be a fascinating bit of time where times and dates are difficult to make sense of, because the “Andal calendar” only arrives in a region when they do. Like the split between usage of Julian and Gregorian calendars, in a way; Gregorian/Citadel usage dominates now, but this has been gradual, and in places like the Islands or the more crazily remote parts of the North it may not yet be complete. It would explain at least a little of the fuzzy dating in the records if the meaning of “January 1″ hadn’t always been entirely consistent between kingdoms and half of Westeros was still in last year for a while before catching up!

The Citadel has written records from before the Andals. Sam Tarly might not recognize them, but they’re there.