Timekeeping

In the world of Scandia, time passes more quickly than it does on Earth. This is primarily because we feel that things take too long if done in realtime - by speeding up time, we do not have to wait so that events we arrange in our countries do not seem unrealistic. As an example, a storyline about a referendum being held in a Scandian country would need to be spread out over a period of weeks in order for it to be realistic, as preparing for a referendum takes time. In Scandia, however, the accelerated passage of time means that we, the real-life players, need only wait a day or two.

The rate of time in Scandia is such that one week on Earth is enough for a month to have passed on Scandia. This means that each Earth year contains four years and four months of Scandian time.

A useful javascript routine for displaying the scandian date is on the date page. Meanwhile, Midnight to 6 AM of the Monday of each earth-week is day one of a Scandian month. This is according to the clock on your PC, so the fact we're scattered around the world means there can be a slight mismatch. Until I (or one of y'all) have the spare time and inclination to tweak the routine to be based on Zulu time, we really don't have much trouble with the potential mismatch.

Parallels
While Scandia has many cultures and peoples unique to it, we have found it useful for Scandia to have a number of parallels with Earth which players can draw upon to explain certain things. For example, in the universe that Scandia sits in, our own planet Earth does not exist - and yet, the nations of Scandia have their websites in English, and communicate with each other in English - how can this be, if England does not exist in Scandia's universe? Scandia, like several other ImagiNations worlds, solves this problem by creating its own versions of important Earth cultures and languages, so similar to the Earth equivalent that it may be used as such. For example, many Scandian centuries ago, traders from the land of Christiana known as the Ingallish spread their language throughout the world, and while it is spoken in only a few countries, it has become the language of diplomacy throughout Scandia. And so when our nations talk to each other, they are not speaking the Earth language English - they are instead speaking a Scandian language, Ingallish, which just happens to be exactly the same as English. There are a number of such parallels which may be drawn on - mottos may be in Valanian, rather than Latin, and the Isanians, not the Egyptians, built pyramids - and so forth.

English language and culture translate to "Ingallish"
French language and culture is represented by "Loirisean"
German language and culture is represented by "Teuvian"
Spanish language and culture is represented by "Casatan"
Italian language and culture is represented by "Talinan"
Russian language and culture is represented by "Niveskian"
Chinese language and culture is represented by "Sungian"
Arab language and culture is represented by "Saraphian"
Indian language and culture are represented by "Rajanani"
Polynesian language and culture is represented by "Tavati"
Ethiopian language and culture are represented by "Abanurian"
Zulu language and culture are represented by "Mbalan"
Aztec and Amerindian language and culture are represented by "Aztalec and Native Vendan"

Ancient Roman language and culture are represented by "Valanian"
Ancient Greek language and culture are represented by "Thesian"
Ancient Egyptian language and culture are represented by "Isanian"

It should be noted that this list is not exhaustive - other parallels have been created by individual players. Nor does it by any means cover all Earth cultures - only those which people inquired about near the beginning of the game were included, with others being defined by players as and when they were needed. (Neepon, for example, is a parallel created by a player for Japan, and Albanaudh is a parallel for Scotland).

Kim Tiu has proposed some additional equivalence-names. These are the new ethnic and cultural equivalents of Scandia, along with old ones. If you want to base a culture directly on an earthly one (not at all a necessity) try using these names -- can't be having Urdu or Olmecs or Kenyans by the earthly names, on Scandia! Note these reuse some current nation-names not necessarily in their present meanings... if you object, or want to add something, just state your substitution.

A number of other useful parallels exist in Scandia. For example, when we deal with currency, it is useful for us to be able to use an Earth currency as a point of reference, so that we can tell roughly how much our own fictional currencies are worth. As such, the currency of Christiana, known as the Crown, is fixed so that it is worth exactly the same as one US dollar. As such, we do not give exchange rates with the US dollar (since the US doesn't exist on Scandia) but with the Christianan Crown.

Restart note: since Christiana is no more, we'll pick another reaonably stable economy to have a reference currency.

Also, several religions have parallels - Christian becomes "Cruisian" or "Cruistian", Muslim becomes "Mounist", Buddhist becomes "Kavadran", Hindu becomes "Srivanan", and Jewish becomes "Iudean". Other parallels are not defined, but could easily be created the the players that need them.

Solar System
As Scandia is an imaginary planet, it must also have an imaginary solar system for it to exist in. Like Earth's solar system, the solar system of Scandia has a single star orbited by a number of planets and asteroids. Here, there are ten planets, one more than Earth's system has. The planets are listed below.

The Sun of Scandia's solar system is called many things in many different languages; it has no universally recognised name, even among astronomers. It is a fairly ordinary star, a medium shade of yellow-orange. It is about three billion years old, according to most estimates. It is about 650,000 times the size of Scandia, and has a radius of approximately 1,200,000 km.

Tora, a rock planet, is the innermost planet of the Scandian solar system, and also the smallest. It was named by Kanjiri, and means Tiger, a common feature of their mythology. It is a very barren planet, and is highly irradiated, since its radiation-shielding atmosphere would have been torn away by the sun's solar wind (photons, electrons, and ions emitted by the sun in a constant stream). Since it has no atmosphere to contain the immence heat it acquires during the day, the nightime temperatures are as low as the daytime temperatures are high. It has no satellites. It is about two fifths the size of Scandia.

Colossus is the second planet of the solar system. Its name comes from the Central Republic. It is a rock planet, but unlike Tora, has an atmosphere. Colossus's atmosphere is very thick, containing many toxic gases in a layer that permanently covers the surface. This layer admits heat to the surface, but does not release it, a perfect example of the so-called greenhouse effect. Colossus is even hotter than Tora, despite being further from the sun. It is about two thirds the size of Scandia.

Lithos is the third planet from the sun. It is about the same size as Scandia, but has only a very thin atmosphere, not enough for life. It is a dark greyish colour. Its name comes from Thesia, where Lithos was the name of a major god. It has three moons, but each of these is less than 20km in diameter and irregularly shaped, making astronomers suspect that they are captured asteriods.

Scandia is the planet the game takes place on. It is almost identical to Earth in terms of its atmosphere, composition, and such. For convenience's sake, it is exactly the same size as Earth. It has one moon, the same size, colour, and distance away as Earth's. The name Scandia is from Christiana.

Aeris, named after one of the main goddesses of the mythology of Andrea, is the fifth planet of the solar system. It is about three quarters of Scandia's size, and is rock. Due to the iron oxides present within its soil, it has a slightly reddish tinge. It has one moon, probably a captured asteroid like those of Lithos. If it does have an atmosphere, which is possible, it is very thin.

Ausculta is the first of the gaseous planets. Like all gas giants, Ausculta is far larger than any of the rocky worlds. Its colour is a deep blue-green, and is a very calm and slow world. It is believed that in its core, there might be sufficient pressure to create a solid from its gases, but this has never been proved. It has a total of sixteen moons, at present count. The second-to-largest of these is of interest due to speculaion that its surface is not rock but ice, and that a vast ice-locked ocean lies beneath it. Some astronomers believe that this would be the place to look for life in the solar system, even if it is only bacteria or algae. Ausculta's name comes from the ancient scriptures that guide the monastaries of Maristerranea.

Elsciia is the largest planet in the solar system, marginally larger than Ausculta. It is an orange-red colour, and is encircled by a large number of rings, believed to be particles of dust and ice. It is a more turbulent world than Ausculta, most noticable in the large storm perpetually raging near its southern pole. Its consistancy is roughly the same as that of Asculta. It has 27 known moons. Elsciia is named after a famous battle in Katrinkan history.

Wöten, the eighth planet, is named after a god from Reichstadt, is the third largest gas planet. It is a yellowish colour, and like Elsciia, is surrounded by rings, more noticeable than Elsciia's despite its smaller size. The gases that make it up are not yet conclusively identified, although they are probably the same as the previous two gas planets. At last count, it has 12 moons.

Kenkaria is named after the principal deity of the Kenkarian religion of the Larenian Empire, the goddess Kenkaria. It is a relatively small planet for a gas giant, only about half the size of Elsciia. Its colour is a sort of blue-purple, and it appears to be a relatively settled planet. It has only one moon that astronomers can detect, and has very faint rings too thin to see without sophisticated instruments.

Gelidia is the outermost planet of the Scandian solar system, so distant that some astronomers do not consider it a part of the system at all. Due to its distance, it must be extremely cold, hense its name, derived from the Valanian word for cold. Very little is known about this planet. It is believed to be rocky.

It should be remembered that the planet Earth does not exist anywhere in the universe of Scandia - Scandia should not be thought of as a planet located elsewhere in our own universe. As such, none of the stars in Scandia's sky will match those of Earth, and nor will Earth's own sun be visable somewhere.

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