Timekeeping System

[Danielle]

Are you confused about the way we measure time here? It can be convoluted at times. Once you understand it, it'll be easy to make sense of.

Here at TCR, time is constantly moving forward. This means that cats continue to be born and die. However, we measure time in chunks called moons.
You may be wondering, "Isn't that a month?" The answer is, put simply, no. 
A moon here is defined as the time from one new moon until the next, with the full moon being right in the middle. Most years, there are 12 moons, but occasionally there are 13. So a cat that is a year old may actually be listed as 13 moons depending on the year. 
We use actual moon data here, so if you're confused as to what the human dates for the moons are you can look them up anywhere online. (I find this site to be particularly helpful.)

As for the names of the moons, since we can't call them by the names of the months, we use the Native American Moon Names. These are the names for the full moon of that month, so we use them for the time period surrounding that full moon.

January - The Wolf Moon
February - The Snow Moon
March - The Worm Moon
April - The Pink Moon
May - The Flower Moon
June - The Strawberry Moon 
July - The Buck Moon
August - The Sturgeon Moon
September - The Harvest Moon
October - The Hunter's Moon
November - The Beaver Moon
December - The Cold Moon

If there is an extra moon that year, it will be called The Blue Moon, wherever it falls. 

So for example, if the beginning of a moon (the new moon) falls at the tail end of April, but the full moon itself occurs in May, that entire time period from the first new moon to the next would be considered the Flower Moon, since the name depends on the full moon rather than when it begins or ends.

I've also created a detailed spreadsheet with each of the IC dates and how they line up in accordance with human dates here. Let me know if there's anything that needs explaining!

We use roughly two real-time months to equal one in-game moon. If we find a different pace works better, we'll change it, but for now this is the speed things move at.

Hopefully this has helped you understand our timekeeping system and if you have any questions don't hesitate to PM an admin or leave a comment below!

[Samuel]

Sorry if it says this somewhere and I missed it, but do the cats themselves actually go by this timekeeping system? So, for example, could a very strong or loyal cat brag about being born under the Wolf Moon? Or is it more for us to keep track of and not actually to use in rp?

[Danielle]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of this myself. I created it mainly to have a stable calendar system to record in-game events while still keeping with the moon theme of the original books. Although, since it's unlikely that the cats would have specific names for each moon, I'd assume that it's mainly an OOC thing.

Of course, this could definitely change if people wanted it to. Your example of a strong cat being born under the Wolf Moon is pretty interesting, and I can see how it could influence opinions of certain characters. One in particular that would be fun a kit born under the Blue Moon being called special since it's so uncommon. It all depends on what most players would like to see, really ^^