The Shogunate Calendar was used during the period of the Dragon-Blooded Shogunate, and is still in use in Lookshy in the present day.
Overview[]
When the Dragon-Blooded overthrew the Solars and established the Shogunate, they created a new calendar. In parts of Creation where the Realm has little influence, such as Lookshy and the rest of the Scavenger Lands, this calendar remains in common use.
- Epochs: The longest unit of time measured by the Shogunate calendar is the epoch (125 years), which is referred to simply by a number. According to Exalted: The Outcaste, Realm Year 768 is in the 11th epoch. (But see Version Differences, below.)
- Eras: Each epoch is divided into five 25-year eras, named after metals -- in order, bronze, gold, copper, iron and quicksilver. Whatever epoch RY 768 is in, it's in the Bronze Era of that epoch.
- Cycles: Each era is divided into five five-year cycles, named for the five elements of Creation -- air, earth, fire, water and wood. RY 768 is in a fire cycle, but this doesn't usually figure into the year name, for reasons discussed below.
- Year Names: Within each cycle, the individual years are named after animals associated with the cycle's element, in a sequence that runs risen-ascending-primary-descending-fallen. Those born in a risen year are considered favored by fortune; those born in a fallen year are seen as having fortune against them, but the Seventh Legion treats this as a challenge to be overcome, not a condemnation to inevitable failure.
- Air Cycle: Mospid, Hawk, Hybroc, Eagle, Raiton
- Earth Cycle: Boar, Bull, Bear, Spider, Snake
- Fire Cycle: Mouse, Dragon, Phoenix, Salamander, Basilisk
- Water Cycle: Carp, Serpent, Dolphin, Siaka, Squid
- Wood Cycle: Mantis, Cat, Wolf, Wolverine, Rat
RY 768 is the Year of the Mouse, and this is the form usually used in conversation. If referring to something too long ago to be considered recent, but still in this Year of the Mouse, one would specify "the Year of the Bronze Mouse". The full form ("Year of the Mouse, Bronze Era of the 11th Epoch of the Dragon-Blooded Shogunate") would presumably only be used in formal documents.
E:TO does not specify, but presumably, the year uses the same month and weekday names as in the Realm, and starts/ends at Calibration.
Version Differences[]
Working backward from the date provided in The Outcaste, the Realm was founded in Year of the Siaka, Quicksilver Era of the 4th Epoch. It then follows that the Shogunate's "year one" (Bronze Mospid 1) is 493 years before the foundation of the Realm. This was already inconsistent with the Exalted Rulebook, which defined the Usurpation as "some six centuries" before the before the Great Contagion, suggesting the date given The Outcaste was already off by an epoch.
However, several Second Edition books describe the Shogunate as lasting "seven centuries"[1][2] or putting the Usurpation "1,500 years ago"[3][4]. This would put the founding of the Realm some time in the 6th Epoch, not the 4th.
It is possible that the Shogunate calendar counts not from the Usurpation but from another even one to two centuries after that, but if so, this event has not been specified.