The Ordo Stellae Potentiae (“Order of the Stars of Power”) is a scholarly calendar system used primarily by historians and academics to date events across Rolara’s full recorded history. Unlike civic calendars such as the Tatharian Calendar or the Celestial Calendar, the Ordo Stellae Potentiae is not associated with any nation or culture. It was developed at the Laboratorium in Tatharia Capitolina, probably during the century preceding the Reignition of the Stars of Power (400 TC / 1523 PE), when Aberran was a young student.
Epoch
The calendar’s epoch is the Extinguishment of the Stars of Power, the event that ended the age of freely available magic in Rolara. Year 0 represents the full year in which the Extinguishment occurred, not a single date. This makes it a year-long epoch rather than a point event.
Directional Notation
The calendar counts in two directions from Year 0:
- PE (Post-Extinguishment): Years after the Extinguishment, counted forward. Year 1 PE is the first full year after Year 0.
- AW (Age of Wonders): Years before the Extinguishment, counted backward. Year 1 AW is the last full year before Year 0.
PE and AW are not separate calendars. They are two directions of a single system, analogous to CE and BCE in modern historical scholarship. The Extinguishment year itself is Year 0, belonging to neither the PE nor the AW count.
The Year 0 Gap
Because Year 0 occupies a full year between the AW and PE sequences, converting between the two directions requires accounting for this gap. A naive subtraction (treating AW as negative PE values) produces an off-by-one error. For example, an event in Year 1 AW and an event in Year 1 PE are separated by three years (1 AW, Year 0, 1 PE), not two.
This gap is a known source of computational errors in the KB and in DM calculations. When a date appears to be off by exactly one year, the Year 0 gap is the most likely explanation.
Structure
The Ordo Stellae Potentiae shares the Tatharian Calendar's internal structure: the same twelve months (plus the intercalary Bellatorius), ten-day weeks, and 360-day year. It differs only in year numbering. A date expressed in the OSP uses PE or AW for the year and the standard Tatharian month, day, and weekday names for the rest. For example, the current date can be written as Ketenud, 2 Lotus Secundus, 1532 PE.
This structural alignment is unsurprising given the calendar’s origin at the Laboratorium in Tatharia Capitolina, where the Tatharian Calendar was already the local standard. Scholars working in regions that use the Celestial Calendar may substitute that calendar’s month and day conventions while retaining the PE/AW year designation.
Conversions to Other Calendars
| Target Calendar | Conversion | Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tatharian Calendar (TC) | PE - 1123 = TC | Canonical (DM confirmed) | Year 1 TC = 1124 PE |
| Celestial Calendar (CC) | PE - 602 = CC | High (4 independent sources) | Verified across World Martial Arts Tournament, Koji, Xiganmen, Dragon Emperor |
Conversion Examples
| Event | PE | AW | TC | CC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extinguishment of the Stars | Year 0 | Year 0 | -1123 | -602 |
| Icaghor takes the crown | c. 400 | c. -723 | c. -202 | |
| Bellatorius Primus | 525 | -598 | -77 | |
| TC standardization (Year of Law) | 1124 | 1 | 522 | |
| Reignition of the Stars | 1523 | 400 | 921 | |
| Current year | 1532 | 409 | 930 |
Scope and Usage
The Ordo Stellae Potentiae is the only calendar system in Rolara capable of expressing dates across the full span of recorded history, from the Age of Wonders through the present. Civic calendars are anchored to political or cultural events (the Tatharian Calendar to Icaghor’s standardization, the Celestial Calendar to an epoch within Jiao cultural history) and produce unwieldy negative numbers when applied to earlier periods.
Scholars at the Laboratorium and other academic institutions use PE dates as the standard reference frame when comparing events across cultures and eras. The AW notation provides a natural way to discuss the pre-Extinguishment world without requiring conversion into a post-hoc civic framework.