Date Conversion

Date Conversion: Each Major Race uses their own dating system, rendering date conversion between systems necessary on occasion. The following article outlines the workings of each system and defines the reference date that determines year 0 in each and how to convert dates between various systems.

• Please see Dating Systems for more information.
• Please see History for a list of events.

Description (Specifications)

Equivalent Dates of Charted Space: Here is a set of dates comparatively dated to several calendars in common usage throughout Charted Space:

Solomani	Imperial	Vilani	Zhodani	Aslan	K'Kree	Event
3621 BC	-8145	3,148 PI	-639.1	-5,442	1	Start of K'Kree calendar
2208 BC	-6731	2,046 PI	1.1	-5,301	1,186	Start of Zhodani calendar
AD 1	-4520	361 PI	981.2	-2,779	3027	Solomani calendar begins
AD 475	-4045	1 VI	1,192.2	-2,237	3,422	Start of Vilani calendar
AD 2436	-2083	1,496 VI	2,058.3	0	5,055	Aslan calendar Begins
AD 4518	0	3,084	2,979.3	2,376	6,788	Start of Imperial calendar

Conversion Chart

Read down for date of origin, then across to calendar to convert.

Date Conversion
Source (x)	to Solomani	to Imperial	to Vilani	to Zhodani	to Aslan	to K'Kree	to Hiver
from Solomani	n/a	(x - 4521) / 1.0006644
from Imperial	(x * 1.0006644) + 4521	n/a	(x + 4045)/1.312	(x + 6731)/2.26	(x + 2083) / 0.877	(x + 8145) / 1.2	(x - 410)*2
from Vilani		(x * 1.312) - 4045	n/a
from Zhodani		(x * 2.26) - 6731		n/a
from Aslan		(x * 0.877) -2083			n/a
from K'Kree		(x * 1.2) - 8145				n/a
from Hiver		(x/2) + 410					n/a

NOTES: Note that converting from a calendar that does not have a zero year (e.g. Solomani, Vilani, Zhodani, K'kree) i.e. the 0 point is an instant in time, rather than a complete year, must account for the "missing" year when going from "negative" dates to positive ones.

History & Background (Dossier)

Primary Calendars of the Imperium: As the largest and most dominant polity, the calendars of the Imperium have been central to interstellar trade and history although despite their wide use, they are still not an official or standardized galactic calendar.

Imperial Calendar

Main article: Imperial Calendar

The Third Imperium uses a regularized version of the calendar originally developed on Terra. It shares seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks with the Solomani version, but does not organize them into intermediate months. The Imperial year is exactly 365 days, or 52 weeks with one extra "Holiday" date. The calendar is, naturally, tied to the declaration of the founding of the Imperium by Cleon I.

Solomani Calendar

Main article: Revised Gregorian Calendar

The Solomani have kept the same dating system that was in use before the Solomani invention of jump drive and coming into contact with the Ziru Sirka. Its reference date is tied to the birth of a popular religious figure from early Terran history.

The Imperial Calendar is heavily influenced by the Solomani dating system, and borrows most of its basic timekeeping units. However, instead of numbering days within a year, as in Imperial practice, days are numbered inside a month, twelve roughly equal subdivisions of the year. Further, the length of the year is subtly different as Solomani calendar still periodically adjusts to synchronize with the sidereal period of Terra around Sol (365.2425 days, thus the Solomani year is 1.0006644 Imperial years). Because of this difference, the first day of the two calendars are 0.74 years apart as of 1116.

Vilani Calendar

The Vilani also count from the founding of the Empire Ziru Sirka. Each Vilani year is ~1.312 Solomani year.

Other Major Race Calendars of Charted Space

Many other races employ calendars and time-keeping systems of importance to trade and history.

Aslan Calendar

Main article: Aslan Calendar

Aslan dating begins from the formation of the Tlaukhu. Each Aslan year is ~0.877 Solomani years.

Droyne Calendar

The Droyne calendar likely should start around -75,000 Imperial, however the Droyne don't keep good records.

Hiver Calendar

Main article: Hiver Calendar

Hive Federation dates begin with the official proclaiming of Glea as the Federation capital. This occurred in 410 imperial, though the move was not officially completed until 490. While all official dates refer to this calendar, most Hiver nests use local dating systems.

A Cycle (day) is a little over 22 hours. A year is 143 cycles, each cycle simply numbered 1 to 143 with no month or week divisions. Thus, a Hiver year is about half an Imperial one (0.49 specifically).

1105 is 1389 HF; 1111 is 1401 HF

K'Kree Calendar

Main article: K'kree Calendar

The K'Kree dating system is also pre-flight. Each K'Kree year is ~1.2 Solomani, Their calendar starts with the founding of Rak'keer!, their capital city in -8145 Imperial.

Vargr Calendar

Vargr do not have a calendar used throughout the Vargr Extents. The a Vargr "year" is ~1.03 Solomani years, based upon the Vargr homeworld of Lair, but even this is not consistently used throughout the Extents.

Zhodani Calendar

Main article: Zhodani Calendar

The Zhodani chten is ~0.754 standard years. The calendar uses Olympiads, which is three chten, with an extra day to cover the leap years. An Olympiad is ~2.262 standard years. The Zhodani calendar uses the count of olympiad from the founding of the Psionic Games, plus a marker of which year (1, 2, or 3) into the current olympiad (e.g. 1244.1).

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• John Harshman, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. Library Data (A-M) (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.
• Marc Miller. The Traveller Book (Game Designers Workshop, 1982), 152-153.
• J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, John Harshman. Aslan (Game Designers Workshop, 1984), 36.
• J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, John Harshman. Zhodani (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 8.
• John Harshman, Marc Miller. Solomani (Game Designers Workshop, 1986), 12.
• Marc Miller. Imperial Encyclopedia (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 6-7.
• Marc Miller. Referee's Companion (Game Designers Workshop, 1988), 42-45.
• Lester Smith. Milieu 0 (Imperium Games, 1996), 89-91.
• Loren Wiseman. GURPS Traveller Core Rules (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 15-19.
• Andy Slack, David Thomas, David L. Pulver. Alien Races 2 (Steve Jackson Games, 1999), 19.
• Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science