Calendars 1220-1300

Hi,

Tangentially, Magi can create an exceptionally accurate calendar using Intellego effects. I suspect that its precision would be limited to the duration of a Moment. That's a bit loosely defined, but it seems suspiciously close to 10/3 seconds, which was a favored minimum division of time in the (Western) ancient world, going back to at least Babylon, who called it a barleycorn. The Jewish calendar uses this too (chelek), as did Ptolemy. Barley comes up as a minimum measure for other things too, interestingly enough.

Anyway,

Ken

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Our troupe was considering this very conundrum yesterday. Actually, we were thinking about making a hybrid mechanical/magical clock with medieval technology, but synched via magics to heavenly events. It appears you can get something far more accurate than 1/10th of a second -- a sufficiently short interval for human reflexes that going beyond it is really pointless.

What spells could you use to help build a clock? Are they not affected by the Limit preventing acting on the heavens? It's a cool idea, interested to know how you would do it.

There is an Intellego Vim (I think) spell in A&A that reads the terrestrial emanations of the planets. There is likely something in the Hermetic Astrology section of Mysteries as well.

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Have a look at TMRE p.51ff New Enchanted Device: Magical Armillary Sphere, especially p.53 Track the Heavens. It requires the Major Mystery Virtue Celestial Magic (TMRE p.48ff), e. g. initiated at the fourth of the seven ranks of (TMRE p.54ff) The Magoi of the Stars.
This mechanism for time-keeping relies on replicating the movements of heaven. The Magical Armillary Sphere thus shows the exact time relevant for your magic right in your lab.

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