Time and Distance

Nations and Empires is played in quasi real time which means that actions occur constantly and do not wait for players to take a turn.

However, time flows faster in the world where the Zekresh Empire is located than it does on Earth. It also seems to flow at an uneven rate. Usually time passes ten to twenty times faster in the world of the Zekresh Empire than on Earth. Players should expect to see ten or twenty days pass for every real day that passes on Earth. But the rate of flow is uneven and unpredictable. Sometimes five days may pass in Zekresh for one on Earth. Sometimes a year may pass on Zekresh in the blink of an eye.



Measures of Distance

The "Talong" is the principal unit of distance in the Zekresh Empire. It is approximately equal to 500 yards or half a kilometer.

Measures of Time

The Zekresh people measure time in days, months and years in much the same way as we do on Earth. The names of these are different in the Zekresh language. Also the length of a day, a year, etc. is different in Zekresh because the Zekresh Empire is located on another planet which rotates at a different speed and completes an orbit around its star in a different amount of time than it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. The planet the Zekresh Empire is located on also is not the same size as Earth nor does it have the same amount of gravity or atmospheric pressure, but these are close to the same as Earth. You may ask why the people of the Zekresh Empire look so much like humans and why they have some of the same plants and animals as Earth. Good question. There are many mysteries in the game. If you investigate them, you will find interesting answers, not just gaps in realism where the game developers haven't thought through the implications.


mit = moment, second, a very small but imprecise amount of time.
foss = hour (one tenth of a day or night)
velasik = week (consisting of 9 days)
salgan = month (42 days each, ten per month)
adonsik = year (422 days)
oron = day

(In units of time as with other words in the Zekresh language, an "o" ending makes the word plural.)

In the Zekresh system of time, the day (oron) is divided into ten hours (fosso) and the night is also divided into ten hours (fosso). Thus, a full day and night is twenty hours long, not 24 hours as on Earth. A foss is not equal to an hour, but is similar. No one has yet devised any method for attempting to measure exactly how long a foss is in terms of Earth time. No one in the Zekresh Empire has ever even heard of Earth and it is located in a different universe anyway.

On Earth, the month is derived from the cycles of the moon which are related to the orbital period of Earth's moon. In the Zekresh Empire, there is a moon in the sky and its cycles are used as a unit of time called a "salgan" which is derived from the word "salga" meaning "moon." In the Zekresh religion, the name of the goddess of the moon and the sea is Salganit which is also derived from the word "salga" for "moon".

The reason there are 42 days in a salgan (month) is because this is how long the moon, Salga, takes to orbit the planet on which the Zekresh Empire is located (there is no name for this planet yet because the Zekresh still think the world is flat and have no idea what a planet is).

Similarly, the planet rotates about 422 times per orbit around its star. Thus, there are 422 days (orono) in a Zekresh year (adonsik).

The Zekresh calendar divides the year into ten months plus two feast days, one at the winter solstice and one at the summer solstice which are not considered part of any month. The months are not named, but merely numbered. Years are usually numbered according to the reign of the current emperor. A date would be denoted thus: the 10th day of the 3rd month of the 34th year of Cledman VI. This date would be written 10/3/34 Cledman VI.

Using the reigns of Emperors to mark the years becomes confusing unless you know exactly when each emperor reigned and for how long. Nonetheless, this is the system of counting years that was used in the Roman Empire and by many other ancient peoples on Earth. The Zekresh Empire does the same. However, Rubanya Cledman, the Lord Chancellor of the Empire and founder of the Reform Faction, has suggested a new system of counting years from either the founding of the empire or from the founding of the city of Zekran two centuries earlier. Thus far this reform has not been adopted.

The game began on the 1st day of the 1st month in the 40th year of the reign of Emperor Cledman VI. (1/1/40 Cledman VI)


The Zekresh also have a unit of time roughly equivalen to a week. It is called a velasik and it lasts for 9 days. This is not an arbitrary measure. On Earth, a week is almost exactly equal to one quarter of a lunar month or one phase of the moon. This may be where the idea is derived from. A velasik is almost as long as a phase of Salga, but this is not what it derives from. A velasik is based on a different astronomical phenomenon called a "velaska" or "travelling star". The traveling stars appear, one at a time, every nine days. They grow brighter for four and a half days and then fade away over the next four and a half days until they disappear. A new traveling star then appears and follows the same course across the sky. The wise men of Zekresh do not know why some stars travel like this across the sky and others do not. There is a legend that this has something to do with Noryweava, the god of the stars, of time and of wisdom. There is also a legend that it has more to do with Ravelon, the god of magic. Some say both had something to do with creating the traveling stars.

Whatever the reason for the traveling stars, their cycle determines the length of a "velasik", the nine day week of Zekresh.