Fixed dates in the 40k universe

[Sword Brother Adelard]

The idea of fixed dates in 40k is a bit apposite to the setting, because in the 42nd millennium, no one even knows what year it is anymore, thanks to the Rift and other factors.

But there are a couple of dates I can think of which correspond to dates in the real world calendar, such as Sanguinala and the Thirteenth day of Secundus being the date the Siege of Terra began proper.

 

Can people think of any more with reference to sources?

[aa.logan]

Orktober

Edited October 20, 2022 by aa.logan
I’m sleep deprived and talking nonsense

[Emperor Ming]

I mean we know its around the 42m a few centuries in or so, isn't that enough

 

I care about details but not to the exact millimetre

[ThePenitentOne]

In one of the BRB's (don't remember which ed), they described Imperial dating conventions, and one of the digits in an Imperial date is an accuracy code. Events which occur close to an Imperial territory with a connection to the Astronomicon are more reliably dated than events which occur in the Fringe or the void. There were a number of fixed codes that could occupy the "check digit" space, and each had its own meaning.

 

I always thought it was a cool bit of lore, and I wish it had been reproduced in subsequent source material. Perhaps someone who still has that BRB can remind us how it works.

 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

There was something similar in the first Vigilus book about the new dating conventions post rift, which localised all time references by anchoring them to the day the rift appeared.

 

 

 

[Valkyrion]

8 hours ago, ThePenitentOne said:

In one of the BRB's (don't remember which ed), they described Imperial dating conventions, and one of the digits in an Imperial date is an accuracy code. Events which occur close to an Imperial territory with a connection to the Astronomicon are more reliably dated than events which occur in the Fringe or the void. There were a number of fixed codes that could occupy the "check digit" space, and each had its own meaning.

 

I always thought it was a cool bit of lore, and I wish it had been reproduced in subsequent source material. Perhaps someone who still has that BRB can remind us how it works.

 

 

The first digit in the dating system was its location - 0 being on Terra increasing up to 6 being further away but verifiable, and 7 and 8 being far away and a decade or two out. 9 was for warp based or alien dating systems or something rare. 

The next three digits were basically the month, day and time, but instead of a year being divided into 365 it was divided in 1000 points, making it a bit awkward to properly work out.

001 would be January 1st 1am, 999 would be December 31st 11pm. Think of like your quarterly fuel or VAT bill - 0-249 would be January to March, 250-499 April to June, 500-749 July to September, 750-999 October to December.

The next three digits are the centuries.

Then the .MX is the millennium. 

 

Todays date (I bet there's a calculator out there somewhere!) would be something like 0/815/022.M3

[Brother Casman]

1 hour ago, Valkyrion said:

 

The first digit in the dating system was its location - 0 being on Terra increasing up to 6 being further away but verifiable, and 7 and 8 being far away and a decade or two out. 9 was for warp based or alien dating systems or something rare. 

The next three digits were basically the month, day and time, but instead of a year being divided into 365 it was divided in 1000 points, making it a bit awkward to properly work out.

001 would be January 1st 1am, 999 would be December 31st 11pm. Think of like your quarterly fuel or VAT bill - 0-249 would be January to March, 250-499 April to June, 500-749 July to September, 750-999 October to December.

The next three digits are the centuries.

Then the .MX is the millennium. 

 

Todays date (I bet there's a calculator out there somewhere!) would be something like 0/815/022.M3

I stumbled across this particular calculator a long time ago: https://gorkamorka.co.uk/imperial-date-converter/

[phandaal]

12 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

I mean we know its around the 42m a few centuries in or so, isn't that enough

 

I care about details but not to the exact millimetre

 

Even that got retconned actually. Now it is less than 20 years in to the 42nd millennium.