Dating systems

This is a list of calendars, dating systems, chronologies, etc. used in Magic: The Gathering. The infinite planes of the multiverse do not necessarily carry the same lengths of day, month, or year. However, years seem to pass between planes concurrently in-storyline, so a Ravnican year can be presumed to be the same length as a Dominarian year. Below is a conversion table of the known dates of some of the planes:

Cridhe

In Cridhe the years are given as they relate to the Parting. The only other known date is that of the Mending of the Clan Tree, in 520.

Dominaria

Dominarian years are 420 days long and are organized by most developed cultures into twelve months, each of 35-days.

Argivian Reckoning

Argivian Reckoning (AR) is the primary calendar used on Dominaria (notably excepting the continent of Corondor). It sets year 0 as the year in which both Urza and Mishra were born. It only came into use many years after the time of the Brothers and was used informally for several thousand years before an attempt was made to clarify historical facts. It is named after New Argive, a country famed for its scholars. The last time the date was explicitly mentioned, it was 4562 AR.

Common Era

Common Era (CE) is a dating system established by New Sumifans in Almaaz. It starts around 3035 AR. Conversely, the use of BCE ("Before Common Era") refers to the amount of years before the start of CE dating, so 3000 BCE correponds to 35 AR, which was soon after Almaaz joined Mishra's forces.

Penregon Founding

Penregon Founding, or PF for short, is the only calendar system known to be in use at the time of The Brothers' War. It sets Year 0 as the year Penregon, the capital of Argive, was founded. When Urza and Mishra were born (0 AR), the year was 912 PF.

Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad

The Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad is a calendar primarily used in Corondor. Year 1 in this reckoning begins on the anniversary of the gathering of the Sages of Minorad. It corresponds with the year 3000 of the Argivian Reckoning.

Others

The various empires of Sarpadia had their own systems of dating. During the four months over which Fallen Empires took place, these included:

• Dwarves of the Crimson Peaks: Second Day of the Moon of Snow's End
• Elves of Havenwood: Flowerfeast Eve
• Vodalian merfolk: Twelfth Tide of the Fifth Moon
• Icatia: Fifth Day of Gothwinstide
• Icatia: Seventh Day of Gothwinstide
• Order of the Ebon Hand: Time of the Seventh Sacrifice
• Icatia: Two days past Allfest
• Crimson Peaks: Fourteenth Day of the Moon of Cloudless Skies

Innistrad

Dates on Innistrad are measured using the stages of the moon and the years since Avacyn's creation, commonly shortened to "Ava." There are three seasons on Innistrad: Harvest Moon (autumn), Hunter's Moon (winter), and New Moon (spring). It is unclear how long a season or a year on Innistrad lasts, although Hunter's Moon is said to be the longest and New Moon the shortest. The latest dates known for each season in-lore are the 118th of Harvest Moon in the years of Avacyn 699 and 711, the 121st of Hunter's Moon, Ava. 718, and the 116th of New Moon, Ava. 714. If the seasons are consistent each year, this would make an Innistrad year roughly as long as an Earth year.

Ixalan

Years in the Legion of Dusk are marked by their distance from the Legion's arrival on the continent of Ixalan in 4558 AR, with years beforehand labeled "Before Dawn" (BD) and years after labeled "Dawn Era."

Years in Ixalan's Core are known as "turnings." A "full count" is twenty, making it equivalent to a k'atun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which the Oltec's thousand-year calendar resembles.

The Sun Empire records three seasons on the continent of Ixalan: rainy season, cool season, and hot season.

Kamigawa

Kamigawa uses numbered years, although they are not given a name and their start is unknown. As the year 1053 occurred during the Age of Enlightenment, it is possible years are marked following the Kami War. Kamigawan months are numbered, and there are at least ten of them. The eighth and ninth months have at least 29 days. Dates are recorded as a string with the two-digit month followed by a two-digit day, a period, and the year (e.g. the first day of the eighth month of 1053 was 0801.1053). Time is recorded in 24-hour notation.

Kephalai

The months of Kephalai are numbered, up to at least Eighthmonth.

Mirrodin-New Phyrexia

Mirrodin

On Mirrodin, time is recorded by the cycles of the five suns, although it is not clear how much time passes within each cycle. In the novel The Moons of Mirrodin, it is stated that the levelers attack every 100 cycles, while the flavor text of the card itself states that this event occurs every century, possibly demonstrating that a cycle is simply another term for a year. Every 100 cycles, at a time called "the convergence," the four suns either aligned above their lands or came into alignment with each other.

Kiryk's field reports just before his capture and compleation range from 3rd cycle of the Blue sun, 10th periodic, 5th locus to 6th cycle, 5th periodic, 15th locus. There are at least 16 periodics and 15 loci in a cycle.

New Phyrexia

After the plane's Phyrexianization, Jin-Gitaxias's Progress Engine recorded dates in numeric sequences, although it is unclear what they denote. Unctus's field reports from after his compleation range from 100-23-200239.6 to 100-23-229723.3.

Phyrexia

In Planeswalker, Xantcha states that Phyrexians use days, seasons, and years, but she does not understand "months." Overall, she states that Phyrexia was a place where time "went unmeasured."