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Theory on time/days/ages in Westeros


MF Doom of Valyria

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Hello everyone,

I've been reading the forum for some time now, but this is my first time posting something. My search function isn't working properly, so I couldn't find any topics related to this. I'm posting in TWOW forum because I'll be looking at ages of characters in ADWD, and briefly mentioning how the timing of TWOW will begin directly after the events in ADWD.

Considering many people have a problem with the ages of the characters in the books, I began thinking what if Planetos rotates at a rate of 32 hour days in a 365 day year? I assumed to measure seconds, minutes, and hours at the same rate so as not to change our meaning of measurements such as feet-per-second or miles-per-hour. I'm not sure how the calculations will stand up when compared to any travel logs within the novels. I'm not an astronomer, so someone that studies planets/stars may easily be able to refute my claims, but considering we're talking about an imaginary world where dragons and magic exist, I'm okay assuming their astronomy and concept of time could be something that would be considered impossible in our known world.

So, my theory assumes Westeros to rotate on 32 hour days 365 days/year. This would equal to 11,680 hrs/yr. Divided by 24 hrs would give us 1 Westeros year equaling approximately 486.67 earth days.

Based on information I gathered from TOTH where they used appendices from the novels I was able to find ages of certain characters during different books. Most characters seem to have aged by 2 years by the time of ADWD. There are some discrepancies, but it seems that most everyone has aged 2 years, so I'll assume a 2 year gap between AGOT and ADWD. I also used the wiki oiaf to find that Barristan was born in 237AC and Robert's Rebellion ended in 283AC. I assume by ages that AGOT is 13 years after RR meaning it's 296AC making Barristan 61 by ADWD.

Now, the ages of Barristan and Maester Aemon will be the ones hardest to believe, but again I'll assume because time is different the concept of age can be very different as well. I mean, Bloodraven is still alive (magically I know, but still he's so old) and I've seen others on the forum argue other people still being alive that would be very old, so people age differently in Westeros.

Okay, using the calculations of (age of character × 486.67 days) ÷ 365 earth days will give us a final number giving us the character's age related to our earth years.

Rickon: 3 in AGOT so 5 in ADWD.

5×486.67=2433.35 days ÷365= 6.67 earth years(EY)

Bran & Tommen: 9 by ADWD.

9×486.67=4380.03÷365= 12EY

Arya: 11 by ADWD.

11×486.67=5353.37÷365= 14.67EY

Sansa: 13 by ADWD.

13×486.67=6326.71÷365= 17.33EY

Daenerys: 15 by ADWD.

15×486.67=7300.05÷365= 20EY

Jon: 16 by ADWD.

16×486.67=7786.72÷365= 21.33EY

Barristan: 61 by ADWD.

61×486.67=29686.87÷365= 81.33EY

Aemon:102 by ADWD.

102×486.67=49640.34÷365= 136EY

So, using these calculations works GREAT for the kids. It's now more believable that they would be leading, exploring, and becoming sexually active at their respective ages. However, it calculates that Barristan and Aemon are very old for what they are doing at their age relative to earth. I've stated considering it's a make believe world, I'm okay believing that older people could be much more spry in Westeros. Whether it makes total sense or not, I'm okay using this for my measurement of ages and time on the planet containing Westeros. Sorry it was so long. Please let me know what you think and discuss away.

P.S. - there could also be an explanation for the seasons because of the distance from their sun, hours of days, axis and rotation, etc. Who knows though? Just an extra thought.

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Ha! You've ALMOST caught up to the age of the actors for these roles, but not quite. Maise Williams is like 18, Kit Harrington is like 27 (and like 4'10") and the Luke Perry of Game of thrones, Emelia Clarke, is like pushing 30, right? (Don't quote me on that, I pulled those numbers out of my @$$.)

My first question is: what made you think of 32 hour days? Are there any textual clues that led you to make this guess? I have wondered about how many hours are in a day or days in a week, because they never say. We know the moon cycles are 30 days exactly.

It's an interesting notion - that the days may be longer on Planetos. But it came up in my astronomy thread that George has said that Planetos does go around the sun once every earth year, so I belive that shoots down the possibility of a longer year, apologies.

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I like it, but there is little proof. It's not bad. It makes things a lot easier to read, and its more believable the 14 year old assassin and 17 year old political player then 11 and 13.


But instead of 32 hours, how about slightly extended hours, like 70 minutes each. Which would be 28 hours.


Thus the new ages would be about a year younger then your ages.



Well not that specifically, but changing from more hours to more minutes per hour.


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With the theory, it still goes around the Sun 365 WESTEROS days per year. 1 Westeros year is just equal to 486.67 Earth days because in the theory, each day is 32 rather than 24 hours. It's spinning on its axis at a rate of 32 hrs/day, but still going around the Sun every 365 days. To be honest, I arrived at 32 hours rather arbitrarily. I had been reading something online that led me to seeing that Mars essentially runs on a 25 hour Earth day. I ended up falling into the rabbit hole searching for Super Earths, other solar systems, and possible comparisons on planetary days in relation to earth days. I eventually ended up finding a random forum where a user posited the question if humans could adapt to a 36 hour day if they were able to repopulate a planet that ran on that cycle. Most people seem to agree that living organisms could adjust to those days so long as darkness and light are similarly cyclical to the way it is on Earth. I eventually landed at 32 hours because I felt that 36 hour days would just be too much, and 30 hour days really didn't change the relative ages that much until they start getting into their 20's. The calculations for 32 just happened to work pretty well, and I decided to run with it. It doesn't seem there are any textual clues that would imply that 32 hour days are a definite. However, their reference to hour of the wolf, hour of the (whichever animal), etc. references the hour relative to the Sun in the sky, so I don't see any reason why the hours couldn't equal 32/day.

Really this wasn't a theory to absolutely prove 32 hour days, but more a way to give people a way to be more comfortable with what the characters are doing at such young ages.

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Haha, I think it's just gonna have to be a little uncomfortable for some people. The history of the world is full of 13 year olds being married off for political reasons, it's just a fact of human existence. To scrub that out of a fantasy series taking place in a medeival world would be quite revisionist (not that that's wrong, but it's not what George has chosen).

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Haha, I think it's just gonna have to be a little uncomfortable for some people. The history of the world is full of 13 year olds being married off for political reasons, it's just a fact of human existence. To scrub that out of a fantasy series taking place in a medeival world would be quite revisionist (not that that's wrong, but it's not what George has chosen).

:agree:

Asssume the days are longer on Westeros. Since none of us can know, outside a computer simulation, what effect that would have on growth & development of sentient humanoids on extant worlds, let alone fantasy settings, there is no reason to assume that life or age or development would in any way be similar or different. The best explanation, under Occam's Razor, is that whatever development or physics may be in play on Planetos, the mind of GRRM has translated this into terrestrial terms, that the readers will best understand. For instance, though Sansa may be a more respectable fifteen Earth years, rather than thirteen, she is still essentially a thirteen-year-old by Earth standards, as it is the stage of development of the humanoids of Westeros most similar to our terrestrial thirteen, and the author is simply describing Sansa in terms relative to our experience and understanding.

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Truth be told y'all, I could honestly care less about the ages of the characters to fully enjoy the story. 13, 15, 17, whatever, I'm okay with whatever age they all are. I had time on my hands, got to reading some forums, saw that a TON of people can't get over ages, so I came up with a theory to possibly put people's minds to rest. I'm glad you all have continued to either build or shoot down my proposal. To me that's the point of the boards. To just get all of these different opinions about the same material and different dissections of everything is rather entertaining. Plus, I think we all have probably been over reading and over thinking theories because we've all got the itch for TWOW. I've been working on a few other ideas that are more directly relevant to the book material, and once I coherently put thoughts together, I plan on sharing more. Either way, thanks for participating in the discussion!


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Truth be told y'all, I could honestly care less about the ages of the characters to fully enjoy the story. 13, 15, 17, whatever, I'm okay with whatever age they all are. I had time on my hands, got to reading some forums, saw that a TON of people can't get over ages, so I came up with a theory to possibly put people's minds to rest. I'm glad you all have continued to either build or shoot down my proposal. To me that's the point of the boards. To just get all of these different opinions about the same material and different dissections of everything is rather entertaining. Plus, I think we all have probably been over reading and over thinking theories because we've all got the itch for TWOW. I've been working on a few other ideas that are more directly relevant to the book material, and once I coherently put thoughts together, I plan on sharing more. Either way, thanks for participating in the discussion!

:agree:

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