: Re: Time measures in fantasy worlds I wonder, what could be a good way to provide time measures in a fantasy universe. I don't mean the calendar which is covered in the question: Out of this

@Berryessa137

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I understand your concern; minutes at least are very much a reflection of an age of clockwork and in a world with no such machines detailed measures of time jar the reader. I don't know the exact setting of your world, by which I mean that if it's medieval that allows for wildly different tech to if it's Aztec, but here are a few general suggestions:

Hour glasses — It isn't unreasonable for a character to carry an hour glass, this would track minutes, but it would require the character to know the hour is up and to turn it over

Sun tracker — a device that can be held up to the sky to measure the sun in points of its decent or rise towards its zenith

Sun dial — a fixed device and so it would be hard for the character to actively track the time

Water clock — same as for sun dial

Bells — Churches would ring bells every hour based on a sun dial

Time could be measured in shadows or points, but honestly in the time fantasy tends to be set in time would likely be measured in quarters of a day. So sun rise, zenith, sun set and midnight. I would simply say:

The walk would take half a day.
We won't get there before high sun.
They rode through the night.

There's no need to be specific to the minute in this setting: everything took a long time.

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