The People's Republic of Grand Ishtar is located on its eponymous continent, a landmass approximately the size of South America in the upper northern hemisphere of the planet Venus. Venus orbits Sol every 225.7 Terran days, a period of time known in the Sarhua language of Ishtar as a "nod". It rotates in a retrograde motion from the rest of the system every 243 days, a motion which is known as "sayond" and spends a period of 117 days in the sky, a period of time known as the "sayo", rising and setting twice or rarely once every nod. This extremely long diurnal period in which the sun rises in the west required extensive reworking of the behaviors of animals introduced into the terraformed environment.
While most plants required genetic alteration to some degree to adapt to the growing conditions, especially plants that respond to light levels, they took to the summers of eternal sunshine with gusto. Crops grew to astonishing richness in the rare regions suitable for agriculture in the first place. The diurnal growing season was so productive that in many places it offset the nocturnal winter, during which time food could be stored. As a result, the time when Sol sinks in the east over the course of several weeks is known as the "yerushai" and is closely associated with the festivals celebrating the reaping of the evening harvest after which it is named. The dawn and dusk occurs twice or very occasionally once every nod in a predictable procession, and the misiat immediately preceding and the one following the changing of the sayo are designated as the sowing and harvest holiday seasons.
"Days", which are called "di" (pronounced "dee") in sarhua are also used as a term in Ishtar and in various forms across the planet to describe the approximately 24 terra-hour units of time that are used to measure the circadian rhythm, which in venusians is similar to the effects experienced by people living in far northern latitudes on Earth. The di is divided into 10 hours which are divided into 100 minutes which are each divided into 100 seconds in most places, a system which descended from the French Revolution of Earth and proved more useful to most venusians than the old duodecimal day of Earth which had lost its significance.
The Venusian year is the basis for the Leizonic Calendar, which measures the current nod starting from January 1, 2040 gregorian, the terra year of the signing of the Salmacis Treaty between China, India, and Russia that began the concerted terraforming program of the planet Venus. The nod is divided into 225 di, which are equal to one Terran day (this unit of time is without solar basis on Venus but is of course useful for human activity), which are grouped into nine months (misiat, or "'mee - syaht") of 25 di, with the exception of the final misiat which has 26 di for the first three of seven nod and 25 again for the next four. This calendar is used not just in Ishtar but throughout our planet, and the current nod is 581, corresponding to the Terran year 2396.
The Leizonic Calendar was first adopted during the late Marionic Period. It was the product of new understandings of cosmology in Ishtarite society following the reestablishment of regular contacts with Earth and nations outside the tributary system. Scholars within the imperial bureaucracy had been learning from terran navigators who dared to land in Ishtarite ports for curiosity or business for many decades, and the Starshun Rebellion of the Laima farmers attempting to reestablish the Yug Empire of the South. Before its implementation, dates were usually reckoned by the regnal nod of the reigning Tenniusar (Holy Queen). The calendar is named after Queen Leizon, who was the sovereign that approved its adoption in the empire along with the radical new schools of history coming out of the younger generations.
Below is a table for the sake of the terran reader to aid in orienting oneself in time, mentally converting dates from Leizonic to Gregorian. Every decade from the Gregorian year 2040, the first 225 days of which forms the Leizonic nod (year) 000, is listed to the right.
1970s = -097 to -063 (years before the signing of the Salmacis Project Treaty are customarily written in the negative from the nod 000)
The period of Venus' rotation, longer than its revolution, is called the sayo (the motion itself is called sayond), and it is very important (for farmers especially) in order to plan the growing season around the dawn and dusk, which come at different times every year. Since the advent of synth food, the necessity of traditional agriculture has faded and sayond is no longer used as often as it used to be, but, during the imperial period, it was so important that dates were written with the sayo number first starting from the first harvest sacrifices that the reigning empress officiated. The procession of the sayond is recorded here as the second number of the two after the equals sign. The first number is the nod or sidereal year, which is what you will hear most often.
2050 = 019: 018
2060 = 035: 033
2070 = 051: 048
2080 = 068: 063
2090 = 084: 078
2100 = 100: 093
2104 = 107: 099
2110 = 116: 108
2120 = 133: 123
2130 = 149: 138
2140 = 165: 153
2150 = 182: 168
2160 = 198: 183
2170 = 214: 198
2180 = 230: 213
2190 = 247: 228
2200 = 263: 243
2210 = 279: 258
2220 = 295: 273
2230 = 312: 288
2240 = 328: 303
2250 = 344: 318
2260 = 360: 333
2270 = 377: 348
2280 = 393: 363
2290 = 409: 378
2300 = 425: 393
2310 = 442: 408
2320 = 458: 423
2330 = 474: 438
2340 = 490: 453
2350 = 507: 468
2360 = 523: 483
2370 = 539: 498
2380 = 558: 514
2390 = 572: 529
2396 (current year) = 581: 538
Below is a rough timeline of the history of our planet, with a focus on the period of human civilization and in particular that of the continent of Ishtar.
-090s to -070s: Venera program of USSR. Pre-terraforming conditions identified and photographs taken.
-019: Life discovered on Venus in the upper atmosphere. Gas mining accelerates. Export of Oxygen, Carbon, Sulfur, Phosphates and other compounds helps asteroid mining with cheap fuels.
-010 to -002: Third World War of Earth; Sino-Eurasian Victory. United States divided in three, Maoist India, reunification of Palestine, formation of "Red Pact"
000: Treaty on the Cytherean Project "Salmacis"; formation of Sino-Eurasian led Salmacis Board and regulation of gas mining.
004: Numerous nations of the former British Commonwealth as well as others in Europe and Asia form the Objectivist Bloc to protect capitalism.
020: Opposition to the Salmacis Protocols results in the Second War of the Clouds between the Red Pact dirigible fleets and those of the OFS.
030s to 070s: Objectivist victories in the Philippine Civil War and the Second Korean War, naval supremacy in Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, and Indian Oceans.
030s to 070s: Red Pact victory in Canadian Civil War, independence of Denendeh and Inuit Federation. Complete victory on Venus with destruction of pirate dirigibles.
080: Initiation of Dr. Prokhor Aksakov's "Trillion Parasol Plan", with the production of micro-thin deep-black sun-shields from carbon harvested from the atmosphere; for placement at the Lagrange points.
084: Latin American Union commences Lunar terraforming project. Lunar rice farming by 130s.
095: New gas mining techniques accelerate production of parasols and stripping of atmosphere. Successful Objectivist offensives in northeastern Europe.
099: Almaty Treaty on Celestial Law signed on Earth. First settlers on Venus. Company cities appear in national zones. Widespread opium cultivation.
112: Formation of the Shining Corps, a group of private military forces working together to create and fight war for profit. They are supported by the Oceanic League.
100 to 185: Based from asteroids and drawn from the belt miners, the corps conduct numerous infamous invasions across the Solar System.
110: Widespread abuses on company territory far away from Terran control. Unauthorized communities wiped out in Oceanic zones.
150: First of the Objectivist Invasions in Ishtar; Nestlé hires corps to eliminate non-company production and unauthorized use of copywritten seed.
150 to 171: Nestlé forces sweep across the country, torching communities and bombing earthworks. Destruction of irrigation and levees results in famine.
171: The Tenhel Fires form the Northwestern Pact after conquering the Lasdona Cities and establishing a matriarchal republic.
180: Absorbing remnants of the devastated population of the Baba Yaga basin, the Lasdona Matriarchy forms the Great Ishtar Empire.
(168) 180 to 198: Holy Queen (Tenniusar) Renata Xin I of the House of Zhelt helps rebuild irrigation works and spread bee keeping, leaving the empire to her eldest granddaughter.
180 to 304: Zheltic Dynasty unifies the empire and establishes the agricultural tributary system
304 to 335: Aranyanic Dynasty results from Queen Mi III's wars in Earhart.
310-343: Yug Empire of the South splits the country in two for decades.
335 to 349: Liutic Dynasty returns the center of power to the Baba Yaga region after decades of civil war.
335 to 458: Marionic Dynasty sees the breakdown of traditional agriculture and restored intensive connections with the rest of the Solar System. New understandings of Venusian history result in the institution of the Leizonian Calendar.
458: Zheltika Revolution creates the Great Ishtar Republic, which splits along its regional and military lines.
458 to 479: Civil war across the country as Narmer Jun leads the Yellow Army on a campaign of new revolution.
479 to 507: Rhean War results in the destruction of millions of lives as colonial states from other parts of the planet descend once again on unstable Ishtar to take territory.
507: People's Republic of Grand Ishtar is proclaimed by the Labor Council of Chelomei upon the surrender of the last Rhean armies.
