ahh so I've been procrastinating on getting this sorted for a long time, so thanks for finally forcing me to sit down and look into it lol
general things I've found:
- first thing to think about is whether or not science is the same in this world as in ours! our current system of 365 days a year plus leap years is the way it is because we follow a solar calendar (the Gregorian one, in the West, which was developed off of the Julian one). but lunar calendars are also a thing! or there could be several moons, or several suns, or the seasons could be different, etc. figuring out the science behind the calendar first can be a really important way to make sure it all checks out.
- second thing - once you have the science down, you figure out where the people making the calendar live and how that would affect their choices (like how many hours in a day, how many days in a week, how many weeks in a month, how many months in a year, and why).
for example, Ethiopia uses a different time system and calendar than the West. It's 2012 there right now, they have 13 months (close to the equator so the seasons check out differently), and they start counting hours at sunrise (so what's 6 o'clock for us is 1 o'clock for them) because sunrise is way more consistent. people will make choices like this depending on what's most convenient for them. the point of calendars is to be able to do things consistently, like festivals or holidays or work hours or whatever, so the most fixed points in their environment will probably be the basis of these kinds of choices.
- third thing - figuring out what to call it. like you mentioned, some countries go by rulers (North Korea's calendar starts in the birth year of Kim Il-Sung, which was 1912 for the rest of us) or important historical events (the French Revolution technically tried to change the calendar so that it's the year 227 there now, but that's kinda faded because it's a pain) or significant religious points (AD, the year of our Lord, which some Pope just decided and which is probably not accurate lol). stuff like this depends on how global your world is? if people have a lot of contact internationally, it would be a pain for them to keep converting times and dates and they'd probably set some kind of standard. if they're insular or travel is hard and they're only really in the same Empire or whatever, then they could hyperfocus on that.
idk, hope some of that was helpful. unfortunately now that I've researched it I have even less of a reason not to be working mine out yikes
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