The Union Calendar is the centralised method of marking the passage of time, co-ordinate efforts, and keep records that is utilised across the Cosmic Union.
Being the galaxy-spanning, multi-Kinde, and decentralized territory that it is, the Union has thousands of different calendars that are used all across it's territory. One world may catalogue time with the passing of seasons, where another may divide the year into two distinct blocs. Some worlds have day-night cycles, while others do not, and others have day-night cycles where a day lasts longer than a year. More esoteric methods exist as well - Far too many to count.
Like many civilisations that have come and gone before it, the use of these in regular correspondence has lead to disorganisation, missed deliveries, reinforcements expected sooner than they arrived, and many other upsets that made organising the Union on a wide scale impossible. A unified metric by which time would be carried out, was required. This new calendar, which was dubbed the Union Calendar, would be used when dealing with federal business, or operating between two different calendar systems, minimising confusion, while still permitting cultural liberties between member worlds. To foster further unity, a mix of many different cultures would be taken into account when designing the Union Calendar.
Examples
The Union Calendar is written out Age-Millennium-Year. Examples of how this is formatted are cited below:
| Age | Millennium | Year | Union Calendar (UC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valhallan Age | 10 | 100 | VA:M10:100 |
| Void Age | 5 | 551 | VoA:M5:551 |
| Bound Age | 2 | 26 | BA:M2:026 |