3625 FY | 376 BC
Among the conflicts that dominate the Marvel Age, the bitterness that exists between the Fabellans and Earth cannot be overlooked and often takes center stage. When the Olympians ascend to power, they open the portal bridging the two worlds in the hopes of encouraging people to coexist. Anyone who knows history can tell you that people from different cultures really struggle to get along and this is no exception.
A long list of offenses develops between the Fabellans and Earthlings throughout both worlds. I’ll name a few: Milk, eggs, butter …. oops that my grocery list. Hold on a second. Ah here we are, atrocities between Fabellans and Earthlings at his point in history include the Great Athens riot, In this story, we add two more to the list. The Sacking of Meradus, and Burning of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
On a cool spring night in Babylon, a prince is killed. The Babylonian army catches the assassin, a faun hailing from the Fabellan city-state of Meradus. The Babylonian King orders Meradus to be burned to the ground.
Back in Fabella a short while later, harpy King Erasan of Meradus awakes in the middle of the night to find his city besieged by the Babylonian army. The Babylonians raid Meradus of all their priceless jewels and resources. The entire kingdom is nearly burned to the ground and a tremendous amount of people die in the attack.
Figuring one wrong turn deserves another, the winged king Erasan calls upon the last of his Meradisian warriors to lay siege to Babylon where they burn the fabled Hanging Gardens of the Ancient Empire.
While one of the seven wonders of the ancient world burns behind him, Erasan finds a Babylonian astrological chart in the rubble. Timekeeping has always been a struggle for Fabella as a whole during this period. Desperate to make a name for himself and have his memory live on, the winged king takes the astrological chart and uses it to create the Erasan Calendar. Because Erasan stole his concept for the calendar from this astrological chart, the twelve-month calendar he develops corresponds directly to the Zodiac.
One important aspect of note is that in Fabella, stars shine in the clear blue sky during the day. Another crucial fact about the world is that there’s no space, so Fabella has no moon. An astrological chart showing the position of the lunar cycle in relation to the stars at night is impossible. So Erasan adopts the recovered Babylonian chart for Fabella’s daytime hours and uses the sun as a substitute for the moon.
Erasan goes one step further by giving the Zodiac signs the names, making him the father of the horoscope. So the twelve months of Fabella are:
• Aries = March 21st – April 19th
• Taurus = April 20th – May 20th
• Gemini = May 21st – June 20th
• Cancer = June 21st – July 22nd
• Leo = July 23rd – August 22nd
• Virgo = August 23rd – September 22nd
• Libra = September 23rd – October 22nd
• Scorpio = October 23rd – November 21st
• Sagittarius = November 22nd – December 21st
• Capricorn = December 22nd – January 19th
• Aquarius = January 20th – February 18th
• Pisces = February 19th – March 20th
Every four years there is a 13th month called “Dionysus” with three days citizens across the world count as a holiday full of partying and feasting. Erasan also creates the seven day week. He names them after the Latin numerical system.
Days of the week in Erasan’s native Latin are as follows:
• “Dies Unas” = Sunday
• “Dies Duo” = Monday
• “Dies Tres” = Tuesday
• “Dies Quartus” = Wednesday
• “Dies Quintus” = Thursday
• “Dies Sextus” = Friday
• “Dies Septimus” = Saturday
When Erasan presents his calendar to the Council of Harpies, he is laughed out of the council for his ludicrous idea. Undaunted, King Erasan returns to his native Meradus and commands his subjects to go out and spread the teachings of his calendar all over Fabella. His theory is that it doesn’t matter what the council says, if he can get a majority of kingdoms to lead by the calendar then it will be adopted.
The Council of Harpies gets wind of this plan and send out a squad of warriors to stop Erasan. The king is besieged by the vengeful flock and his wings are stripped right off his back. Erasan is then dropped to his death.
The Council thinks they’ve won, but it’s Erasan who has the last laugh though. Because his plan proceeds on just as he anticipated as his people continue to spread his calendar to kingdoms throughout the world and the Erasan Calendar is the agreed-upon the worldwide calendar of Fabella from this point on.