In creating the world of the Algorithm of Life, I wanted it to seem normal enough as to be grounding, but offer a few very clear distinctions to separate the story from "our world." To that end, I played around with a variety of different units of weights, time, distance before settling on a scheme that felt at the same time familiar, based in Latin roots, but not so readily associated with planet earth.
One of the first decisions I made in the process was to modify the cardinal directions. Thus north became norf, or norvern as an adjective. The Conglomerate is based in the southern half of a former nation, thus souf and souvern appear often. In Called, Clementine doesn't venture far beyond the central area of the Conglomerate map but subsequent books will take her much further to the norf, souf, est and oest.
A crucial concept for Clementine, the fundamental unit of time is marked by the Conglomerate sol. Within a sol, time is marked by chrons which can be subdivided into demichrons and, as the old marketing line goes, "hesitate a millichron and it'll be gone!"
Seven sols make a septad.* Four septads make a lunaris, measured by the time it takes for a full lunar cycle. A collection of lunerii becomes a solaris and ten solarii make a decennium. Ten decennia become a centad...simple, right? I regretted this choice later when I was forced to find creative ways around using very common words like "today" (easy, it's a contraction: this'ol) or "everyday" (not easy or elegant...in the story, people describe things as modern or commonplace).
On the ground, distance is measured in terraspans which can be increased to mega or decreased to micro, depending on the segment in question. Digital currency is meted out in credits with any not spent on Conglomerate necessities like room and board labeled as discretionary. The older form of physical currency, scrip, is losing popularity with each passing solaris. While not technically weights & measures, I also took a few liberties with some of the most everyday** objects and locations (sleep shelf and cookery) just to try to remind the reader that they're in an unfamiliar world and should be careful with what they assume!
*Some workers are entitled to a two sol septend, but availability of this benefit depends entirely on the particular position of service.
**See!?
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