Calendars of Azeroth

Listed below are the Calendars of Azeroth, each itself a timeline of events specific to its niche in the world of Azeroth.

Lotharian Calendar (L.C. and P.C.)
The Lotharian Calendar was adopted after the coronation of Varian Wrynn, and, due to Stormwind's prominence among the nations of the Grand Alliance, would become the basic calendar for many of those under it. Its Year Zero is the opening of the Dark Portal and the start of the First War. It is named in honour of Anduin Lothar.

For ease of use, and to avoid writing dates in negative, the custom eventually came about of writing dates before 0 L.C. as being 'P.C.', or 'Pre-Calendar' (the commonly supposed 'Pre-Calamity' is a neologism). Thus, the Dark Portal reopened in January 29 L.C., the Invasion of Northrend began in the winter of 30 L.C., while the independence of Stormwind was in 592 P.C. An adapted companion of this calendar also utilizes the designations 'A.P.' and 'B.P', for 'Before' and 'After Portal' respectively.

The present year in the Lotharian Calendar is 37 L.C.

King's Calendar (K.C. and P.C.)
Before the First War, Stormwind humans counted forward from the end of a long and bloody civil war which occupied the latter half of the 6th century P.C. The war ended in 592 P.C. with the founding of the Kingdom of Stormwind. The calendar begins counting at this date, although it was adopted somewhat later, and continued to be used officially until the fall of Stormwind. Even afterwards, however, many government documents dated by the king's calendar, as do numerous pamphlets, publications and personal writings that we have.

The current year in the King's Calendar is 626 K.C.

Aderician Calendar (P.D.G., U.A.R. and F.A.)
The Aderician Calendar was put in place after the independance of Gilneas under the rule of King Aderic I. It begins one thousand one hundred and fourteen years before the orcish invasion of Azeroth, when Gilneas became independant. So as to avoid writing in negative numbers, dates before 0 F.A. are written as U.A.R., which stands for "Under Arathorian Rule". Meanwhile, counting forwards uses the neologism F.A., which stands for "Following Aderic", although it marks the birth of the kingdom, not the birth of the legendary king. When referring to pre-Arathor rule, it is referred to as "Pre-dawn Gilneas", or P.D.G.

The current year in the Aderician Calendar is 1148 F.A.

Thoradine Calendar (A.D)
Counting from the unification of Arathor under its first King, Thoradin, the Thoradine Calendar begins in 2,770 P.C. and has been used by the Church in official documents since its foundation. The calendar came to be standard throughout the Seven Kingdoms until the fall of Lordaeron, when other methods of figuring the course of the year supplanted it and replaced it to the common folk.

A.D. stands for A'no Dominaeum, or 'In The Year of [Arathi] Rule'. Note that this phrase can be attributed to the Church of the Holy Light, which once used Humanised Thalassian for many official writings; the original nomenclature would have been in Old Arathi.

The present year in the Thoradine Calendar is 2804 A.D.

Gnomish Calendar (G.C.)
The Gnomish Calendar counts from the overthrow of the Last King of Gnomeregan and the foundation of the Gnomish Republic. It was adopted unanimously by the new government in 367 P.C., and, though its use diminished with the Fall of Gnomeregan, many gnomes continued to employ it between their fellows. Dates before the beginning of the calendar are signified by writing the numbers backwards.

Kaldorei Calendar (P.S.)
Night Elves adopted their calendar roughly 10,000 years ago, shortly after the Great Sundering, as they began to recover from the explosion. Although some have adapted to the Lotharian Calendar after living in the Alliance lands for some time, this one is still almost universally used by all night elves in northern Kalimdor. Any dates Before Sundering, although rare, are marked as 'B.S.', and the vast majority of dates are marked 'P.S.', or "Post Sundering".

The current year in the Kaldorei Calendar is PS 10034, or alternatively, P.S. 10,034.

Perenolde Calendar (B.A., I.E. and K.A./A.A.)
The Perenolde Calendar is the official system of dating in the Kingdom of Alterac. Although in more recent times, many of the Alteraci have abandoned it following Aiden Perenolde's betrayal. It was first created by King Nicholas Perenolde I, although multiple authors have endeavors in updating the calendar following his death.

Due to a lack of a specific time being attributed to the first humans inhabiting Alterac, it counts backwards from I.E or Imperial Era. I.E refers to the time when Alterac was under Arathorian rule and counts forward. Following the I.E, there is the K.A standing for Kingdom of Alterac. This also counts forward. Some scholars have tacked on another era, known as A.A or Alterac in Anarchy.

The present year in the Perenolde Calendar is 1141 K.A., or 25 A.A.

Lord Admiral's Calendar (L.A.C.)
The Lord Admiral's Calendar is the official calendar used by the Kingdom of Kul Tiras, established following the Kingdom's early creation in 0 L.A.C. (Lord Admiral's Calendar)

Unlike many other calendars utilized by human Kingdoms, the Lord Admiral's Calendar uses no such form of 'eras', rather placing all events both pre-establishment and post-establishment in the one area.

The present year in the Lord Admiral's Calendar is 2024 L.A.C.