Dilandu wrote:Theemile wrote:
IRL, Set Time zones and items like the date line wern't important until the advent of train lines and the telegraph, when you were attempting to coordinate movements over vast distances and send messages instantaneously around the world.
The Temple have semaphore, don't forget. Not as fast as telegraph, but MUCH faster than trains.
And frankly, considering how thoroughly Archangels done their work on Safehold lore, I doubt that they would miss such thing as establishing the universal time. It would be rather simple - just declare that the date line is on the Temple.
I would assume the exact opposite. Our date line is 180 degrees from the prime meridian. I assume that if the the Archangels set the prime meridian on the Temple, than the dateline would be on the opposite side of Safehold. That would be about Chishold, assuming my estimation is correct.
Again assuming they did something like what we did and avoid the line going through land, I would estimate that it would run through Half Moon Passage and then through the Chisholm Sea. From there it would either go between Zebediah and Corisande or (more likely in my opinion) to the east of Corisande.
As to if it would be needed, I agree with you, Dilandu. Safehold has ALWAYS had knowledge that their world was a sphere and it has been a connected society since the Day of Creation. Every Safeholdian is supposed to go to the Temple and international travel and trade have been around since the beginning. This is NOT 15th or 16th century Earth, even in the technology (Pre-Merlin) is at that level. Even if it doesn't impact their lives on a daily basis (and let's be honest, it doesn't impact our life on a daily basis for the vast majority of us), I believe that it probably would need to exist.
Edit: Plus, if we assume that the map RFC left on his page is part of the canon, it shows an equator. In addition, the books talk about the equator quite a bit. That would indicate that the population understands the importance of that line. It is not too much of a stretch to get to the prime meridian and it's converse, the date line.