Reformed System of Tavari Measurement

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The Reformed System of Tavari Measurement (RSTM) is a system of weights and measures created in Tavaris and today used in the countries of the Tavari Union and Vakani Dalar. Like the Metric system, it uses a set of standardized prefixes, but unlike metric, it uses a dozenal or base-12 scale in which each succeeding unit is 12 of the preceding one.

The first official System of Tavari Measurement was formally defined in 1696 in an edict issued by Queen Melora II, one of her last major acts in office before her advanced age (she was 79 at the time) caused her to cease active participation in state affairs within the next year. Historians now know that Prince Kanor, later her successor King Kanor III, was the primary impetus behind the policy. It was Prince Kanor who personally worked with the Royal Tavari Army Corps of Surveyors and a group of professors from the University of Nuvrenon to select precise definitions for the various folk units of measurement that had existed unstandardized since antiquity.

It is said that both Queen Melora II and King Kanor III, who fought in the brutal Fourth War with Bana, had been concerned by incidents of confusion during the war caused when soldiers from different parts of the country measured distance and weight in slightly different ways. While there have been changes over the years, the fundamentals of this system remain in place across the Tavari Union (except Greater Ilarís, which has used metric since the establishment of the Union of Free Cities) and in Vakani Dalar. In Racatrazi, the Tavari system is the official standard but metric is commonly used informally. In Metradan, ethnic Cescolian communities often illegally erect metric road signage or otherwise use metric as an act of political and social protest against the imposition of Tavari cultural norms.

In Tavaris, the STM base units were legally re-defined in terms of the metric system in 1953, becoming the Reformed System of Tavari Measurement. New Tavaris and Metradan adopted these changes the next year, though Xoigovoi did not until 1986, and Racatrazi and Vonatan never have. (There is no functional difference since the actual sizes of the units did not change, only their definitions.) Time has not been kept in the traditional measurements since 1953, but the traditional measurements remain official for the purpose of allowing contracts written with terms in these units to remain legally enforceable. The traditional measurements will remain lawful until the year 2025 in Tavaris, Acronis, Elatana, Rodoka, and the Union Territories and 2026 in Metradan, New Tavaris, and Xoigovoi.

Units

Time (Reformed)

  • second: the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation in a transition of the cesium atom
  • minute: 60 seconds
  • hour: 60 minutes
  • day: 24 hours

Time (Traditional)

  • ívorana: 1/12 ímorana (4.166 seconds)
  • ímorana: 1/12 tarana (50 seconds)
  • tarana: 1/12 rana (10 minutes)
  • rana: 1/12 of a day (2 hours)
  • "avrana:" Not a lawful unit, but equivalent to 1 day and used colloquially as such.

Mass

  • ímotemo: 1/12 tatemo (9.111g)
  • tatemo: 1/12 temo (109.333g)
  • temo: 1,312 g (1.312kg/2.892 lbs) (traditional, un-derived unit based on the standard weight of an ingot of našdat alloy from the Royal Mint, abbreviated te.)
  • avtemo: 12 temo (15.744 kg)
  • motemo: 12 avtemo (188.928 kg)

Length

  • ímonai: 1/12 tanai (0.466 cm)
  • tanai: 1/12 nai (5.598 cm)
  • nai: 0.67172 meters (67.172 cm/26.446 in) (traditional, un-derived unit said apocryphally to be the length of the blade of Queen Melora's favorite small-sword, abbreviated ni.)
  • avnai: 12 nai (8.06 m)
  • monai: 12 avnai (96.728 meters)
  • vonai: 12 monai (1,160.732 meters)

Area

  • ímoštonai: 1/12 štotanai (0.313 sq cm)
  • taštonai: 1/12 štonai (3.876 sq cm)
  • štonai: the area of a square with sides each 1 nai in length, abbreviated št. (0.451 square meters)
  • avštonai: 12 štonai (5.415 sq m)
  • moštonai: 12 avštonai (64.974 sq m)
  • square monai: the area of a square with edges each 1 monai long (0.935 hectare/2.31 acres), the traditional unit of property surveying. Known as a štomo.

Volume

  • ívokotonai: 1/12 ímokotonai (0.175 liters/0.74 US cups), also called a cebíq, meaning "palm, handful," and used as a base unit with the same prefix system in a scale used for cooking and sales of bulk goods.
  • ímokotonai: 1/12 takotonai (2.105 liters)
  • takotonai: 1/12 kotonai (25.257 liters)
  • kotonai: the volume of a cube whose sides have edges equal to 1 nai, abbreviated kt. (303.085 liters/0.303 cubic meters)
  • avkotonai: 12 kotonai (3.637 cubic meters)
  • mokotonai: 12 kotonavnai (43.644 cubic meters)

Prefixes

There are twelve official prefixes in the system, plus the unprefixed base. Each is officially symbolized by one letter; traditionally the prefixes smaller than the base were symbolized by the same letters as those for the prefixes larger than the base but with lines above them.

  • Ežba- 1/2,985,984 base [E or Ḡ]
  • Íbreš- 1/248,832 base [B̄]
  • Naro- 1/20,736 base [N or R̄]
  • Ívo- 1/1,728 base [V̄]
  • Ímo- 1/144 base [M̄]
  • Ta-: 1/12 base [T or Ā]
  • [None]: Base
  • Av- 12x base [A]
  • Mo- 144x base [M]
  • Vo- 1,728x base [V]
  • Rel- 20,736x base [R]
  • Breš- 248,832x base [B]
  • Gólba- 2,985,984x base [G]
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