# All My Base Are Belong To You **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [November 9, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701 "2024-11-09T18:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701/1 "2024-11-09T18:03:19Z")
Numeric base, that is. So far, for the most part, I have been handling this via _Translation Convention_, since exactitude has not been of crucial importance, and expecting people who care about such things to pick up that for a people who use duodecimal (base-12) notation, a century is naturally 144 years, a millennium 1,728, etc., etc. This has been seeming to me increasingly inadequate, given potential and real confusion when I talk about lengths of time, etc., using my authorial voice rather than in-character, as well as differences between metaphorical and literal usages, and so on and so forth. Where it has now broken down completely is in writing a piece involving people using two _different_ number bases, in which an duodecimal millennium (1,728 years) and an octal millennium (512 years) aren’t even _close_ to the same thing, and neither, for that matter, is particularly close to a decimal millennium. That’s stretching it even for metaphorical purposes. And I would prefer not to just start dropping numbers in untranslated Eldraeic, etc., into the text, because that’s something that has no correspondence or roots at all for the English-speaking reader to figure out. So I’m thinking of coining some new _English_ words for use in an updated _Translation Convention_, such that things can be made clear. Or at least consistent. Power Decimal Duodecimal Octal x1 ten dodectave (12) octave (8) x2 hundred dodecen (144) octcen (64) x3 thousand dodeciad (1,728) octiad (512) x6 million grand dodeciad (2,985,984) grand octiad (262,144) (I’m not using “dozen” for 12 in duodecimal because I suspect that that would lead people to believe that they’re counting by twelves in base ten, which is misleading. Much the same reasoning applies to “gross” for 144, and also that “grossury” as a period of time sounds like a place you buy unpleasant food. Instead, for time, we have the “dodecentury” and the “dodecennium”, which should parse better and are at least reasonably euphonious.) Naturally, there’ll be footnotes and a numeric appendix in published works for those encountering these coinages for the first time. Comments and thoughts, anyone?   * * * This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://eldraeverse.com/2016/09/18/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you](https://eldraeverse.com/2016/09/18/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you) ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701/2 "2025-02-10T15:43:40Z")
**Comments migrated from WordPress:** > [@Jade Nekotenshi \ on 2016-09-18 13:54:04 wrote](#): > > Seems as sensible as any other translation convention I could think up. > [@Specialist290 \ on 2016-09-18 14:47:59 wrote](#): > > > I’m not using “dozen” for 12 in duodecimal because I suspect that that would lead people to believe that they’re counting by twelves in base ten, which is misleading. Much the same reasoning applies to “gross” for 144, and also that “grossury” as a period of time sounds like a place you buy unpleasant food. > > Honestly, “dodec-” derivatives aren’t really that much better in this regard, since it still breaks down literally to “two-and-ten.” > > That said, in line with what Jade has said, given there’s no really _good_ option in that regard, it might be the best compromise between a straight translation and unglossed eldraeic. > > (Much like how I’ve never really been comfortable with all the various things people have come up with in trying to create a universal non-gendered third-person singular pronoun; even though I acknowledge that we really _need_ one, none of them ever really sound right to me, so I just generally go with singular “they.”) ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701/3 "2025-02-10T15:43:40Z")
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**Author:** ![january1may](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@january1may](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/january1may)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701/4 "2025-02-10T17:08:48Z")
> [@Specialist290 \ on 2016-09-18 14:47:59 wrote](#): > > (Much like how I’ve never really been comfortable with all the various things people have come up with in trying to create a universal non-gendered third-person singular pronoun; even though I acknowledge that we really _need_ one, none of them ever really sound right to me, so I just generally go with singular “they.”) It often surprised me that so many people are looking for a _third_-person singular pronoun, but approximately no one seems to mind the lack of a _second_-person singular pronoun. (To be fair, if actually needed, “thou” is available.)   > [@Specialist290 \ on 2016-09-18 14:47:59 wrote](#): > > Honestly, “dodec-” derivatives aren’t really that much better in this regard, since it still breaks down literally to “two-and-ten.” > > That said, in line with what Jade has said, given there’s no really _good_ option in that regard, it might be the best compromise between a straight translation and unglossed eldraeic. Reminds me of my silly “culture-free representation” of the relationship between bases 12 and 10 [on Twitter](https://x.com/yesthatsatwitr/status/992694268224573441) a few years back… > OK. Not sure if it shows up. Base 🂓 is a numbering system just like base 🂋. You can use 🂑 for 🂋 and 🂒 for 🂋+🁪. For example, if you want to write about 🂓+🂒, in base 🂓 it will be 🁪🂒 and in base 🂋 it will be 🁱🁸. The knuckle thing is just for people with 🂋 fingers. (In case the symbols don’t show up for you: it’s using the Domino Tiles - Vertical range of Unicode, U+1F063-U+1F09F.) ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/all-my-base-are-belong-to-you/2701/5 "2025-02-10T22:39:40Z")
> [@january1may](#): > > but approximately no one seems to mind the lack of a _second_-person singular pronoun. _waves_ (Stupid human natural language.)