Geography | Religion | Magic | The Beacon | Political | Calendar/Seasons | Class/race specifics | Weapons, Armor, and Tools
Contents
Days and Nights
The roughly 24-hour rotation of Maroon is divided by the Cincture, and the First Folk before them, into 13 hours from sunrise to last light, and 3 watches beginning at sundown until the next sunrise. (The 13th hour overlaps with Firstwatch.)
Solar cycle
The human settlements nearly universally observe a solar calendar. Maroon's year is slightly more than 340 days long, requiring an extra day every three years to keep the solar calendar aligned.
The citizens of Vindulan, within and without the Cincture, divide the year into 34 tendays, noting the beginning of the year on the winter solstice (Winterswatch) and its midpoint at the summer solstice (Firemorn).
Three tendays make a lamma, excepting the first tenday, which is the Mannaday Tenday (New Years' festival week) following the Winterswatch. Every 51 years (17 leaps) a Grand Leap festival (Mannaday Whennahey) is held.
Lunar cycles
Maroon's three small moons have taken on mythic names. The Witch's Eye, named after the Witch Queen, is tinged green in color; the Beggar's Eye (also called the Thief's Eye) is golden white; and the Serpent's Eye glitters baleful red. The Church of the Three keeps a record of their highly variable cycles.
Seasons
The priests of the Three assiduously watch for the signs of the beginning season, for each brings its own challenge for the denizens of Maroon.
The equinoxes mark the midpoint between the solstices, but the seasons vary from year to year based on the spirits that fuel them. They are named for the type of spirits the seasons bring: Frostwalking, Stormwild, and Firewalking. They bring the weather one might expect, with violent additions.
In the Frostwalking, the chill of winter, the sleet and snow and shorter days set the stage for fell ice spirits that form from the ground up, willfuly malevolent or blunderingly neutral.
The Stormwild blows in the gusts of change from the cold to the warm as Maroon's northern hemisphere revolves to face its sun, with air elementals tearing up the ground and beasts of lightning rampaging amidst the clouds, sometimes descending and lingering to play with the beings of the soil.
The Firewalking rages as the summer solstice approaches, creating spontaneous flash burns and scorching the land, and demons of flame and smoke cackle as they spread their fingers over everything that can burn.
The Waning is the time between the end of the Firewalking and the beginning of the Frostwalking, a period of reliable calm. Caravans most frequently travel during the Waning, and the fishing is most productive. It is, in years of relatively calm Walking, a second growing season, and a time of general freedom for the settlers of Maroon.
