The Calendar#

The year at the table

A year is eleven months of thirty days. It’s 1512 AWS, and the game begins on the twelfth day of the Shaded Aveo, the third month, unless your storyteller says otherwise.

Two suns#

Urd weaves a figure eight around two suns, Aveo and Oeva, that pull on it equally, and the old drawings say a whole figure eight takes two years. The months remember the suns: the Shaded Aveo is the last month Aveo rules the sky, and in the Burning Oeva Urd passes from one sun to the other, the hottest stretch of the year and the deadliest in the deserts. Beyond them both lies the scatter of stones the sailors call the Belt of Gahier.

Every month is named for something that happened before the War of Souls, nearly all of it at Menus or Menes, and the stories rarely say which.

The months#

1. 1 Turn of Ritkus

   The new year, named for the month King Ritkus of Menes opened the gates of his city to the army of Narsis. Nobody marries in it.

2. 2 Lythantos' Breath

   Great winds come off the shelf of the Northern Reach, cross the plains and sweep south into sandstorms that can reach the summit of Mt. Kyros.

   Lythantos

3. 3 The Shaded Aveo

   The last month Aveo rules the sky. Long, bright days, and the deserts already too hot to cross at noon.

   Today: day 12Hotter half

4. 4 The Burning Oeva

   Urd crosses from Aveo to Oeva. The hottest month of the year, and the most dangerous in the deserts by far.

   Hotter half

5. 5 The Dying Flower

   For the first time Urd dies back, as it did when Ettephemone was lost. Dekkashraen is said to reign this month without rival.

   Dekkashraen

6. 6 Roahn's Becoming

   Roahn's month, for the first man to have a child after his mother was lost, and the month mankind flourished in.

7. 7 Falling Leaf

   The wild creatures begin their long sleep, and everyone else lays in for the winter.

   Colder half

8. 8 Winterblight

   Heavy winds bring the snow in all at once, and it blankets the whole of Sedia.

   Colder half

9. 9 Changing Tide

   A stint of warmth starts the melt. The rivers run fast and hard, and life comes back to Urd.

   Colder half

10. 10 Mahro's Blessing

    Spring: everything is born again, side by side and at peace, in the name of Ettephemone's first celestial.

11. 11 Ettephemone's Return

    The end of the year and the heart of the rebirth, closed by the festival of the Breaking Return.

    Ettephemone

The day#

Dawn comes at the fifth hour. Morning runs from the sixth hour to midday at the twelfth, afternoon from midday to dusk at the eighteenth, and night from the nineteenth hour until dawn. Most work starts in the morning and most trouble starts after dusk.

The Breaking Return#

The year ends with a festival. All over Sedia people wear masks of brown and green, the colors of the flags of ancient Menes.

In the larger cities the herald rides down the main street in a golden mask with an honor guard behind, cheered all the way, because the herald stands for the kings of Menes before Ritkus. At the courthouse the herald puts the golden mask on the first of the prisoners the city will hang, who stands for Ritkus and every traitor since. When the hangings are done the city drinks and celebrates through the night.

The next morning is the Turn of Ritkus, and a new year.