Copyright Perette Barella. All rights reserved. GNU public license (GPL).
On Tilde, there is a region called High Gull. It contains 6 cities:
There is also a smaller town, GullPort (4), south of Fork River Junction.
High Gull is bounded by Hakinta-Yama mountain range to the West. To the north is the Lichar forest, and to the north east is Be'e'wa swamp. To the east are plains. The south is tundra. The South West is a large sea.
Some miles north of Apple is Yielken-Ko Lake.
Since the region is somewhat isolated, communication and barter occur within the region much more than out-of-region. Each of these cities has a Lord of the City, who has authority to lead that region.
Since there is plenty of space, the Lords get along. Or, maybe it's because they are not Kings and wouldn't ever "own" the land that they could capture that they don't fight over it.
Tilde orbits a single Sun, and is orbited by two moons known as Luna Minor and Luna Major. Luna Major appears larger in the sky, but amongst intellectuals there are discussions which is really larger - maybe the "smaller" one is just farther away. Some say the two moons and Tilde are all the same size. More practical folk don't waste their time on such matters, as they can't get there anyway.
The intellectuals also like to discuss whether Tilde and the moons go round the Sun, or whether they all go round Tilde. Most think Tilde spins as it goes round the Sun, just as the Lunae spin going round Tilde. Then, the nightlights in the sky changing their times through the year would correspond to Tilde going round the Sun. To most, it seems obvious that the Gods, being orderly, would make small groups of things which go round each-other, forming a larger group that goes round a third thing, all of which is going about a forth. The tendency of societies to imitate such organization shows that this is the natural way.
There are, however, those wacky folks that think it all goes round Tilde, which sits in one spot.
Average folk think this whole discussion, too, is silly; the days and seasons pass regardless how things go round each-other is not so important.
Luna Major has an orbit of 8 days, and spins roughly every 19
hours.
Luna Minor has an orbit of 33 days, and spins roughly every 27
hours.
Tilde orbits the sun once every 291 days.
There are two calendars in use on Tilde. However, they use different moons. Both are lunar calendars, and both begin in Spring in the South.
The perpetual calendar is sychronized everywhere, so it begins in Autumn in the north. However, the common calendar has a north common calendar variant which lags the south (proper) common calendar by 6 months, starting in the Northern spring and what would be autumn in the south.
The common calendar is based on Luna Major. Each week contains one full cycle of Luna Major, with the new moon on the first, full moon on the fifth of the week.
With this calendar, there are 4 seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn. Each season is formed of 3 months, called early, mid, and late. Each month is formed of 3 weeks of 8 days. Again the weeks are again called early, mid, and late; except for mid-mid-season which is usually simplified to true mid-season.
So, for example, the third day of the third week of the second month of spring is known as 3 late-mid spring.
With the common calendar, there is an 8 year cycle. Years 1, 3, and 5 (yearnum % 8 in [1,3,5]) have an extra week added after the true-mid summer week. This is known as second midsummer week.
The third evening and fourth day of true-mid season are holidays for folk that celebrate the equinoxes and solstices, though this is not always the exact date. When there is a second midsummer week, then 8th first true midsummer and 1st second true midsummer are celebrated instead.
The second calendar, used mostly by the Fair Folk and druids, but also a few regions, operates on a 99 year cycle. For this reason, year '00' of every century is skipped. This calendar has received the title 'perpetual calendar', though really both calendars work indefinitely.
Based on Luna Minor, the perpetual calendar has 8 months of 33 days. The start of the month is the new moon, midmonth is full moon. Every year ending in '0' or '5' has 9 months, except year '05'. Since this extra month can skew the time of year where a particular date falls by quite a bit, it isn't particularly useful for planting or tracking the seasons.
Weeks are also 8 days in the perpetual calendar, but have no relation to the months. The concept of a week is probably an idea imported from the Common calendar.
Thankfully, both moons orbit in precisely integral non-sidereal days. The folk of Tilde, however, have never noticed the improbability of this amazing coincidence. Such a thing would certainly be an argument for creationism, if ever there is an argument between creationism and evolution.
Note that on Tilde, Elven folk do not use numbers larger than one-hundred. The thought is that there is no need; any more than that is simply 'many', or that you should call it something else.
Similarly, Elves abhor fractions. 'One would not call 5 copper a half silver, because how do you have a half silver?'
An elf would say that something happened 2 centuries ago, or that it was in the last century of the second era, but not that it happened 220 years ago.
Potilla is the leader of the thieves' guild in Thibauld. He is neutral-evil character in philosophy, but has found that working within the boundary of the law to be quite effective. He analyzes carefully the risk versus payoff in a venture: a high risk with low yield is not worth his time, though low-yield / low risk and high-yield / high risk might be okay with him. He thinks there are often a lot of hidden costs, especially as risk increases. In considering usual activities of the Thieves' guild, he feels the payoff isn't worth the risk; a consistent but lower-return investment is generally safer, mainly because of the hidden parts of the higher-risk: not just losing the capital invested, but the quick-growing expense of paying people to forget things, bribing officials, and arranging disappearances.
Anthillia is the mountain druid. Liithai is a forest druid. Together they maintain Hakinta outpost in the Hakinta Mountains. They both recognize that their are many unique plants that live in the high-altitude region, and that these plants, though capable of weathering the unusual climate, are fragile when it comes to animal contact.
Anthillia, of course, has plenty of territory in which to roam. She inherited the outpost from her parents, who inherited it from grandparents, who constructed it. They formed the well-known path through the mountains so that passers-through could get through safely, and more importantly, so that the mountains could safely have passers-through.
Liithai, during his adolescent walk-about, stayed at the outpost for a duration to explore and learn about mountain regions. He fell in love with Anthillia, and moved in. He has learned many mountain skills, but particularly takes care of the Hakinta forest due to his knowledge of forest-care techniques.
Things on Tilde start on 4th mid-early spring of the 112th year of the common calendar (in the south, since this is the proper common calendar - unlike the 6-month lagging North common calendar), which is the 33rt day of 8th month of 13th year of 2nd century of the third era on the perpetual calendar.
The month starts nicely, with hints of the oncoming summer. The first two days of the month are sunny, the first being warm and melting, but the second staying a little more brisk. On the afternoon of the second, clouds began rolling in -- bringing when them warmth, strong winds and the heaviest rain that has hit High Gull in at least a century. The storm pummels the region for 4 days before a reprieve - which lasts only a brief duration on the fourth day while the eye passes overhead. The storm then resumes for 4 more days, but carries with it cooler weather, resulting in heavy snows in higher regions, and slush in lower regions.
On the 8th day (2 mid-early spring), the storm breaks in the afternoon. Things warm up on the third of mid-month, things begin to melt, and cleanup begins. The town craftsfolk are putting their skills to work to repair the houses and shops that were damaged. Those not skilled in construction, and not otherwise busy with their shops or homes, are busy with the clean up delivering raw materials and finished goods to the skilled folk. In general, the town is pulling together for the good of all.
The worst is cleaned up but there is still much more work to be done the next day, when our story begins...
