Harqual: Year of the Return [749 N.C.]

[Knightfall]

Okay, I had originally tried to post this information in a stroy hour format, but it would have been way to complex. What follows is a day by day, month by month accounting of the 749th year on the New Calendar, for the Lands of Harqual. Each post will detail the major events of the continent on a week by week basis. The first few posts will give the basics of how the various Calendars of Harqual are laid out, as well as the Calendars' histories.

This will be an ongoing project to help me better organize NPCs, Organizations, and the like for the continent. There will be some descriptive text, so the thread might read like a DM's journal mixed with a story hour. Most of the information is already written out, but I'll be adding tidbits here and there.

People are free to ask questions about the content of this thread.

Note that my current gaming group has already passed into the next year (750) on the New Calender, an thus this information is considered written history.

Cheers!

Knightfall1972

 

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The Calendars of Harqual
There are three distinct calendars on Harqual. Each one is described below.

Gabriel Stonn and the New Calendar
The continent's most widely used calendar, The New Calendar, as it’s called, is Harqual's most important one. Two hundred and fifty two years after the end of the Divinity War, a man named Gabriel Stonn came to power in a city-state, called Araig, on the Jagged Peninsula on the eastern shore of Northern Harqual. Gabriel was the first man to have a vision of what Harqual’s future should be without also wanting to oppress its peoples.

He reformed Ariag’s failing political and justice systems and introduced widespread change throughout the city’s military to weed out corruption. He put the power of rule in the hands of the citizens of the city-state. Women and even those over the age of fifteen had the right to voice their opinion, although one still had to be at least eighteen to vote. It was a radical change that would reshape Harqual’s history in the region. It was this that brought about the creation of the New Calendar.

Stonn knew his growing kingdom, known then as The Kingdom of the Jagged Peninsula, needed a new calendar to track the seasons and the days. And since Gabriel was a humble man, he refused to name it after himself or the city-state he ruled. He would simply call it the New Calendar and be done with it.

The New Calendar spread through the lands of the eastern coast and eventually to the west and even to the Far South. Only the barbarians of the Northlands have never adopted it fully, as it is not in their nature to write things down. They simply track the passage of time the way they had since Cronn built the Hall of the Northlands. The barbarians of the Northlands do honor Gabriel Stonn for the pious life he lead and honor the celebrations and cycles of the calendar when visiting the southern lands beyond the Greystone Mountains.

As for Gabriel Stonn, the man ruled Araig and the kingdom that was built around it for his entire lifetime. At his death in 52 N.C., the city and the kingdom were both renamed Stonn in his honor by the people that had grown to love him. Stonn's kingdom still exists and is the oldest human kingdom on Harqual. (The silver elf kingdom, The Kingdom of the Silver Leaves, is the oldest.) Stonn’s birth is celebrated every 100 years from the 1st year after Gabriel’s death to the present. The next celebration is in three years.

The New Calendar follows a 12 months (365 days) per year cycle. Each month is broken down into roughly 4 weeks made up of 6 days per week. Each month is made up either 30 or 31 days. The year has 4 seasons that follow the same basic seasonal patterns of Earth – Springdawn, Summerfall, Autumnwind, and Winternight. Note that there isn't such a thing as 0 N.C., The New Calendar starts at 1. (The current year is 750 N.C.)

 

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The New Calendar, Jaeger, and the Honorbound
Jaeger’s death has great religious significance to all of the priests of the Pantheon of the North but none so much as his own. It was Jaeger that brought about the end of the Divinity War by sacrificing his life force and divine power, to the multiverse, to save all of Harqual from Hiisi’s evil.

His former clergy now call themselves the Honorbound and refer him to as Jaeger the Saint. As a result of Jaeger’s sacrifice a new, bright star was born in the heavens above Kulan called Jaeger’s Rest.

In honor of Jaeger’s death and sacrifice the second week of his month is celebrated by every faith in the Pantheon as the Time of Honorbound. Many treaties have been ratified and reworked during this week of celebration and remembrance.

This week is also when all the companies of Honorbound gather for the annual rites of passage for new members and to honor those of the company that have fallen over the last year. It is considered blasphemous to miss your companies gathering unless you are a prisoner of a military power that doesn’t worship the pantheon. All faiths of the pantheon will release a Honorbound to be at his gathering. This helps prevent vendettas and blood feuds between the faiths and independent companies.

The New Calendar and the Divine Children
Gabriel Stonn was a pious man and was true to the gods of the Pantheon of the North when so many others were not. He honored the gods by naming each of the months for one of the Divine Children that fell during the Divinity War against the Pantheon of Swords. Thus, the twelve months of the New Calendar are named Anon, Zealot, Sialic, Thorn, Truce, Hansa, Hela, Seraph, Nessus, Euphoria, Tulle, and Jaeger, in that order. (See below for more details on the structure of the New Calendar.) All, but three, of these Children were lost to total oblivion. Jaeger's legacy is noted above in the section on the Honorbound but more details are needed regarding Hansa and Hela.

Pronouncing the Different Names of the Months
Anon (eh-‘nän)       Truce (‘trüs)                     Nessus (‘nes-ahs)
Zealot (‘zel-eht)    Hansa (‘han(t)-sah, ‘hän-(,)zä)   Euphoria (you-‘for-ee-ah)
Sialic (si-‘al-ik)   Hela (‘hel-ah)                    Tulle (‘tül)	
Thorn (‘thό(eh)rn)   Seraph (‘ser-ehf)                 Jaeger (‘yeh-gar)

Hansa was buried under the earth during a battle with Hiisi’s godsons, Deltum and Enduma. It was the cat god Tu that sent Hansa spiraling down into ground forming what would become the Twilight Valley. To this day, he struggles to free himself from his underground prison, which causes seasonal earthquakes that plague Harqual. The third week of his month is known as The Shaking due to high number of quakes that occur during that time period. Clerics of Hansa gather in the Twilight Valley during this time to pay homage to their god.

Hela’s tragic tale, of Thera binding Hela's essence to the sea of the Sword Gulf so that the Peace Goddess could never rest, is honored during on the first day and last day of her month. Her clergy gather on the shores of the Sword Coast, on the first day, throwing peace blossoms into the sea and singing sad dirges for the release of their goddess. On the last day, they come again along with the faithful masses, this time in brightly colored clothes, to sing and dance and feast in Hela’s name, to bring the Peace Goddess love and merriment.

Also, when the violent storms of Autumnwind begin to break against the Sword Coast near Gillian and Avion, it is said they are the storms of Hela’s sorrow, raging to be free of her torment. This time is also sacred to her followers and to sailors of all faiths, up and down the Sword Coast.

 

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The New Calendar and the Elements
The elements are also linked to Harqual’s calendar by way of the names of the days of the week and the moons of Kulan. The days in order of first to last are Moonsday, Earthday, Fireday, Seaday, Windday, and Starday. The four middle days are of course directly linked to each of the four Prime Elements - Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. (Other elements exist, such as the Para-Elements and the Element of Wood, but they aren’t linked to the New Calendar.)

Elementalists all across Harqual perform special rites and prayers, each week, on their associated day of the week. If this is not done, then the elementalist loses one spell level for the remainder of the week. If the rites are missed again the next week the elementalist incurs a –1 penalty when casting any spells from their Elemental School (this continues each week until the elementalist performs the rites on the proper day (this is cumulative, –2, –3, etc.).

The first and last day are also linked to the elements but hold less daily significance to elementalists.

Moonsday, of course, refers to Kulan’s two moons – Novan and Lithe. Novan is a Water World and is considered the source of power for Water and Air Elementalists. Lithe is a bare, mineral rich airless void that is considered the source of power for Earth Elementalists.

Starday is named for both the stars and Kulan’s sun. It is considered a special day for astronomers, especially during an eclipse or other celestial event (such as a comet). This day is also important to Fire Elementalists as it denotes the sun and the source of their power. Solar eclipses are considered ‘bad’ by these elementalists as this lessens their power for the duration of the eclipse [reduced by one level for 1d4+1 minutes before eclipse, full duration of eclipse (including partial), and 1d4-1 minutes after the eclipse].

 

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Calendar of Swords
Before the time of Gabriel Stonn and the calendar he created the only method of tracking the days and seasons of the years was by using the archaic Calendar of Swords designed by the Old Sword Imperium. The CoS, as it was abbreviated, was designed for recording historic and military achievements of the Imperium. It was never used to track the birth dates of the masses, festivals, or the changing seasons. The only birth dates ever recorded on the CoS were those of the King-Priests and a few of the more ambitious Dead Emperors.

Another problem with the calendar was that only a few individuals on Harqual knew how to decipher it. The CoS was written with strange archaic symbols that are still etched into the ziggurats. (The current year is 2460 CoS.)

The Third Calendar
The third calendar is not really a physical calendar at all. The abbreviation D.W. refers to the time that passed from the end of the Divinity War to the Year of the Dawn. Thus, it only spans from 1 D.W. to 1001 D.W. No one ever uses it to refer to events before or after these years and most never use it regardless.

This abbreviation only came into use after the tabaxi returned to Harqual in 749 N.C., the Year of the Return. After that had occurred, there was finally a way for scholars to note when the Divinity War actually ended and important D.W. dates are usually noted on The New Calendar. (The 1,001 years correspond to -253 N.C. to 748 N.C. Remember, there is no such thing as 0 N.C.)

 

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The Year of the Return! Here we go....

Month of Anon
Week One

1. Fireday
The City of Tattenger reappears in the Storm Jungle after being trapped for 1,001 years on an unknown demiplane. Due to the thousands of years of barbarism mortals forgot the knowledge of the tabaxi’s banishment. They are only remembered as a strange legend told by older priests of the pantheon.
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Elsewhere a young barbarian priest of Cronn, living in Twilight Valley, is shown the true nature of the threat of the tabaxi through dreams sent to him by the Lord of the North. The young priest tries to convince his elders of the truth. (He changes his name to Taith-El, meaning Teller of the Past.)

2. Seaday
Unable to sway the elders, Taith-El sets off on his journey through the snow and cold temperatures to warn the rest of the Lands of Harqual of the return of the tabaxi and hopefully prepare them for the wrath of Tu.

 

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Week Two

10. Starday
Taith-El leaves the Twilight Valley, heading southwest, up into the mountains, towards the cities of the dwarves of the Kingdom of the Greystones.

Week Three

14. Seaday
Event: The last major snowfall before the beginning of Springdawn. It blankets the Northlands and the Ragik Peninsula. This snow will likely only last until the end of next month.
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Tabaxi soldiers attempt to lay siege to Anthmoor on the southern tip of the Storm Peninsula. The city’s defenders, including its powerful sorcerers, repel the tabaxi with ease.

 

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Week Four

18. Earthday
A tabaxi army moves up the River of Sa into the Monarchy of Avion, sacking the city-state of Valora, taking half its population as slaves.

Week Five

24. Earthday
In Avion, the city of Ilasi is attacked by the tabaxi. Several of the Monarchy’s Knights of Avion, dedicated to protecting their country, die repelling the assault.

27. Windday
Taith-El arrives at the village of Kartelormar on the edge of the Greystone Mountains and petitions to speak with the village’s Defender. His request is granted and he tells the Defender of the dream sent to him by Cronn.

The Defender is skeptical but ensures the young barbarian-priest that he will inform the local Thanes of the tabaxi threat. The Defender suggests that Taith-El continue on to the city of Milo to seek an audience with the High Thane of the Stone Fists and the High Priests of Moradin.

28. Starday
In Avion, the Queen, Lady Felicia Gerrard III, learns of the attack on her people in the south, through a sending spell cast by the city’s Governor, Francis Waldgrave.
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In the Greystone Mountains, Taith-El continues his journey, now underground, heading for the capital of the Kingdom of the Greystones.

 

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Week Six

29. Moonsday
The tabaxi attack the city of Ilasi again, nearly breaching the walls.
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Lady Felicia Gerrard III, in Avion City, magically sends a message to an old ally in Onaway, Lord Than LaMarche, for aid after learning of the second assault on Ilasi from Governor Waldgrave.

LaMarche agrees to help Avion against this new threat.

30. Earthday
Lord LaMarche issues a sending to the commander of three warships, near Ilasi, Sir William Sicorex, which states the need of the citizens of the City of Ilasi against the tabaxi. Sicorex immediately turns his ships towards Ilasi, at full sail.

 

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Month of Zealot
Week Six (cont.)

2. Windday
The Onan warships arrive at Ilasi and find the city under siege. The combined forces of Avion and Onaway quickly rout the tabaxi using excellent tactics and sorcery. The tabaxi retreat back into the Storm Jungle. Governor Waldgrave and the citizens of Ilasi greet Sir William Sicorex as a hero.

3. Starday
Lady Felicia Gerrard III suggests to Lord LaMarche (through a sending spell) that setting up a combined garrison at Ilasi would protect both of their nations. LaMarche agrees. He informs Sicorex through another sending that his warships are assigned to Ilasi until further notice.
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More tomorrow... time to go to sleep.