Seonid

Alright, let's chat about what's changed in Edassa. The first answer is: not much. I was deliberately trying to restrict the AI (I tried several models, but Claude was the most helpful for me) to talking only about linguistics and not getting into deeper withholding concepts, like cultural or religious practices. I didn't want the AI to help me with worldbuilding new stuff, I just wanted a sanity check on my old stuff to make sure it all fit together correctly. First off, there were several spelling changes (and one or two outright changes) in the regional noble houses: for the French-inspired houses: House Samane became House Samand, House Feravut became House Feravaux, and House Verekai became House Verecay. For the English-inspired houses: House Calliester became House Chalester, and House Surrestor became House Surrester. Some more minor changes happened in city/town names: Sirrienbourge went to Sirresbourge (a more French-sounding derivation), while Malach Crossings went to Malke's Crossings, Astreleur went to Astrelier, and Bellflower became Bellham (moving from the generic fantasy "string two words together" and towards a more Anglo-Saxon naming approach). In that same spirit (but without AI assistance this time), I went ahead and proactively changed Sprucevale to Spurdale, Ivyleaf to Ivyton, and Goldcrest to Fenwold. But, as helpful as it was with making minor edits to get better linguistic consistency, the most useful parts of the conversation were where it helped me justify some of my favorite old names from my high school worldbuilding era. Alaner (not a very good German city name) got justified by being named after the river Ahle, and then the local imperial officials Anglicized it. (Maryksberg just went to Mareksberg, but I'm saying that imperial cartographers and their unreasonable love of the letter y made the original the spelling you would see on an imperial map.) Corento was supposed to be in a Slavic-inspired region, but it is very definitely not Slavic. Slavicizing it gave Korentyn as an original name, with Corentum being the Latinized version of the name in High Avran, and Corento being the Commonspeak or Low Avran version. As an added bonus, the local name of the river now gets to be named Korentka, after the city (although I'm still calling it the Minhara River unless I'm writing from the perspective of someone in or from that city). Gadre (originally Gadhre in my earliest worldbuilding) was supposed to be a city well into the English/French cultural overlap zone, but it fit neither of those identities. AI helped me associate it with the Celtic inspired region to the west, having it be a remnant of a time when that culture occupied the plains. It actually suggested Gadhre, which was a delightful coincidence - I jumped at the chance to reclaim my original name from all those years ago - and suggested the Anglicization of Gadrey for a modern term, which I graciously accepted. Sergaho is one of the river kingdoms -city states who live in a wash of many cultures. It, unfortunately, has a name that came from "15-year old me looked the sound" and doesn't map well onto the existing mix. But the AI tried Welsh Ser-Y to start with, inventing the Welsh-ish word Gafon (the Welsh afon means river, so having a very similar term works). So Ser-y-Gafon meaning something like "stars over the river" becoming Anglicized to Sergaho, and maybe showing up in low Avran as Sergau was a delightful experience. Several far-off cities with little to no relevance other than being close to my heart got saved - Gastor was from an old Celtic-inspired Gasda, later Latinized as Gasterium and Anglicized as Gastor, while Afert, Forthar and Malage got to be the Celtic inspired Averdun, Forthair and Maelagh, Latinized as Avertum, Fortarum and Malacarum, and then finally the local trade creole language renders them into their final forms. Having multiple layers of etymology helps, apparently! Now, we're moving to more substantial improvements. One of the things I kept telling the AI in order to keep certain city name elements in the Gaelet region was "this preserves remnants of an older culture that was conquered by the Avrans." Finally, it called me out on it and asked me what the culture was like so it could judge the remnant city names with the right metric. I reached back to the ancient world - since this region has been Avran for at least a thousand years - and figured that something like old Gaulish would be an excellent fit. So now I have an old Gaulish culture sitting underneath a layer of Avran domination (which now makes the original inhabitants related to the Celtic inspired hill folk across the river, which is excellent). The AI have a list of old Gaulish place name elements, and I picked (then adjusted to match my sensibilities) Venduri to be their culture name (or at least the Latinized version of it). The name comes from Vindo- (meaning bright or white) and -duro- (meaning waters), so "the people of the bright waters." Their naming conventions let me keep Menkor [from medio- (meaning middle - reduced to men- with a consonant shift) and a reduced form of -coria (meaning market)] and Caedros [from catu- (meaning battle) and -ros (a suffix generally meaning great)]. And now we get to the big five - 5 names I was very worried about that are very important and I really didn't want to change but had been afraid for a while now that I'd have to: Two empire/culture names: The Kaloneri Empire (these days, it's meant to be Anglo-Saxon coded, but it wasn't even I named it). The name is now derived from the high Avran demonym that was used to describe their people - the Caeloneria (people of the sky, or sky-worshippers, referring to their practice of generating the constellations). When they formed themselves into an empire, they called themselves the Coelmaer, attempting to turn the foreign term into a self-identity - it's an amalgamation of Latin cael-/coel-, meaning heaven and the Anglo-Saxon -mawr/-maer, meaning great or large. The implied meaning is "the great realm under heaven." How much did the AI help? It helped run through ideas where the term "Kaloneri" could have come from, and offered the Latin-ish Caeloneria as an interesting backwards derivation. It also offered a list of elements from Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic language that could be combined to be something that could be latinized into Caeloneria. Noticing the option for something heaven-associated in that list was all me though. The Alcorazimai Empire (no originating culture for influence, I just liked the name - it felt like something all my own). The AI said it sounded vaguely Turkic, so I reached for a Khazar basis for the language. Assuming Arabic-ish speaking neighbors (which actually works - the Rakalli are Arabic inspired), you can get Al- (definite article "the") plus Kharazim as the ethnic endonym. They call themselves Kharazim, their neighbors refer to them as Al-Kharazim, and it gets latinized to Alcorazim. The -im suffix indicates a plural, but an additional pluralization gets added on by further who don't realize that it was already there, so Alcorazimii goes to Alcorazimai by a local vowel shift. A little bit complex, to be sure, but I'm keeping it. Finally, 3 personal names: Samhain Seonid. I was in my "edgy early-oughts teenager" phase when I named him. So yes, I named him after the Celtic fall festival that happens around Halloween. The fact that Seonid is a Gaelic female name (roughly equivalent to English "Janet") is a happy accident. The AI flagged his name as not being appropriate for the local cultural mix - the Welsh inspired hill country wouldn't give us Gaelic names, and French and English certainly wouldn't. As it turns out, I have a Gaelic inspired culture right next to my Welsh inspired one, and the overlap zone is right next to the kingdom...it's actually terrifyingly serendipitous. Once the AI pointed me in that direction, things feel into place on their own. I already had him as the son of an enslaved woman - so having her be from that region wasn't hard. His mother giving him the name Samhain is also right in line with that. And as for how Seonid becomes his family name? I think it's sweet that, after he gets made into a noble, he names his new noble house after his mother. Areska Lasofer: this one was relatively simple. It has a Slavic feel, so I make him originally from the Slavic-coded Svorans, and there we are. Lasofer is less Slavic coded, but can be close enough if we squint. Las- is a Slavic root meaning forest. Oferta is a Polish word meaning offer or price, and connecting the two together gets us somewhere close. Only problem is that the -ska ending is a feminine ending for Slavic family names, roughly meaning "from." But I'm sure I'll figure out something there - we're already light years closer than we were. Najar Wyst. Here's the biggest problem. Najar is an actual word...in Arabic. It means carpenter, which is fine, but it's completely wrong for the time and place. Again, this was me naming things willy-nilly in my young, careless days. Now grown up me has to clean up the mess. In fairness, I think it cleans up rather pretty. The AI gave lots of suggestions, but the only one that I even remotely liked was Enjard - an invented French-ish name that keeps a lot of the sound qualities of Najar. I went researching on my own and found an Occitan (southern French) verb enjeura, which means to terrify. And if I decree that his mother was from the much-more-heavily-French southern region, or even the Godlands, then suddenly I have a plausible origin and an almost-close-enough-that-I-don't-hate-it name. So there we are. That's what I got from AI. In fairness, I don't think I could have found a bunch of that linguistic information on my own - even with the mildly AI powered search tools in modern search engines. My linguistics research-fu just isn't good enough to compete. On the one hand, the vast majority of these names were names I had created a long time ago, and all I got were justifications to keep them. On the other hand, having these justifications really does deepen my worldbuilding, and the line between what I create and what came from AI gets blurry. I think it's fair enough to say that I don't want to go back to it, as helpful as it was. So, we'll call it a learning experience, and keep our wonderful new derivations/linguistics stuff. (Also, since I really don't have any old stuff to fix anymore, I'm lucky enough to not have much temptation anymore. Convenient, that.) Anyways, there's disclosure. For those of you who want to use AI in your own worldbuilding, here's an example of what it can do when you have your own high quality stuff already there. I'm not going to continue with it, because it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I feel like it cheapens the experience if I'm not doing the work directly.

So, as it turns out, I've been gone for a while. My dad is rapidly going downhill, and I spent a lot of that time just unable to write or even worldbuild. But now that the end is in sight, I'm finding myself drawn back to Edassa. It's a drug I just can't quit. So I guess this is me announcing that I'm (kind of) back? I don't know what kind of worldbuilding information will show up here - possibly whatever I found interesting that day. And if anybody is all like "Ooh - I want to know the nitty gritty details of the marriage rituals for the Tribunal's worshippers," let me know and that will suddenly become the most interesting thing in my day Also - apparently I'm the absolute last person on the planet to experiment with AI, but I did find myself playing around with it the past few days. As a result of my experiences, I'm going to make the following statement on Seonid's use of AI models in worldbuilding and writing. I have not now and will not ever use AI to generate plot ideas, write prose, or anything even close to it. Ever. That's a red line (not to mention that the methods the AI would use to do that work involve the outright stealing of a great deal of copyrighted work). I will not use AI to generate worldbuilding content. The whole point of Edassa is to have a world of my own to play with, and using AI to create the world for me just cheapens the experience. I will not use AI to generate artwork about my creative work for public consumption. If I want art in a published book, I can darn well find an artist to commission for it. I have used AI to check the linguistic consistency of my place-names and character names, and in the process have adopted some suggestions to retain as much of the original as possible while fixing any jarring "why is there a random dude with an Arabic name in the middle of my Anglo-Saxon kingdom" moments. This deserves a longer story - I basically started by worrying (as I often do) that the leftovers of my junior-high school worldbuilding no longer tell a consistent story with Edassa as I have built and rebuilt it in the last few years. Since work has been pushing us very hard to use AI for literally anything we can use it for - which is ridiculous in its own right, but that's a different story - I decided to ask AI how a list of my names fit together from a consistency standpoint. Just for fun. (Also, it was late at night, I was tired, and I might very well have been depressed - so no judging). The stupid AI kept asking follow-up questions (that's how they get you, kids - the follow-up questions), and before I knew it, I'd gotten to telling it about my characters and even the plot arcs of the story. (Also, apparently I might be a teensy-tiny bit lonely. Who knew? I wasn't aware I had time to be lonely with my spouse and 4 kids in the house.) It made all of the appropriate oohs and aahs, and kept trying to predict where the story might be going (in some ways, it was scarily accurate - in others it was laughably wrong). Luckily for me, it never tried to tell me what the story should be. Still, I felt a little bit icky after that session, and I think for good reason. It got too close to using AI to help me write, and I don't like that. I followed up, however, keeping the next session much more focused on linguistics, character names, place names, and cultural consistency therein. And it was really helpful. It turns out my brain switches to worldbuilding plus-ultra mode when I'm being asked questions about my world that I have to answer - even if it's an AI asking the questions. I'm not going to go back, I think. Probably. I hope. It's a slippery slope from asking AI "what do you think about this set of names" to "hey, I need ten names for minor characters from culture X - can you get them for me." It helps that I'm genuinely out of city, culture, and character names I was worried about - the high school/junior high leftovers pool has finally run dry - everything has been converted or renamed, one way or another. And I can legitimately be happy that I have reasons to keep several of my favorite city names. (Not that I needed any reason beyond "I like the sound of that," but 30-something year old me is much more concerned with obnoxious things like "do these names form a coherent cultural picture?"). Anyways - that was my foray into the world of AI. I kind of hate it, even as I love that it was able to give me advice on making names more consistent. Maybe my next post will enumerate the changes I've made as a result of that.

If you've been wondering if I'll ever stop worldbuilding and get to writing actual plot, I do not have happy news for you today... But, if all you've ever wanted is to have a long-winded treatise on the way marriage and inheritance works among the Avran commonfolk, then... Well, first, I'm a little bit concerned for you. But second, today is absolutely your lucky day. Most Avrans are worshippers of the Tribunal, and their marriage practices follow the prescribed rituals of that religion. Avran law understands marriage to be permanent, and does not permit divorce except under very rare circumstances. However, before a marriage is legally solemnized, the couple enters a betrothal contract. During this betrothal period, the couple lives together as if they were married and adjusts to life together. This state can persist for several years, to ensure that any incompatibilities will come to light before the couple is permanently joined, but generally ends once a child is born, or once it is obvious that the couple is compatible with each other. Since any gifts or alliances associated with the marriage are not actually legally transferred until the betrothal period is over, both households tend to put pressure on the newlywed couple to finalize their marriage sooner rather than later. In general, the title to land stays within members of a household - only on exceptional occasions will someone inherit land from a separate household, such as when a holder dies with no hold-members remaining in their household to inherit. Outside of these outlier cases, the only time land changes hands between households is during marriages. In an Avran marriage, at least one of the parties will be leaving their household to join a new one - if one or both families has enough land available, the couple might start a new household of their own with land given as a marriage gift. More commonly, however, one of the newlyweds will marry into their spouse’s household. Marrying into a new household removes the spouse from the line of inheritance of the household they are leaving - at least, as long as any living heirs remain in that household to inherit. However, such a spouse often comes into their new household with a marriage gift of their own - money, valuable property, or even some land that passes to the new household in exchange for the marriage. As a result, which household the new couple will be a part of - and what marriage gifts will be given on either side - is a key part of marriage negotiations. As a general rule, the heirs of a holder almost never leave their household - their spouse marries into the family to become a holder in their own right once their partner inherits. But even marriages between hold-members can still carry significant marriage gifts, even if the gift is just a formal connection with a wealthy and influential household. These marriage gifts are held in escrow during the betrothal period, and are permanently transferred to the new households once the marriage is legally solemnized. However, most marriages are not only driven by cold calculations of property and profit. Many families strongly weigh a child's happiness as part of marriage negotiations. Relatively wealthy households that let poor young people - or even trusted hired hands - marry into them are a relatively common fixture - even if the newcomer's household is desperately poor, at a minimum, the household gains a new person who can help work a larger area of fields or take care of larger herds without having to pay a hired hand, while also catering to their child's happiness. Among serfs, the patterns are different - in part because any marriage to a serf must be approved by the noble who holds the serf’s land. Since no serfs own land, each new couple immediately forms their own new household. Often, the village will band together to build a new house for them, but the new household might also move in with an aging parent or parents to care for them, effectively dissolving the parent's household and replacing it with the child's. Marriages between serfs and free households are uncommon, since the vast majority of them involve a free peasant giving up their free status to become a serf. Very few lords tend to allow their serfs to leave their service to join a free household - that would involve losing a serf; though wealthy or influential families can offer a sufficient gift to make it worth the exchange. However, wealthy villeins will sometimes marry the children of poorer householders, offering a significant monetary gift to outweigh the concerns of their child giving up their free status.

Alright - welcome back to today's installment of "Is Seonid writing a novel or an RPG Setting Sourcebook?" If I knew the answer, I'd tell you!! Today, let's talk about family structure among the Avrans. Among the Avrans, the fundamental family unit is the menage, or household. In most cases, this is more expansive than simply a nuclear family unit. In fact, Avran society only barely recognizes the nuclear family as its own special unit apart from the household; it primarily serves to establish an individual’s status within the household. However, households from different strata of society have distinct structures; a noble household looks entirely different from the household of a peasant or even a middle-class artisan. Today, we'll focus on the way this structure plays out among the commonfolk. An Avran household is centered on landowning; among the commonfolk, the core of each household is generally a married couple who have title to a parcel of land; these are the proprietaires, or holders. The holders are the rulers of the entire household, with the final legal jurisdiction over the people and property associated with it. The household includes the couple and their children, but it very often includes other related adults as well - these are called la fratrie, or hold-members, and consist of siblings or other relations to the holders who don’t own any land of their own. Many households also contain unrelated hired hands who help with the labor on the farm. Because of the importance of landowning, the structure of an Avran household is intimately tied to inheritance - who gets the title to the land when the holders die or age out of being able to fulfil their responsibilities. Avran law asserts that both members of a married couple have equal right and title to their household’s possessions, so if one of the holders dies, their spouse keeps all of their joint property. However, this generally only applies to first marriages - a widowed holder who remarries does not normally transfer the title of their lands to their new spouse (although exceptions do exist; especially if the first marriage produced no children). In addition to death, another way for inheritance to transfer is the custom of retraite. When one or both holders are too old to continue governing their household, they hold a ceremony that divides up the inheritance among their children. In many areas, it is customary to hold the retraite once both holders have reached the age of 60, even if they are capable of continuing in their positions. In the north and the eastern fiefs, the custom has become a legal proceeding, officially transferring the title of ownership to the holders’ heirs; in the south the custom does not have any legal force, and the title to the land transfers only once the holders have died. Whether by death or retraite, the inheritance passes to the next generation. How that happens depends on the size of the land parcel owned by the holders. If the land is large enough that it can be divided out to all of the children without consequence, then each of the children generally becomes holders in their own right, on a smaller but still sufficient parcel. However, in most cases, the land has been passed down through enough generations that, if it is split between children, neither of the new holders will be able to support themselves living on it. In these cases, the oldest child in the household and their spouse become the new holders, and any other children and their families become part of the household’s hold-members. Hold-members are the second tier in the household hierarchy, and consist of all of the adult relations to the holders that reside in the household. They do not own any title to the land, but the holders are legally responsible to provide for their upkeep, and they enjoy considerable legal protections. Among these is the protection against exile - a hold-member cannot be severed from their household without having first been convicted of a serious crime by a judge. The third and lowest tier in the household hierarchy are the hired hands. These are people who are unrelated to the holders, but who have joined the household, and provide their labor for the farm fields in exchange for food and shelter, and sometimes a salary. The hired hands have few legal rights compared to hold-members; although they cannot legally be dismissed during the winter (unless they are convicted of serious wrongdoing), they can be sent away at any other time without reason or warning required. Some hired hands are even indentured servants, who have been indentured due to debt or to some non-violent crime, and are working to pay off their debt or to fulfil their sentence. Hired hands are a widely variable lot; some stay on a holder’s farm for their entire lives, marrying and having children and working as a third-class member of the household. Some marry one of the hold-members’ children, and become hold-members themselves. Some are transient, and work for a few seasons before leaving the household to work for a wealthier one, to marry, or to pursue some other trade. This pattern generally persists across all levels of the Avran commonfolk - a tenant farmer household is structured along the same lines as a wealthy freeholder’s. Some households may be as small as a single couple and their children, or even a widowed holder with no living heirs. On the other end of the scale, a wealthy freeholder’s household might include a dozen adult hold-members and a rotating cast of hired hands, including some hired as domestic help in addition to the hired workers in the fields. The pattern only begins to break down among the serfs. The prevalence of serfdom among the Avran fiefs varies widely, depending on the region as well as the time period. But anywhere it exists, a serf household has no land associated with it for inheritance. Serfs also tend to be grouped together in their own little villages, instead of intermingled with the households of the land-owning peasantry. As a result, their family patterns have developed their own unique traditions. Avran serfs still refer to their family units as households, but those households generally consist of only a couple and their children. Many serfs are extremely poor, and their households are no larger than that - in fact, they will often send their children out as hired hands in other serf households in order to reduce the burden on their own. This practice brings in additional income for the household, reduces the upkeep required for the children, and can also serve as a form of social mobility. The households of wealthier villeins tend to collect an array of hired hands from other serf households in nearby villages. Instead of food and shelter, since those are contractually provided by the lord to their serfs, villeins pay a salary to their hired hands. While the extra labor provided by the hired hands allows these villeins to earn even more, expanding their profits, the salaries they pay are often comparatively generous, and serve to boost the fortunes of the poorest in the serf villages they live in.

So, um...I guess I took a mental health week. Things have still been rough this week too, so I don't have a big update like previous weeks. I was going to start a series about Avran family relationships (probably two or three parts - one describing how families tend to be organized among the commonfolk, one describing how the family structures of the nobility differ from the norm, and one explicitly detailing the formal courtship rituals for the nobility). But that will have to wait until next week, I think. Good news is that I do have a little something to share. It's a small section that wraps up our study of the worship of the Tribunal with a couple of miscellaneous sections: one on "how do offerings to the gods work?" and one on individual worship - which basically means personal prayer, for them. Outside of the practice of personal prayer, the religion doesn't really have a strong tradition of personal worship outside of participation in the official festivals and holy days; piety mostly means participating in those community rituals. Anyways, here we go: Offerings Most worship services and holy days involve making offerings to one or more of the gods. There are two general kinds of offerings: the offering ad caelum, or “to the heavens,” and the offering ad terram, or “to the earth.” The offering ad caelum is performed by burning the offering in the sacred fire, letting the smoke ascend into the heavens. Offerings in this manner are normally performed to the gods who are associated with the heavens - Taris, Nalathea, Hurisen, and Jerad. The most common components of this type of offering are libations of oil, wine, or a mixture of the two. Oil is used to drench the fuel of the sacred fire before it is lit, while wine is poured into a carved depression in the altar directly in front of the fire, where the heat can boil it off and send the steam into the heavens. Burned incense is also very common as a component of these offerings. In contrast, offerings ad terram are performed by giving the offering to the earth. For libations, or liquid offerings, this is done by pouring the offering into the soil at the base of the shrine, which is kept freshly turned over to allow liquid to soak in rather than running off. For offerings of grain or other non-liquid items, they are buried in that freshly turned earth instead. This manner of offerings is performed to the gods who are associated with the earth - Miranda, Argon, and Coden. Again, oil and wine are common offerings, but they are also commonly accompanied by grain. For the worship of Miranda specifically, incense is often also burned, since she is the consort of the King of Heaven while also being the Queen of the Underworld. Individual Worship While the Tribunal is most often worshipped in communal settings, such as worship services or the holy days of the sacred calendar, there is also an individual component to religious worship. This manifests most prominently in the practice of individual prayer. According to the theologians of the Court of the Gods, the Lords of Heaven respond most strongly to communal worship, such as the offerings performed on holy days. However, individual prayer is believed to be a powerful spiritual practice under the right circumstances. The most common recipients of personal prayer are Nalathea and Hurisen - the Virgin receives requests for relief from injustice, or punishment on those who have committed wrong against the petitioner, while Hurisen receives prayers that ask for relief from misfortune or protection against future misfortune. As king of the gods, Taris receives prayers from rulers, but is considered to be too powerful and remote to approach with other personal requests. However, there is a strong folk belief that when a ruler is oppressing his people widely, Taris may intervene if enough of the oppressed folk offer prayers that make the oppression known. Prayer to all three of these gods involves burning a small wooden token that has been engraved or carved with the god’s symbol, while reciting the ritual opening words to a prayer. The request is believed to ascend to the heavens with the smoke of the fire. When the token has fully caught fire, the individual prayer is offered. Some areas have developed customary words and phrases that are used in such prayers, while other areas see far more personalized petitions. Of the remaining gods, Miranda is believed to be far more approachable than her husband. However, petitions to the Queen of Heaven are made at the worship services on the new moons, and personal prayer to her outside those services is discouraged (though many people ignore those pronouncements, especially in times of emergency). Coden receives ritual prayers of thanks before every meal (at least by the most devout), although prayers of petition or request addressed to him are rare outside of his priesthood. Jerad is believed to be the most removed from the concerns of the mortal world, and only members of his anointed priesthood make regular individual prayers to him. Argon, on the other hand, has his own distinct prayer rituals. These have been strongly discouraged by the Court of the Gods (like much of the worship of Argon generally), but are not forbidden outright. And despite the official suppression, these rituals are widely practiced among soldiers across all the lands that worship the Tribunal. As a god associated with the earth, rather than the heavens, prayers to Argon do not involve burning tokens. Instead, the token is buried in the ground - often with a small offering of coin, to indicate sincerity and sacrifice. In places where the worship of Argon is formalized, such as among the Paladin orders, the place for burial is in front of Argon’s altar - either a permanent shrine, or one of the mobile shrines that accompany armies on the march. In other places, it is often buried inside the worshippers tent, to avoid prying eyes

Alright, so that was kind of a marathon, and no mistake. I'm kinda done with exploring Edassan religion for a little while, though eventually I'm gonna need to do a deep dive into the Stearentroth - the once-state religion of the now-secular Kaloneri Empire. I think the idea behind it is pretty cool - they believe in an open pantheon of gods, each represented by a constellation. But they also believe that there are only twelve thrones in the heavens, and as constellations rise and set throughout the year, different gods take their places on the thrones. But as I said, I'm a little burned out on Edassan religions for the moment. My own darn fault, but once I get into something it's hard to stop without going all the way through lol - and boy did we see that over the past few weeks. Anyways, I'm interested in looking at some more Avran cultural stuff - but lighter fare than the minutiae of religious belief and practice (although I reserve the right to add a small coda talking about personal prayer to the Tribunal at the start of this week's post, if I feel up to it). So, that said, we have basically two options: We can do a medium dive into family and relationships among the Avran peoples - including details about marriage and courtship. We can do an overview of Avran material culture - art/entertainment, food, clothing, architecture, etc If anyone's got a preference, I'll gladly dip into one before the other, but we will get to both of them eventually

Welcome back to our last installment of the Tribunal's sacred calendar. Today, we're going to finish off with the autumn festivals, and two festivals that happen in the early winter, before the holy season. We're also going to take a look at the regular community worship opportunities on the new moons and full moons. And then, we'll be done with calendars for a long time, and not a moment too soon, since I'm ready to be finished now (and if I'm ready to be finished, it probably means we're a month past the tolerance of any reasonable person lol). So, autumn festivals: Firstfruits/Premicies: The 24th of Mazey is the day of Firstfruits, a festival sacred to Coden. It is set towards the beginning of the first wheat harvest, and at the end of the summer produce season. It is observed by a ritual offering of the first grain harvested during the season. Unlike many other festivals, the priesthood does not directly provide these offerings, rather, individual farmers bring the first fruits of their harvest to offer to the god. A small portion of the offerings are chosen to be buried for the god, while the remainder are taken into the shrine’s storehouse. Fool’s Day/Defection: The fall equinox is sacred to Hurisen, and is celebrated by the major feast day known as Fool’s Day. This festival celebrates her in her aspect as the Divine Trickster, and marks the day when the nights start becoming longer than the days. The festival is a wholesale inversion of the social order for the day. Pranks and jokes are extremely common, and the streets are filled with raucous celebrations. Traditional stories of Hurisen’s trickery on various gods and demons are reenacted by the priesthood, and the evening closes with a ritual offering to all of the gods which is subverted at the last moment, when the jars of oil and wine are revealed to be empty. Among the lay worshippers, however, the biggest draw are the street festivals that go along with the official activities. Women are invited to traditionally all-male gatherings, and nearly everyone is expected to get drunk. In many regions, it is traditional for the nobility to throw a feast for their servants, bringing out the food themselves as if the servants were the guests of honor. Nobles and servants alike mingle in the streets during the celebrations, and it is traditional for everyone to dress in the same style of clothing, so that you cannot tell who is noble and who is a commoner. Individual villages or parties often elect a Prince of Fools, who gets to give orders like a king during the celebration, like “sing naked” or “dunk him in cold water.” Behavior that is normally seen as licentious, such as gambling, animal fights, and lewd or obscene dancing is tolerated to a much higher degree on this day (often with much protest by the priesthood). The whole effect is to represent an absurd world. The time between the fall equinox and the Day of Ascension (shortly after the winter solstice) is considered by the Court of the Gods to be under the influence of chaos and evil. The Court ceases to do all but routine ecclesiastical business, their priesthoods do not perform any marriages or other rituals other than the traditional offerings on holy days, and it has become a superstition for common folk and nobility alike to refrain from entering into any contracts during that time. Day of Mourning/Jour de Deuil: The new moon closest to the fall equinox is the Day of Mourning, the third of Miranda’s major festivals. This festival is dedicated to her in her aspect as the Lady of Death. The holiday is a solemn one, marked by an evening memorial service at the shrine. Households who have lost a member during the year will hang a white ribbon over their doorstep, and will burn incense at sundown while repeating the name or names of the dead. This is followed by a night of quiet vigil in remembrance of all of the friends and loved ones who have passed on. Day of the Hunter/Jour de Chasseuse: The 18th day of Lunace is the Day of the Hunter, a minor holiday dedicated to Nalathea, which honors her in her aspect as the Divine Hunter. It is marked by a bespoke worship service at the shrine, complete with offerings of burned oil and incense. However, the day is celebrated with many unofficial observances. The women of the community weave crowns of autumn leaves, and many areas hold competitions for the most beautiful creation. Most villages also hold archery competitions in the Virgin’s honor. Feast of Offerings/Fructuaille: The last two days of Lunace are the Feast of Offerings. These are the last festivals before the dark month of Ambra, during which it is unlucky to draw the attention of any spiritual beings. The Feast of Offerings is a harvest festival, dedicated to Coden. It celebrates bringing in the final harvest, and is often used to give thanks to the god of earth and nature for a fruitful year. Even in times of famine or drought, it is often used to give thanks that the year wasn’t worse, since many of the devout believers are hesitant to express anger or complaints at the gods. In times of plenty, however, it is an extravagant celebration. The first day of the festival is the ritual of giving thanks. The tithes of the harvest are brought in and presented to the priesthood, and a small portion are ritually buried as an offering to Coden. After a small worship service, the congregation is dismissed to their homes. The second day is a massive feast, ostensibly held with a portion of the tithes delivered to the priesthood the previous day (although in modern times, only a few loaves of bread are made with the current tithes, and the feast is held to use up some of the aged storage). The feast begins with a ritual reenactment of Coden pronouncing the created world a place fit for mortals and gods alike, and goes for the whole day. At sundown, a service of praise and thanks is performed. After the Feast of Offerings is the dark month of Ambra, during which tradition forbids any holy day (except for the new moon and full moon worship service) from being observed. Winter starts after the end of that month, and two winter holidays are observed before the start of the holy season: Gateday/Jour de Fermeture: The 1st day of Terminal is Gateday, sometimes called the Day of Closing. The day is sacred to Jerad, and it's the only holiday explicitly dedicated to the Seer. It marks the end of autumn and the start of winter, and is celebrated in remembrance of the closing of the Gates of Chaos. The night before, devout believers hang incense and carved sigils of the gods in their doorways as a protection from chaos and evil. The day is observed by a ritual reenactment of the Gates opening at sunrise. Throughout the day, at midmorning, noon, mid-afternoon, and early evening, the bell at the shrine calls the believers to prayer. Each of the rote prayers is a request for protection from a different form of evil. At sundown, the priest performs a ritual reenactment of the closing of the Gates, and closes the holiday with a service of praise and worship. Day of The Dead/La Fete des Morts: The new moon nearest the winter solstice is the Day of the Dead. This is the last of Miranda’s holy days before the start of the holy season. Since, according to the rules of the Armandian calendar, the new moon itself cannot be celebrated between the solstice and the new year, the holy day is often observed the day before the solstice itself. This day is dedicated to Miranda in her aspect as the Queen of the Underworld. It is believed that, during the weeks around the solstice, the doors of the Underworld are opened and the shades of the dead walk among the living. The new moon is supposed to be the height of such occurrences. So, throughout the entire time from the first of Terminal through to the Day of Ascension, each night at sundown, people will make loud noises - often banging pots or pans together and shouting ritual phrases of dismissal - in order to drive off the shades of the dead, and then sprinkle their doorsteps with consecrated salt to protect them overnight. On the Day of the Dead itself, the holiday is observed with a noon-time service, where offerings to the goddess are performed. Then, at sundown, the matriarch of the family holds a vigil, reciting prayers and holding a candle to invoke Miranda’s protection over the house. Anciently, the vigil was kept for the whole night, but the modern priesthood has directed that a single hour of watch is sufficient, and all but the most superstitious have migrated to the new tradition. Although not part of the official religious practice, many areas also hold large public gatherings, with food and drink, and one of the village elders dresses up in black with a harvest scythe. This elder is then chased out of the gathering three times by the village women. This is often seen as either a symbolic reenactment of Miranda’s victory over the king of the Underworld (mostly by the most devout, including priests who don't care to try putting a stop to it), or as the village symbolically chasing Death away for another year. So, this has been the ritual calendar - a cycle of 22 holidays and festivals dedicated to the seven gods of the tribunal (some of which comprise multiple days), plus several holy seasons surrounding them. In addition to these holy days, believers have regular opportunities to worship each month, on both the full moon and the new moon. The specifics of these occasions are described below: Worship Days The worship of the Tribunal is primarily a communal affair. The primary occasions for worship are the days of the full moons, which are sacred to Taris. Each of these days of worship follow the same pattern: the community gathers at the shrine in the morning, where the priest or priestess performs an offering of wine in front of the altar. Then, the officiant performs a prescribed reading from the Tribunal scriptures and offers a prepared sermon. The service closes with the officiant pouring oil into a depression on the altar and lighting the sacred fire while reciting ritual thanks to Taris for his blessings. The readings and sermons at these services follow a predefined cycle, themed after the progression of the twelve divine attributes of the King of Heaven. This cycle starts with the first full moon after the new year. The order of the twelve attributes are as follows: Righteousness, Truth, Integrity, Loyalty, Valor, Benevolence, Compassion, Justice, Mercy, Temperance, Peace, Sacrifice. The day after the full moons are consecrated and set aside as rest days, during which no unnecessary work should be performed. If a full moon or rest day falls on a holiday, both the full moon and the rest day are observed on the next available days, with the exception of any full moons or rest days that occur between the winter solstice and the new year. These are instead observed on the two days before the winter solstice. New Moons In addition to the worship days of the full moon, the new moons are sacred to Miranda. These services are generally performed at sunset. Unlike the services on the full moon, these are not generally attended by the whole congregation. Instead, those who are seeking a special blessing from the Lady of Life and Death attend, along with those who feel the need to offer thanks for a blessing received. The priest or priestess offers water infused with sacred herbs before the altar, then lights the sacred fire. While the fire burns, they then perform a short reading from the scriptures. Then, the officiant lights incense from the sacred fire in a censer that hangs over the altar. One by one, each applicant approaches the altar, and the officiant touches their forehead with a stick of burning incense while saying a ritual invocation. The ritual closes by casting any remaining incense into the sacred fire. If a new moon falls on a holiday, it is observed on the next available days, with the exception of any new moons that occur between the winter solstice and the new year. These are instead observed on the day before the winter solstice.

Welcome to the third section of the increasingly dubiously named Part 3 of our series on the Religion of the Tribunal. Today we are going to go over the major summer festivals, which occur in the two months of Solace and Insendy (roughly equivalent to June and July). This season is the second major festival season, a kind of counterpoint to the holy season of the winter solstice, and is marked by two 3-day festivals, one around the summer solstice and one midway between the solstice and the autumnal equinox. After this, there are no more festivals or holidays until the equinox - which can largely be attributed to the fact that the community is ramping up to the harvest season, which is going to take just about all of their time and attention. Next time, we'll cover the last of the festivals - the autumn/harvest festivals and the Day of the Dead (a winter festival that isn't actually part of the holy season between Allgod's Wake and the Day of Revelation). We'll also go over the regular worship services to Taris and Miranda held on the full moon and new moons, respectively. And then we will finally be done with calendars, hallelujah! But that day is not this day. So for today, have a gander at some summer solstice celebrations. Day of Supplication/Jour de Demande: Around the summer solstice is the Lighting of the Heavens, a three-day holiday dedicated to all the Lords of Heaven. This is a new festival, created during the reforms of the Curia Magna to consolidate a number of existing festivals, and it displaced the original timing of Nalathea’s Sunfest. Canonically, this is the second-holiest time of the year, following Dawningtide, but the festival does not have the cultural prominence in keeping with that - it is a larger occasion than the monthly observances of the full moons, but still lags behind the popularity of festivals like Sunfest, Life Day, Wintersend, Fool’s Day, or the Festival of Offerings. The festival starts two days before the solstice with the Day of Supplication, which commemorates the pleas of the mortals and others who were bound in slavery to the Demonking before the War in Heaven. The day is observed as a day of fasting from sunrise to sunset, though those who have to work long hours will eat large breakfasts before sunrise, and children are generally given small meals throughout the day. The fasting is done as a rite of purification in preparation for the great offering in the evening. The great offering happens an hour before sunset. Every member of the community brings something that is valuable to them to sacrifice - though the Tribunal refuses any sacrifice of living animals. In practice, most worshippers spend some time throughout the year making some item for the sacrifice, whether some piece of embroidery or woodcarving or metalwork - the true sacrifice being the time and skill that went into creating the piece. However, those who have a particularly desperate plea will often bring something to which they have strong emotional attachments - some family heirloom or memento of a loved one. These are placed on the ritual fire to be burned, sending the smoke of the sacrifice up to the heavens where the gods dwell. Day of Wrath/Jour de Colere: The day before the summer solstice is the Day of Wrath, the second day of the Lighting of the Heavens. This commemorates the great War in Heaven that drove the demons out of the mortal realm. During the day, every adult in the community wears a weapon as a reminder that every living soul took part in the battle against the demonic forces. The priesthood holds rituals of purification to cast out evil influences from major public places, starting with the shrines. Most areas also have traditions of priests visiting individual homes to cast out evil influences there as well. However, the significance of these visits varies from place to place. In some towns, it is a form of pastoral care, where the priesthood is responding to the needs of a believer who feels that they need relief from some evil influence that is harming them. In others, it becomes a form of boundary maintenance, performed on homes of people who are not compliant with the community’s expectations. Many regions have developed a tradition of holding a mock battle reenacting the last battle of the war in heaven, with one side dressed in dark colors to represent the demons and the other with sky-blue sashes to represent the forces of heaven. The traditionalist factions among the priesthood have strongly disapproved of these practices, but that hasn’t stopped them from becoming widespread. Day of Triumph/Jour de la Victoire: The final day of the Lighting of the Heavens is the Day of Triumph, which falls on the summer solstice. This commemorates the final victory of the gods over the forces of evil. While many areas will organize street festivals and entertainment, the priesthood takes a secondary role in these activities. Instead, they focus on the ritual observance, which takes the form of seven religious services spread out over the day, at sunrise, early morning, late morning, midday, mid-afternoon, evening, and sundown. Each of these services is devoted to a different one of the gods, and in theory, every person is supposed to attend all of them. In practice, the most widely attended are the services devoted to Miranda, Nalathea, and Taris - early morning, midday, and evening, respectively. Many larger cities in the Godlands have begun to sponsor games and competitions on this day to honor the gods, and these have become a larger draw than the explicitly devotional services managed on their own. The entertainment pauses at the appropriate time for the observances, and the priesthood have capitalized on the opportunity to present the devotional services to the crowd in between matches or games. These traditions have not spread into the rural areas, however. Life Day/Vivifiere: The new moon closest to the summer solstice is Life Day, the most prominent of Miranda’s holy days. This festival honors her as both the Divine Lover and the Queen of Heaven. This festival involves day-long celebrations, including some of the most lavish communal meals thrown for the year (rivaling the consumption of the Feast of Hope, the Festival of Offerings, or Dawn's Advent). Public music and dancing happen all day long, and the community spends the morning decorating the village or homestead with brightly colored ribbons, streamers, and garlands. In many places, painting your arms and hands with decorative calligraphy is a common practice, and couples will often get matching or complementary designs. In the evening, the priests build a bonfire to hold off the night, and hold a service at midnight to honor the goddess. The traditional offering for Life Day is a cruse of oil and a sheaf of unripe grain. Torchday/Nalatale: Late in Insendy is the Sunfest, a three-day festival sacred to Nalathea. This holiday was originally celebrated at the summer solstice, but the reforms of the Curia Magna left the month of Insendy - the month sacred to the Virgin - starting ten days after the solstice. The Council of Hierophants set the new date to be exactly halfway in between the summer solstice and the fall equinox, during the hottest time of the year, replacing a three-day festival that had once been devoted to Argon. The first day of the festival is called Torchday, and it celebrates the Virgin in her aspect as the divine Protector. On Torchday, all of those who feel like they have a reason to give thanks to the goddess weave garlands of green wood and flowers during the day. At sunset, they meet in front of the shrine to dip bundles of reeds in a mix of heated pitch, sulfur and lime, creating a very bright light that is hard to extinguish. They then make a procession with these torches to the Virgin’s shrine. At Nalathea’s shrine, the priestess uses her torch to light a bonfire, and the worshippers throw their own torches on the pile while singing hymns before returning home. The priestess tends the bonfire overnight, taking care not to let the sacred fire go out. For those who are not making the short pilgrimage, Torchday is a day of preparation for Midsummer. Midsummer/Jour de Flammes: The second day of the Sunfest is called Midsummer. The name derives from the original position of the festival, in which the second day fell on the summer solstice itself. Canonically, this day is the third holiest time of the calendar, after Dawningtide and the Lighting of the Heavens, though in practice, it matches Dawningtide in its prominence. This day honors the Virgin as the embodiment of the life-giving Sun. At dawn, a priestess brings the sacred fire from the Virgin’s shrine to the shrines of the other gods, lighting their sacred fires one by one. This is the official start of the festival, which lasts from dawn until sundown. It is filled with food and drink, games, dancing, plays, archery competitions, and many other activities sponsored by the priesthoods of the different gods. In the larger cities, shrines to the various gods will each sponsor their own events, including major sports competitions, but even in the smaller towns, the celebration is extensive. In many areas, it is tradition for young adults to paint their faces or necks with glittering cosmetics in mimicry of the bright Virgin’s Bow. The fires are tended to all day long, and kept burning throughout the night, as a symbol of the goddess’ constant vigilance. Ashesday/Jour de Cendres: The third and final day of the Sunfest is Ashesday. On this day, the Virgin is celebrated in her role as deliverer of vengeance and liberation. It is tradition to read from The Huntress of the Sun on this day, and in larger cities, the priesthood of Nalathea sponsors reenactments of that text. The tenor of the last day of the Sunfest is much more sombre than the other two days. In the morning, worshippers traditionally mark their forehead, chin, and wrists with ashes as a sign that they are pure before the goddess; according to tradition, the ashes will cause burns and irritation to any who are guilty of oppression against their fellow men. At midday, the priests of the shrine hold a communal meal, during which the edicts of Nalathea are read and the community are exhorted to avoid every sort of oppression and predatory behavior. From midday to sundown, the bonfires that were lit on Torchday are allowed to burn down to ashes, except the one at the shrine. At sundown, the community gathers to sing hymns at the last bonfire as it slowly burns out. In many areas, people who have grievances against each other are heard by the priests or other community leaders on this day, while in others it is tradition to write your grievances on a small slip of parchment and throw it in the bonfire to send them to the goddess.

We're still pretending this came out on Saturday, right? Right. In that case, welcome to the second section of the third part of the four-part series on Avran religion. Last week, we discussed the holy season, starting with Allgod's Wake on the winter solstice and lasting through the Day of Revelation, which starts the new year. This week, we get to learn about the late winter and spring festivals, starting just after the New Year and going through the start of Mirrey, the fifth month. Names, as always, are given in both Commonspeak and Low Avran. Evergreen Day/Epiceale: The Day of Revelation marks the end of the holiday season that started on the winter solstice, and things generally go back to normal after that. However, throughout the remainder of the winter months, there are several smaller holidays that liven up the dark months of the year. The 14th of Cursor is Evergreen Day. This is a minor holiday dedicated to Nalathea, in her aspect as the Eternal Watcher. On the day after the Day of Revelation, people hang wreaths of woven spruce branches on their doors. On the holiday itself, families plant an evergreen seed outside of the village, and then return home to burn their wreaths and cook fried pastries and sweetbreads. In some areas, the entire village gathers to burn the wreaths and eat together, while in others, it is a private family affair. Feast of Compassion/Fete du Pitie: On the third day of Accetry is the Feast of Compassion. This marks the coldest part of the year, and the start of a precarious time for subsistence farmers. The entire community gathers for a feast, everyone bringing what they can, and the local nobility open up their stockpiles to make sure there is more than enough for everyone. The poorest are sent home with as much food as can be spared, to help them manage through the remainder of the winter. Feast of Hope/Fete du Espoire: On the first day of Coden is the Feast of Hope. This is the last day before the relative privation of the Hopefast season, and is marked by extravagant feasts, dancing, and consumption, and playful reenactments of the Great Siege. According to legend, on the day the enemy armies arrived, the rulers of the city held a massive feast and celebration to demonstrate that they were not worried about running out of supplies. Hopefast/Le Jeune: The Feast of Hope marks the start of the period known as Hopefast. This period officially commemorates the Great Siege of the Court of the Gods more than eight centuries ago, when the expansionist Imperiate of Navar attempted to destroy the seat of the religion and bring the region into captivity. According to the account related by the Court of the Gods, the siege lasted for months, but the city's provisions did not fail, even though the accounting records said that they should have run out mere weeks into the siege. During this period, which runs until the festival of Wintersend, believers eat only the simplest foods - flatbread or porridge, generally, with the last preserved vegetables of the season. In addition, alcohol and other intoxicants are forbidden during this season. Traditionally, the first meal of the day is served with enough food to fill the family, while the midday and evening meals consist of a single piece of bread or a small serving of porridge. Day of Turning/Remission: In the middle of the Hopefast season, the Day of Turning marks the spring equinox, the day in the year where the hours of light in a day start exceeding the hours of darkness. Metaphysically, the festival celebrates the invoices coming back into balance after things were turned upside down on Fool’s Day. Since the festival occurs during Hopefast, the food is plain and no alcohol is served, and the festival is considered tame compared to other, larger festivals. But there is dancing, and games, and many people put up streamers as traditional decorations. At sunset, the whole community gets together and sings a couple of hymns while the priest performs an offering of oil and wine in front of the shrine, and prays for the blessings of Hurisen for the new year. Day of Rebirth/Renaissance: All of the new moons are sacred to Miranda, but the ones that occur nearest to the solstices and equinoxes are marked by special celebrations in her honor. The first of these in the year is the new moon closest to the spring equinox. This is the Day of Rebirth, honoring her in her aspect as the Lady of Life and the Divine Mother, who brought her husband back from the dead. This holy day is marked by quiet contemplation, with worshippers spending an hour meditating some place below the level of the ground - such as a root cellar or a basement - before performing a ritual washing of hands and then returning to their duties. A morning service is also held at the shrine. In many areas, the day has also become an occasion to pay honor to mortal mothers, who bear some portion of the power of the mother of the gods. Wintersend/Curdanale: The most prominent springtime festival is the festival of Wintersend - a two-day affair celebrating the end of the snow and the arrival of the planting season. The exact day is determined by the local priesthood, and is defined as the first day when the ground has thawed enough to plant crops - normally within a few weeks of the spring equinox. In wealthy or prominent jurisdictions, high-ranking clergy come out once a week during the time leading up to Wintersend. In a major ceremony that draws many onlookers, they test the ground with a golden shovel to see if the ground is soft enough. The festival celebrates Coden, in his aspect as the warden of plants and nature. It involves ritual offerings to bless the land and people with fertility. The first day of the festival is a dour day, where everyone traditionally dresses up in drab clothes and maintains a mournful look to symbolize the hardship and privation of the winter. In many areas, it is observed as an official day of mourning for all those who died during the winter. In the evening, there is a sermon and a ritual reenactment of Coden seeding the new world with plant and animal life, and then everyone goes home to wait until the morning. It is considered good luck to plant a field on this day, and even in the cities, where people aren't as in tune with the rhythms of planting and growing, most will still buy a handful of seeds and scatter them in front of their doorstep, or plant flower seeds in window pots or other similar practices. Sower’s Day/Jour du Semer: The second day of Wintersend is a celebration of spring. Originally, it was a restrained affair, so as to not use up too many of the winter stores before the first crops could be brought in. The day was marked by plowing and showing the first of the fields, with the whole village working together, and in the evening, there was a communal meal to break the long fast of the Hopefast season. These old ways are still observed among the Paladin orders, and in isolated rural areas. However, over time, the second day has grown in importance until it has become a festival in its own right - the festival of Sower’s Day. Everyone dresses in their brightest colors and work is excused. The day marks the end of the Hopefast season, so it involves a massive celebration that uses a large portion of the remaining winter foodstores, along with copious amounts of alcohol. Larger towns have street fairs, but even smaller villages have games, singing and dancing, and all sorts of celebration for the arrival of spring. The celebration is always rowdy, and some areas have markedly risque traditions, though the Court frowns on that sort of thing. Nameday/Jour de Debut: The 14th of Asters is Nameday, a minor festival that celebrates new beginnings. It is officially dedicated to Arrion, the captain of the Heavenly Host. The priests hold a small service in the evening, and every child who has reached the age of 1 has their official religious naming ceremony at the service. Garland Day/Jour des Lys: The 4th day of Mirrey is Garland Day, a celebration about the warming, sunny weather and the end of the cold. While the festival is a minor one in the religious calendar, giving thanks to Coden for growing things, it holds a popularity far out of proportion to its significance. Trees in the villages and nearby woods are hung with streamers and garlands of flowers, and the unmarried young people of the community dance around the largest tree, twining it with ribbons.

Alright, late again. I blame playing computer games with my kids. Anyways. Religious festivals of the Avran people, go! The Worship of the Tribunal: Part 3 - The Practice of Worship This is the third part of what will probably end up being a 4-part series on the worship of the Tribunal, the most prevalent religion (by a long ways) among the Avran people. This section will describe the ritual practice of worship among the followers of the religion. These practices will be divided into communal worship, such as the major religious festivals and the regular sermons of the priesthood, and individual worship - the way the religion intersects with the lives of individuals outside of these communal occasions. Communal Worship The worship of the Tribunal is primarily a communal affair, and is largely centered around the sacred calendar. This is the cycle of festivals and holidays that governs the rhythms of each year. The festivals are as follows (names are given in both Commonspeak and Low Avran). We will start at the winter solstice instead of the nominal start of the year, mostly because the new year's festival is the culmination of several weeks of festivals that started on the winter solstice. Allgod's Wake/Jour du Martyr: The time between the winter solstice and the new year is the most sacred time in the Court of the Gods’ calendar. The holiday of Allgod's Wake is celebrated on the winter solstice, the darkest night of the year. This holiday commemorates the death of Taris, the king of the gods. This is a solemn holiday, and the focus of the day is an hour-long ritual play, where priests reenact the betrayal of Tylrack, the rebellion of Sitta, and the sacrifice of Taris in order to banish the demon king back to the underworld. The priest who plays Taris in the ritual is banished to the basement of the shrine, representing the king's stay in the underworld. In addition, one prominent layperson is chosen to be the community’s representative. They are chosen to perform an overnight vigil - the “wake” waiting through the darkest night of the year without food or drink. Demon Days/Jours de Tenebres: The 2-3 days after the Winter Solstice are intercalary days, bringing to no particular month. Most years, there are 3 days, but every 5 years, a day must be dropped from the year to keep the year from gaining an extra day. These intercalary days are called the Demon Days, which symbolize the time while Taris was dead and Miranda had left the heavens to search for him in the underworld. These days are considered to be very unlucky, when the forces of chaos and evil are believed to be at their height, and the only days in the year when the demons might slip out of their prison and spread mischief and evil throughout the world. During these days, the faithful avoid doing all but the most necessary tasks. In general, outside of absolute emergencies, they remain indoors from sundown to sunrise, and as much as possible during the day as well. During the demon days, the priests perform sacrifices of protection at the shrine for the community, and people hang up talismans on their doors to ward away the influence of mischief and evil. Day of Ascension/L’Ascension: The demon days end with the Day of Ascension, which commemorates the day when Miranda returned Taris to life from the underworld. Where Allgod's Wake is a solemn affair, Ascension is a full-blown celebration. The festivities commence in the mid-morning with a ritual where the priests return the banished Taris from the basement of the shrine and crown him with a crown of reeds. A massive bonfire is lit in the center of the town and kept going through the entire day. From a symbolic standpoint, this is the day where both the queen and the king of the gods are back and setting things in order again. There are games and singing and dancing around the bonfire, and lots of good food and freely flowing alcohol. Dawningtide/Saison de L’aurore: The Day of Ascension marks the start of two full weeks of observances leading up to the new year, called Dawningtide. During this time, small rituals are performed twice a day at the local shrine, and it is tradition for the priests to host communal dinners in the town square for everyone who can make it. Even outside of these dinners, in all but the most impoverished areas, the priests make sure there is always food over the fire for the whole day. In many areas, each day is associated with a certain shape or kind of spiced pastry that families bake. Dawn’s Advent/L’aurore Nouvelle: Dawningtide closes with a 3-day festival called Dawn’s Advent. This festival celebrates the return of light into the world after the dark days just after the winter solstice. The entire community stops their normal work for the celebration, and copious amounts of food, drink, and sweets are consumed and shared. During Dawn’s Advent, large fires are lit in many places in the city, and every home lights candles or lamps and places them in the windows. The traditional observance of the festival requires that lights not be permitted to die out, so many people stay up for all hours of the night tending the fires and eating, drinking, and dancing to ward away exhaustion. In many villages, tending the fires is considered to be a place of honor, and firetenders sleep during the day and are given a crown of evergreen sprigs at the evening meal. Dawn’s Advent is also a time of exchanging gifts, though mostly of no great monetary value. Children will be given small toys, and adult friends are given little tokens of friendship and affection - many people use whatever crafts they are most proficient at to make small gifts to mark the holiday. The last day of the Dawn’s Advent is also the last day of the year. Day of Revelation/La Revelacion: The great feast day of La Revelacion marks the start of the new year in the regions that worship the Tribunal. It celebrates the great revelation of the divine laws to mankind. The feast is in the deep winter, fourteen days after the winter solstice. The holiday is a solemn one; during the day, the faithful are supposed to reflect on the danger of breaking the divine laws, and the chaos that would have consumed the world without them. In many areas, it is traditional to mark the left cheek and the back of the left hand with two lines of red pigment in the morning and wear it throughout the day as a reminder. In the evening, the community gathers at the shrine and participates in a ritual of cleansing, during which they wash off the red pigment and dribble a little wine on the ground in front of the shrine while reciting praises to Taris and Hurisen, the givers of the law. After full sundown, the community eats a celebratory feast; traditionally, several mature pigs are slaughtered for it, and cured bacon is enjoyed in several traditional dishes served at the feast. It is traditional to use the Day of Revelation to confess sins and wrongdoing, and many nobles pass judgement and hold executions on that day.

Been busy, but I'll be dropping a full post later today. However, I've been working on languages and names (only a little! I am well aware that if I start wading into the mire of conlanging, it will consume everything and I'll never get anything written) recently, and I'm making some slight changes to the names of the Tribunal gods. @AltonicKeys, this is a follow up to one of your questions from several months ago asking about languages and names original and stuff. I'm finally working through and trying to make things consistent. The gods and other immortal beings were originally given in High Avran (and I'm just using Latin-ish to represent it, as a compromise), though a few of them are loan words from the now-extinct languages of the eastern foothills near Lilyathan. In the descriptions, you can find the Low Avran (which I'm using French to represent) and Commonspeak (English, but missing a lot of the Latin loan words) names. Taris: King of the gods. His name has become Tares in Low Avran, but pronouncing that name in Commonspeak has brought it back to Taris. Miranda: The Queen of the gods. Her name has remained unchanged through the linguistic shifts to Low Avran and Commonspeak. Argon: The god of war. Like Miranda, his name has remained remarkably unchanged. Nalatia: The Virgin, and goddess of fire and the sun. Some Imperial scholars believe that was a goddess of the eastern hillfolk before the was adopted by the Tribunal, where she would have been named Naltha. Her name has become Nalathe in Low Avran and Nalathea in the Commonspeak. Curdanus: The maker, and god of the earth. Imperial scholars identify him with the old god Khurdan, the father of the gods in the old religion of the eastern foothills. In Low Avran, his name became Caudan, and Coden in Commonspeak. Ieradus: The god of the stars, often called "the Wise." His name became Giraud in Low Avran, and Jerad in Commonspeak. Hurisia: The goddess of the moon and trickery, and also - paradoxically - law. Her name became Hurise in Low Avran, and Hurisen in Commonspeak. Other beings: Arrion Accipiter: The messenger of the gods. In Low Avran, the title became adopted as the given name Accetier. In Commonspeak, the name remained Arrion the Hawk. Tilraches: The fallen god. Imperial scholars believe that he was originally the god of the underworld from the eastern foothills, Tilrakh. His name became Tilrac in Low Avran, and Tylrack in Commonspeak. Sittus: The king of the demons. His name became Sitte in Low Avran, and Sitta in Commonspeak.

With all of this out of the way, we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming - the religious festivals of the Court of the Gods. Not today, of course, but I can give you a little preview of what we're going to see next Saturday. Day of Revelation/La Revelacion: The great feast day of La Revelacion marks the start of the new year in the regions that worship the Tribunal. It celebrates the great revelation of the divine laws to mankind. The feast is in the deep winter, fourteen days after the winter solstice. The holiday is a solemn one; during the day, the faithful are supposed to reflect on the danger of breaking the divine laws, and the chaos that would have consumed the world without them. In many areas, it is traditional to mark the left cheek and the back of the left hand with two lines of red pigment in the morning and wear it throughout the day as a reminder. In the evening, the community gathers at the shrine and participates in a ritual of cleansing, during which they wash off the red pigment and dribble a little wine on the ground in front of the shrine while reciting praises to Taris and Hurisen, the givers of the law. After full sundown, the community eats a celebratory feast; traditionally, several mature pigs are slaughtered for it, and cured bacon is enjoyed in several traditional dishes served at the feast. It is traditional to use the Day of Revelation to confess sins and wrongdoing, and many nobles pass judgement and hold executions on that day.

Welcome back for another Worldbuilding Saturday! (Let's pretend it's still Saturday and I didn't have family stuff come up yesterday lol.) Today, we're gonna look at 4 calendars - the official calendar of the Court of the Gods, the old version still in use by some traditionalist factions among the Court, the state calendar of the Kaloneri Empire, and the religious calendar of the Yestaeren, the Kaloneri religion. Calendars of the Court of the Gods The Avrans and the inhabitants of the Godlands mark the new day at sunset every evening, believing that each night brings forth a new day, rather than seeing the night as the end of the old day. The ancient calendar used by the Court of the Gods was a purely lunar calendar consisting of eleven months that were considered to start at the sighting of the new moon. The months did not have a fixed length, but lasted instead until the sighting of the next new moon. This cycle was interrupted by two abbreviated months around the winter solstice. Fourteen days before the winter solstice was the start of the short month of Umbrosum, the month of lengthening shadows, which lasted until the winter solstice itself. Following the solstice were two intercalary days called the Dies Daemonum, and then the short month of Lucensis, the month of light, which lasted for another fourteen days. The winter solstice also marked the changing of the year. This lunar calendar slowly drifted by several days each year due to the discrepancy between the solar year and a total of twelve lunar cycles, and periodic corrections were applied by inserting a 7-day week of intercalary days between two months - often but not always between the second and third month of the year. During the fourth and fifth centuries, as new gods were added to the pantheon of the Tribunal, new short months were inserted to honor their major festivals - for example, from the end of the fifth century onwards, the goddess Nalatia was worshipped during the month of Incendi, the month of burning, which lasted from five days before the summer solstice to five days after the summer solstice. By the seventh century, the calendar was weighed down by many such feasts and festivals, and each year the priesthood had to determine how these intercalary observances would interact with the normal progression of the months. An attempt at calendar reform in the waning years of the seventh century succeeded only in making things worse. In the early years of the eighth century, the council of Hierophants began a new set of calendar reforms which were successfully adopted across most of the area ruled by the Court. This calendar was further refined in the tenth century by Armandius XI, Hierophant of Taris, during the religious reforms of the Curia Magna, although many of these refinements were resisted by traditionalist factions in the Godlands. In the modern day, there are two calendars in use among the worshippers of the tribunal - the Calendarium Armandianum, or Armandian Calendar, and the Calendarium Antiquorum, or Calendar of the Ancients. Calendarium Armandianum The Calendarium Armandianum (Calendrier Armandien in Low Avran) is a purely solar calendar, consisting of twelve 28-day months. However, each new moon, as well as the fifteenth and sixteenth days after each new moon (a period that always includes the full moon) are holy days that interrupt the month. After each of these holy days, the month resumes as if it had not been interrupted. So, if the new moon would fall on the 16th of a month, the previous day would be the 15th. Then, the new moon would be celebrated, and the day after the new moon would be counted as the 16th of the month. In addition, there are 2-3 intercalary days - called the Demon Days - inserted directly after the winter solstice (inserted as needed to keep the year on track with the true solar year). The new year is held fourteen days after the end of these intercalary days. The name and order of the months in the Armandian calendar are as follows (names are given in both Low Avran and Commonspeak): Coureur/Cursor Accetier/Accetry Caudan/Coden Astris/Asters Mirrier/Mirry Soles/Solace Incendier/Insendy Massier/Mazey Hurisier/Hursey Lunes/Lunace Ombrage/Ambra Terminal/Terminal Calendarium Antiquorum The religious reforms of the Curia Magna were not received favorably by everyone. With regard to the religious calendar, the reforms suppressed the recognition of the warrior god Argon and removed or relocated a number of festivals while adding several new ones. Most notably, the date of the new year was delayed by 14 days, and the two short months around the winter solstice were combined into the single month of Termini. The factions most opposed to these changes still observe a calendar they refer to as the Calendarium Antiquorum, or the “calendar according to the ancients.” This calendar starts and ends with a short month of 14 days, and has eleven 28-day months. It includes the festivals removed by the Curia Magna reforms, and preserves the old names of several months. The names and order of the months are as follows: Lucensis (14 days) Cursorum Accipitris Curdanus Acierum Mirationis Incendi Argi Massarae Hurisae Regis Passionis Umbrosum (14 days) Calendars of the Kaloneri Empire The inhabitants of the Kaloneri Empire mark the new day at sunrise every morning. The original calendar of the people of the Kanraed valley was a lunisolar calendar that marked the start of a month at the first sighting of the new moon. The new year was held to happen at the start of the month that contains the spring equinox. Each month of the calendar was dedicated to a different god, but the months did not follow a predictable, repeating pattern. Instead, the priesthood of the Yestaeren would read the omens when the new moon was sighted, and determine which god the new cycle would be dedicated to, and therefore which month the calendar was entering. Each of these months had its own set of religious observance and public holidays, and the only fixed months, celebrations, or holidays were the four months containing an equinox or solstice. These were each dedicated to a bespoke god. Imperial Standard Calendar In the 8th century, the Emperor Arthaled III created a new calendar as part of his attempt to reduce the influence of the priesthood, and also to address widespread issues where the high priests in different cities would read the omens and declare different months. This resulted in the Imperial Standard Calendar. The Imperial Calendar is a solar calendar, in which the year consists of a consistent number of 6-day long weeks. The name of the weekdays in the Imperial Calendar are as follows: Kindday (Child's Day) Hiresday (Worker's Day) Holdingday (Town/City's Day) Wardingday (Lord/Protector's Day) Marktday (Market Day) Stillday (Rest Day) The 5th day of each week is a market day, where people in the community gather together in the nearest market town and buy and sell what they need. The day following each market day is a rest day, where masters are required by imperial edict to give their household a day of rest from the labors of the house, except in times of great need. The year starts in the late summer with the week-long festival of Neuwice (literally “New Week”), which marks the new year. Following Neuwice, the year is divided into 4 agricultural seasons of 14 weeks apiece and one two week administrative season called Assay, the season of taxing, accounting, and reconciliation. Assay is followed by 2-3 intercalary days to make up the difference between the number of whole weeks in the Imperial year and the number of days in the solar year. After each of the agricultural seasons are week-long festivals marking the turning of the seasons. These seasons and festivals are as follows: Neuwice (“New Week,” week-long festival) Harvest (14 weeks - 84 days) Gatherwice (“Gathering Week,” week-long festival) Assay (two weeks) 2-3 intercalary days Winter (14 weeks - 84 days) Dyingwice (“Dying Week,” week-long festival) Budding (14 weeks - 84 days) Seedwice (“Seed Week,” week-long festival) Growing (14 weeks - 84 days) Kaloneri Religious Calendar The priesthood of the Yestaeren still uses a form of the old lunar calendar to determine the dates of religious festivals. The year starts at the last new moon before the spring equinox. The heavens are read four times a year instead of monthly, at the new moons whose month contains the solstices and equinoxes, and at these readings, the sequence of months for the next 3 months are determined. These are then disseminated to the major cities across the Empire over the course of that month, to ensure a unified worship schedule. However, many outlying regions or rural areas still have their own local priests who make these determinations on their own. Because the order of months (and even which months might show up in a year!) is not fixed, any listing of months will only be valid for a certain year. However, each of the variable months follows a consistent naming pattern: [god’s name] + -mund (or + -amund if the god’s name ends in certain consonants). So, the month dedicated to the god Skar would be Skaramund, while the month dedicated to the goddess Hildya would be Hildyamund. In addition, like the early calendar, the four months that contain the solstices and equinoxes are always consistent, and have their own names. These are as follows: Dawning Sunheight Darkening Staerenheight

Oh, I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's good to know that people are reading and enjoying what I have to share. Ummm...yeah, I totally did calculate planetary mass. And the stars mass and temperature... Well, less calculate and more "decide." It's actually easier than you think (says the guy with a physics degree). Mostly, I'm following guides other people put out though. Artifexian and WorldbuildingPasta have been really good guides, and both of them have made (and shared) spreadsheets where you can put in numbers and see results. Ironically, I've done less work than some of these creators - they go and simulate several billion years of tectonic plate movement just to get their continents designed. I...already had my continental map, and I really didn't want to backtrack that far lol. As for charting out multiple calendars, I'm still working on that lol. I've got the planet's year length plus how long it takes the moons to orbit, but figuring out how the cultures track time is more involved. Luckily, the Court of the Gods uses a 12-month calendar with 28 days in a month (four 7-day weeks), so that's not hard to chart out, and figuring out solstices and phases of the moon is just a matter of putting things in Excel. I probably could have written a formula for it if I wanted to, but since it was only for 2 years, I did it by hand. The Imperial calendar is going to be interesting, because they use 2 of them - a solar calendar for administrative stuff like taxes, and a lunar calendar for religious purposes. Kind of like the way the Jewish or Islamic calendars interact with the Gregorian calendar we use.