Tasothilos, the Second World (New, Updated, D20-less version)

[Kalos Mer]

In an earlier version of the Tasothilos 2.0 map, Sakrtskaya was located where the Arjepak forest is now - I can't find the place you're alluding to, but it's possible that this is the source of the error.  I'll go back and edit it later.

I haven't got a concrete scale for this version of the map.  The whole Salabrian area as I conceive it is about the size of Africa, if that gives you any sense of things.

[Tangential]

Wow. That's freaking huge.

[LordVreeg]

MMmm... I understand.  Celtricia is over twice the size of earth, encompassing 1,290,000,000 square kilometers, at closest guess.

Wanderknights-
What prevalance does armor have in your world?  A good suit of armor in the Celtrician game system is a huge equalizer, making a decent combatent in chain mail the equal of 2 men in studded leather (a rough equivelvant).  So I don't know how much the armor helps the beginning characters.  I am refering to the resources part of the post, tryng to grasp the context, as well as the incredibly well-done 'preception' paragraph.
[blockquote-Kalos the Unquenchable](Wanderknights sometimes refer to their Master as the Hierophant, when they are emphasizing his religious rather than his martial duties. For simplicity's sake, Master shall be used throughout the remainder of this article.)[/blockquote]What religious duties?  Is this based more on the philopophical underpinnings?
I love the intrinsic entrinings of the philosophical and the religious.  Too often we have a religion with no philosphy on these posts, here is an order that seems to have evolved out of the philosophical view of a religion...which is how it really happens...Kudos here...The vows are excellent as well.

How public is the knowledge of these vows?  All the orders of knighthood in our own history were nominally under the jursidiction of the Pope, and most other members were uner a secular king as well.  Indeed, the Templars themselvesgot hammered when it was clear that they were a law and rule unto themselves, due to thweir money and influence.  So when you tell me they are viewed with distrust to to these vows in some areas, I personally am surprsed that they have been allowed to stay public existance for so long at all.

Speaking of money and power, what means of support and income do the Wanderknights have?  What % have gone on to greater status and founded keps and taken office?  If they cannot take office due to their vows, and they aer not really allied or vouchsafed by any governments, then I doubt there are any real infrastructure...am I right, wrong, or merely drinking?  (not that those are mutually exclusive, mind you...).  On whose territory is the isle of Marotil?  

the squire/knight relationship is incredibly well done, and speaks well to the devotional level of the knighthood.  Most squires in Northern Celtricia get 'loaned' out, with the excuse that it is part of their training, but it is merely useful to the order, normally.  

[Kalos Mer]

LordVreeg - in the future, please feel free to discuss organizations in the Salabrian Orders thread.  Or here, doesn't really matter to me.

Armor is quite rare over all in Salabrian warfare - the vast majority of both sides in any conflict are still unarmored peasants with rudimentary weapons and lightly-armored mercenaries (mostly equipped in leather) with somewhat better weapons.  It is for the most part only knights that use chain armor and occasional plate (while breastplates have been used extensively for the past hundred years, but full suits of plate are still very new, only introduced in the last fifteen or so years.

The average full Brother of the Wanderknights is equipped with chain, making them very well protected compared to the average man.  (By comparison, a starting fighter character is probably consigned to leather armor, although they could spend a few character points to give them the starting wealth necessary to get chain).  The Master of the Order, when he enters battle, has a specially made breast plate with a representation of the Order's Wheel on the chest.

A well-trained fighter in chain is easily a match for a small group of unarmored grunts, but a warrior in leather with superior training will still be able to take him down.  Armor greatly complements skill, but cannot replace it.

Though you are correct (and quite flattering ;)) in your assessment of the philosophical aspects of Wanderknight theology, when I refer to the Master's religious duties, it is primarily ritual rather than philosophical duty - although Wanderknight religion has a heavy philosophical basis, it is also in part still a mystery cult, with a number of secret rites over which the master presides.

It is widely known (even among the peasantry, thanks to the stories) that Wanderknights are barred by their religion from settling down or from entering into contracts with secular society, but knowledge of the precise nature of their vows is less widespread.

I'll skip the question of how they manage to continue their existence for a moment and come back to it at the end.

The Wanderknights derive their income from their scattered feudal properties and from occasional gifts made by the grateful.  These feudal properties are for the most part independent, located in the mass of the independent North Salabrian baronies or in the dwindling independent borderlands between the great states, though there are a few within the domains of the various kings and emperors - these baronies are heavily taxed and not particularly productive for the Order's coffers, but they are retained in order to give the Knights a widespread network of safe havens.  A few of these properties have been seized in the past, but the Knights still retain a few of them in Andozia, Philstaros, and even distant Golevka.

'Active' Knights, by the nature of their vows, are forbidden from taking any offices, founding keeps, or most other intricate interactions with mundane society.  'Retired' members occasionally do engage in such activities - a few of the Elders who are not assigned to one of the Order's feudal properties return to a somewhat 'mundane' life - but most choose to stay within the Order's structure.  I don't quite understand you're meaning regarding the infrastructure, though.  Could you rephrase?

The isle of Marotil in earlier days was under the control of Ekeusion.  Even after the Empire fractured, the city retained nominal control of the isle.  After the sack of Ekeusion in 493, the island became independent.

The Knights have not faced a widespread effort to snuff out their existence for a number of reasons.  Firstly, they have a history of nearly 15 centuries behind them now, and they have always been an independent order.  As an organization, they as old or older than many of the governments of the Sea.  The weight of their history gives pause to governments who contemplate moving against them.  For the first five hundred of those years, they were extremely well-regarded as keepers of the peace and defenders.  For a long time after that, they had a good deal of public sympathy because of their heroic sacrifice at the breach in Ekeusion.  It's only really from 1100 on that there has been any significant mistrust or wariness with regards to the Order, and actual accusations really only began around 1300.  (The substantial support they have from the lowest classes also helps a bit.)

Secondly, although the Order goes through occasional phases of highly public, political action, the vast majority of their dealings are done on the local level, and they spend most of their time traveling in secrecy.  Individual Knights might get into legal trouble from time to time, but the Order as a whole tends to keep a low profile - most of the time.

Thirdly, compared the tremendous wealth controlled by the Templars, the Wanderknights are poor, or at least not wealthy.  Therefore, they have never before been considered a tempting target for eradication and looting.  It has thus far made far better for those governments which strongly oppose the Knights to patrol for and persecute those Knights who operate within their country's borders, rather than take it to the source.

[Kalos Mer]

The Ekeusian Calendar

[/size]
[ooc]
This is something that's been long overdue.  I've had a fairly complete idea of how the calendar works in Tasothilos for over a year now, but I've never gotten it organized enough to post.  Now, as a part of my recent flurry of activity, here it is for your enjoyment/commentary.[/ooc]

The Ekeusian calendar, designed in 402 YP by the magician Hyla of Zyle,  (and slightly revised in 242 AP by an anonymous priest of Emiome) is the most accurate of all the calendars in use today.  In the modern age, it is employed by most of the human nations of Salabria (only the Ferrundar and Vievnans have a different calendar, and the Vievnan one differs only in name, not in structure), and also by the gnomes, slave-elves, and some of the eastern cities of the dwarves.  The orcs are also familiar with it, though among themselves they use their own calendar system.


First'¦

Units of Time '" General Info

Second, Minute, Hour and Day
One second of Tasothilos time and one second of earth time are exactly equivalent.  The same is true of the Tasothilos and Earth minute, hour and day.  The Salabrians, however, do not consider the day to begin at midnight, as the modern calendar does.  Instead, each day is considered to begin at dawn, and time runs from dawn to dawn.

The Week
An Ekeusian '˜week', unlike a seven-day Earth '˜week', is only 6 days long.   Unfortunately, unlike the day and the year '" which are fairly constant cross-culturally, the week is a variably defined by non-Salabrian peoples.  The Aisatanimar Elves, for instance, have a nine-day week, while slave-elves and the eastern dwarves both each have different versions of the seven-day week.  Some societies (such as the Taecs and the halflings) have no conception of the '˜week' at all.

The Month
Gregorian '˜months' are variable in length, being somewhere between 28 and 31 days long.  For the Ekeusians, the '˜month' is a fixed period: 25 days, or four weeks and one day.   Though now a static, arbitrary unit, this Ekeusian month is based on an appoximation of the cycle of the Tasothilos moon, which actually takes a little over 24 days to complete.  Some other cultures have different observed values for the '˜month' '" most are based on the lunar cycle and range from 21 to 27 days, though some (like the dwarves) long ago replaced the lunar month with a completely arbitrary division of time.

The Year
An Earth year is very close to 365 days, 6 hours long.  The year in Tasothilos is shorter by slightly over a day '" it is almost exactly 364 days, 3 hours long.  Hyla at the time of her invention was unaware of the '˜extra' three hours, and created a calendar for an exactly 364-day-long year.  This created discrepancies in timekeeping that went unnoticed for over three centuries before being corrected by the Reformer by the introduction of a '˜leap year' every eight years (see '˜The Leap Year' below for details on this reform '" with one small exception mentioned under '˜the Ekeusian Week' below, the rest of the calendar was Hyla's original creation.)

The Ekeusian Calendar

The Invention
Prior to the calendar of Hyla, the Ekeusians used a complicated system of time-telling, involving a solar year and lunar months that were in no way synchronized.  Accurate timekeeping was a very intricate procedure and the official calendar required frequent corrections to account for discrepancies built into the system.
In addition to being a famous magician and spellwriter (she is named one of the last two of the Canonical Spellcasters in the Ekeusian Logomantic Tradition), Hyla of Zyle was a close personal friend to the Emperor Asarteus (reigned 395-401), and was appointed by him to be the first ever Imperial Historian.  Finding the task of constructing a timeline to be nearly impossible using the old time keeping system, Hyla requested and was granted the Emperor's permission to create a new, more organized calendar.  Starting in 397 and working alongside a number of priests and her generation's leading intellectuals, Hyla eventually produced the calendar that, with very slight revision, is still used to this day.
Hyla's primary innovation was to sever the ties binding the '˜month' to the actual lunar cycle.  While the original calendar had resulted in between 15 and 16 months of alternately 24 or 25 days each being fit awkwardly into a 364-day long year, Hyla '˜standardized' the month at 25 days.  At the insistence of her priestly colleagues, she established the 14-month year, with a month named after each of the principal deities of the pantheon (with Onaleus's wife Lia replacing the dark and destructive Alamir).  
(It was also at the urging of the priests that the 14 '˜left over' days (25x14=350) were transformed into the Holy Jubilee, the sacred festival at the start of summer every year.  Hyla's original plan had been to create 14 months of 26 days (14x26=364).
Hyla also formalized the concept of the '˜week' and added it to her calendar.  It had for over a hundred years beforehand been the practice in the city of Ekeusion for craftsmen to labor for five days, and then on the sixth to go to market and sell their wares.  Hyla included this practice into her calendar as the '˜week', and she first gave names to the days.
In 402, after five years of labor, Hyla presented her efforts to Asarteus's successor, Daidymos.  (Asarteus himself had fallen in battle the year before the project was completed.)  The new emperor approved the work and proclaimed the calendar official throughout the Empire.

The Ekeusian Year
The 14 months and the Jubilee of the Ekeusian Year are arranged as follows:

Month Name	Length	Patron Deity	Notes
Eldoma	25 days	Eldon	*First month of the year *1 Eldoma: First Day of Winter
Antoma	25 days	Antios
Maxnoma	25 days	Maxinir
Lioma	25 days	Lia	*17 Lioma: First Day of Sprin
Myroma	25 days	Myria
Roloma	25 days	Rholerex
Xandoma	25 days	Xandos
Jubilee	14 days	All Gods	*8 Jubilee: First Day of Summer *See Below for additional information
Onaloma	25 days	Onaleus
Aloma	25 days	Ali
Emoma	25 days	Emiome
Olkhoma	25 days	Olkhir	*10 Olkhoma: First Day of Autumn
Suphoma	25 days	Suphi
Bimpoma	25 days	Bimpnos
Anroma	25 days	Anarina

(-oma is the Classical Ekeusian word for 'month' '" compare ioma, the word for 'moon', and also the name of the goddess Emiome.)

The Ekeusian Week
When Hyla institutionalized the week as a part of her calendar reforms, she bestowed names on each of the six days.  The first day of the week is named after her patron, Asarteus.  The next day is named after the city of Zyle, Hyla's birthplace.  The last four are named after the four emperors of the founding dynasty, in reverse chronological order.

The week looks like this:

	Name	Notes
1	Asarsten	(>Asarteus, imp. 395-401 YP)
2	Zylsten	(>Zyle, one of the great cities of the Ekeusian era)
3	Silsten	(>Silysos, imp. 99-105 YP) Silysos was a famously bad emperor, and the day that bears his name has long been considered '˜unlucky'.
4	Prosten	(>Prosios, imp. 41-99 YP)
5	Bolysten	(>Bolysteus, imp. 17-41 YP)
6	Andaxten	(>Andaxos, imp. 1-17 YP ) Andaxten was the name given to the old '˜market day', on which craftspeople ceased their labors and instead sold their finished goods, a tradition still frequently observed.

The weeks run on their own cycle throughout the year, out of sync with the larger cycle of months, in much the same way that weeks do in the Gregorian calendar.  For a point of reference, 15 Lioma 1497 '" the day on which the '˜default' Tasothilos campaign starts, is an Asarsten.
In Hyla's original design, the cycle of weeks went on hiatus for Jubilee, and picked up where it left off when Jubilee was over.  This is one of only two changes that the Reformer made to the calendar in 242 '" now the cycle of weeks continues unbroken through Jubilee.  (The other change, of course, is the addition of the Leap Year mechanic to stabilize the calendar.)

The Lunar Month
Still important for some old religious festivals is the timing of the Lunar month '" that is, the interval between Full moons.  The night of the full moon occurs every 24.25 days '" To simplify this, the full moon occurs on the 24th, 48th, 73rd, and 97th day of every 97-day cycle.
In 1497 AP, the following full moons occur:
16 Eldoma, 15 Antoma, 15 Maxnoma, 14 Lioma, 13 Myroma, 12 Roloma, 12 Xandoma, 11 Jubilee, 21 Onaloma, 20 Aloma, 20 Emoma, 19 Olkhoma, 18 Suphoma, 17 Bimpoma, 17 Anroma.
New Moons occur at the midpoint of each lunar cycle, and between these the New and Full moons, the moon waxes and wanes at a constant rate.

Jubilee  
Jubilee will be discussed more fully in a later post on holidays and festivals.  It is a 14-day long festival between 25 Xandoma and 1 Onaloma every year, celebrated (to varying extents) everywhere that the Ekeusian calendar is used and the Ekeusian deities are acknowledged.  (The most extensive festivals occur in the great cities Sanceline and Andozia, though even the most austere Philstarian peasant will take part in the celebration with joy in his heart.)
Each of the 14 days of Jubilee is devoted to one of the great gods, and again Lia takes the place of grim Alamir.  (The order of the days varies very slightly between North and South Salabria '" this will be explained later.)  Though some of the days are serious, reflective, and truly religious in their observance, (Olkhir's Day in particular is famous for it's solemnity), for the most part the Jubilee is an excuse for a number of variously themed, day-long parties, sumptuous feasts and great consumption of wine, particularly among the highest social classes.  In Andozia, Miloa and Sanceline, peasants do no work during the Jubilee, and even in stern Philstaros, the mood is light and work is done only in the mornings.
In both North and South Salabria, the most jubilant day of the festival is the 8th, which is both Onaleus's festal day and the first day of summer.

The Leap Year
When Hyla first designed the calendar, she assumed (as the Ekeusians had for centuries) that the length of the year was exactly 364 days.  In actual fact, however, the year is 364 days and 3 hours long.  This slight discrepancy caused Hyla's calendar to run 1 day fast for every eight years that passed.  (Because the older Ekeusian system was constantly being corrected to artificially synchronize the lunar monthly with the solar yearly calendar, this discrepancy had previously been unknowingly accounted for.)
For centuries, even after the fall of the Empire, Hyla's calendar continued to be used unaltered.  By the middle of the 3rd century AP, the calendar was more than 40 days out-of-sync with reality.  It was than that the Hylan Reformer, whose name is lost, first realized (by consulting various astronomical records) the true length of the Tasothilos year and the reason for the calendar's ever-increasing inaccuracy.
The Reformer, who was a member of the Emiomean faith, shared his realizations with the elders of his church, and at the 2nd Interfaith Council of 242, it was agreed by all the churches that the following three policies would be adopted:
1.  The calendar was completely suspended for the remainder of the year 242 '" to our sensibilities, a very dubious choice, but this was the only method for resynchronization that could be agreed on.  From the last day of the Council (14 Jubilee 242) to 1 Eldoma 243, no record of the date was kept '" instead a '˜countdown' of sorts was maintained.
2.  In order to prevent the calendar from falling out of synchronization again, the institution of the Leap Year was constructed.  Starting with 250, every 8th year was extended by an extra day to compensate for the slight inaccuracy of Hyla's calendar.  This '˜leap day' falls between the last day of Olkhoma and the first of Suphoma, and was officially called Interfaith Day.
3.  A minor alteration, the Reform removed the former '˜hiatus' which had been placed on the weekly cycle during the Jubilee.

The name '˜Interfaith Day' didn't stick, however.  Though the timing of the day is universal, the name and nature of the day varies from country to country.  Like Jubilee, this will be covered more fully later in a post on holidays, but here's a quick summary of how several of the nations celebrate it:

Nation	Name for the Leap Day	Mode of Celebration
Andozia	The Masques	Andozians love masquerades, and this is the one that started them all.  From peasants in rough-carved wooden masks dancing in the fields to nobles with silken masks celebrating in palaces, the Leap Day is celebrated by a tremendous masquerade ball all across the country, with a few peculiar traditions unique to the day.
Akmet	Iyujedet	The gnomes, due to their close relationship with humanity, adopted the Ekeusian calendar.  In Akmet (and often abroad), gnomes use the Leap day as an excuse to gather with their extended families and talk while sharing certain traditional foods.
Sanceline	Gifting Day	In Sanceline, it is customary on the Leap Day to make elaborate and (amongst the nobles) expensive gifts to friends and relatives, and to receive like in kind.
Philstaros	King's Day	For the Philstarians, the Leap Day is a time of special patriotism.
Ekeusion	N/A	Rumor has it that the Philstarian government and the Church of Onaleus are making plans for a tremendous celebration in the old Imperial City during the leap day of the year 1498, the first leap year that the city will celebrate in over a thousand years.
Plaspont	Eldon's Day	Eldon's Day is a celebration in remembrance of the departed dead in Plaspont.

SO'¦ That is the Ekeusian Calendar.  I'm gonna turn in early tonight, but for the curious, here are some of the things you can expect to see in the near future (ie, before September)
* At least three new organizations in the Salabrian Orders thread '" starting with the College of Arcanists.
* Two additional '˜sub-threads' '" one for interesting locations (cities, castles, other places of note), and the other for noted personalities.
* A few miscellaneous items I've been working on, including the first updated nation profile.
* A few notes on the the game system behind the Tasothilos setting

[LordVreeg]

Good stuff, brother Kalos.  Good STUFF, INDEED.
I had to redo my simplified calander a few years ago, as well.  I think yours feels quite real, and the weaving of the historical development makes it more real.
I love your use of the extra days.  The Jubilee is interesting to me.  I'm trying to work the economic side of it.  I saw a 'merchant's guide to medeival Michalmas' once, so I am always seeing holidays from the side of those trying to make money.

What is the Ekeusian name for the 6-day week?  

[Kalos Mer]

Historical development's what I'm all about, baby. ;)

On another subject - believe you me, there is *plenty* of economics behind the Jubilee.  I don't mean to be excessively cynical (for once) - there really is a strong religious/spiritual side to the Jubilee, but there is also a ton of very secular celebration - and that secular side provides lots of business for merchants and traders.  That post on holidays is among the 'miscellaneous items I've been working on' that I mentioned above, so you'll definitely be hearing more about the Jubilee in the next couple weeks.

The formal Ekeusian name for the six day week is kangelon,  which is derived from kangos, 'market', giving the meaning something like 'Market Cycle'.  A more common informal name is hinelon, from hin, 'six'.

[LordVreeg]

oh, great word...market cycle...I didn't even know that, and I'm looking for the economic side...all about the jubilee.

[Túrin]

I like the calendar. The historic bit is well-written and interesting as always. My only criticism would be that the end result is a bit too close to the Gregorian calendar for my tastes.

On another note, I've read the Wanderknights post and I've got a few things to say about it. I hope to get to that tonight, as I'm not sure when I'll be behind a computer again after, but I've made sure I won't forget about it (which I don't seem to have done when you posted the races, so maybe I'll comment on those in the near future too).

Túrin

[Kalos Mer]

I should of course point out that the author who wrote about your namesake used the Gregorian calendar flat-out (the One Ring was destroyed on March 25, for instance.) ;)

But anyway, it is a fair point.  I hope that the calendars of some of the non-Ekeusian peoples will provide you with something a little bit more alien, but the decision to make the length of the year close to the Earth year, and the set-up of the main calendar not TOO unfamiliar, was a carefully made one.

I would be curious to read your take on the Wanderknights, but even moreso to hear your opinions on the races.  Please note, however, that the statistical elements of the races are left over from the d20 incarnation of Tasothilos and are no longer quite accurate (though they give you an idea).

[Kalos Mer]

Just in case you've missed it, I've begun to post details of the system underlying Tasothilos over in meta.  The link is here: http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?37136

Not much there now - just a Q&A, really.  But it'll grow gradually.