Difference between revisions of "Cadwallon"

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== Cadwe Identity ==
 
== Cadwe Identity ==
 +
 +
Th e fi rst thing that may be surprising concerning the peoples
 +
of Aarklash is the fact that they know more about the world
 +
beyond the heavens than the one surrounding their continent!
 +
Among astrologers there are heated debates about such delicate
 +
topics as the true shape of the world, the links between magic
 +
portals and the stars, or the question if Lahn rotates around
 +
Aarklash or vice versa. And yet who can claim to know what
 +
lies beyond the oceans? Truth be told, no one has even bothered
 +
giving a name to the world of which Aarklash is only a continent...
 +
Unless it’s the other way around.
 +
 +
==== Astronomy ====
 +
 +
Th e days and nights follow the rhythm of Aarklash’s revolution
 +
around a gigantic sun which provides a golden light:
 +
Lahn. Two other shining bodies sometimes light the sky above
 +
Cadwallon: Ley, with a pale bluish glow, and Lyth, a twinkling
 +
dark-red pearl. Th e appearances of these twin suns are chaotic
 +
and feed the debate among astronomers. For the Cadwës the
 +
presence of Ley and Lyth in the sky is an omen announcing
 +
disaster and woe, of sudden climatic change, of animal migrations,
 +
or of wide-reaching magical phenomena.
 +
At night a moon, Yllia, lights the sky in its milky, bluish aura.
 +
Th e guild of Cartomancers also uses about 15 constellations
 +
for observations and predictions: the Lion, the Griffi n, the Spider,
 +
the Wolf, and so on. Most Cadwës don’t care much about this for
 +
they rarely ever look up to the stars. Only four of these astral
 +
formations attract attention because of their role in nighttime
 +
navigation. Th ey have been known by the goblins for a long time
 +
and are called Nerea for the north, Sylhea for the south, Elion for
 +
the east, and Olhim for the west.
 +
 +
==== The free year ====
 +
 +
On Aarklash the year of 400 days is usually divided into ten
 +
months. Yet this isn’t so in Cadwallon. Th e guild of Cartomancers
 +
has established an original calendar based on the 22 fi gures of
 +
Vanius and his lieutenants. Th e astronomers themselves use
 +
a much more complex version of this calendar. Most Cadwës
 +
simply use 21 “months” of 19 days each. To these is added a leap
 +
day, the last day of the year, which disappears every four years to
 +
adjust the free calendar to the actual revolution around Lahn.
 +
 +
==== The free year ====
 +
 +
On Aarklash the year of 400 days is usually divided into ten
 +
months. Yet this isn’t so in Cadwallon. Th e guild of Cartomancers
 +
has established an original calendar based on the 22 fi gures of
 +
Vanius and his lieutenants. Th e astronomers themselves use
 +
a much more complex version of this calendar. Most Cadwës
 +
simply use 21 “months” of 19 days each. To these is added a leap
 +
day, the last day of the year, which disappears every four years to
 +
adjust the free calendar to the actual revolution around Lahn.
 +
 +
*''The seasons''
 +
 +
Cadwallon has the same seasons as the rest of Aarklash.
 +
However, in the Free City’s peninsula every season has a specifi
 +
c infl uence.
 +
The first season of the year, the time of banners, corresponds
 +
to spring. Th is is the month of preparation and decorum. Th e
 +
trading posts of the guild of Blades’ companies raise their
 +
orifl ammes and the vessels of the Cadwë fl eet get ready to
 +
leave the port for their commercial expeditions. When the
 +
day comes, the ships gather in fl eets and set off on the seas to
 +
amass new riches. In the Kraken harbor there is then a jubilant
 +
atmosphere.
 +
The caravans traveling over land do the same all along the
 +
season, parading up and down the avenues of the lower city.
 +
The most popular spectacle nevertheless remains the departure
 +
of the guild of Blades’ troops clad in their shining armor.
 +
 +
Summer, the season of blades, is the season of the bloodiest
 +
confrontations in which huge armies clash after having roamed
 +
the continent during the previous season. In Cadwallon, too,
 +
the season of blades is placed under the sign of the Rag’narok.
 +
Th e Cadwës know that during this period there is a chance that
 +
an army might besiege the city. Th e duke often sends free leaguers
 +
to patrol the borders and the blacksmiths work twice as
 +
hard to supply the militia’s stock of weapons. Th ough this rarely
 +
happens, the free leaguers can also be sent as ambassadors to
 +
faraway lands. After the sale of their merchandise, the Cadwë fl eets and caravans
 +
return loaded with exotic goods: food for winter, rare
 +
plants, revolutionary tools, new maps, etc. While the Rag’narok
 +
slips into autumn, in Cadwallon the time of return is a period
 +
for reunion... and danger. Mercenaries unsatisfi ed with their
 +
booty prowl the countryside and attack poorly defended caravans.
 +
Once in a while they gather in companies big enough to
 +
attack Cadwallon. Th e free companies therefore remain just as
 +
alert during this season. Maybe this zeal is also motivated by the
 +
allegations of the guilds, which don’t hesitate to blame these depredations
 +
on the free leaguers.
 +
The time of whispers is the season of intrigue and alliances
 +
in preparation for next year. Th e quietness of the night is often
 +
broken by the secret meetings of the guilds strengthening
 +
their relations with the nations that are about to go to war. Th e
 +
duke receives foreign delegations while the common Cadwës
 +
work to produce goods to allow the guilds and the free city to
 +
prosper.
 +
The season of whispers is also the time of the lawfully feared
 +
raids by the Akkyshans. Th ese elves bound to Darkness take
 +
advantage of the long winter nights to harass the outlying fi efdoms
 +
of the lower city and amass easy plunder.
 +
 +
*''The months''
 +
 +
Because it welcomes people from every nations, Cadwallon
 +
set its own calendar right in the fi rst days of its founding. Th is
 +
was certainly a way to mark its independence. Th e free calendar
 +
was then the object of much debate that was fed by astronomers
 +
from Tir-Nâ-Bor and even those from Laroq.
 +
Th e Cadwë months have known many diff erent names. At
 +
fi rst they were given the names of the Dogs of War’s 21 companies,
 +
and then those of the trump cards of Vanius’s Tarot. A
 +
few years later Duke Lothar passed a decree to change this denomination:
 +
because the original tarot cards had been lost, it
 +
was inconvenient to bind the city’s fate to these artifacts. Th e
 +
duke suggested the names of Vanius and his lieutenants, but
 +
the people reacted vividly to this concealed deifi cation attempt.
 +
Pressured by the Cadwës, the ducal administration developed a
 +
calendar that was truly free of all cultural infl uences.
 +
In this evolution one can glimpse the infl uence of the guilds
 +
in whose eyes a calendar must above all serve the requirements
 +
of production and therefore be functional and rational.
 +
 +
*''The week''
 +
 +
The first day of each month is a free day, meaning a day off . Th e
 +
18 remaining days are divided into three weeks of six days each: the
 +
Prime, the Median and the Final. Th e days don’t have names. One
 +
then speaks of the “fi fth day of the Median of Decarde” or of the
 +
“twelfth Decarde, 1002.”
 +
 +
*''Holidays''
 +
 +
Th e Cadwë year is dotted with offi cial holidays that are days
 +
off for the inhabitants. Here again, the guilds have made sure
 +
that the holidays are events shared by the whole population so
 +
that production follows an organized pattern.
 +
Th ere is no doubt that the week of Freedom is the most
 +
important holiday. It marks Cadwallon’s independence and is
 +
known all over Aarklash for its colorful carnival where all liberties
 +
are permitted. It takes place between the 2nd and the 7th
 +
of Odecime. For six days the Cadwës don’t work and don’t sleep:
 +
they party. Masks and costumes dance around to all kinds of
 +
music. Overwhelmed, the militia only intervenes to channel the
 +
movement of the biggest crowds and to ensure the protection of
 +
offi cial buildings. In the upper city as well as the lower one the
 +
party is in full swing.
 +
Th e day before Freedom week starts, on the free day of the 1st
 +
of Odecime, the annual free assembly meets in the presence of
 +
the free leaguers and the duke (see About the leagues...). Th e end
 +
of this assembly marks the beginning of the festivities.
 +
Th e week of the Kraken is when the Cadwë merchant fl eet
 +
sets sail. Divided into several fl otillas with each having a diff erent
 +
destination, the vessels leave Kraken harbor one after the other, cheered on by the population. Celebrations are arranged
 +
to wish the sailors luck and the port remains full of life even at
 +
night. Everyone who does not belong to the guild of Ferrymen is
 +
released of their professional duties. Th is holiday lasts from the
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14th to the 19th of Quint.
 +
Th e ducal jubilee is a tradition of Akkylannian origin that
 +
celebrates every fi fty years the founding of the Empire of
 +
Akkylannie by Arcavius de Sabran. In Cadwallon the inhabitants
 +
celebrate every year their duke’s accession to power. Den
 +
Azhir claimed this title of the 15th of Octose, 996, so it is on this
 +
date that the Cadwës honor him. A procession is organized in
 +
every fi efdom and they all join in front of the ducal palace. Th is
 +
event is important for it is the only occasion on which groups
 +
of citizens from the lower city are allowed to enter the upper
 +
city. Th ese processions are of course supervised by the militia.
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Traditionally, when the processions unite, the free leaguers renew
 +
their allegiance to the duke.Th e Day of Ashes and the Day of Lanterns can’t go without
 +
the other. Th ough they aren’t celebrated on the same day,
 +
both represents the struggle between the Ways of Light and the
 +
Meanders of Darkness.
 +
Th e Day of Lanterns commemorates the Battle of Kaïber and
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takes place on the last day of the season of blades, the 10th of
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Ondre. All day long the children go wild and pretend to be warriors
 +
with sticks or metal bars. As for the adults, they decorate
 +
the walls of all houses with countless lanterns that will light up
 +
the night before the time of return. Usually the refugees bound
 +
to the Meanders of Darkness go into hiding. Sometimes things
 +
get out of hand and people get lynched. Th e fact that the refugees
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suff ered more from their nations policy than the Cadwës
 +
doesn’t matter much.
 +
Th e Day of Ashes takes place on the last day of the time of
 +
return, the 15th of Hexadime. Cadwallon turns into a dead city.
 +
During the previous night the hearths are kept burning so the
 +
city remains lit. The next day the remaining ashes are scattered
 +
all over the city. Th ese ashes are supposed to keep the dead at
 +
bay by giving them the impression that Cadwallon is a ghost
 +
town where nothing lives. Rare are those who would dare step
 +
outside, and those who do carefully respect the taboo of the day:
 +
never to look someone in the eye. Th erefore the passersby walk
 +
with their head bowed and a hood over their head. Even the militiamen
 +
hate having to check an individual’s identity.
 +
 +
The Day of Flowering takes place on every 12th of Privime.
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It celebrates the spotting of the fi rst magical groves after the
 +
“deforestation” of the ruins by the Dogs of War (see further).
 +
Th e orcs are the ones who observe this holiday, as well as the
 +
traditions linked to it, the most carefully. On this occasion the
 +
shakas improvise ceremonies devoted to Cadwallon’s fl owering
 +
nature in most of these groves. Regardless of their origins and
 +
their beliefs, many Cadwës participate in these ceremonies.
 +
Th e beginning of each season is also a holiday. Th ese aren’t the
 +
actual beginnings of a season on Aarklash (equinoxes and solstices),
 +
but rather days that the guilds have set to celebrate the coming
 +
of a new Cadwë season. Th ese days thus give the illusion that the
 +
seasons identical in length, even though in reality they aren’t (winter
 +
is the shortest season and summer is the longest one).
 +
 +
 +
----
 +
 +
THE FIRST DAY OF EACH SEASON
 +
SEASON DAY
 +
 +
Time of Banners 1st of Asce
 +
Season of Blades 6th of Sixte
 +
Time of Return 11th of Ondre
 +
Season of Whispers 16th of Hexadîme
 +
 +
----
 +
 +
In Cadwallon it is strictly forbidden to celebrate the equinoxes
 +
and solstices since Vanius’s rule. Th e reasons for this prohibition
 +
are unknown and not all refugees respect it.
 +
Th e day that the curse hit the Free City for the fi rst time is still
 +
commemorated, for it is closely bound to recurring events that
 +
are well known by the Cadwës. Th at day the lake’s water carried
 +
a putrid stench and hundreds of corpses. Th e city’s sources of
 +
drinking water were infected, causing countless intoxications,
 +
while mephitic emanations had the inhabitants fl ee into the
 +
jungle.
 +
To this day the tide of the dead still strikes the city occasionally,
 +
however less violently than in the past. Th e Cadwës know that days
 +
of heavy rain foreshadow this morbid event, therefore they lock
 +
themselves in at home, stock up on potable water, and clean their
 +
dwellings with gallons of boiling water.
 +
Th e fi rst tide of the dead greatly infl uenced the life of
 +
Cadwallon by causing an intense fear of death and of its eff ects
 +
on the body. Th erefore, most corpses are burnt in order to prevent
 +
“polluting” the ground with the unsanitary body fl uids of
 +
the deceased. Th e most notorious funeral parlor is at the edge of
 +
the lake, a good distance from the nearest dwellings.

Revision as of 14:07, 15 May 2013

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