Hello, reader. Be you Man, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Half-Elf, or Gnome, you will find this book most interesting and important. If you are none of these, you will likely find this book tasteless, bad for nourishment, and not very much fun.
= - : - =
TIME
= - : - =
Time has been measured, by the hands of Intelligent Races, for thousands of years. Across Zaelia, time periods have different names, but the general consensus is that at some point during the world's Dark Age, the first half-breed was born, marking the turning point of the Brothers' Creation being given into the hands of Intelligent Life. This point is known as the Sensus, and it marked Year 1 on the calendars followed by most people groups today. Everything before the Sensus is known as the Years Perditus.
= SECONDS: Ah, the seconds. Like the pitter patter of Time's fingertips... Several have just passed. Do you feel them? Slipping away as you spend your precious moments reading this text?
= MINUTES: The seconds can only stack so high lest they topple. At their roof is a minute, and within the minute's grasp are sixty of the little monsters, each flashing and sizzling out so quickly.
= HOURS: They often crawl while spent on unfavorable tasks, while other times, when made use of in the embrace of a night's sleep, perhaps, they fly by as if unwilling to obey the Brothers and their laws on the matter. Regardless, they each collect to themselves sixty of the next smallest portion.
= DAYS: Twenty-four? Is that all? Twenty-four of the flowing, never-constant hours is all it takes to create an entire day? It most certainly is, reader. And these days are perhaps most easiest to count. Look to the sky! Watch as the great Bjornen Star stands from its slumber and stretches up to greet the top of the blue expanse, before bowing low into the western red sky. Watch as the great many twinkling lights of Vargen's Belt illuminate the sky during night's darkest moments... That, reader, is a day.
= VISIONS: But... what if the Belt of Vargen is not lit this eve? What if you cannot see the several twinkles? Perhaps only one, the largest of the lights, is visible. Or, perhaps none! You may be nearing the end of a Vision. When the last of the lights on Vargen's Belt is extinguished, that night shall be dark, black even. But do not fret, for the next Vision promises that the Wolf Brother will light them all again, one by one, until mid-Vision night, at its brightest point, will look almost like mid-day!
= SEASONS: Four of them, like close siblings vying for their Father's attention, constantly battling for praise and affection. Spring, with its newness and life. Sowing, with its heat and fertility. Harvest, with its abundance and beauty. Festival, with its joy and bitter cold, a paradox in itself.
= YEARS: Once the four seasons have graced Zaelia in turn, deep in the heart of Festival's frigid grasp shall be the mark of a new Year. Long and steady, the Year promises much change. Birth, death, love, loss. All these things are known to the Year, but known so, so much more to the Year's Father...
= DECADES: A Decade, two of them, back and forth, forever, signaling the immense weight the Brothers have in our lives. Every ten Years, a new Decade approaches. At the beginning of each Decade, either Bjornen or Vargen will hand over the task of watching Zaelia. Staying close to it. Now don't be fooled, reader. Despite what you may have been told, both Brothers watch over us closely, but as you might expect, keeping up with a world requires attention to detail. And those details are looked at in turn.
. . . = The Decade of the Wolf is marked by increased activity among the creatures of the air. Winged soaring beasts will have more life, more aggression, more intensity. Predatory creatures, those of Vargen's creation, the pack creatures and hunting animals, will be looking for food, and at much higher frequency. Take care to keep in your homes at night, lest you fall prey to an animal under the proximity-induced lust of his patron Brother.
. . . = The Decade of the Bear is marked by swirling waters, where the monsters of the blue and black depths churn to life with more ferocity and come up to the surface more frequently. With these leviathons comes harder sailing waters, and more intense Sewing seasons, where the animal under title of domestication may break free from his bonds and spur his very master, as the hooved animals yearn to move back to Zaelia's status quo. Hunting grounds will be scarce, and fields more difficult to tend to. The world, it seems, may not be best left to the tinkering hands of Men, Dwarf, and Elf.
= - : - =
...And so, in closing, I ask you... What time is it? Shall we go for a swim, or a hunt, to find out?
A calender: i.imgur.com/SwtULMR.jpg
Hello, reader. Be you Man, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Half-Elf, or Gnome, you will find this book most interesting and important. If you are none of these, you will likely find this book tasteless, bad for nourishment, and not very much fun.
= - : - =
TIME
= - : - =
Time has been measured, by the hands of Intelligent Races, for thousands of years. Across Zaelia, time periods have different names, but the general consensus is that at some point during the world's Dark Age, the first half-breed was born, marking the turning point of the Brothers' Creation being given into the hands of Intelligent Life. This point is known as the Sensus, and it marked Year 1 on the calendars followed by most people groups today. Everything before the Sensus is known as the Years Perditus.
= SECONDS: Ah, the seconds. Like the pitter patter of Time's fingertips... Several have just passed. Do you feel them? Slipping away as you spend your precious moments reading this text?
= MINUTES: The seconds can only stack so high lest they topple. At their roof is a minute, and within the minute's grasp are sixty of the little monsters, each flashing and sizzling out so quickly.
= HOURS: They often crawl while spent on unfavorable tasks, while other times, when made use of in the embrace of a night's sleep, perhaps, they fly by as if unwilling to obey the Brothers and their laws on the matter. Regardless, they each collect to themselves sixty of the next smallest portion.
= DAYS: Twenty-four? Is that all? Twenty-four of the flowing, never-constant hours is all it takes to create an entire day? It most certainly is, reader. And these days are perhaps most easiest to count. Look to the sky! Watch as the great Bjornen Star stands from its slumber and stretches up to greet the top of the blue expanse, before bowing low into the western red sky. Watch as the great many twinkling lights of Vargen's Belt illuminate the sky during night's darkest moments... That, reader, is a day.
= VISIONS: But... what if the Belt of Vargen is not lit this eve? What if you cannot see the several twinkles? Perhaps only one, the largest of the lights, is visible. Or, perhaps none! You may be nearing the end of a Vision. When the last of the lights on Vargen's Belt is extinguished, that night shall be dark, black even. But do not fret, for the next Vision promises that the Wolf Brother will light them all again, one by one, until mid-Vision night, at its brightest point, will look almost like mid-day!
= SEASONS: Four of them, like close siblings vying for their Father's attention, constantly battling for praise and affection. Spring, with its newness and life. Sowing, with its heat and fertility. Harvest, with its abundance and beauty. Festival, with its joy and bitter cold, a paradox in itself.
= YEARS: Once the four seasons have graced Zaelia in turn, deep in the heart of Festival's frigid grasp shall be the mark of a new Year. Long and steady, the Year promises much change. Birth, death, love, loss. All these things are known to the Year, but known so, so much more to the Year's Father...
= DECADES: A Decade, two of them, back and forth, forever, signaling the immense weight the Brothers have in our lives. Every ten Years, a new Decade approaches. At the beginning of each Decade, either Bjornen or Vargen will hand over the task of watching Zaelia. Staying close to it. Now don't be fooled, reader. Despite what you may have been told, both Brothers watch over us closely, but as you might expect, keeping up with a world requires attention to detail. And those details are looked at in turn.
. . . = The Decade of the Wolf is marked by increased activity among the creatures of the air. Winged soaring beasts will have more life, more aggression, more intensity. Predatory creatures, those of Vargen's creation, the pack creatures and hunting animals, will be looking for food, and at much higher frequency. Take care to keep in your homes at night, lest you fall prey to an animal under the proximity-induced lust of his patron Brother.
. . . = The Decade of the Bear is marked by swirling waters, where the monsters of the blue and black depths churn to life with more ferocity and come up to the surface more frequently. With these leviathons comes harder sailing waters, and more intense Sewing seasons, where the animal under title of domestication may break free from his bonds and spur his very master, as the hooved animals yearn to move back to Zaelia's status quo. Hunting grounds will be scarce, and fields more difficult to tend to. The world, it seems, may not be best left to the tinkering hands of Men, Dwarf, and Elf.
= - : - =
...And so, in closing, I ask you... What time is it? Shall we go for a swim, or a hunt, to find out?