The Physical World and the Glory of the Heavens
The world of Erth is very different from what we are used to, and for proper role playing the players should be aware of some of the differences.
Celegia does not use the same laws of physics as we do here. The world of Celegia is constructed of only nine building blocks, the Fundaments. There are various flavors of each of the nine Fundaments, as there are different kinds of flame, different types of light, different types of darkness, and so on. To a Celegian there is no such thing as "gravity". The reason most things fall down is because most solids have either stone or water in them, and both stone and water are plunging fundaments. Fire and air and life and light are vaulting fundaments, while dark and death and water and stone are plunging fundaments.
These properties lead to some effects which seem perfectly logical to a Celegian but are very odd to us. For example, if you climb a normal mountain on Celegia you are moving upwards to where the Vaulting tangibles are most prevalent. The air grows thicker and more refreshing at high altitude. It becomes very light and bright, since there is more light high up as well. It grows slightly warmer when you begin to climb, because fire is also a vaulting fundament, but then it grows cooler again for some reason that is still unexplained. Lastly, life itself is a vaulting fundament, so the fertility of high level lands is almost unnerving, with plants growing at incredible speeds, wounds healing quicker, etc. The reason most very tall mountains are not covered in verdant growth is the fact that stone is a plunging fundament and so is water, so soil that is formed at altitude washes away more often than not.
The Daytime Sky
A Celegian looking up at the sky in daylight sees a clear blue dome of unsurpassed beauty that is very similar to our own. On a clear day careful observation of the daylight sky will reveal the differences. The sky seems clear and featureless, but it actually is covered from side to side with a webwork of fine silvery lines. This is because the Gods have to shatter holes in the sky in order to come into the world, and some of them aren't very careful about repairing it when they are done. This is the reason that Domana's Axe is also known as Skybreaker, as Domana is reputed to be the first God who came into the world in this way. In addition to this fine webwork of cracks, the sky has a very faint topography similar to mountains and valleys, and in fact if you fly high enough you can reach the sky and touch it. Up close it is revealed that the sky is a reverse mirror image of the ground below, but it does not reflect perfectly. The sky is much smoother and more pronounced than the ground is. The sky itself is cold to the touch and is extremely hard. No known force can affect it, except for the Gods. Sages theorize that the sky absorbs fire and uses it to hold itself up, but no way has been found to test this theory. The sky is transparent for the most part which allows the sun to shine through.
Twilight
Night begins when the sun falls below the horizon. When the sun touches the horizon the blue day sky draws backward from west to east like a vast curtain, revealing the gorgeous twilight sky. The sunset plays out upon the twilight sky until the sun vanishes. After a period of twilight the rosy glow of the twilight sky rolls up across the heavens from east to west and follows the sun below the horizon. This process takes about ten minutes and is called drawing the curtain of night. The black, star-speckled night sky replaces twilight rose, and travellers have found that the blue day sky and rosy dawn and twilight skies are vast gauzy constructs of light and force that lie between the sky and the stars.
The Night Sky
At night the webwork of cracks in the sky is much more noticeable than in the day, and forms a lovely lace curtain effect, behind which the celestial pageantry is played out each night. The stars wheel and precess in complex, ever shifting patterns, that with skill can be used to navigate with great precision.
Constellations
Many stars are arranged into groups, called constellations. There are nine Great Constellations, and nine Lesser Constellations, and nine Great Stars. The Great Stars are single stars of unsurpassed brightness, being out shone only by the Sun, Lune, and the flares and comets. These constellations are the most stable objects in the sky and are constant in their paths. The rest of the stars slide and cavort in celestial solitude.
Lune
Few if any of the stars rise or set, but instead follow smoothly curving paths back and forth across the heavens. Celegia has one very large and bright moon called either Lune or the Moon. Lune rises and sets every night, but it always rises and sets in a different spot on the horizon. Lune precesses around the horizon in orderly steps and completely circles the horizon every thirty six days.
Lune also rarely undergoes a phase shift, when it rises as only a half disk for nine consecutive days. These occur every few years. Lunes face is silvery white and on many nights will have various features, but they are different on nearly every night. Portents and omens are commonly inferred from the constellations the Moon rises in and crosses over, with a very complicated set of astrological formulae being used to give a daily horoscope.
Other Night Sky Phenomena
Also in the night sky are several other singular phenomena.
Comets
Celegia usually sees one or two comets every month, and once every year or so a Great Comet will appear, which is often brighter than the moon while it lasts. Most comets last one or two weeks, while a great comet may last a month.
Flares
Also seen in the heavens are objects called flares, which are straight lines of light, very sharply edged, smaller than a comet but brighter, which moves across the heavens scattering stars like a powerboat leaving a wake. These usually last only a night, although rarely there will be a Great Flare which is as bright as sunlight and lasts for several days.
Glories
Another odd phenomenon is called a glory. A glory forms when several thousand wandering stars briefly join together to create a solid ring of starlight. A glory usually lasts several weeks then drifts apart, and one will occur every few years.
Whorls
Similar to a glory but much larger and brighter is a Whorl. A Whorl begins like a glory but grows much more quickly. A Whorl also dissipates much more quickly than a glory. At their peak, Whorls form every wandering star in the heavens into a single spiraling pinwheel in the sky, which often covers a third or more of the heavens. Lune and the constellations are the only things unaffected by a Whorl.
Spikes
A very rare event is called a spike and is a solid swath of light which reaches from horizon to horizon in a single night and has every color swirling madly within it. Spikes last only a night, and happen every decade or so, although there hasn't been one for over thirty years now. Many other effects occur as well and skywatching is a popular hobby in Celegia.
Sunrise
Shortly before dawn the rosy pink predawn sky rolls like a vast shutter across the vault of the sky from east to west, sealing off the frenzied heavens. The sunrise is played on the dawn sky and just before sunrise the dawn sky becomes solid clear blue and the sun rises. The sun is a stolid performer compared to the frenetic night sky, and always rises and sets in exactly the same place on the horizon. The only excitement the sun generates is a dignified precession over the course of a year, so it rises high in the sky in summer and skirts the horizon in winter.
The Delving
After this spectacular show in the heavens, a journey downward is in order. The plunging Fundaments are Stone, Water, Dark, and Death. As you make your way into a deep cave it immediately grows dark. As you reach ever deeper it grows truly black, and soon light sources begin to fail, smothered by the overwhelming darkness. At extremely deep levels you can actually SEE darkness oozing out of the surface of the stone tunnels. Usually you have to stop long before you reach that depth, since you run out of air considerably above that level. Air rises, so in very deep tunnels there is nothing to breathe. As well, it begins to grow bitterly cold as you reach a great depth, and usually the tunnel becomes so choked with ice you cannot proceed any further long before you suffocate or begin to see darkness oozing out of the stone. Finally and most frighteningly, death is a plunging fundament. If you reach a level deep enough, the death grows so prevalent it smothers your lifeforce and you die.
If you are hardy enough to survive these rigors of depth, at about twenty miles below the surface the intensity of the Fundaments begins to recede and you will find yourself entering the vast subterranean network of the Unterwelt.
This section is an older version of this page, taken from Mark Schliefer's wiki, and derived from an old 3.5 campaign.
The Celegian Calendar
The Celegian calendar measures years from the date of the Empires formation. The current year is 60,378 Celegian Reign. This is commonly abbreviated as C.R. A common alternate calendar that arose in the Splinter states is known as the After the Veil calendar. This calendar uses the Falling of the Veil at the end of the Nightmare wars as its year zero. By this calendar, the current year is 3012 A.V. This calendar is rapidly falling out of favor as the Empire integrates the last remnants of the splinter states. Both calendars use the same progression of months and days.
The Celegian year has 365 days, arranged into ten months. Each month has four weeks, each of nine days. The remaining five days are not in the calendar and are called the Imperial Holidays. These are Empire Day, New Years Day, Holy Day, the Emperors Birthday, and Plenty Day. The ten months are, in order from the first day of the year, Janus, Aron, Cloudious, Thermallus, Triskel, Hexate, August, Octember, Nonate, and Decate. The days of the week are, in order, Mornday, Duceday, Porday, Thirgday, Feyday, Fesday, Hepday, Godday, and Peceday.
The Imperial Holidays are set by each Emperor, although tradition indicates where the holidays are usually set. The Holidays are currently as follows; New Years Day is before the first day of Janus, and is the first day of a new year. New Years Day is dedicated to the re-creation of hope each year, and is marked by festivities symbolizing the casting aside of old cares and a new start. Empire Day celebrates Celegian culture and the glory of the empire. It is before the first day of Thermallus. Holy Day is dedicated to the Pantheon and the preeminence of the Gods. It is celebrated before the first day of August. The Emperor's Birthday is set before the first day of the month the Emperor is born in, and is currently the day before Nonate. The Emperors birthday is the most festive holiday, being celebrated by massive parties and the giving of gifts. Plenty Day celebrates the bounty of the Empire, and is marked by feasting, fertility rites, and reflection on the hardships that have been faced or conquered. It is before the first day of Decate.
In addition to the Imperial Holidays, each province also has the right to declare up to nine provincial holidays. These usually include Province Day, Harvest Day, Winterfest, and Fests. In addition many provinces set one or more province specific holidays, such as Pellania's Day of Blood, Morian's Day of Darkness and Joyeuse, Celegia's Great March, Aarn's Day of Avengers, and many others. It is said that on any day there is a holiday somewhere in the Empire, and there is some truth in that, but most Provincial holidays, especially declared Fest days, are on Fesdays.
Most days of the week have associated properties, some of which are social and others of which are facts of the way the world works.
The first day of the week is Mornday, and it has a duality to it. It is considered propitious to set out on new ventures on Morndays, and most business ventures, trips, openings, etc are placed on Mornday. At the same time, Mornday is the day of grief. Remembrances of lost lives and loves is common on Mornday, as are pilgrimages and sacrifices to the various spirits and deities. It is a very common practice to sacrifice at temples of Termanant on Mornday, both to honor and grieve those passed and to welcome those returning into their new lives.
Duceday is a simple day, which has a neutral aspect. Duceday is considered to be the day of mighty labors, as most people feel invigorated after Mornday and plunge into work with a renewed sense of vigor. Duceday has a definite blue collar, roll up your sleeves and get on with it, no nonsense reputation.
Porday is the bane of all workers of magic, and is a dreary sort of day for everyone else. Magic, for completely unknown reasons, fluctuates dramatically on a regular cycle and at dawn of Porday it becomes weaker and unreliable. Many dweomerworkers simply don't open shop on Porday, preferring to wait out the drudgery. As well, the spirits and powers seem to feel the lack of magic and are mostly quiescent on Porday. Conversely, brawlers, thugs, and thieves come out to play on Porday, as many wards and Guardians are sapped and the mages dangerous spells are less efficacious. Of course, many wealthy merchants, wizards, sages and the like hire more mundane guards on Porday for exactly this reason!
Thirgday has the reputation of being the gentle day, and all healing is supposed to be enhanced on this day, both natural and mystic. Since mana has returned to normal at sunrise on Thirgday, many people who have been feeling poorly will flock to the temples on thirgdays, as well as seeking out herbalists, surgeons, wise elders for advice, etc. An unpleasant side effect of this is the tendency to attempt dangerous feats and stunts on thirgdays, as well as delaying hazardous projects until thirgday in order to mitigate the adverse effects of accidents. This of course means that many bad accidents do happen on thirgdays, just when demand for healing is at its peak.
The next day is Feyday, and is the reward to all those mages for suffering through Porday. Magic peaks at dawn on feyday, and remains vigorous for the entire day. Feydays fairly seem to shimmer when the peaks are particularly high, and the spirits are often very active on these days as well. Many wizards attempt particularly difficult, hazardous, and powerful enchantments on Feydays, and often wizards will wait months for a strong feyday to try especially precious enchantments. Conversely, warriors, thieves and the like hate Feyday, and often refuse to bestir themselves, as it can be even more hazardous than usual to face a spirit or mage on feyday.
After Feyday is Fesday, which is a day off from work for most people. Many declared Fests are on fesdays, and it is generally a day to kick back and relax, in preparation for the remainder of the week. Most people really enjoy fesdays. In the social calendar, Fesday is considered to be the most propitious day of the week for celebrations, a concept which is heartily encouraged by the Revelers. Most businesses close on Fesday and many parties and get togethers are scheduled for fesdays.
The day after Fesday is Hepday, and like ducedays, hepday is a workers day. After the rest on fesday, most people are much more vigorous and energetic on hepdays and lots of work gets done.
After hepday is Godday, when the overweening might of the Gods asserts itself. Priests are busy on Godday, taking care of important prayers and offerings, as well as pressing forward with their gods political views and temporal chores. Most worshippers avoid the temples on Goddays, as the atmosphere can be suffocating with the presence of the Power and it is frankly intimidating. The spirits are also vigorous on goddays, but not so strongly as on feydays. Supplicants and propitiants often choose Godday to present themselves at the temples to press their cases, hoping to utilize the attention of the Powers to advance their own causes.
The last day of the week is Peceday. It is a day of rest but unlike fesday, peceday is a day of quiet. Most people stay home, sleep, do light chores or hobbies, spend time with loved ones, etc.. It is considered extremely bad form to fight or otherwise have conflicts on peceday, but of course that doesn't completely stop that sort of thing. All in all, peceday is a very quiet day, which means that the amount of underhanded dealings on pecedays is quite high, and the Watch is usually busy.
Time-Keeping and Distance Measures in the Celegian Empire
The Celegian day is similar to ours in many respects, with a few important differences. The day is divided into twenty-four hours, each of sixty minutes, each having a further sixty seconds. Due to the general lack of accurate time pieces, few people bother much with seconds and often dispense with minutes as well. In addition, the day is divided into six watches, each having four hours and being delineated by when its middle is. For example, the noon watch begins at ten A.M. and ends at two P.M. The six watches are: Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Midnight, Nether, and Morning. The most common way of stating a time will be by calling the hour of the watch. For example, if sunrise is in first hour of Morningwatch, it is between six and seven A.M. The second hour of Evenwatch is from seven to eight P.M. The Celegians do not use A.M. or P.M., nor do they use "Military Time", as the practice of dividing up the days this way eliminates any duplication of hours during the day or night. As are so many things in the Empire, this system of timekeeping comes from the military, and their habit of maintaining a rigid twenty four hour guard. A usual military duty cycle will be three watches on duty, a watch of relief time, and two watches of sleep time. A Celegian trooper is required to be able to march one league in one watch, three times a day, for a week, in full kit. This pace will cover 270 miles in a week and is one of the reasons why the Legions are so feared, as they were quite mobile even before the Gates were put into use.
This brings us to the method in which Celegians measure distance. Again, this system is quite similar to the one we are familiar with, with a few differences. The base unit of measure is the inch, also widely called a knuck by many craftsmen. The inch is divided into halves, quarters, etc., when more exact measures are required, which is not terribly often. Four inches make up a hand, widely used by craftsmen and ranchers. Twelve inches make up a foot, as we are familiar with. Five feet make up a step, a unit based very loosely on a double stride. The step is an old unit of measure, and many sages feel that Celegians have been growing taller over the years and in the dim past a step was much closer to a typical double stride. The step is made up of sixty inches, like an hour is made up of sixty minutes. Most people today cover the so-called step n' foot in a double stride, which is incidentally the height most people claim. A step is made up of sixty inches, or fifteen hands, or ten speds, or six racs, or five feet, or three cubits, or two yarts. Most of these units of measure are rare today and little used. One thousand steps make up a mile, or 5000 feet. The longest unit of distance is the league, which is ten miles, or ten thousand steps. The most common units of area measure are the square foot or the square step. There are twenty five square feet in a square step. The most common measure of property and land is the dekamil, A dekamil is one hundred square steps, or a piece of ground fifty feet on a side. An acre is exactly 17.44 dekamils, for comparison purposes. The standard size of a farm which would be worked by one man is one hundred dekamils, and is enough land to feed him and his family, as well as grow enough crops to make a decent living. For large areas of ground square miles are sometimes used, with each one covering 10,000 dekamils. For really large areas of ground, square leagues are used, each of which is one hundred square miles.
The Physical World and The Glory of the Heavens
The world of Erth is very different from what we are used to, and for proper role playing the players should be aware of some of the differences.
Celegia does not use the same laws of physics as we do here. The world of Celegia is constructed of only nine building blocks, the Fundaments. There are various flavors of each of the nine Fundaments, as there are different kinds of flame, different types of light, different types of darkness, and so on. To a Celegian there is no such thing as "gravity". The reason most things fall down is because most solids have either stone or water in them, and both stone and water are plunging fundaments. Fire and air and life and light are vaulting fundaments, while dark and death and water and stone are plunging fundaments.
These properties lead to some effects which seem perfectly logical to a celegian but are very odd to us. For example, if you climb a normal mountain on Celegia you are moving upwards to where the Vaulting tangibles are most prevalent. The air grows thicker and more refreshing at high altitude. It becomes very light and bright, since there is more light high up as well. It grows slightly warmer when you begin to climb, because fire is also a vaulting fundament, but then it grows cooler again for some reason that is still unexplained. Lastly, life itself is a vaulting fundament, so the fertility of high level lands is almost unnerving, with plants growing at incredible speeds, wounds healing quicker, etc. The reason most very tall mountains are not covered in verdant growth is the fact that stone is a plunging fundament and so is water, so soil that is formed at altitude washes away more often than not.
A Celegian looking up at the sky in daylight sees a clear blue dome of unsurpassed beauty that is very similar to our own. On a clear day careful observation of the daylight sky will reveal the differences. The sky seems clear and featureless, but it actually is covered from side to side with a webwork of fine silvery lines. This is because the Gods have to shatter holes in the sky in order to come into the world, and some of them aren't very careful about repairing it when they are done. This is the reason that Domana's Axe is also known as Skybreaker, as Domana is reputed to be the first God who came into the world in this way. In addition to this fine webwork of cracks, the sky has a very faint topography similar to mountains and valleys, and in fact if you fly high enough you can reach the sky and touch it. Up close it is revealed that the sky is a reverse mirror image of the ground below, but it does not reflect perfectly. The sky is much smoother and more pronounced than the ground is. The sky itself is cold to the touch and is extremely hard. No known force can affect it, except for the Gods. Sages theorize that the sky absorbs fire and uses it to hold itself up, but no way has been found to test this theory. The sky is transparent for the most part which allows the sun to shine through.
Night begins when the sun falls below the horizon. When the sun touches the horizon the blue day sky draws backward from west to east like a vast curtain, revealing the gorgeous twilight sky. The sunset plays out upon the twilight sky until the sun vanishes. After a period of twilight the rosy glow of the twilight sky rolls up across the heavens from east to west and follows the sun below the horizon. This process takes about ten minutes and is called drawing the curtain of night. The black, starspeckled night sky replaces twilight rose, and sages theorize that the blue day sky and rosy dawn and twilight skies are curtains that lie between the sky and the stars. At night the webwork of cracks in the sky is much more noticeable than in the day, and forms a lovely lace curtain effect, behind which the celestial pageantry is played out each night. The stars wheel and precess in complex, ever shifting patterns, that with skill can be used to navigate with great precision. Many stars are arranged into groups, called constellations. There are nine Great Constellations, and nine Lesser Constellations, and nine Great Stars. The Great Stars are single stars of unsurpassed brightness, being out shone only by the Sun, Lune, and the flares and comets. These constellations are the most stable objects in the sky and are constant in their paths. The rest of the stars slide and cavort in celestial solitude. Few if any of the stars rise or set, but instead follow smoothly curving paths back and forth across the heavens. Celegia has one very large and bright moon called either Lune or the Moon. Lune rises and sets every night, but it always rises and sets in a different spot on the horizon. Lune precesses around the horizon in orderly steps and completely circles the horizon every thirty six days. Lune also rarely undergoes a phase shift, when it rises as only a half disk for nine consecutive days. These occur every few years. Lunes face is silvery white and on many nights will have various features, but they are different on nearly every night. Portents and omens are commonly inferred from the constellations the Moon rises in and crosses over, with a very complicated set of astrological formulae being used to give a daily horoscope. Also in the night sky are several other singular phenomena. Celegia usually sees one or two comets every month, and once every year or so a Great Comet will appear, which is often brighter than the moon while it lasts. Most comets last one or two weeks, while a great comet may last a month. Also seen in the heavens are objects called flares, which are straight lines of light, very sharply edged, smaller than a comet but brighter, which moves across the heavens scattering stars like a powerboat leaving a wake. These usually last only a night, although rarely there will be a Great Flare which is as bright as sunlight and lasts for several days. Another odd phenomenon is called a glory. A glory forms when several thousand wandering stars briefly join together to create a solid ring of starlight. A glory usually lasts several weeks then drifts apart, and one will occur every few years. Similar to a glory but much larger and brighter is a Whorl. A Whorl begins like a glory but grows much more quickly. A Whorl also dissipates much more quickly than a glory. At their peak, Whorls form every wandering star in the heavens into a single spiraling pinwheel in the sky, which often covers a third or more of the heavens. Lune and the constellations are the only things unaffected by a Whorl. A very rare event is called a spike and is a solid swath of light which reaches from horizon to horizon in a single night and has every color swirling madly within it. Spikes last only a night, and happen every decade or so, although there hasn't been one for over thirty years now. Many other effects occur as well and skywatching is a popular hobby in Celegia.
Shortly before dawn the rosy pink predawn sky rolls like a vast shutter across the vault of the sky from east to west, sealing off the frenzied heavens. The sunrise is played on the dawn sky and just before sunrise the dawn sky becomes solid clear blue and the sun rises. The sun is a stolid performer compared to the frenetic night sky, and always rises and sets in exactly the same place on the horizon. The only excitement the sun generates is a dignified precession over the course of a year, so it rises high in the sky in summer and skirts the horizon in winter.
The Delving
After this spectacular show in the heavens, a journey downward is in order. The plunging Fundaments are Stone, Water, Dark, and Death. As you make your way into a deep cave it immediately grows dark. As you reach ever deeper it grows truly black, and soon light sources begin to fail, smothered by the overwhelming darkness. At extremely deep levels you can actually SEE darkness oozing out of the surface of the stone tunnels. Usually you have to stop long before you reach that depth, since you run out of air considerably above that level. Air rises, so in very deep tunnels there is nothing to breathe. As well, it begins to grow bitterly cold as you reach a great depth, and usually the tunnel becomes so choked with ice you cannot proceed any further long before you suffocate or begin to see darkness oozing out of the stone. Finally and most frighteningly, death is a plunging fundament. If you reach a level deep enough, the death grows so prevalent it smothers your lifeforce and you die.