Calendaring

Michigamee has a strange amalgamation of the native peoples calendar, and the calendar of the first adventurers that saw fit to come to these lands and settle in, but a tretise of exactly how it derives is not really of interest to most people.

Functionally, the calendar is based on the 28 day cycle of the primary moon. The calendar is 13 months long, divided into months of 28 days, 7 days in a week. There are two days that don't fit into the calendar itself: Hogmanay is the first day of the new year, and Midyear comes exactly when it sounds. These are pulled out of the calendar due to lunar phenonema that happens at this time of year. The beginning of the year gives us two nights (Hogmanay, and the first of Linara) with dark moons, while Midyear brightens the skies with an additional night of a full moon before the 15th of Dragon.

Most human and halfling women, and their companions if they pay close attention to their calendars, will notice that they have near 13 menses a year as well. I've known few cultures that have not associated the moon as a feminine creature, given the cyclical natures they share.

Back to the actual calendaring at hand. Knowing the basics given above, the first quarter of each phase is the 8th of the month, the full moon the 15th, last quarter on the 22nd, and the dark moon starts the month again on the first. If you're not up with your elfin languages, you may be interested to know that "Ithil" is the prefix for anything lunar based, thus the primary phases of the moon occur on Ithildaga, or "Day of the Moon", though the suffix "daga" is not elfin, but a commonisation of the native term for day, "Dhagha".

The minor moon does play into the calendaring however. While the primary moon has a 28 day cycle, the minor moon runs her course over 244 days, again with the dark moon starting the cycle on day 1. This results in the Dark phases of both the primary and minor moons to coincide on Hogmanay every 3 years. Every fourth of these (thus, every 12 years), the minor moon eclipses the primary. It is a sight to behold, as the edges of the minor moon seem to flame.

These 12 year blocks, Ithil Yenra or "Great Moon Years" and usually simplified just to "Yenra", are further grouped into another group of 12, known as The Pelnaur, or "Cycles of Fire". These cycles start when the pair of moons is eclipsed during their lunar conjunction, resulting in a double blood moon.

Now that you understand that, we actually come to the astrological thoughts. Modern astrology, like the rest of the calendar and indeed modern religious thought, seems to have been based on a combination of the native peoples version, and the thoughts of the early explorers, especially the months as it's known that some of these creatures are not native to these lands, but followed the explorers here.

The most basic part of modern astrology, the part that everyone is familiar with, is based on the position of the full moon in the sky each month, which also gives the months their names. At the beginning of the year, the moon rules the sky, and all pay homage to Linara, the Lady of the Moons. The full moon almost obscures the eye of the Beholder, giving that constellation dominion over the 2nd month. As the year continues, the Harpy bears the full moon almost like a child, the traveling woman shines upon the twin heads of the Ettin, and so on through Dryad, Stirge, Wyvern, Dragon, Unicorn, Hydra, Chimera, Kraken, and Basilisk.

Exactly how the order of beasts for the years was decided is still debated, as there are many stories, but each Yenra of the Palnaur has a different animal as its figure. Master Astrologists say this animal "pulls" on the other signs, adjusting how they influence us. It's thus possible to be born under the signs of the Lunar Dragon, of the Yenra Rat.

Children born of the Linara are often divided into 5 groups, depending on the phase of the primary moon at the time, whether New, Half, Full, Crescent, or Gibbous.