Calendar

I don’t really relish the idea of creating my own Calendar for the Valley of Blue Snails settings. They have always struck me as a bit fruity for some reason. On other hand saying 'February 23rd' displaces you from the setting, so I think I will go with the former evil rather than the later evil. I have only mentioned a Calendar incidentally in a few previous posts:

Journal of Khazrel Nakhu “Journey to the Cities Afar” 32’s93

Off the top of my head 32’s93 is referring to year since the last great season, with 93 great seasons total. For the general populace it would simply be ‘year 32’ as everyone presumes this record was since the last great season, and in this case, since The Great Rot which I spoke of below. Since seasons are the theme, there will be no such things as months. Things like moon or star movements are insignificant compared to the seasons in Valley of Blue Snails. The folk would use the seasons by name, and perhaps descriptors like 'early, mid, deep' if they want to be specific.

I doubt I will even bother with things such as delineated weeks. While a few educated folks would keep track of such things, but the vast majority of the population does not. Most folks would refer to these educated individuals in the rare cases when they need such information. Holy men, alchemist, scholars, and engineers would keep track of when important days would arise and inform the necessary powers. Anniversary, harvest days, festivals, solstice and so forth. By in large the general population goes no further than this.

As for the 93 great seasons prior, very few know them all and almost all of those are Elves with very long memories. The other races just assume the Elves are correct and there were 93 prior great season. 93 great seasons would be in the area of 2800+ years - I am generalizing an average of 25 years between every great season, each lasting 5 or so years. Why 93? Fuck if I know, I picked it at random. Maybe no one remembers that long ago or some great season was so bad, that everyone before that time died. In fact I’m leaning towards the later. I generally like small-scale cataclysm events rather than huge world shaking ones such as the twin cataclysm in Greyhawk or the dropping of a mountain in Dragonlance. However I think I can stomach a great season that was so bad, so catastrophic, that it killed everyone. No legends, no myths, no rumors, no anything. Everyone, and I mean everyone was killed. After that time it took divinity to bring any sort of life back from that ultimate doom.

Anyhow, I don’t think I will be fruity enough to name every individual year since The Great Rot. I think it is perfectly sufficient to say ‘year 32’ and leave it at that. Other descriptors would be something like ‘mid-spring’, ‘deep-autumn’, or ‘the spring-summer turn’. I don’t see any particular need to be more detailed than that for the average folk. The clerics, town council and Dwarven clock makers can bother with the details. The average peasantry would be interested in the former great seasons however and these I will name. A lot of legends, strange events and big changes occur during these great seasons after all (the Occulus of note). These are the recent ones I had listed in a previous post.

24 year - 7 year Spring (sapphiron) - 22 years - 4 year Winter (hibernel) - 28 years - 6 year Autumn (leafenfel) - 33 years - 9 year Summer (Estaoculus - the summer of eyes) - 32 years - 4 year Spring (sinchola) - 41 years - 3 year Spring (vaunderfel) - 21 years - 4 year Autumn (the great rot) - 31 years - present year

This goes back more than 300 years so I think that is sufficient for most history that is pertinent in Valley of Blue Snails lore. I may occasionally refer to greats season before that time, but these would likely be very powerful and important ones. Ones that created new races or drastically changed the world for instance.