“It used to be said, that in places like this, nature eventually failed to support man, the truth is exactly the reverse, here man failed to support nature. Ten thousand years ago man regarded the natural world as divine, but as he domesticated animals and plants so nature lost some of its mystery and appeared to be little more than a larder that could be raided with impunity.” — David Attenborough

Cay Da rejects Hoi Lan Fa's claim over Tudo Island and the other forest islands around the city, holding that it was all part of the dwarves' imperialist land grab. They seek sovereignty and protection for the traditional elf lands and the elf people. They see how the city thinks itself better than the earth and her guardians, the elves, and they will no longer play along to human and dwarven arrogance.

The Jin calendar is based on the twelve lunar cycles of the 360-day year. Each month begins with the new moon and consists of three ten-day weeks. The first week of a month is known as the "Rising Week" and the last week is known as the "Falling Week"; these are associated with yang and yin, respectively. The week otherwise do not denote anything particular; the 'work week' as a concept does not really exist, particularly for the rural folk who must work every day.

Month|Name|Hanzi|Season|Holidays
1|Lei Jyut "Plum Month"|李月|Winter|1st to 10th - New Year's Festival; 10th Lantern Festival
2|Ngau Jyut "Cow Month"|牛月|Spring|1st - Qing Ming Festival
3|Aang Jyut "Jar Month"|罌月|Spring|3rd - Babies' Day
4|Faan Jyut "Rice Month"|飯月|Spring
5|Lin Jyut "Lotus Month"|蓮月|Summer|1st - Dragon Festival
6|Beng Jyut "Sickness Month"|病月|Summer|6th - Orchid Festival
7|Leoi Jyut "Thunder Month"|雷月|Summer
8|Kei Jyut "Unicorn Month"|麒月|Autumn|1st - Autumn Moon Festival
9|Gwai Jyut "Ghost Month"|鬼月|Autumn|11th to 20th - Ghost Week; 20th Ghost Festival
10|Lung Jyut "Dragon Month"|龍月|Autumn
11|Jin Jyut "Feast Month"|筵月|Winter|1st - Winter Feast
12|Soeng Jyut "Last Month"|上月|Winter|

New Year's Festival is a week-long celebration marked by feasts and hope for the new year. Although there will be public celebrations, the festival is meant to be celebrated with family. During this time, families will pray to their ancestors and the gods for prosperity and happiness. It is important to clean the house for the new year and to eat cleanly, typically vegetarian. Family members will exchange red envelopes filled with cash and children will be showered with gifts. Jyu Po, the Fish Grandmother, is particularly honored as the patron of these activities.

The Lantern Festival closes the week and every person is expected to burn their past year's sins in the flame that lifts their floating lantern into the sky with their wishes for the new year. Those who live by the water may instead float the lantern down a river or out to sea. These lanterns are said to go Jyu Po, who blesses the good-hearted with great fortune.

Qing Ming Festival welcomes the new spring with more muted celebration, typically those who have hidden away all winter will come out and have picnics in green spaces with friends. The house is once again cleaned and the first fresh foods of the emerging spring will be shared. It is also important to visit family graves that may have been neglected through the winter and clean them and lay out new offerings.

Babies' Day celebrates children, particularly the newborns of the past year. Children get to enjoy free or cheap candies. In Hoi Lan Fa, there are often free health check-ups for all babies under a year old.

Dragon Festival recognizes the summer solstice and celebrations will attempt to brighten the night to match the longest day. For the southern Jin, the festival also recognizes that the beginning of summer means the beginning of monsoon season. As dragons are associated with rain and storms, they are honored to invite gentler rains this year. The displays and celebration are also meant to show the General of Winds that the people are not afraid of his wrath; the god is said to appreciate the bravado and will not punish them for cowardice.

Orchid Festival is a romantic holiday. In particular, it celebrates newlyweds, young love, and passionate flings.

Autumn Moon Festival recognizes the shortening of days and is celebrated with a family feast and moon cakes. Autumn Sister is honored on this night. In Jin imperial custom, civil examinations are taken right at the end of Thunder Month so the feast is also a chance to celebrate the hard work students have gone through. The folk of Hoi Lan Fa see it as a mark of an end to the torturous summer.

Ghost Week is said to be a time when the veils between this world and the next

Winter Feast

Awesome calendar. I never did get to work on mine, I really should. I love the structure you used.

~SE++

Thanks. I struggled a lot and it's because calendars are really difficult. A lunar year is shorter than a solar year, so there's no way to have a purely lunar calendar without the seasons roving all over. A lunisolar calendar is complicated and you have to insert a thirteenth month every so often.

And then I had the realization that I could just make the lunar cycle exactly thirty days rather than slightly less than thirty days and the year exactly twelve lunar months rather than slightly more than twelve.

I did consider keeping the 365 days and having the last five days be the ghost week, similar to the Mayan calendar, but I decided to just do the simplest thing and have a super consistent lunisolar calendar. So the full moon is always the sixteenth day of the month, etc.

In all fairness, the whole thing is really just relative to Earth. Your world can have any rotation you want and anyone who gives you grief about it has no leg to stand on because "The DM said so."

~SE++

I'm really enjoying the work you've put into the world DreamSpinner. I'm glad I decided to join the PbP, and looking forward to exploring the world.

Thanks

Dream, have you come up with any art for the world yet, either commissioned or on your own?

I have not. I've mainly been poaching art I find, but nothing specific to this setting. I am not a good enough fantasy artist to do it myself and I do not want to spend money to commission art / ask artists to do labor for free.

Since I am now unemployed, I may have some more time to try to get more writing done for this. Something I am not happy about is how so many of the races are just one state. I dislike that model a lot, even though I think I've avoided making each race a monoculture.

I realized this wasn't anywhere but lost in the game thread, so:

If you haven't seen it DS, you have a wiki page set up for you by Sapper. You're free to edit it as you like. The information would probably be even more accessible in wiki format.

~SE++

Blank page is blank. Needs more things!

I may work on transitioning to the wiki soon since I've been working on the orcs and I feel like the wiki would be easier to jump around on.

I am going to need some tutelage with wiki-ing. Like how do I make new pages? Am I just blocked from doing so? Can I not change the name of a page?

Follow a link to a page that doesn't exist. You get a prompt to make a new page.

To make a new page simply try to go to the page and you'll be told "this page doesnt exist would you like to make one". You can either do this by typing what you want the page to be named in the search box or by linking to a page when typing content into a page that does exist then clicking the link you made.

I dont think you can change the name of a page but I know you can move it to a new name and then request that the old page be deleted.

Cool, thanks.

I started working on the wiki.

Nice formatting. I really like the setting, even if the Cantonese makes things hard to grasp sometimes.