So I'm trying to figure out ways to add more flavour to the Western (specifically, Loskalmi?) calendar and thus everyday life, somewhat in the vein of all the flavour that the Heortling calendar provides. I'm using the calendar developed by Trotsky as a starting point; while I realise the the Book of Glorious Joy may not be quite canonical, it seems like as good a jumping-off point as any.
Some ideas I had so far...
- The Westerners still have the five seasons and Sacred Time (Holiday). It seems to me that their seasons might mythologically correspond to the Five Actions, or at least there may be some ideas of that nature, possibly leftovers of subtle pagan influences from the bad old days before the Church. Of course putting it that way explicitly may be heretical, but the First Action/Sea Season is when the seeds of future work are sown, for example. It works well enough for Fifth Action/Storm Season as well - all is in conflict and dismay. The others seem more difficult to reconcile, admittedly. The Sacred Time may correspond to the Ice Age.
- Correspondences with other calendars - simply put, might that exist? Certainly important agricultural festivals (not observed in the cities!) might happen at more or less the same times.
- Saint and founder days. Founder days seem like something that would mostly just be important to their respective schools, for the most part. Saint days, however, might see the orderlies of locally relevant saints (the saint who protects against elves in a parish that's near a elven forest, for example) carrying out some magically significant actions - if only for the utilitarian reasons of their magic being easier to access at this time. Trotsky suggested Palenna, the patron saint of romantic love - her day may well be a sort of Valentine's Day equivalent, at least where people have heard of her. Also, I see there being special sermons on saint days, related to their appropriate topics. Xemela and the value of altruism...
I'm curious about how Westerners view Time in general. It doesn't seem to be quite as important for them as it is for Theyalans; and I understand that a big theme may be their belief in linear time as opposed to pagan cyclical time. Still, they have to notice that cycles do exist as well - day and night, the changing of seasons, the change of generations...
I wonder how they reconcile it with their linear outlook? Is Time just a temporary condition, a result of the devolution of the world? But if it's a straightforward devolution, why does it keep repeating?
I suspect that wizardly and churchly teachings on those matters and what peasants and people who are close to them tend to accept as given may vary considerably (same as in medieval Europe - or anywhere, for that matter). Which makes me wonder about Loskalm in particular, since every really educated person there will have been exposed to both perspectives...
Forgive the heretical rambling.
Yours,
Daniel Adamov