The Calendar of the Kingdom

The Months

Ironmonth — First Month The year's hardest beginning. Named for the quality of the cold rather than any metalwork. The ground does not yield. The glass coins of Ironmonth transactions are frequently murky — debts called in, arrangements ended, the year's accumulated grievances settled before the new accounts open. A traditional time for honest reckoning.

Stillmonth — Second Month The false quiet before the season turns. Nothing moves that does not have to. Dream-Houses report their highest volume in Stillmonth — the interior life becomes active when the exterior world offers nothing. The Dreamer card is associated with this month.

Firstgreen — Third Month The earliest signs. Not warmth exactly but the withdrawal of cold. Guild planting records show that Firstgreen begins, on average, eleven days later than the equivalent month in the world beyond the divergence — a consequence of the kingdom's more northerly situation.

Openmonth — Fourth Month The month the year begins in earnest. Markets resume their full activity. The glass coin economy becomes visible again after the contracted quiet of winter. New apprenticeships are registered with the Guilds. New dreams commissioned.

Pollenmonth — Fifth Month Named for the obvious reason. The Queen of Pollen card is associated with this month, and with the specific quality of attention it requires — the world is abundant and full of signal; the difficulty is in knowing which signals matter. A month for discernment rather than action.

Longlight — Sixth Month The kingdom's midsummer equivalent. The longest days. The Lethe runs low and the glasswrights work extended shifts. Sovereign Glass oaths are traditionally sworn in Longlight — the light being considered a witness in its own right.

Turning — Seventh Month The pivot. The light begins its withdrawal without the cold having yet arrived. A month considered philosophically significant — the kingdom has a rich tradition of writing produced in Turning, when the year's direction becomes clear but its consequences have not yet been felt.

Harvestmonth — Eighth Month The Mechanical Reaper's month. The practical, abundant, unsentimental settling of accounts between the land and those who work it. The Harvest card is associated with this month but its meaning is not simply agricultural — it asks what you are ready to collect from the year so far.

Deepgold — Ninth Month The month that looks better in memory than in experience. The light is genuinely beautiful. The cold is beginning its approach and the combination produces a quality of awareness that the kingdom's poets have attempted to describe in every generation without quite succeeding. A month for noticing.

Greymonth — Tenth Month The descent. Not miserable, exactly, but serious. The glass coin economy shows its second peak of murky transactions in Greymonth — not debts exactly but the kind of difficult truths that can only be told when the year has lost its brightness and pretence becomes too effortful. A month for honest conversation.

Deepmonth — Eleventh Month The kingdom's equivalent of November. The Ferryman's busiest season — not because more people cross in Deepmonth, but because the crossings feel more significant. The river is high. The coins ring differently over deep water.

Lastlight — Twelfth Month The final month of the formal calendar. The Intelligencer's year-end edition is published in Lastlight. Dream-Houses offer their highest rates and report their most complex commissions. The year is ending and people wish, more urgently than usual, to be prepared for what comes next.

The Intercalary Days Between three and seven days, determined by Guild astronomers in Lastlight of the preceding year. Called variously the Spare Days, the Unnamed, or the Between. Contracts entered into during the Intercalary Days are considered to have a particular quality — they are neither of the old year nor the new, and disputes arising from them fall under a separate jurisdiction that the Guild of Glasswrights and the Guild of Onierurgists have been arguing about for two centuries.

Significant Days

The Lethe Tides — Openmonth, three days When the river runs highest and the sandbanks are most productive. Not a public festival but a Guild working period, observed with some ceremony. Glass coin transactions made from Lethe Tide coins are considered especially binding.

The Remembrance of the Telegraph — Greymonth, one day A quiet observance, not officially sanctioned by the Guild, held by those who worked on or were affected by the Aetheric Telegraph before its decommissioning. What is remembered is not publicly described.

The Longest Accounting — Ironmonth, one day The traditional day for settling debts and ending arrangements. Not festive. Associated with glass coins run to their final clarity or their deepest murk.

Guild Founding Days — variable Each Guild observes its own founding anniversary with ceremonies that are not open to non-members. The Guild of Onierurgists' founding day is not publicly recorded — the Guild maintains that its founding predates the calendar.

The Night of Coins — Intercalary Days On the last of the Intercalary Days, it is customary to hold the glass coins you were given during the year up to whatever light is available and consider what they show. This is a private observance. It is not discussed.