The Dwarven Calendar

((This is necessarily a work in progress))

Although the elves of the Green Wood were the first race to be created on Saas, their immortality in a place without seasons gave them no reason to either record the passing of events or measure time.  It was not until the dwarves were created that time was measured and history became a worthy field of study.  While elves lived forever, dwarves had a finite life span and once they died the events of their lives were lost.  The Calendar Dal Caer Da Bhazrak (trans. Calendar of the Castle of the Towering King) is kept in Greathold and records every event which has ever transpired upon Saas that has come to the knowledge of the dwarves.

The Saasian Year

Years on Saas are 440 days long and there are eleven months in the year.  Each month has 4 weeks and each week is 10 days long.  So there are 44 weeks in a year.  Saas has no leap years and careful measurements of time by senior dwarf chronologists revealed that Durruk Bha keeps the rotational speed of Saas constant around its sun.  The last day of the year is also the shortest, so the new year begins as the days begin to get longer.  The summer solstice, the longest day of the year, falls on the 20^th of Sordal.

Months of the Year

All races have come to use the dwarven calendar and use the dwarf names for months.  The translations are not necessarily literal, but come from dwarf myth and should be considered proper nouns rather than a guide to translation of the dwarf language.

 

No.      Dwarf Name               Common Translation

1.         Frina                            Ice Fortress

2.         Dorin                            Winter’s Death

3.         Elfindal                         Elvesmonth

4.         Burrus                          The Blooming

5.         Kundon                        The Warm Days or King’s Dawn

6.         Sordal                          Sor’s Month or Sor’s Reign

7.         Mattrus                        The Resting Days

8.         Gorgold                        Gor’s Gold or The Harvest

9.         Lordal                          Lor’s Month or The Rains

10.       Undangi                        The Drawing Down

11.       Dakkus                        The Dark Days

 

Calendar Dal Caer Da Bhazrak

The records of the dwarf race began on day 1 of year 1 and the events which predate that including the birth of the dwarf race (officially at –86) and going as far back as the founding of the world (at an official date of –27895) are included in books of dwarven folklore rather than history.  Events which the dwarves did not know about at the time have subsequently been added, it is not unusual for a year to go unnamed for centuries as information filters in and for great events discovered later to cause years to be re-named.

 

1: The Year of Founding

1^st Frina – Dwarven scribes begin recording the day-to-day events of the dwarven people under the instruction of the sage Calendar.

34^th Dorin – The dwarven sage and chronologist, Calendar, completes his study of time.  He declares that one year is always 440 days long, one day contains 24 hours, each hour has 60 minutes and every minute contains 60 seconds.  1 second lasts the length of time it takes for a 1 pound weight to fall 1 foot in distance.

1^st Kundon – Aran is crowned the first king of the youthful race of dwarves.

4^th Kundon – Aran I places the foundation stone for the city of Caer Bhazrak which will grow to become the most heavily fortified citadel in the world.

 

2: The Year of Records

1^st Frina – King Aran gives royal consent to the recording of events and names the records the Calendar Dal Caer Da Bhazrak and agrees to fund further work by Calendar.

7^th Mattrus – Calendar completes the first sand timer which weighs more than three hundred pounds and keeps time with a reasonable degree of accuracy; being less than ten minutes wrong either way after measuring time for an entire day.

 

3: The Year of the Dead King

40^th Burrus – While supervising a construction site King Aran is killed by falling masonry.

27^th Kundon – Aran II is crowned king, he takes the name Aran Aran in honour of his father and begins the tradition of honouring ones ancestors in this way which has persevered to the present.

 

4: The Year of Yellow Dragons

2^nd Sordal – A pair of mature yellow dragons sets up roost near to the dwarf city.

7^th Sordal – The yellow dragons begin preying on the dwarves.

12^th Sordal – Aran II takes up his axe and leads a small army of dwarves against the dragons.  He and his men are slaughtered.

17^th Sordal – Aran Aran Aran is hastily crowned Aran III, though he is the brother not the son of the previous king.  In dwarf terms he is little better than a child and when he leads a second attack against the dragons he too is killed.

20^th Sordal – A council of dwarves meets and elects a new king since the previous dwarf line has died out.  The council includes both warriors and priests of all the dwarven gods and they elect the priest Karradra who is crowned king of a new dwarven dynasty that same day.

21^st Sordal – Karradra decides that the best course of action is not to attack the dragons in open battle.  Instead he calls upon the Gods to help them.  Gor responds by opening a crack in the earth which contains iron.  This is the first mineral ever seen on Saas.  Quickly the dwarves learn how to forge the metal and replace their stone and wooden weapons with metal ones.

9^th Mattrus – A hundred dwarf warriors are armed with the new iron weapons and march against the dragons.  Despite taking heavy casualties the dragons are beaten and killed.

11^th Mattrus to 20^th Mattrus – A week of celebrations is held to honour this, the first great triumph of the dwarf race.  Karradra earns himself the moniker “the Wise” and several portents are revealed to priests that the dwarf gods are pleased.

 

222: The Year of Wisdom’s Passing

32^nd Burrus – Karradra “the Wise” (Karradra Aran Aran Aran) dies of a heart attack, unexpectedly while attending to his morning prayers.  The dwarves belive Gor has called him to greater things.

2^nd Kundon – Nichto Karradra Aran Aran Aran, a capable general and great friend to the previous king is crowned Nichto I.

3^rd Kundon – Nichto’s first act as king is to declare Karradra I a saint.  His statue is the first to stand in the Hall of Heroes in Greathold.

5^th Kundon – Nichto brings together priests and warriors and commands them to learn from the example of wisdom combine with strength set by Karradra I.  The result is the founding of Gorred Fraten Ka Sunden Dal Dwarvenik Ka Mattandan Hammer Nal Dwarvenkind, the dwarven order of paladins which translates to common as the Most Holy Order of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Dwarven Virtue and of the Sacred Hammer.

 

12,274: The Fall

13^th Undangi – The forces of light meet the forces of darkness in bloody battle which lasts for a full day.

14^th Undangi – The Elder God of Pride, Miradros Daldakkan, most loved then most hated of all things, is shattered by the Ferendel.  His essence scatters to the winds with the largest fragment falling in the easternmost part of the continent of Alanthor creating a massive crater 15 miles across.  The Mother creates the firmament of heaven and withdraws from the world, all the remaining Elder Gods accompany her.

 

20,143: The Year of Mist

21^st Gorgold – The Cadredriel Ringar comes to the hills north of the Green Wood.  There he begins creating the spells which will shroud the hills in mist, creating the realm which will take his name.

6^th Lordal – Ringar begins to exterminate the orcs and fimir which inhabit the Ringar Hills.  His campaign against them kills tens of thousands of the savage creatures.

 

20,238: The Year of Amber Coins

Some time during this year, probably in the spring, human tribes in the Icy North begin the slow progress of migration south to warmer lands, the process takes them into the Ringar Hills.

9^th Lordal – A bounty of amber is discovered and Caer Amber (known in common as Amber Hold) is founded by a family lead by the prospector Mund Polto Gund Hembar Azar Hembar.

38^th Dakkus – Amber Hold crowns its first king, Mund I, who establishes small pieces of polished amber as the predominant local currency, a practice which persists to the present day.

 

20,251: The Year of the Fallen Wizard

31^st Frina – Ringar takes notice of the bands of humans who have begun wandering through Ringar in search of food.

19^th Dorin – Ringar begins to transform the humans in his realm and creates the Aroakan, a race of bird men he intends to serve him.

35^th Elfindal – Aethlis, who had carefully watched Ringar’s activities, intervenes.  The arch mage duels with Ringar and strips him of large portions of his power.  After ensuring a large number of humans escape the mists of Ringar safely he then transforms Ringar’s misty realm into a prison from which the mage cannot escape.

 

21,250: The Year of Man’s Rising

Dwarves estimate that First Empire of Man was founded by the Arba at around this time.

 

22,465: The Year of Dark Portents

For the first half of this year the visions of dwarf priests are troubled by terrifying visions of death and destruction, though they are unable to find the source.

19^th Sordal – In a bloody coup the warlord Zaranar seizes control of the First Empire and proclaims himself a living god.

 

22,472: The Year of the Bad Destiny

11^th Dakkus – A dark elf mage, on an unknown quest, is captured by forces of the First Empire.  It is the first elf ever seen by the people of the First Empire.

28^th Dakkus – News of the mage reaches Zaranar.  Having no knowledge of sorcery, the warlord tortures the mage into revealing its secrets.

 

22,473: The Year of the Rising Darkness

10^th Frina – The dark elf mage dies under Zaranar’s torture, but not before being forced to reveal the fundamental’s of magic.

39^th Gorgold – Zaranar becomes the first human to ever cast a magical spell, it is only a cantrip, but it is significant because it was done without one of the focus objects which modern day human wizards require.  How he managed to cast spells without a focus object remains a mystery to this day.

 

22,486: The Year of the Closed Cup

14^th Kundon – Zaranar, now in his fifties, begins to fear for his ebbing mortality and directs his studies towards extending his life.

 

22,627: The Year of Dread

20^th Dorin – Zaranar, having extended his life far beyond its natural span, finds that the sorceries which he has relied on are failing him and that death is imminent.  With some urgency he redoubles his efforts to find a new way to survive.

29^th Sordal – Zaranar decides to move beyond death.  In a ritual which consumes a hundred newborn children Zaranar dies, slitting his own throat from ear to ear, then rises up again as Saas’s first Lich.

30^th Sordal – Eager to experiment with his expanded powers, and having no need for mortal servants, Zaranar begins the wholesale slaughter of the citizens of the First Empire, consuming their souls and waxing vast in power.

31^st Sordal – Shezaram, an apprentice of Zaranar and author of the now infamous Journal, is killed by his master.

33^rd Sordal – The flux in life energies caused by the activities of the Dread Lich Zaranar attracts the attention of the elven archmage Aethlis.

34^th Sordal – Aethlis confronts the Dread Lich Zaranar who is at the very height of his power.  The resultant battle drains the life from the centre of Alanthor creating the central desert.  The remnants of the First Empire are smothered by the sands and the dead rise from their graves by the million.

37^th Sordal – The battle between the two great sorcerers comes to a close as the power Zaranar stole is exhausted.  Aethlis destroys his physical form, but is weak and unable to prevent the spirit of the Dread Lich from retreating into the trackless wastes of the central desert.

38^th Sordal – Although recovered from his exertions, Aethlis is unable to locate the spirit of Zaranar, though he continues to search for some ten years, during which time he visits much of what was buried beneath the sands and learns the necromantic secrets of the First Empire and through them many of the long guarded spells used by the dark elves.

 

22,628: The Year of Hot Sandy Winds

During this year, due to the new desert to the north, dwarves noticed the nights were colder and the days warmer than before, though the difference was slight.  Also, some time during this year the few survivors of the apocalyptic reign of Zaranar band together and establish the foundations of the Second Empire.

 

23,311: The Year of Meeting Tall Ugly Things

9^th Elfindal – On this day is recorded the first meeting between the dwarves and the humans of the Yiln tribe.  Because of the naming of the year it can be presumed that the first impression that the barbarous Yiln made on the dwarves was not brilliant.  In the years that followed though, the dwarves warmed a little to the humans, seeing them as potential trading partners if not exactly equals.  It is from the dwarves that the Yiln learned how to read and write and cultivate the land.

 

23,320: The Year of the Man King

Throughout this year the Yiln warlord Alanth adds more tribes to his growing fife.  Towards the autumn of the year, Alanth succeeds in uniting all the Yiln under his rule.

12^th Elfindal – Ventrig Dan Pa-Xin is slain by his most trusted Dahl.  Chidan Dan Pa-Xin declares himself the Arch-Assassin and begins to solidify his hold on power.

 

23,321: The Year of the Dead Men

In a campaign lasting less than four months Alanth subjugates the Arba, effectively ending the period in their history known as the Second Empire and beginning the Third Empire.  Alanth names the continent after himself and declares himself Emperor of Alanthor.

12^th Lordal – Emperor Alanth, believing himself to be unbeatable, decides to attempt the subjugation of the dwarves.  His army marches on Greathold, where he and his troops are slaughtered by missile fire before they even reach the main gates.

 

23,323: The Year of Gnats

In this year seven successive Emperors of Alanthor lead armies against the dwarves, all of them beaten badly, all the emperors losing their lives in the conflicts.  Not until the reign of Alanth V is there peace between the dwarves and humans.

37^th Undangi – Alanth V apologises and must have been charismatic in his apology, because many dwarves travel to human lands to sell their services as stone masons and engineers.

 

23,909: The Year of Folly

5^th Dorin – A cartel of dwarven merchant families purchase the Great Plain from the centaurs for an undisclosed volume of jewellery.  Before the year is over they realise that the Great Plain has no mineral wealth and resists cultivation.  Creditors seize the cartel’s assets and since then ownership of Great Plain has been disputed.

 

23,911: The Year of the Treacherous King

5^th Elfindal – Tarquinius, whom later generations will remember as “The Backstabber”, becomes Emperor of Alanthor under dubious circumstances.  The previous royal line which dated back to Alanth V dies out completely within one year and Tarquinius seizes power.  Tarquinius is the first of the House of Northolt which reigns in Alanthor to the present day.

6^th Elfindal – Tarquinius invites the Hund people, who had for almost a thousand years intermittently warred with the Yiln, to a peace conference.  Their great chiefs attend and are poisoned by the Emperor’s own hand.

7^th Elfindal – Before news of the treachery has reached them, an assassin posing as a messenger, gains access to the royal family of the Hund, killing them all.

9^th Elfindal – An Alanthorian army marches into Hund territory.

13^th Elfindal – A second, larger, army from Alanthor, marches into Hund land, lead by Tarquinius himself.

15^th Elfindal – After a few minor skirmishes the resistance of the Hund is broken and Tarquinius declares himself Emperor of the united land of Alanthor.

6^th Burrus – For failing to pay his assassin, Tarquinius, the architect of the most infamous treachery in human history, is killed.

9^th Burrus – Eager to cement the achievements of his predecessor, but also keen to heal the wounds caused by them, Richard III, brother to Tarquinius quickly becomes Emperor and very publicly promotes many Hund to his senior council.  Richard III proves to be an adept statesman, for within a year the armies of Alanthor swell with the ranks of many patriotic Hund and tributes flow in from Hund nobles eager to secure their own position in the new order.

 

23,918: The Year of the Black Dragon

40^th Gorgold – Richard III of Alanthor meets and slays Belutraxus Durrunthrax The Despoiler, an ancient and powerful black dragon.  The arch mage Aethlis observes the battle and is said to have been impressed by the human leader.

25^th Lordal – Aethlis presents the Emperor of Alanthor with the Imperial Throne which will “sit at the head of all tables” and the Crown of Kings which will “rule all men justly even were the wearer unjust to all men”.  The Imperial capital is moved to the small town of Udilschlass which is renamed Capitol.

26^th Lordal – At the Emperor’s request, Aethlis establishes the Palaces of Magic in Capitol and agrees to teach the secrets of magic to humans.  It is most likely this act which earns Richard the moniker “Elf-Friend”.

 

23,935: The Year of Joint Endeavour

Dwarf stonemasons, master engineers, human architects and labourers and Aethlis agree on a plan to create a bridge which will span the great river Al at Capitol.  The river is a mile wide at this point and widens further as it goes to the sea.  Construction of such a bridge is viewed by many as impossible.

 

23,986: The Spanning

10^th Dorin – The 10^th of Dorin becomes known as Spanday.  The great bridge across the Al is completed.  In the end it is almost two miles wide and climbs slowly until its highest point over the centre of the river where it is possible for a galleon to sail underneath the stone arches.  It is the largest single construction ever undertaken and owes much of the speed of its construction to Aethlis’s magic.  The construction is estimated to have cost 2 billion gold pieces and claimed over fifty thousand lives in construction accidents (an average of more than two per day).  It remains a true wonder of the world whose image is on all imperial coins and has made its way into the Imperial coat of arms.  The bridge remains toll free and more than ten thousand wagons, fifty thousand horses, a quarter of a million people and a million livestock a day pass over it.

 

24,264: The Year of the Copper Kettle

12^th Mattrus – Tarn Buluk Buluk Tarn Azhik Karradra is born in Greathold.

 

24,277: The Year of Abundant Mountain Rabbits

The spring of this year sees a boom in the population of mountain rabbits.  Dwarves work furiously to create new rabbit recipes.

36^th Elfindal – Adolph Horsemann Huntergard Horsemann Adolph Adolf publishes his treatise On The Horses Of Nations, wherein he states controversially that the breeding stock of the human and elven realms has degraded and that within a decade the value of the horses on the Great Plain will double.

1^st Burrus – Adolph negotiates terms with the Centaur leaders at Herdsmeet to become the exclusive agent for the sale of their horses in human realms.

 

24,278: The Year of Abundant Mountain Weasels

The previous years boom in rabbits causes a boom in the population of their main predator the mountain weasel.  Dwarves work furiously to create new weasel recipes.

 

24,289: The Year of Many Horses

2^nd Burrus – The dwarf merchant lord Adolph Horsemann Huntergard Horsemann Adolph Adolf negotiates the contract which confirms the dwarf and centaur business alliance as the exclusive horse suppliers to the Riders of Denn.

20^th Mattrus – Adolph Horsemann Huntergard Horsemann Adolph Adolf secures the largest contract of his career, supplying horses to the imperial armies of Alanthor.

23^rd Mattrus – The merchant lord passes away in Capitol, the cause unknown but he is known to have picked up many rare diseases on his travels and a flare-up of several of them at once is the most likely cause, his body is brought back to Ruby Castle where the other merchants, who had despised him for most of his life, pay heartfelt tributes.  Adolph’s many treatises on trading and economics form the foundations of modern day dwarven trade practices.

 

24,314: The Year of the Clever Coin

23^rd Mattrus – 25 years after his death, the Adolph Horsemann Huntergard Horsemann Adolph Adolf school is founded in Ruby Castle.  Within a generation it has become the foremost dwarven institute of learning and theories of supply, demand, price and the basics of economics are created there.  The school’s utilitarian point of view becomes known as Adolphism and subsequently becomes the dominant philosophy in dwarf society.

 

24,511: The Year of Jewelled Hammers

40^th Dakkus – Tarn Buluk Buluk Tarn Azhik Karradra is elected Chief Runemaster of Greathold, responsible for the training of all the master smiths in the dwarven empire.

 

24,845: The Year of Ancient Rest

4^th Undangi – High King Aran XXXIII (Aran Aran Aran Khebin Aran Bhezik), the second longest reigning of all dwarf kings, dies peacefully in bed after 512 years of variable fortune for the dwarf people.

27^th Undangi – Bhezik Aran Aran Aran Khebin Aran, grandson of the previous High King, is crowned Bhezik IX.

 

24,847: The Year of the Black Crown

3^rd Dakkus – The Witch Queen Gortha-Shall is slain by her only daughter, Agata, who assumes the mantle of Queen of the Witches and Mistress of the Coven of the Black Moon.

 

24,848: The Year of Broomsticks

4^th Frina – Agata the Black, Witch Queen, begins the systematic slaughter of her entire coven, replacing the dead witches one-by-one with her own daughters.  The Witchwars, as the battles become known, cause strife throughout Boune, the Windward Steppes and the east of the Great Plain.

 

24,855: The Year of the New Black Moon

20^th Sordal – The night of the solstice sees the ending of the Witchwars and for the first time in 8 years the Coven of the Black Moon meets as one family, united under Agata the Black.

 

25,021: The Year of Vunbell’s Find

17^th Burrus – The dwarf engineer Vunbell Horlkin Dnaukspfelld Forge Jinkin Gra creates the first successful dwarf submersible mining vessel which allows the harvesting of minerals from the sea floor.

1^st Kundon – Marcus of Mensh is crowned Prince.  A dark period in the history of the principality begins where the despotic Prince drains its once fabulous wealth to fund his wars of conquest.

 

25,050: The Year of the Warlord’s Reckoning

29^th Undangi – Prince Marcus of Mensh succumbs to a respiratory illness and dies.  His son, Prince Henry the Unready, assumes command of his father’s armies.

 

25,051: The Year of Mensh’s Defence

8^th Frina – Prince Henry of Mensh is killed at the Battle of Gubden Field.  The victorious Princes of South Enshall and The Marchings advance upon undefended Mensh with the intent of ending the ten year war begun by Prince Marcus.

10^th Frina – Kurt von Morden, assisted by his wife the powerful diviner Arianne von Morden, organise the defences of Mensh against the advancing armies.

31^st Frina – The armies of South Enshall and The Marchings are put to flight from the city of Mensh having lost a third of their number to the guerrilla actions of the Mensh militia.

32^nd Frina – Kurt von Morden is declared by the people of the city of Mensh to be their Prince.

37^th Frina – The King of Boune acknowledges Prince Kurt and elevates the House von Morden to the nobility.  Arianne becomes known as the Lady of Mensh.

40^th Mattrus – The King of Boune is assassinated by Prince Charles of Lotno, the action plunges Boune into civil war.

 

25,054: The Year of Despot’s Failing

1^st Elfindal – Prince Charles of Lotno, the uncrowned King of Boune, is brought to final battle at Bigsley Mere by Prince Julian of Dundersdenn.

2^nd Kundon – Julian of Dundersdenn is crowned King of Boune, ending a turbulent period in the country’s history and restoring the rule of law to The Peaks, placing his brother Lionel on the throne as the first Prince of The Peaks in almost a hundred years.

 

25,100: The Year of Young Kings

26^th Frina – A twenty year political stalemate is broken and Nordun elects its first king to come from the storm lashed eastern block in seven hundred years.  King Belthos inherits a land assaulted by many enemies within its borders.

11^th Kundon – Dwarf High King Bhezik IX (Bhezik Aran Aran Aran Khebin Aran) dies after a reign of 255 years of prosperity and peace.

36^th Kundon – Aran Bhezik Aran Aran Aran Khebin, son of the previous High King is crowned Aran XXXIV.

 

25,101: The Current Year

As yet no events have come to the attention of the scribes in Greathold which merit inclusion in this abridged version of the Calendar.

 

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