Journeywoman's Journeys, A Fantasy Age of Exploration Worldbuilding Quest (Updated Daily)

A/N said:

eh, not super happy with this, but oh well, I promised daily updates, so they can't all be bangers

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Hopping back on Astride, Anne leans slightly to tug on Jalynn's arm, "Hey! Let's go say hi!"

Jalynn sighs and orders her troops to assist Tarn with preparing the caravan before turning the reins of her horse around to follow Anne as she passes by where her father was in a deep discussion with the caravan leader.

"You just want to see the Boundlings" Jalynn grumbles as her horse catches up to Astride, "Don't lie to me."

Anne grins, "Don't lie to me either, you're just as interested."

Jalynn shakes her head emphatically, "You know damn well I got enough of them as a kid." she shudders, "I still remember what it feels like to hit bone with a wooden sword."

"So you say. I've been out on Nartanatotin with you. You can't look away."

Jalynn wrinkles her nose in distaste, "I study how they move because I might need to fight them someday." she gives an exaggerated shiver of distaste, "They don't move right."

"Eh, you just hit them really hard with a heavy object." says Anne dismissively, as the two draw near to the Aramvolk woman and her two charges, "That's what Matriarch Annasavai says."

Jalynn was right about one thing, Boundlings didn't move right.

These two shuffled with an unnatural gait, moving in long strides that are accompanied by a regular clicking. These two were clearly put together as labourers, moving slowly and with heavy iron additions worked into the bones and very little of the low golden glow that Boundlings made for higher purposes gave off.

As for Bryn, she's not the tallest of her people, a bit shorter than Anne and a bit taller than Jalynn, but she's clearly the same age if maybe a little bit older, with tanned skin that was nearly bronze, brown eyes, and golden hair that was clearly dyed at some expense. Like many younger Aramvolk she dressed with trinkets made from semi-precious metals that provided flashes of reflected light against the dull green and brown travelling clothes that she was wearing.

As the two riders drew near, Bryn regarded them curiously, casting looks over at the caravan that was now mostly ready to depart.

"Ho!" she says, confused, "I am here." she stops to look up at Anne and Jalynn, "Pray, tell me what you need."

"Hi! I'm Anne!" says Anne, hopping off of Astride and landing next to Bryn, throwing any hesitancy to the wind, "They're so neat." she points at the two Boundling skeleton constructs, "Did you make them yourself!" She asks excitedly as she stands up on her tiptoes to see over the bonebinder as the two constructs come to an awkward stop behind their mistress.

"My apologies." says Jalynn, staying on her horse, "Coronet Jalynn, I lead the half-troop of the Indigo Dragoons that will be seeing to your preservation." she waves her hand dismissively at Anne, "This is Anne-Seht of Clan Cohacos, the caravan's scribe, and my friend." she rolls her eyes, "Though times like this I can't fathom why."

Bryn looks between Anne and Jalynn, momentarily expression unreadable, biting her lip for a long moment before breaking out in a smile as wide and bright as a rainbow, "I'm so excited to meet you. I'm Bryn." She turns to point at her Boundlings, "That one is Sister Two and the other is Brother Three" naming them in turn, despite them looking virtual identical to Anne's eyes.

"Methinks," she holds a hand to her face and chews on a nail for a moment, "Methinks we're going to get along great!" she says, clapping Anne on the back as Jalynn fights the smile attempting to break through her frown, "I bet we're going to have so many adventures."

Jalynn rolls her eyes again, "Great, naturally." she sighs, "Now there are two of them." she pats her horse's neck absently, "Ugh, optimists, I am going to lose so, so many arguments." she complains loudly.

-

Hey so this update made me realise that we're missing a key aspect of worldbuilding that I've sort of been avoiding: measurements!

To freely give you guys the option of keeping it simple I'm going to provide two options for [Basically Metric] and [Basically Imperial] so that I can just write them out without having to use fictional measures by simply replacing them with fantasy words.

Alternatively, you can submit another set of customary units that Khot-Sen-Lanua and their allies use, these will be the units Anne thinks in and thus, the units I use as the default in the text.

And next update, I'm going to be asking for measurements of time, so keep that in mind, and I will be providing default options that aren't modern common units of time. I will be leaving this vote to run for two days to give people time to come up with something new.

[ ] [Fantasy Metric]

[ ] [Fantasy Imperial]

[ ] Write in

As soon as the caravan puts the towers of Khot-Sen-Lanua behind them Anne-Seht begins having the time of her life.

With the simple process of moving up the coast to Gerra leaving few tasks to occupy her time, Anne fills her days as an unofficial outrider for the party, roaming to and fro across the caravan's path, Astride as delighted as Anne is to race about seemingly aimlessly from fascinating object to fascinating object.

Anne has scarcely been outside the city before, at most she'd been just outside the city to practice navigation or tracking, but she'd never before left the sight of Khot's many towers.

She recognized many of the plants and animals they passed by, but was amazed by the sheer gorgeousness of the land, the way that the tides lapped at rocky shores crowded with, the well crafted bridges of stone built over creeks and inlets, the small bright-blue roofed wooden waystations built by the Oarsman's Association along the path for shelter. When a mist descended on the morning of the second day, the path turned into something mystical, transformed in her imagination into a realm of the spirits where anything could happen.

From time to time they'd pass by other travellers, and even other caravans and Anne would excitedly ask them about where they'd been and where they were going, her curiosity in an overdrive. Each night she would excitedly tell her companions about what she'd seen and heard that day over the cook fires.

Jalynn, who had travelled to Gerra at least a dozen times before under the instruction of her father or other Glittering Spears officers, spent her days pointedly ignoring Anne's interest in the passing scenery in favour of directing the actions of the five Dragoons under her command. She would simply raise an eyebrow at Anne whenever Anne would excitedly tell her about what she'd left the path to investigate before reminding her that even an outrider shouldn't stray too far from the marked paths.

Bryn, who stayed with the caravan, seemed to welcome Anne's evening chatter with open ears but she also advised that Anne stay within sight of the caravan, one night launching into a cheerfully told story about how the homelands of her Aramvolk ancestors used to mark paths and rivers with bright white stones a half day's walk out. She brightly explained that, if one crossed by those white stones, they would be assumed to be scouting for an invasion and be summarily killed.

Anne took the point under advisement, but countered with: 1) this was friendly territory, and 2) she was invincible, so there was nothing to worry about and she would continue to investigate everything they passed while she could.

Tarn for his part, mostly grumbled and also warned that later in the trip she would need to be more careful about roaming as it's a very good way. Anne nodded respectfully, though her youthful invincibility made the young woman consider the man's warnings as the product of fearful old age.

As the days rolled on, and the terrain ceased to entertain her quite as much. She still loved the little islands in the distance, the wash of tides over smooth rock under the green boughs of massive cedars, and the small creeks that ran down towards the coast, but she was now acclimatising to them and eagerly looked ahead for the next phase of her adventure: the port city of Gerra, leading her to constantly glance ahead, hoping to spot any sign of the harbour town.

-

Today we're going to vote on what kind of calendar and time keeping that Khot-Sen-Lanua uses. At the moment I'm assuming two things: days are roughly the same length as Earth's, and that there are 4 seasons roughly analogous to Earth's.

For this vote (which will also have two days to unfold) I'm going to ask that write ins answer the following questions :

-How is it calculated?
-How many days are there?
-How are these days divided?
-How is time organised on each day?
-Are there any special notes about the calendar?
-Please name the months?

If the winning vote does not have full details I will simply assign ones that feel right. Furthermore, while this world will have other calendars, the assumption is that they will all converge on the same number of days per year and the same length of days if the winning calendar is different from the vaguely imagined

EXAMPLES:

[ ] Contemporary Solar

Calculated by start of first month to start of next first month

365 Days, organised into:
-12 Months varying from 29 to 31 days
-52 weeks of 7 days each

Each day is organised into:
-24 hours, each composed of 60 minutes calculated from midnight to midnight

Notes:
-Compensates for drift due to days being fractionally longer than assumed by adding an extra day every four years.
-Descended from the Calendar used by the Roman Republic

Months:
-January
-February
-March
-April
-May
-June
-July
-August
-September
-October
-November
-December

[ ] French Republican

Calculated from autumnal equinox to autumnal equinox

356 Days, organised into:
-4 seasons of 3 months
-12 months of 30 days each
-Months divided into 3 10 day weeks

Each day is organised into:
-100 minutes of 100 seconds

Notes:
-Compensates for drift due to days being fractionally longer than assumed by adding an extra day every four years.
-Extra five or six days are considered "complementary days" for holidays.
-Each day is also named for things associated with the rural economy
-Created by Revolutionary Republican France to rationalise time in accordance with the enlightenment era.

Months:
-Vendémiaire
-Brumiaire
-Frimaire
-Nivôse
-Pluviôse
-Ventôse
-Germinal
-Floréal
-Prairial
-Messidor
-Thermidor
-Fructidor