The Long Wake

With the Night of the Watch (at the start of this week) begins the month-long public mourning period of the Long Wake, commemorating the many fallen heroes and others who fell throughout the long period of the Man-Kzin Wars centuries past. This period has, perhaps, especial poignancy this year as the threat of the Red Cloud and his Kzinti warbands hangs over the cities of Cothon-Gadeed.

Beginning this evening, the nights will be filled with the sound of drums, the high eerie trilling of elegiac pipes, and the keening of mourning songs. Professional mourners like the Poor Brothers of the Dead will begin processions memorializing the dead, both within the city and along the Pallbearers' Way, and they will also bear both those who have recently died to be interred in the Necropolis of the Tel al Safina as well as sacrifices to be dedicated to the dead already there. These sacrifices are of course be bloodless--sweet cakes and milk--for it is not wise to give bloody victims to the dead.

At the end of the Long Wake will be Stillest Night (on 27 January), a commemoration specifically of the poet-squire Nguen hla Rii standing silent watch over his slain master, the warrior Karkhor, composing the death song as he waited for dawn to come for him to retrieve Kharkor's corpse to Tsurr after a disastrous battle. This is a week of silent mourning when nothing new is undertaken and no downtime is to be undertaken even by barbarians.

And then, as Stillest Night ends, the next week brings the beginning of the Coreguyi Games! These are the great circuit of athletic and gladiatorial games, mostly held within the huge Coreguyi Arena in Cothon, which begin the solar-year cycle of the Tripartite Games. These Games will be held during the week ending 3 February this year, and more information will be provided for them then.

For player-characters interested in participating in the Long Wake, the scribes suggest these opportunities (these are suggestions; individuals may describe for themselves what they are paying for if they prefer otherwise):

Gold Spent	Public Mourning
25 dn	Pay for a great mess of pottage of beans and greens for the Poor Brothers
50 dn	Hire torchbearers for a procession to the Necropolis
100 dn	Pay for a Poor Brother's stint as a tomb-watcher for the month
250 dn	Dedicate a burial mask of a hero in silver or electrum to the Necropolis
500 dn	Hire gladiators for a private funeral games for the recent dead

Any player-character who spends at least 100 dinars will get +1 on reactions with the Poor Brothers of the Dead for the rest of the year. Spending 500+ dinars on ostentatious public mourning will extend this +1 on reactions to the Dual-Cities at large.

The Long March

 With the beginning of a new lunar year, the ritual saga of Gadeed advances toward its final act. Mirroring the other two years with the Long Wake and the Long Peace, this month's lead-up to the next set of Games begins with another time of fasting and quiet penitence, the Long March. This last time of fasting is sometimes also called "The Dread of Gadeed", for it is in memoriam of a time when the fate of Gadeed seemed surely to be razed by Kzinti as Old Tsurr was before, its walls thrown down, its towers cast into ruin, its lands run with blood, and its people enslaved.

It is a time to look back on the last set of Man-Kzin Wars, wherein Gadeed found itself encircled by her Kzin enemies, and was almost finally destroyed.

Yet why is it a "march"? Because this time is also a time of anticipation for the arrival of the Klackons, whose march from the Toxic Jungles far to the east was long indeed, and whose arrival and integration with the growing city of Cothon finally ensured the defense of the united Dual-Cities against the Kzinti. With the arrival of the Klackons--the Xolda and their Attine cousins--the waves of the ocean of warrior cats were finally broken and cast back.

It is traditional during this time to fast throughout the day, and to abstain from meat in general as a way of honoring and remembering the privations of the Klackons on their march across the plains, as well as a way to remember the suffering of the populace of Gadeed at that time. There is no authority enforcing fasting or abstention, and many a barbarian pays no heed to these traditions, but for those who wish to fit in with the society of Cothon-Gadeed, it is considered ill-mannered to flout this custom.

This is also another season in which the mourning-societies are widely employed, by wealthy citizens especially, to process ritually through the cities and along the circuit of the walls with Klackon effigies, recreating the Long March itself.

Other than fasting and abstaining, this is also a time when citizens who would otherwise have little to do with Klackons now make their way into the western neighborhoods of the city to make public donations to the Klackons' shrines in an act of public thanks for their coming and their devotion to the cities. The Dual-Cities will make a public sacrifice to celebrate the Xolda at the end of the four weeks of the Long March, as part of the celebration of the games at that time, but many feel that it is only just to make their own private offerings at this time.

There are several ways for player-characters to interact with this ritual time:

Action	Result
fast and abstain from meat for the month	adventure with -1 to saves through the month; at the end of December receive a permanent +1 to hp
hire a procession of professional mourners to march the circuit of the walls	spend up to 100 xp per level; gain an equal amount of xp
make an offering at the Shrine of Xanna-Haxanna or some other Klackon hero	gain a +1 on reactions with Xolda Klackons for one month for every 100 dinars you spend on the offering; if you spend at least 250 dinars, you may also roll a free relationship cultivation check with any Xolda Klackon you know

The Long Peace

or

The Peace of Nagib al Nasser

During this, the beginning of the third lunar year of the solar cycle of the Year of Khusra-Fadhlan, the annual Feasts of Investiture are followed by the rest period commemorating a lasting peace in the old Man-Kzin Wars that make up so much of the state mythology of Cothon-Gadeed.

Just as last year's Long Wake commemorated all the heroic dead of the many wars in a weeks-long period of public mourning, now the Long Peace commemorates the time of an especially binding peace in a weeks-long period of public rest from works. Or rather, has commemorated, as the Long Peace ends tonight!--and was little remarked on by the industrious barbarians up to their own business in the neighborhoods of Cothon and in the depths of the Tel al Safina.

Are the Scribes who have failed to update this chronicle for the past few weeks using this Long Peace as a convenient excuse for their lack of industry? Perhaps! But such is the excuse of the inhabitants of both of the Dual-Cities for the past few weeks, and quiet has reigned in the streets and neighborhoods; the souks have been silent of the hawking of wares, the arenas empty of games or honor-duels, the harbors quiet, for thought the winds of trade never cease, at least the Guild of Longshoremen have the courtesy to keep their work quiet during this time of peace.

And the barbarian-adventurers? The Survivors of the Tel, Durham of the Ringing Anvil, Lord Althis of the Crag Keep, et al.? Surely they have noticed the quiet of the city, but many of them have affairs of their own to run outside the city, and so to them the Peace was little remarked, and has passed by essentially unnoticed. If their industry during this time of public rest caused any scandal, well, it is somewhat to be expected--even the citizen among them, Sesel, is of barbarian ancestry!--and so their ignorance of custom can be looked past, for now.

All of which is to say, the Long Peace has no effect on or for player-characters (... this year). It is noted here rather for historical interest, and as a reminder of the passing of the seasons (and maybe a bit of an excuse!).

What will probably be of more interest to such player-characters are the public Games that will follow this conclusion of the Long Peace.

A Bit of History

During the Twelfth War there was a famous campaign on which a company of Kzin Heroes embarked on an attempt at naval conquest against the more distant holdings of Gadeed. The threat was great, as even then Gadeed relied so much on her maritime trade to feed her citizens and populace--the hinterlands could never produce enough grain!--and so the response from the (at the time) small military cothon at the head of the Garden River to cut off the Kzin adventurers was swift.

After a campaign of sail and counter-sail, the Heroes were finally caught on a smaller island, and the fleet from Gadeed put fire to the Kzin ships, leaving the Heroes and their auxiliaries and slaves stranded, cut off from supplies. Rather than starving Gadeed, the Heroes found themselves starving ... and in an unprecedented move, many of them surrendered as prisoners to Gadeed rather than die the humiliating death of hunger (though only after eating most of their slaves, and realizing that recourse would not last forever ...).

This capture of a company of Kzinti seemed as if fortune were finally smiling on Gadeed; alas, fortune is a fickle mistress, and later that cycle, a host of men were captured in a major land battle elsewhere in the war. However, the Souffet Nagib made the most of the captive Heroes--he sent word to the Kzinti that he was willing to negotiate some kind of a peace for a prisoner exchange, rather than allow his entire army to be enslaved or devoured.

The overture couldn't have come at a better time, for in the ranks of the Kzinti at the time a movement desiring a different way of life had just come into the ascendant. This so-called Hané, or "Pride", had a different vision for Kzin-life than the endless nomadic cycles of the traditional Heroic bands, and because their voices had become ascendant in the councils of the Kzinti, they actually listened to Nagib's pleas for peace--and after long negotiations, agreed to a great truce (several solar cycles!) and a prisoner exchange.

Though this Peace of Nagib was doomed to be broken early, it is still commemorated as a time of hope for the end of the Man-Kzin Wars--and indeed with the ascension of the Hane, it presaged the ultimate development of the stable landed polities of the Mrrshan to the south, the growth of which did finally end the otherwise constant Wars.

This Peace was actually negotiated by the lords of the Bani Tsamr, a once potent clan that is now long since extinct; but their name lives on in the modern Tsamri-Hane Games which will commence with the ending of the so-called Long Peace ...

And Time Will Claim its End!

 Oat and sekeker-sweet-wax cakes are left out on doorsteps for mourners and spirits alike; pottage of meer-a-pot is cooked and left untouched by those who can afford food for the dead; those living within the Dual-Cities dress in black, though those of means use the opportunity to display their "mourning" in the newest style; and all the while, the mourning societies fill the streets, keening for the ancient dead, singing hymns to ancient heroes, and marching along the Pallbearers' Way with paeans rising up as they go to guard the tombs of the warriors of old.

Ostentatious use of wealth in public mourning is at a premium during these four weeks of the Long Wake, a time commemorating human heroes (especially those of the Man-Kzin Wars), and no citizen would dare forget to spend at least a small donation during this time.

Those denizens, metics, and other resident-barbarians who wish to advance their station likewise dare not forget to spend some coin on commemoration of the dead ...

And indeed, certain of the barbarians new-come to the Mother of Cities have publicly expended coin according to custom during the Long Wake:

Durham, associated with the guesthouse at the Kantor Kabljauhof ignores the scoffing of the Hanse foreigners and sets out to hire one of the gladiators of the Coreguyi Arena to represent the ancient hero Sekeilos and also to hire a number of the Poor Brothers of the Dead for a proper procession to the Necropolis, lighted during the night by a number of torchbearers singing hymns for the living and the dead (spending 300 gold altogether):

"Full of life, shine,
"without any pain,
"for life is short,
"and time will claim its end!"

Meanwhile, Torkol and Gan of Cothon-Under-Star spend 350 gold together to hire tomb-watchers from among the Poor Brothers to ascend to the entrance of the crypt and Heroön of Dalan II. the Great. There, the Poor Brothers are not merely to watch and guard, but to engage in sparring and athletic contests, as attested of heroes in the ancient epics.

And fellow Survivor of the Tel Sesel further spends his own 300 gold on a separate remembrance, having a sweet-wax effigy of Itra the Swift formed and laid on a bier, and then carried to the Necropolis by the Poor Brothers, led by a Coreguyan gladiator in the guise of Itra's spirit. Wunderman Barabajagal was further enticed to join this procession, and to offer a cup of his "cosmic drink" both to the living warrior, and to leave a cup at the doorstep of the dead ... the hymns remembered for Itra are of a distinctly different character, recalling the warrior's obsessive loneliness ...