The Wide World's End (59 page)

The period of Horseman is fifty days.

The period of Trumpeter is fifteen days. A half-cycle of Trumpeter is a “call.” Calls are either “bright” or “dark” depending on whether Trumpeter is aloft or not. (Usage: “He doesn't expect to be back until next bright call.”)

The seasons are not irregular, as on Earth. But the moons' motion is not uniform through the sky: motion is faster near the horizons, slowest at zenith. Astronomical objects are brighter in the west, dimmer in the east.

The three moons and the sun rise in the west and set in the east. The stars have a different motion entirely, rotating NWSE around a celestial pole. The pole points at a different constellation among a group of seven (the polar constellations) each year. (Hence, a different group of nonpolar constellations is visible near the horizons each year.) This seven-year cycle (the Ring) is the basis for dating, with individual years within it named for their particular polar constellations.

The polar constellations are the Reaper, the Ship, the Hunter, the Door, the Kneeling Man, the River, and the Wolf.

There is an intrapolar constellation, the Hands, within the space inscribed by the motion of the pole.

This calendar was first developed in the Wardlands, and then it spread to the unguarded lands by exiles. In the Wardlands, years are dated from the founding of New Moorhope, the center of learning. The action of
The Wide World's End
begins in the 407th Ring, Moorhope year 3242, the Year of the Hunter.

2.
The Years of
The Wide World's End

407th Ring, 2843 N.M.: Year of the Door

1.
Cymbals
.

New Year. Winter begins.
1st: Chariot & Trumpeter set. Horseman rises.
8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

2.
Jaric
.

1st: Horseman sets. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

3.
Brenting
.

1st: Horseman rises. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

4.
Drums.

1st: Horseman sets. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.
Midnight of 94th day of the year (19 Drums):
Chariot rises. Spring begins.

5.
Rain
.

1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

6.
Marrying
.

1st: Horseman sets. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

7.
Ambrose
.

1st: Horseman rises. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

8.
Harps
.

1st: Horseman sets.13th: Trumpeter rises.

Evening of the 188th day of year (19 Harps):

Chariot sets; Midyear—Summer begins.

9.
Tohrt
.

1st: Horseman rises. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

10.
Remembering
.

1st: Horseman sets. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

11.
Victory
.

1st: Horseman rises.13th: Trumpeter rises.

12.
Harvesting
.

1st: Horseman sets. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

6th: Chariot rises, noon of 281st day of year. Fall begins.

13.
Mother and Maiden
.

1st: Horseman rises. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

14.
Bayring
.

1st: Horseman sets. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

15.
Borderer
.

1st: Horseman rises. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

407th Ring, 2848 N.M.: Year of the Kneeling Man

1.
Cymbals
.

New Year. Winter begins.

1st: Chariot, Horseman & Trumpeter all set.

8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

2.
Jaric
.

1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

3.
Brenting
.

1st: Horseman sets. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

4.
Drums.

1st: Horseman rises. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

Midnight of 94th day of the year (19 Drums):

Chariot rises. Spring begins.

5.
Rain
.

1st: Horseman sets. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

6.
Marrying
.

1st: Horseman rises. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

7.
Ambrose
.

1st: Horseman sets. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

8.
Harps
.

1st: Horseman rises.13th: Trumpeter rises.

Evening of the 188th day of year (19 Harps):

Chariot sets; Midyear—Summer begins.

9.
Tohrt
.

1st: Horseman sets. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

10.
Remembering
.

1st: Horseman rises. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

11.
Victory
.

1st: Horseman sets.13th: Trumpeter rises.

12.
Harvesting
.

1st: Horseman rises. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

6th: Chariot rises, noon of 281st day of year. Fall begins.

13.
Mother and Maiden
.

1st: Horseman sets. 8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.

14.
Bayring
.

1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises.

15.
Borderer
.

1st: Horseman sets. 3rd & 18th: Trumpeter rises.

Appendix D

The Wardlands and the Graith of Guardians

According to Gabriel McNally's reconstruction (generally accepted by scholars of Ambrosian legend, always excepting Julian Emrys), the Wardlands were an anarchy with no formal government at all. According to legend, the Wardlands had not been a kingdom since the golden age at the beginning of time, when the King (usually identified with the divine aspect known as God Avenger) ruled in person in Laent and elsewhere. Since then it has been considered blasphemous, or at least irrationally presumptuous, for any person to assert a claim to rule the Wardlands. Those who try to do so are exiled or (in extreme cases) killed.

What in other cultures would have been state functions (national defense, dispute resolution, even road building and repair, etc.) were carried on by voluntary cooperatives: the Arbiters of the Peace, the Guild of Silent Men, the League of Rhetors, etc. Most famous in the unguarded lands was the Graith of Guardians, sworn to maintain the guard.

The Graith had three ranks of Guardian: the lowest and most numerous were the thains, wearing a gray cape of office. They were hardly more than candidates to the Graith proper, and they undertook to obey their seniors in the Graith, even more senior thains.

Vocates, in contrast, were full members of the Graith, privileged to stand and speak at the Graith's councils (known as Stations). Their only obligation was to defend the Guard, and the Guarded, as they saw fit. Their cloak of office was blood red.

Most senior in the Graith were the Three Summoners. They had no power to command but were generally conceded the authority to lead the vocates of the Graith proper. The Summoner of the City convened and presided over Stations of the Graith. The Summoner of the Outer Lands was charged with watching for threats to the Guard from the unguarded lands. The Summoner of the Inner Lands was charged with watching for internal threats: those who would try to disrupt the fertile anarchy of the Wardlands and establish the sterility of political order.

The greatest danger to the anarchy of the Wardlands was obviously the Graith itself. Members of the Graith were pledged to abide by the First Decree, which forbade any acquisition of power or authority over those under the Guard. Nevertheless, Guardians were exiled more often than the Guarded for political aspirations to government (euphemistically referred to as “Impairment of the Guard”). Power corrupts, and the Guardians wielded power more often than their peers among the Guarded.

Appendix E

Note on Ambrosian Legend and Its Sources, Lost and Found

Readers of these collections of Ambrosian myth and legend are already aware that Morlock's exploits beyond the northern edge of the world were not the end of his career as a hero. It took centuries for that to be evident to his contemporaries, however—or even to Morlock himself, and in that time his path took a number of severe turns, some sinister, some comic, many disgraceful.

The dwarves of Thrymhaiam cultivated his legend (as they are wont to do for their kin, whether
harven
or
ruthen
), but as far as they were concerned this was its final episode, and the various verse retellings of his deeds in the struggle against the Sunkillers apparently took the tone of an obituary, with one famous exception. We know that Defender Dervanion wrote up an account for the Graith of Guardians, although we don't know if it went into general circulation, and the anonymous Seventh Scribe of New Moorhope wrote an alliterative epic of the entire matter, including the
Balancer of the Two Powers
.

All of these sources have been lost. What we have is a series of verse plays in Late Ontilian, which may have been based on one of the talkier Dwarvish song cycles, and an epic, if that's not too strong a word, in rhyming verse by the pseudonymous Ninth Scribe of New Moorhope, and the Khroic
ekshalva
about Morlock, which purport to be based on direct visionary contact with the events they narrate.

I am not going to discuss the issue of whether the Ontilian plays are based on Dwarvish sources or whether they derive from a lost Mandragoric account of Morlock's life. First, because Dr. Gabriel McNally and Reverend L. G. Handschuh have debated the matter at length in the columns of the
Journal of Exoplenic Folklore
, and their total inability to reach any kind of agreement indicates the matter is undecidable at our current state of knowledge. Second, because I don't care.