Time, Seasons, Cycles, Cyles

Time notation (specifically in Desertwind - varies with area): a day is a day is a day, but a week is a dekada and covers ten days. A cycle refers to a year of three hundred sixty-six days; each cycle has a name, and at the end of twenty cycles (a Great Cycle - or Cyle), the names begin with the first again. The current cycle is the Stilveren (a maybe-extinct relative of the sphinx); this is the last cycle in this Cyle (the Cyles also follow the 'twenty of them equals a Great one' model, with a Great Cyle being called a SerpentWheel - but that may be more than you want to know right now....)

Days of the Dekada

The days of the decada (week) are named as follows: Eignedey, or the Firstborn; Gemnidey; Ternidey; Tessardey; Lustradey; Sennardey; Separdey; Utasdey; Ennedey; and Tythedey, or the Tenthing. [Note that other cultures will have variations of the foregoing.]

Moons

Moons are what we know as months, with each having several differing names depending on the specific culture under discussion; the following are current Desertwind usage:

Each month is thirty days, three dekada (which is both singular and plural, you may notice); there are four seasons, which are called after their intrinsic logic: Blooming (spring); Blazing (summer); Blowing (autumn); Bleaking (winter). The extra six days is divided into intercalaries: Ferial (three days at MidBlazing) and Chilldeep (three days at MidBleaking).

Town Layout

Various other things you might like to know about Desertwind: the town was originally laid out into quasi-squares (more or less regular) but has now (2000 cycles later) spread in an ungainly sprawl all over the place. The first set of walls is long gone, though traces of them can still be seen if one knows where to look.

Quarters (Town Environs)

Several of the more notable regions within Desertwind's environs include Malikon Seel (noble residences, nouveau riche merchants); the Trade Borsa (if you can't find it in the Borsa, it doesn't exist); The Gardana (government sector and guard compound, but not the Chastella); and the Fettersett, which encompasses the commoners' neighborhoods and certain less-exalted districts (that is, slums) surrounding the Cess Bazaar. The MoonSilver Serai is to be found within the Fettersett near the edge of Thyrale Tarna, a more middle-class quarter; the Inn of the Seventh Son is located just inside the Trade Borsa quarter, near the NorthGate. The Chastella, residence and 'showplace' of the Dwars for 2000 cycles, is set away from town itself, backed up against the lower reaches of the Serpentspine.

Odds and ends, bits and pieces

The culture of this area of Kerisel can be considered roughly equivalent to a 'desertish' Forgotten Realms - not anywhere close to as 'Arabic' in feeling as Al'Qadim, but a bit moreso than Baldur's Gate (if that makes any sense....) Most of the 'monsters' you'd find in the Forgotten Realms can be found here. People are a very mixed bunch - all of the various pc and npc races are well-represented in Desertwind. They get along - or not - depending....