For the Orlanthi clans, a year is divided into five seasons and we begin the year of 1330 in the Sea season. This is when our farmers are busy in the fields planting crops. Each clan is led by the seven members of its Clan Ring, chosen from amongst the nobles of the clan. As this is our first full year in Dragon Pass, we begin the year by reorganizing our Clan Ring. As our primary god is Orlanth, it is important that the leader of our Clan Ring be a worshipper of Orlanth. As such Orlkarnth, an Orlanth worshipper with excellent leadership skills is chosen to be our leader. Our only regret is that Orlkarnth is already 60 years old and will likely not be able to serve for long.
For the six other positions, we strive for a broad diversity of worshippers of different gods and goddesses while ensuring that we have advisers who are skilled with animals, bargaining, combat, custom, magic and plants. The remaining six positions are filled with a worshipper each of Odayla, god of hunting, Issaries, god of trade and travel, Vinga, goddess of adventure, Lhankor Mhy, god of knowledge, Chalana Arroy, goddess of healing, and Ernalda, Queen of the Earth respectively. A worshipper of Elmal, god of the sun, who is good at fighting would fit very well in there somewhere but we have no such candidate available.
Next, having satisfied ourselves that our harvest for the year should be adequate, we take stock of the other clans around us. We are allied with the Varmandi clan just northwest of us. We have feuds with the Eagle clan to our west and the Kardarvi clan far to the south. We have existing trading relationships with the Elkenval clan to our south and the White Horse clan to our west. After some consideration we decide to send a trade mission to the Varmandi clan to establish regular trade and thereby cement our alliance. As we have only 10 weaponthanes, sending half of them to accompany Lismelder, the Issaries worshipper in our Clan Ring, on her mission is somewhat risky but we do not expect any clans to raid us in the Sea season.
Next comes the Fire season. This is when the crops are ripening in the fields and the weaponthanes and the cottars, who work in the fields and the pastures most of the time, but can also fight when needed, are free to raid rival clans. However with half of our weaponthanes out on the trade mission, raiding would be suicidal. Instead, we spend the first part of the season building a watchtower to help us watch for enemies coming to raid us. This costs some goods but it will be a worthwhile investment.
Just as we complete building the watchtower, Lismelder returns to report the good news that the Varmandi clan has agreed to regularly trade with us, plus she made some profit on her trip as well. Such trips are also a good way to discreetly spy on other clans and she reports that the Varmandi seems to have about the same number of horses as we do. In Orlanthi culture, horses are never used for manual labour. They are only used by weaponthanes and as such the number of horses a clan has may determine how many weaponthanes it may recruit in times of need.
In the second half of the Fire season, we send a small team to explore the land within our own tula. Since our tula is large and encompasses quite a bit of wildlands, much of it remains unknown to us. The team soon reports finding a source of glowing stones near a small spring. We can collect these stones and have our crafters turn them into amulets to sell to the other clans, earning us a good profit. At around the same time, the Elkenval clan asks us if we would consider an alliance with them. While we would be glad to have more allies, the Elkenval are famous for their mad chieftains. We cautiously tell them that we would consider it.
Soon after that we receive a delegation from our allies the Vermandi. They wish to gift us with goods worth 17 cows. Despite some odd advice from some of the members of the Clan Ring, we choose to graciously accept the gifts and throw a big feast for them. This pleases them greatly and they promise to let everyone know what splendid fellows we are.
Next comes the Earth season. This is when all of the people of the clan are needed to gather the harvest and it would be most foolish to send men away on any errands. However since we have more than enough workers in our fields, we spend some time to train some of our farmers into crafters and tell them to start making the new amulets. We also train some into additional hunters who will roam the extensive wildlands within our tula. Not only does this provide additional meat to the clan, they will also help to warn us of any intruders.
After the harvest come the blizzards and snow of the Dark season when all sensible folk stay indoors. We spend this time offering sacrifices to Issaries who in turn reveal the secrets of the Trading ritual to us. To receive the effects of the blessing on a permanent basis, we construct a shrine to Issaries. Note that we already started the year with a shrine each to Orlanth and to Ernalda, so we already have the Rain and the Bless Crops blessings which help our crops grow.
During this time a trader from the White Horse shows up to offer to buy up our entire supply of glowing stones, but since it would be more profitable in the long terms to develop the new resource ourselves, we politely decline.
The last season of the year is the Storm season, Orlanth’s own season. This is the season in which everything is possible but risky, yet those who succeed in their endeavours will reap greater than normal rewards. We start the season by once again sending our a party to explore near our tula. Such parties not only help us discover new things but also count as regular patrols to cut down on banditry and other threats. They find a cave nearby inhabited by large, armoured rodents. Rather than risk sending our own men to destroy the nest, we send for outsiders. Weaponthanes from the Varmandi clan exterminate the creatures for us for a small price but they do grumble that the danger and risk was greater than they had thought. Hopefully this will not damage our relationship too much.
We hear that the Elkenval are on the verge of a feud with us because we promised to consider an alliance with them but never acted on it. None of the elders really want such an alliance because they have a reputation for being mad, so we send out a delegation with some ridiculous arguments for an alliance. The Elkenval duly rejects the alliance offer but at least now they cannot claim that we disrespected them.
And with that the year is done. We have successfully made it through our first full year in Dragon Pass with no untoward incident.
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