The Heavens of Thelemar

“Why do we so easily allow ourselves to find truth in beautiful poems about the stars, yet so arrogantly assume that they have nothing more to teach us?”

• Nilofer Ha’aider, renowned Jaknian star-charter, from The Art of Looking Up: A Beginner’s Guide to Star Charting (orig. Al’nazar I’ila Samah Fanun)

The night sky of Thelemar is ruled by three moons and a sun, and changes so dramatically from the start of a month to its end that the heavens themselves keep the world’s calendar. To them are bound the seasons, the festivals, and the zodiacs under which every soul is born.

Celestial Bodies

Thelemar has three moons, each tied to a god of a different pantheon, and a sun that every pantheon claims as its own.

Every sun-god boasts that they keep Witsil in check, sparing the world from being scorched while granting it warmth enough to grow. Phaesporia rises for the first seven days of each month - the Days of the Hunter - flooding the night with light. Lune waxes to full at mid-month and is said to be drawn across the sky on the sled of the god Manni. Chons keeps no fixed hour and often fails to appear at all; the stories say the god Konshu gambled its light away.

The Calendar

Thelemar’s year is 12 months of exactly 28 days each - 336 days in all. The months bear no names of their own; they are called simply first through twelfth, though many name a month for its main zodiac sign instead.

The Seasons

Four seasons turn with the year, each ruled by whichever elemental plane drifts closest to the Prime Material:

• Winter (months 1–3) - the Plane of Water draws near.
• Spring (months 4–6) - the Plane of Earth draws near.
• Summer (months 7–9) - the Plane of Fire draws near.
• Autumn (months 10–12) - the Plane of Air draws near.

Some regions - near the Black Desert, the Storm Seas, and the Frigid Straits - keep weather all their own, untouched by the march of the seasons.

The Zodiacs

The zodiacs are constellations that held great cultural weight in the days of the Empire. Every month has two: a regular sign that shines through the bright first 21 days, and a dimmer Star Week sign, prominent only in the last seven days of the month - Star Week - when Lune wanes and the night is darkest. Each culture keeps its own names and meanings for them, and many believe a soul takes on the qualities of the sign it is born under.

A rare wonder crowns the year: on the first day of the first month, the 12th-month sign of the Phoenix rises again, and those born then are said to be born to the Rising Phoenix - a day that, though the first of winter, is strangely and often unseasonably warm.

The Spark and the True Sign

A soul’s sign is only half the story. Besides the main sign - fixed by the month and week of birth - every person also carries a spark, a second sign set by the hour of their birth.

• Those born in the twelve hours between midnight and noon take as their spark the regular sign of the month that shares the number of their birth-hour. (Born at 1 AM? Your spark is the first month’s regular sign, the Beaver.)
• Those born in the twelve hours between noon and midnight take as their spark the Star Week sign of the month that shares the number of their birth-hour. (Born at 1 PM? Your spark is the first month’s Star Week sign, the Sequoia.)

Most people know their spark, since they know the hour of their birth; charting the rest of the heavens is the work of dedicated star-charters. When a person’s main sign and spark fall on the same constellation, they are called a True Sign - a True Phoenix, a True Unicorn, and so on - a rare alignment thought to deepen every quality of that sign.

Appendix

Sources & Attribution

• Primary lore: editions/5e-2014/world/moons-sun-calendar-seasons-and-zodiacs.md (Traveler’s Guide, Origins of Thelemar), author TrueMichato.
• Supporting lore: content/General/The Zodiacs.md (moved to content/private/_originals/General/).

Zodiacs

Zodiac Signs of Thelemar

Regular Zodiacs	Beaver Aurochs Horse Cat Peacock Roc Bee Octopus Hound Griffon Bulette Phoenix
Star Zodiacs	Sequoia Salmon Unicorn Aurumvorax Pseudodragon Raven Almiraj Hillstep Turtle Kitsune Bat Owlbear Lizard

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