Phoenix

Phoenix

Type	Regular zodiac - and the First Day of the Year
Month	12 (Autumn); also Day 1 of Month 1
Theocracy	Phoenix
Lexalian	Född Från Döden
Jaknia	Al’Rishah Shul’Mawtu
Symbolism	Creation and Destruction; the endless cycle

Phoenix is the most singular of all the zodiacs - the only sign that rises more than once a year. It is both the regular sign of the twelfth month and the sign of the first day of every year.

Those Born Under the Sign

Because it stands at both the end and the beginning of the year, the Phoenix is tied to two planes at once - the plane of Destruction and the plane of Creation - and so it symbolizes life and death as a single endless cycle, and the passing of the years themselves: the close of one and the dawn of the next.

The Rising Phoenix

On the first day of the first month, the Phoenix rises again, signifying rebirth. Those born on this day are said to be born to the Rising Phoenix, and are believed to display the Phoenix’s traits far more strongly than others. Strangely, this first day of the year - though it falls in the dead of winter - is very often a hot day, one that seems entirely out of season.

Traits

Phoenixes are courageous and driven, living as if they were the flame atop a candle - burning ever forward without pause. They tend to stand at the spearhead of great causes, acting as catalysts of vast change. For all that, they are also reckless and impulsive; many say the only thing that questions itself less than a Phoenix is the sun.

• Strengths: courageous, driven, optimistic, strong of character.
• Weaknesses: reckless, impulsive, imprudent, often slow to understand differing worldviews.
• Likes: complexity, intrigue, mystery.
• Dislikes: combative and disagreeable people.

The Phoenix Across the Cultures

In the Theocracy, the Phoenix is bound up with the country itself; since the collapse of the Empire the Theocracy has risen and fallen many times, and so its people read their own cyclical history in the bird. Those born under its sign are treated as holding a strong tie to the future and fortune of the Theocracy.

In the Lexalian Republic, those born as Phoenixes are deeply respected for the power they hold over death. They are believed to be born with Phoenix essence - the ultimate soldier, all but unbeatable, adaptable, and forever rising from their own ashes.

Among the Aarakocra, the Phoenix is one of the four deities they all worship, so to be born under its sign is a great honour; such younglings are hailed as blessed by the Phoenix God. To them the bird is the ultimate freedom - freedom from death itself - and children born under it undergo the rites of adulthood younger than their peers, being held free of the constraints of age (a modest difference, since Aarakocra reach adulthood around the age of three, but a meaningful one all the same).

Names Across Thelemar

• Holy Theocracy of Olympus: Phoenix
• Lexalian Republic: Född Från Döden (“Born From Death”)
• Jaknian Conglomerate: Al’Rishah Shul’Mawtu

Appendix

See Also

• Lizard - the twelfth month’s Star Week sign
• Phoenix - the divine firebird of the Feathered Pantheon
• The Heavens of Thelemar

Sources & Attribution

• Primary lore: editions/5e-2014/world/moons-sun-calendar-seasons-and-zodiacs.md (Traveler’s Guide), author TrueMichato.
• Superseded original: the previous real-world placeholder page (moved to content/private/_originals/Zodiac/).

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

Link to original