first intercalated new octad day

Carnelian and Osidian smuggled out of Osrakum in their funerary jars. Suth is summoned to an interview with the Wise.

second intercalated new octad day

Carnelian and Osidian moved to the South Road by the Ichorian and given to the slavers. The Rains break over Osrakum. The rituals and ceremonies begin for the Apotheosis of Molochite.

08_01_01

tributaries start to leave Osrakum. They begin their journeys home

10_01_01

Keal and the rest of the Suth household who crossed the sea with Carnelian arrive at the City at the Gates

21_01_01

The Ochre return from migration

01_02_01

The corpse of Jaspar's father completes the processes of embalming

02_02_01

It stops raining in Osrakum

03_02_01

Ochre raiders get into a fight with the Ichorian and the slavers and end up riding off with Carnelian and Osidian as captives. After much discussion they build some drag-cradles to carry them in.

04_02_01

Ochre raiders decide to make for Makar, hoping to get there in time to rendezvous with the rest of their tributaries.

10_02_01

Carnelian gives up his drag-cradle for Storm whose wound, received at the hands of the Ichorian, is getting worse. Delayed by a command from the Wise, the legion of Makar sets off scouring. That night the raiders see their dragon-fire reflected in the clouds.

11_02_01

The raiders' plan for evading the dragon scouring line comes unstuck. In the confusion, Carnelian begs Fern that he take him and Osidian with them. With the raiders, Carnelian rides along the front of the scouring line and together they manage to make it through an open gate in the Ringwall. They wander through the scarred limestone landscape lost. Carnelian and Osidian are spotted from the watchtower. This news is relayed to the Wise in Osrakum.

12_02_01

Carnelian and the Raiders follow what they think is a pass down to the lower land.

13_02_01

The pass ends abruptly at a cliff. Slaughtering their aquar, Carnelian and the Raiders begin the descent of the cliff of the Guarded Land. Carnelian, Fern and Ravan carry Osidian between them.

16_02_01

This is the date that the raiders prearranged with the rest of the Ochre tributaries to meet up in Makar. It is the time of the full moon.

17_02_01

After a days long harrowing descent, Carnelian and the raiders reach the bottom of the cliff.

18_02_01

Journey along the margin of the Guarded Land across boulders and scree trying to reach the Leper Valleys.

19_02_01

Under the command of Ranegale, they abandon the margins of the Guarded Land and move down into swampier land.

20_02_01

Reaching their koppie home as they return from their migration, the Twostone tribe are ambushed by Marula and massacred.

21_02_01

After days of crossing the swamp, Osidian comes out of his coma.

25_02_01

In the night they are attacked by some monster that has been hunting them. Osidian slays it and becomes possessed by the belief that it was a sign from the Black God.

30_02_01

Osidian fights and kills Ranegale and so takes control of the Raiders.

33_02_01

Osidian's 14th birthday. The gates in the Ringwall are closed signifying the renewal or rebirth of the Commonwealth.

19_03_01

Having given up waiting for the raiders, the rest of the Ochre tributaries trudge back south. Arriving at the koppie of their kin tribe, the Twostone, they find they have been massacred, and hurry home in increased terror.

31_03_01

After a seemingly endless nightmare through swamp and jungle, during which the mould on their food brings them close to madness, Osidian brings them up onto the plain of the Earthsky, home of the Plainsmen. Osidian persuades them that he can lead them back home.

01_04_01

Parties of childgatherers leave the Ringwall cities and begin their journeys down into the tributary lower lands.

16_04_01

Following Osidian across the Earthsky, the raiders eventually reach the Backbone which allows the raiders to know where they are and the next day they reach the koppie of the Twostone, a kin tribe of the Ochre. They find the koppie empty and in places vandalized. Outside the koppie they find the remains of the Twostone massacred. They deduce from some remains that the murderers were Marula. That night there is a full moon.

17_04_01

The next day they set off for the home of the Ochre on foot.

29_04_01

Akaisha and the other women of her hearth begin their stint working in the outer ditches repairing them from the recent erosion caused by the Rains.

06_05_01

Carnelian, Osidian and the raiders arrive at the koppie of the Ochre. The Tribe are shocked when they see how many of their people have not returned. They are shocked even more when they discover that they have brought a couple of Masters back with them. The Elders have them sent to one of the ferngardens under guard while they decide what to do with their dangerous guests.

07_05_01

Carnelian and Osidian are brought before the Elders in the Ancestor House of the Ochre. Fern and Loskai are forced to explain why they have brought the terrible peril of the Masters to the Koppie. Osidian threatens the Elders. Carnelian reveals to them that, bizarrely, he can speak their tongue and begs for sanctuary. Akaisha carries the assembly by agreeing that she will take the two Masters into her hearth and be responsible for them. Carnelian follows Akaisha to her hearth which lies under the shadow of her cedar, or mother tree. They talk and come to the conclusion that Ebeny, Carnelian's surrogate mother, might have been the sister that Akaisha lost to the flesh-tithe. Carnelian is introduced to his new hearthmates.

08_05_01

Against Osidian's wishes, Carnelian chooses to join Fern butchering under the bloodwood tree. A women's task which Fern has been given as punishment for bringing the Masters to the Koppie.

09_05_01

Akaisha uses her influence to rearrange the work rotas so that she and the other women of her hearth can join Carnelian and Fern under the bloodwood tree.

10_05_01

Osidian joins Carnelian and the others under the bloodwood tree.

27_05_01

Loskai comes to taunt the Masters, claiming that they're only brave enough to do women's work. Osidian cracks and agrees to go and fetch water with them.

28_05_01

Carnelian and Osidian go out on one of the daily expeditions to fetch water from the nearby lagoon. Carnelian fears a plot against their lives. As a way of escaping this, and for reasons of his own, Osidian manipulates the Plainsmen into raiding a colony of saurians for eggs. They return to the Koppie triumphant. Ravan becomes euphoric that his hero, Osidian, has redeemed himself.

07_06_01

Carnelian and Osidian go out on their first hunt.

12_06_01

Carnelian and Osidian return from their first hunt. During it they were plagued by raveners. Osidian greatly impresses the Plainsmen by slaying one of the monsters single handed.

13_06_01

Carnelian forgoes a tour of guarding the Koppie and, instead, returns to the the bloodwood tree to help Fern with the butchering.

15_06_01

Aurum gives Ykoriana something she wants and so she commutes his deposure to exile.

21_06_01

A sporewind rises up and brings everything in the Koppie to a halt for three days.

01_07_01

The embalming of Kumatuya's body is completed in the Plain of Thrones. THe Wise coerce the Clave to impeach Aurum. As a consequence Aurum is exiled from Osrakum.

16_07_01

A full moon night which nearly coincides with the winter solstice and during which the Ochre celebrate a number of weddings. During this time, Carnelian is out on another hunt.

02_08_01

During the night, a childgatherer appears unexpectedly. The Tribe is shocked because he was not supposed to come until the following year.

03_08_01

Out on a hunt, Carnelian and others are alerted to something untoward happening in the Koppie by the smoke rising from its summit. Abandoning their catch they make haste to return home. They are greeted at the outer ditch with the news. Elders command Carnelian and Osidian to hide themselves, but Osidian defies them and rides back out onto the plain. Carnelian returns to his hearth and helps prepare Poppy for inspection by the childgatherer. Though he promises Fern not to, Carnelian goes down to the edge of the Grove. There he observes the childgatherer and his ammonites inspecting the children. To his horror Poppy is chosen.

04_08_01

The childgatherer disappears with the dawn taking with him an escort of Elders and other notables of the Tribe. Bringing in the earther they had abandoned, Ravan comes to give Akaisha Osidian's terms. Later, the escort of Elders returns. That evening, the Elders hold an assembly to decide the fate of the Masters

05_08_01

Early in the morning, Ravan rides out to rejoin Osidian.

11_08_01

Ravan brings the earther in on a sledge. He shows defiance to one of the Elders and, generally, to the ways of his people.

17_08_01

Aurum leaves Osrakum and goes somewhere into the Guarded Land in exile.

20_08_01

The Ochre begin to burn their ferngardens in anticipation of the Withering.

01_09_01

Ravan comes in as Osidian's "emissary" to broker a solution to the deadlock between him and the Elders.

02_09_01

The Tribe gather under the Crying Tree to see their tributaries off on the long journey to Osrakum.

03_09_01

Ochre set huskmen as guards on the Grove then set off on migration, east into the mountains. That night, Osidian comes in with his followers.

20_09_01

Carnelian gets his first glimpse of the moutains.

03_10_01

Carnelian and the Ochre reach the mountains.

16_10_01

Morunasa and his beleagered Marula finally get back to the Lower Reach after their long trek from the koppie of the Twostone.

33_11_01

Carnelian's 16th birthday. In the Upper Reach, Carnelian begins cutting down the baobab forest.

01_12_01

Ochre tributaries arrive in the City at the Gates.

11_12_01

Carnelian begins training the Marula warriors to form a hornwall.

23_12_01

Ochre begin return journey to the Koppie across the parched Earthsky.

02_01_02

The Rebirth ceremony begins in the Plain of Thrones as the Rains reach Osrakum.

08_01_02

Ochre meet the Rains.

13_01_02

A raiding party from the Bluedancing tribe attack the camp of the Ochre, killing some, maiming others, carrying children and women off into captivity.

14_01_02

Osidian talks the Ochre into retaliating against the Bluedancing. Reluctantly, the Elders agree. All able bodied males set off. Their spirits fall. They make a night attack that fails. At that moment of desperation, Osidian appears and offers to bring them victory if they agree to do what he tells them.

15_01_02

Under Osidian's direction, the Ochre fight a battle against the Bluedancing and massacre them. They return to the encampment of the Bluedancing and take their women and children into captivity.

17_01_02

Osidian and the Ochre men bring the Bluedancing survivors into the Ochre camp.

31_01_02

Ochre reach the Koppie with the Bluedancing trailing after them.

01_02_02

Jaspar's father's is entombed in the Plain of Thrones.

33_02_02

Osidian's 15th birthday.

07_03_02

Osidian sets off with most of the Ochre men to begin work on his 'military camp'.

08_03_02

Bluedancing begin work on deepening the ditches around the field of the bloodwood tree under Carnelian's supervision.

12_03_02

Ochre tributaries return from Osrakum.

18_03_02

The Ochre women begin to give birth.

09_04_02

Osidian completes work on his military camp and begins training his men for war.

19_04_02

Osidian loots and burns the koppie of the Bluedancing.

19_04_02

Krow comes in with the Bluedancing loot to appease the Elders. He checks on what progress Carnelian and the Bluedancing are making with their deepening of the ditches.

26_04_02

Osidian comes in to tell Carnelian what his part is to be in the Great Hunt.

29_04_02

Carnelian and Bluedancing complete work on the earthworks.

33_04_02

Osidian leads the Ochre on his 'great hunt'...

01_05_02

The Ochre butcher the heaveners. Molochite and Ykoriana's daughter born.

02_05_02

Osidian leads the Ochre in a battle against the Woading in the Eastgarden. Then on an expedition to the Woading koppie. Galewing returns with some others bringing the salt which they have taken from the Elders of the Woading. Osidian remains behind in his military camp. Carnelian feels that he has no choice but to betray Osidian's intentions to the Elders. The Elders light a signal fire to recall Osidian, hoping to take him prisoner. Osidian returns, but when he does, he overthrows the Elders. Osidian goes campaigning at the head of the warriors of the Tribe.

01_06_02

The beginning of the Withering

03_06_02

Osidian returns to the Koppie with a handful of men leaving the rest in the earthwork which he has dug to confront the Darkcloud.

04_06_02

Carnelian and the Bluedancing begin work on cutting the cisterns which Osidian insists will allow people to remain in the Koppie during the Withering.

17_06_02

Spore clouds descend upon the Koppie.

25_06_02

Grazing for the aquar runs out in the ferngardens of the Koppie.

16_07_02

Full moon. Weddings celebrated throughout the Grove of the Ochre.

02_09_02

Osidian returns to the Koppie with all the Ochre. Carnelian and Fern plot against him at the latrines.

03_09_02

Tributaries set off from the Ochre taking Bluedancing children instead of their own. The same day, the Tribe set off on their migration. Carnelian remains behind with some warriors and the Bluedancing.

28_09_02

The Marula camp in the koppie of the Darkcloud.

29_09_02

Darkcloud warriors with Carnelian spot smoke rising from their koppie. Carnelian gives into their pleas to investigate. They travel to the koppie and find it infested with Marula. Carnelian leads the Darkclouds to victory against them. He discovers Morunasa and two other Oracles in the Ancestor House of the Darkcloud and takes them prisoner.

30_09_02

Morunasa murders the other two Oracles. Carnelian returns with him to the Koppie.

31_09_02

Osidian and the Ochre reach the mountains.

32_09_02

Osidian begins return journey to Koppie.

09_10_02

Osidian arrives back at the Koppie. Osidian has an interview with Morunasa. As a consequence of this, he leads his warriors south, having overcome an attempt by Fern to mutiny against his authority.

12_10_02

Osidian and his men reach the Upper Reach of the Marula.

14_10_02

Osidian and Morunasa descend to the Lower Reach.

17_10_02

Having set the sartlar they discovered in the saltcaves to rebuilding the ladder down to the Lower Reach, Carnelian witnesses the disaster as the ladder collapses.

18_10_02

Carnelian and Fern discover the rendered pygmies in the hollow of a baobab.

19_10_02

Carnelian confronts the sartlar, Kor, about the render. The sartlar complete work on the ladder. A mutiny among the Plainsmen is avoided.

24_10_02

Carnelian, Fern and Ravan go to fetch water from the river.

28_10_02

Carnelian and Fern go to fetch water and end up approaching the Isle of the Flies. They return to find Kor in the midst of a Plainsman riot.

30_11_02

Osidian returns from the Lower reach with Oracles, Marula warriors and pygmy porters carrying fernroot. Carnelian withstands Ravan's initiative to stop Osidian, and quickly comes to regret it.

32_11_02

Osidian sends Ravan and the other Plainsmen away to escort their tribes back from the mountains.

33_11_02

Carnelian's 17th birthday.

10_12_02

Hundreds more Marula warriors come up from the Lower Reach as part of a deal that Osidian has made with their masters.

23_12_02

The Wise approach Aurum with a proposition that might allow him to gain re-entry into Osrakum.

27_12_02

Ravan arrives in Ochre mountain valley.

28_12_02

Ochre begin return journey to the Koppie.

03_01_03

The Rains begin to fall the Upper Reach.

10_01_03

The Blackwater, in spate, floods down the canyon severing the connection between the Reaches.

27_01_03

The Ochre return to the Koppie, back from their migration.

30_01_03

The Bluedancing are sent under escort to one of the neighbouring 'ally' koppies to convert one of their ferngardens into a 'killing field'.

31_01_03

The Bluedancing begin work in an ally koppie.

03_02_03

Fern returns to Upper Reach with the Ochre warriors and brings Poppy with him. Aurum takes up his appointment as the Legate of Makar.

04_02_03

Osidian sets off from the Upper Reach, campaigning.

05_02_03

Aurum sends his legion scouring.

19_02_03

Some Plainsmen arrive with djada and fernroot stolen from the first tribes Osidian has conquered.

21_02_03

Osidian conducts a 'training' Great Hunt at the Koppie for roughly 4 days. The first string of prisoners arrive at the Upper Reach from Osidian being taken for sacrifice in the Isle of Flies.

25_02_03

Bluedancing complete work on the first 'killing field'.

27_02_03

Osidian conducts 1st great hunt (for roughly 4 days). Bluedancing begin work on 2nd 'killing field'.

33_02_03

OsidianŐs 16th birthday.

12_03_03

Tributaries return.

21_03_03

Bluedancing complete 2nd 'killing field'.

23_03_03

Osidian conducts 2nd great hunt (for roughly 4 days). Bluedancing begin 3rd 'killing field'.

01_04_03

The Blackwater flood begins to subside.

17_04_03

Bluedancing complete 3rd 'killing field'.

19_04_03

Osidian conducts 3rd great hunt (for roughly 4 days). Bluedancing begin 4th 'killing field'.

20_04_03

Aurum leads his legion out from Makar after making preparations for a long campaign.

01_05_03

Aurum reaches the Earthsky after ravaging the Leper Valleys. Molochite and Ykoriana's daughter has her first birthday.

13_05_03

Bluedancing complete 4th 'killing field'.

14_05_03

Osidian conducts 4th great hunt (for roughly 4 days).

19_05_03

Ravan arrives back at the Koppie and begins to work for a revolt against Osidian.

20_05_03

Osidian appears in the Upper Reach with djada and fresh meat. He and Carnelian spend time together.

21_05_03

Osidian takes up residence in the Isle of Flies.

24_05_03

The Ochre decide that they will rise in revolt against Osidian.

25_05_03

To encourage the other subject tribes to join them in revolt, the Ochre send riders off with the hostage children to return them to the vassal koppies. Smoke signals coming from the north are observed from the Koppie. The Ochre debate what it might mean. Eventually some among the Elders suggest it might be the ancient signal warning of an invasion by the Masters.

26_05_03

Ochre emissaries arrive at the koppie of the Darkcloud with their hostage children - leading to much consternation. As in many other tribes, the Plainsmen warriors and the young in the koppies have their influence resisted by the rest of the tribe, especially the women who are sick of the deaths and the destruction and the sacrileges against the Mother.

28_05_03

The last vassal tribe receives its hostage children back from the Ochre.

02_06_03

A messenger sets off from one of the furthest vassal koppies to betray the revolt of the Ochre to Osidian. This messenger is sent off before the smoke signals are spied from his koppie.

03_06_03

News arrives at the Upper Reach that the Ochre are in revolt. Carnelian goes to see Osidian in the Isle of the Flies desperate to avoid a revenge attack against the Ochre. Carnelian witnesses Osidian undergoing the sacrament of the maggots. Carnelian flees, but is overcome by a drug given to him by Morunasa's bite.

04_06_03

Leaving Carnelian behind in the Isle of Flies, Osidian sets off with the Marula heading for the Koppie. He encounters the koppie signals that warns of an invasion by the Masters. Carnelian, Fern and Poppy set off in pursuit.

05_06_03

Osidian sends all his Plainsman lieutenants off to their tribes to summon his warriors to appear at the Koppie in five days time.

06_06_03

A sporestorm breaks out unexpectedly delaying Carnelian, Fern and Poppy.

07_06_03

Osidian reaches the Koppie with his Marula and massacres the Ochre.

09_06_03

Carnelian, Poppy and Fern reach the Koppie too late. They discover the massacre. In shock and revulsion, Carnelian attempts to kill Osidian but news that Aurum is coming with a legion stays his hand.