Worldbuilding Wednesday #5: Winter and Snow Thanks (Patreon)

The Floran calendar is comprised of six months, each roughly 63 days long:

Jebuary, Marple, Jay, Julgust, Sectober, and Wintember.

It has the same set of four seasons that we do, but one of them is given an obvious importance over the others, Winter. The season itself runs from the Middle of Wintember to the end of Jebuary, but on Flora, the term "Winter" specifically refers to a three-week event that occurs near the start of the season. On Wintember 32nd, the sky makes an unsettling cracking noise, and winds whip up, seemingly from nowhere.

As a world saturated in magic, Flora has some unusual weather properties and geographical formations, but nothing is as widespread as Winter, which covers the entire planet, regardless of climate and altitude, in a thick blizzard. The skies go dark, the ocean's suface freezes over in large chunks, and the horizon vanishes completely in a veil of white. Temperatures freefall, winds and snow disorient any unlucky stragglers to get caught in the blizzard, and dragons and other great beasts roam the land freely, tearing each other apart and warping the landscape in a frenzy. There have been times when entire new river branches were created, and mountains have been split during Winter, making Jebuary a somewhat lucrative time of year for cartographers.

Nothing, however, is more feared than the Specters of Winter. Giant walking shadows who lurk in the dark of the blizzard at night, devouring the warmth of anything they touch in an unnatural manner. A living thing that is caught by the specters perishes instantly, their corpse left frozen and mummified for years, regardless of the surrounding temperature. They cannot be reasoned with, or killed, or driven off in any permanent capacity, and the only defense from them is that they can only exist within the wind and darkness of the blizzards. They are very real, but no one knows where they come from or why they do what they do.

As a result, communities create safe havens from Winter; calm, brightly lit spaces where the blizzard can't get them. They stockpile supplies to last them the three weeks, they put up forcefields and sun lamps, they set up teleportation networks with their neighbors to travel safely in any emergency, and then they just wait it out.

And once the three weeks end, and the skies calm as suddenly as they whipped up, everyone leaves their home and celebrates in a way they call Snow Thanks, where they give thanks for everything that helped them survived. There's feasting, drinking, and gift giving, all which come with their own little traditions, like hanging gristletoe, the first consumed leg bone, up in a doorway and making people kiss under it, and hanging bags of coins from tree branches with their wishes for the next year.

In many regions, there are great post-Winter games held while the snow is still thick, including team sledding, ice breaking, and the tail tug, where two competitors meet on a field of ice, tie their tails together and then attempt to pull the other past their goal line while keeping their traction.

Every once in a while, there are rumors of individuals who have been caught outside during Winter and managed to survive through unimaginable means (such a feat was once attributed to the infamous bounty hunter "Steel Heel" Ofélia in her youth), although these are almost always dismissed as tall tales to bolster reputations.

Next week, I'll be talking about the Sect of Dragonslayers and their history.