I created this calendar for the dark fantasy/horror RPG Blackbirds from Andrews McMeel Universal. You can check out the quickstart rules here. This is the calendar of the mercantile island nation of Corbel, ruled by the corrupt and ancient noble families called the Domini. Yggdrasil, Corvus, and the Norns are some of the ancient gods of the world of Blackbirds, while the Aes are a race of otherworldly fae who destroyed the old empire that was Corbel’s predecessor.
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Sovereign
The first month of the Corbellian calendar begins on the Vernal Equinox and marks the beginning of spring. Weather in Corbel is usually cool, and the harbor is crowded with ships as ports farther north begin to reopen.
Holidays
New Year’s Day (Sovereign 1): Held on the Equinox, Corbellian New Year’s Day is a solemn day of fasting, repentance, and petitions to Yggdrasil for a prosperous year. The Domini encourage these shows of repentance among the commoners, but they themselves prefer to spend the holiday at opulent private feasts.
Martyr
In second month, seabirds of all kinds flock to Corbel to nest in the abandoned parts of the city. The buildings of the Necropolis are quickly whitened with their droppings; the stones of the most popular rookeries have been eaten away over the years and now lie open, the ancient bones inside sometimes finding their way into the nests. The dreaded birds called tears also return and lay their eggs.
Holidays
The Yielding (Martyr 16): On this day, indentured thralls may petition the Domini for their freedom. Tradition dictates that, if the thrall has served faithfully, the Domini may not refuse—however, there is no restriction on what they may request the thrall do to prove their faithfulness. Many thralls die on these quests, and their deaths serve as a warning to other petitioners.
Guild
The third month brings schools of phosphorescent jellyfish into the canals of Corbel, drawn by the food-rich algae blooms. Though beautiful, they are poisonous, and their stings are deadly. More dangerous still are the lantern eels that are tempted to rise from the deeps to feast on the jellyfish—and sometimes on unwary humans.
Holidays
The Procession of Glimmers (Guild 24): Corbel celebrates the arrival of the jellyfish by holding a procession along the shore at night, illuminated by lanterns filled with glowing jellies and wearing flowing robes meant to emulate their trailing tentacles. Lantern eel attacks sometimes turn this joyful festival into tragedy.
Prophet
Summer begins in the fourth month when the weather is hot and muggy. Mildew crawls up the walls of even the cleanest houses, and the canals turn green with algae blooms. The veil between worlds is particularly thin around the Solstice, making it a powerful month for divination.
Holidays
Divination Night (Mirrors 3): On the Summer Solstice, girls who wished to learn about their future husbands, new parents, and anyone embarking on a new phase of life perform divination rituals in the hopes of receiving a hint from the Norns. Those foolish enough to continue the rituals in the Norns’ absence may indeed receive an answer—but what the Court of Ignorance reveals may not be what they asked for.
Druuna’s Banquet (Mirrors 19): In midsummer, the Domini throw a sumptuous and highly exclusive annual feast for their wealthiest business partners in Thule, ostensibly to strengthen the bonds between the two cities. But the timing of the feast suspiciously coincides with the peak of the blue crab migration…
Veteran
The fifth month brings frequent hot winds blowing in from the mainland, whipping up into storms that tear tiles from roofs. The echoey canals and alleys magnify the sound of the wind into eerie howls and moans. Some believe these are the voices of the dead and that those who listen closely enough may hear their loved ones.
Forge
By the sixth month, the whole city of Corbel indeed feels like the inside of a forge. In past years, everyone with sufficient wealth—except, of course, the Domini—fled to summer homes on the mainland or pleasure barges out at sea. In the half-abandoned city, tempers frayed. Break-ins, assaults, and street brawls were common—and to make matters worse, tear chicks also fledge in this month. Now, trapped by the siege, the city feels like a forge all year long.
Coffer
Autumn begins in the seventh month with the autumnal equinox, when heavy mists from the sea blanket the coast, leading travelers and ships astray. White, spectral birds are sometimes spotted in the mist, circling Corbel’s highest spires before vanishing. They are considered an ill omen.
Conqueror
No month is more closely associated with death than the eighth month, when Corbel’s rich ornamental gardens turn black and bare, their fallen leaves forming rotting mats of scum on the canals. The first heavy rains of autumn occur, causing courtyards and alleys to back up with scummy, polluted water and sometimes contaminating wells. Outbreaks of illness claim lives nearly every year.
Voyager
Storms churn the sea into a maelstrom in the ninth month, driving ships off course and dashing them into the rocks. Yet travelers still make the attempt, because this is the last month when sea routes to Thule are still passable before Highsalt’s harbors ice up. Their stiff corpses wash up on the shores or are scavenged by tears and carried to their roosts in the cliffs.
Patriot
The storms of Rocks have usually tapered off by the tenth month, when winter sets in and nights grow long. Ancient and powerful forces emerge in this deepest night. Wortcunning is more powerful, and its practitioners may be seen creeping out to practice their strange arts.
Holidays
Festival of Lanterns (Patriot 3-13): For reasons unknown, the sun struggles to return during the solstice, and the shortest day of the year recurs three times: Patriot 3, Patriot 8, and Patriot 13. It was under this cover of darkness, on the full moon of Patriot 3, that the Hekaté struck Corbellus.
Commoners know the story of Corbellus’ downfall as a confused jumble of legends, and Corbel’s most important holiday is a pageant held to petition those ancient forces not to destroy Corbel again. People light lanterns decorated with horrifying visages, faint echoes of a cultural memory of the Aes, and release them on the sea as votive offerings for safety.
Scythe
Heavy clouds and near-constant rains render the eleventh month a dreary time in Corbel. The seas are heavy, and great swells crash against the crumbling masonry on the cliffs, reclaiming a little more of the ruins of old Corbellus every year.
Holidays
The Severing (Scythe 24): It is believed that, in this month, the Norns cut the threads for the next year’s tapestry. Those who wish to entreat them for a favorable year cut themselves in hopes of gaining the Norns’ attention.
Throne
By the twelfth month, the first signs of spring begin to appear in Corbel, though the north of Erebos is still bound in ice. Weather is cool and muddy. In the gardens, small trinkets and ribbons with messages on them appear tied to the branches of trees, left in memory of all that was lost the previous year.
Holidays
The Stolen Day (Throne 31): Jealous of Yggdrasil for ruling over two months in a row, every year Corvus attempted to steal a day. Usually he succeeded, but every few years, Yggdrasil’s bird servants stopped him, and the year was a day longer. This “free” day was traditionally spent drinking and carousing (to be repented of the next morning). Augurs watched the flights of birds to determine whether to declare a leap year. Today, the birds still fly. Who or what is commanding them now?