Nocturne (Darkwinter) (updated 2008/03/11)

To keep the lunar year in step with the solar year, an extra season occurs once every three years. This fifth season is called Nocturne, which has no true days--only half days and nights--as the moons gather to mask or eclipse the single sun.

Sensible people usually find a safe place to hide and wait out the dark storms of Nocturne. This is by no means trivial--even saving up three months of food is no small task. Worse, many creatures emerge from subterranean depths and legions of Fomorians migrate south from the icy north to terrorize the world. Even well-defended settlements are easy prey to the Fomorians--only larger city-states defended by magi stand any reliable chance against the Deep Old Ones. The smaller, outlying border towns are abandoned or razed during this time of chaos and then rebuilt after the season passes. Such towns have come to be known as "Three-Year Towns" given their cyclical life-span.

Nocturne is an ecological nightmare, nearly comparable to an antarctic winter. During this fell season the days are colder than the depths of the harshest winter and only as bright as a moonlit night. The resilient vegetation of Ambar is able to survive even this harsh weather, but is nonetheless dormant and barren by mid-season. Many wild creatures of Ambar are apt to hibernate during this time, spending the three years leading up to this long winter to lay in reserves of food or fat. Others turn scavenger, preying on the old and the weak to invariably perish in this time.

The most prosperous nations employ an army of sages, planners, and logisticians to study and prepare for Nocturne. Successful cities have massive, well-guarded grain towers, for areas of large population would quickly turn to riot and chaos if insufficient food stores were prepared. Sages and treatises exploring Nocturne in all of its aspects are more numerous than the annals of history, military theory, or any other subject--even dissertations on magic. Current theories explain how the ecology of Ambar is driven by this extraordinary event.