Culture

Ankouvian culture varies greatly depending on location and era. Some species have specific cultural aspects or celebrations that are unique to them, which will be listed on their species' or location’s page.

Timekeeping

An Ankouvian year is four hundred days long, split into four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, with each season having one hundred days exactly. Measurements of time less than a season are referred to by their fraction of the full season: halves are fifty days, quarters are twenty-five days, and tenths are ten days. Individual days in a tenth are referred to by their number, e.g. Onesday, Twosday, Threesday, etc.

An Ankouvian day is ten hours long, with one hundred minutes in an hour and one hundred seconds in a minute. Written calendars are often circular in shape, with units of time separated by axle-like spokes on the wheel, and can be shaped to whatever length of time is needing to be represented.

Years are represented by a lowercase y followed by the year number. The full date format is Season X, yXXXX. The first year of Ankouvian history is stylized as Year Zero. The last year of Ankouvian history, y9999, is stylized as Final Year, though technically civilization did continue for a brief moment into the beginning of y10000.

There have been seven different eras of Ankouvian history, but they do not affect the written date, and are largely just useful for historians or other scholars. A full list of events in Ankou's history can be found here.

Holidays

The Day of the Mother

This holiday takes place on Spring 1, the anniversary of the day the Gryphon Mother first arrived on the planet. It a celebration of the new year, and of the Mother herself; it is the largest holiday of the year, and is celebrated in a variety of ways across various eras and cultures.

Death

The handling of death varies wildly between cultures and even individuals, but typically deceased creatures are cremated or buried at sea. The bones of magical creatures often have some magical energy remaining in them, dependent on the level of magic the creature possessed; the higher the level, the more energy left behind. Cremation disperses the magical energy, though a small amount can still remain in the dust left behind.

All Ankouvian creatures have souls, and upon death their souls move to the plane of Eternity, regardless of moral standing in life. There, memories of life on Ankou are fuzzy and time has no meaning; creatures simply feel peaceful. If two creatures have a strong enough bond in life, they may find each other in Eternity, even if the details on their relationship are not remembered.

It is possible for souls to travel back to the material world, although not consciously. It often occurs when a creature has a strong link to a specific place (such as the Library Dragon with The Library), or with a creature still living. They may appear faded or ghostly, and are rarely capable of speech, although it is possible to have brief moments of lucidity. Their presence often carries the calmness of Eternity, which can transfer to living creatures in their presence.

Relationships / Gender

Ankouvian creatures do not differentiate between genders when it comes to romantic orientation, with creatures being either interested in romance or not, with no regard to the gender of potential partners. All creatures are asexual, and mate only for reproductive purposes. Some cultures have specific ceremonies for the joining of two partners together in an official relationship, but the majority do not, and creatures are considered partners as soon as they decide to be.

Likewise, gender identity is not a main concern; since most species are not sexually dimorphic, there is little-to-no need for any physical transition for creatures that do not identify with their birth sex, and there is no cultural stigma against it. Creatures that are conceived magically are often biologically sexless, as are all spirits, but may or may not identify with a gender regardless. Individuals are referred to with either feminine (she), masculine (he), or neutral (they) pronouns.