Category:Season

This section contains canon info from officially published sources

The changing of the seasons is usually marked by a cycle of ever earlier sunrises and ever later sunsets beginning immediately after the winter solstice and ending with the summer solstice, and a cycle of ever later sunrises and ever earlier sunsets beginning immediately after the summer solstice and ending with the winter solstice. The summer solstice then has the shortest night and the longest day, and the winter solstice has the longest night and the shortest day. Summer is often held to begin at the summer solstice, and winter correspondingly at the winter solstice. Each is often held to end at the equinox, when the length of the day and the night are equal. Thus the spring equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and the autumn equinox marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall. The seasons in Barovia are known to follow this pattern, Azalin timing some of his experiments to the solstices. Fractures, reaching from the Shadow Rift, into neighbouring lands, and even as far as Liffe, are also said to include among their trigger events the equinoxes and the solstices. So it may be concluded that the seasons follow this pattern throughout the Core.

There is no evidences to suggest that the length of time between a given sunrise and sunset, say at the summer solstice, differs as one travels to the northern or southern ends of the Core. The intensity of heat in summer and of cold in winter, and the degree to which temperature varies generally across the seasons, are not uniform across the lands and seas of the Core. Recurrent weather patterns, beyond those of temperature, may also contribute to the marking of the seasons. spring and fall may feature days of rain at a time or frequent storms. Thunderstorms may be uncommon in anything but summer. Equally, in lands where freezing temperatures are common, many types of trees will shed their leaves in anticipation of winter and grow them back in announcement of spring.

A notable exception to the above, at least to a degree, is Vechor where the described patterns may hold sway for years at a time only to be reversed, jumbled, or even wholly suspended for an indefinite time. Equally, at least one place in Vechor is stuck in perpetual fall.

Beyond the Core, there are evidently some peculiar cases and probable exceptions. Chief among them is Bluetspur. There is night, invariably wracked by a tremendous electrical storm, but there is no sun for a proper day, although darkness does lift to a considerable degree. It is simply unknown whether there are seasons there. The Verduous Lands cluster has no moon but otherwise seems normal. Still, the variation of temperature over the course of the year is probably not great at all and the principle difference to be marked may be a rainy season or, alternatively, perhaps the seasons are hardly marked at all. Conditions in the Amber Wastes are possibily even more constant than in the Verduous Lands. The Shadowlands are notable chiefly for Shadowborn Manor. What occurs in the skies overhead is literally at the whim of Ebonbane. There is known to be a sun and a moon, but he can spin them through the sky, cast them from sight, summon weather as he sees fit, and so render pointless the question of the season.