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    Canonfire :: View topic - Baklunish Hegira
    Canonfire Forum Index -> World of Greyhawk Discussion
    Baklunish Hegira
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Apr 15, 2011
    Posts: 85
    From: Staug, FL, USA

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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:57 am  
    Baklunish Hegira

    I'm working on a project, right, and I'm attempting to put into context with the history of the Flanaess. So I was looking at the timelines and calendars when I started thing about something that never jumped out to me--the Baklunish calendar is called the Baklunish Hegira. For those not familiar with the word, hegira means something like "exodus", "migration", "flight", etc.

    So, what does this have to do with the Baklunish Calendar? Is the starting date of the calendar (2659 BCY--that's "Before Common Year") marking some great migration or exodus of some sort of the Baklunish people or is marking some religious journey of some sort? Is there anything in the canon that elucidates on this, or is this something I can just make up wholecloth?
    Black Hand of Oblivion

    Joined: Feb 16, 2003
    Posts: 3835
    From: So. Cal

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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:25 am  

    Woot! I know this one! Laughing

    "Hegira" does have the meaning you stated. The Hegira Calendar sets as "Day 1" the day that Mohammed fled Mecca. Obviously the term is borrowed for the Baklunish(big pet peeve of mine to so literally cut-n-paste something from the real world, especially something like this). For the Baklunish, the terms "Hegira", and "Hegira Calendar" would refer to this:

    "He [Azor'Alq] is first mentioned in the mythic tale of the Hegira, in which he defended the [Baklunish] royal family from the minions of Darkness that assailed them in the flight from their defiled homeland across the desolate western mountains."

    --- "Blood of Heroes", Living Greyhawk Journal #5, page 9


    So, with regards to the the Baklunish calendar, "Day 1" refers to the day that the Baklunish fled their homeland in the far west, and it is indeed Day 1 of the Baklunish Calendar. I do wish that people could...oh....make stuff up more often for a fantasy world though. Wink
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    Last edited by Cebrion on Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:38 am; edited 1 time in total
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Apr 15, 2011
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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:36 am  

    Interesting. Thank you, Cebrion. Cookies for you! :)

    Hmm... Given that the Baklunish Empire prior to the Twin Cataclysms extended well west of the present Baklunish holdings, it seems that the only possible "western mountains" would be some part of the northern half of the range that bisects Western Oerik. And this is a migration thousands of years prior to the Great Migrations of the 5th century BCY. I think I can play around with this.

    Forum Moderator

    Joined: Feb 26, 2004
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    From: Ullinois

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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:40 am  

    As real worldy as hegira sounds, what else could Gygax have been thinking when he made the Baklunish calendar abbreviation B.H.?

    Good topic, Azzy.
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:49 am  

    mortellan wrote:
    As real worldy as hegira sounds, what else could Gygax have been thinking when he made the Baklunish calendar abbreviation B.H.?


    Before the 1998 Greyhawk team canonized "hegira," the popular fanon phrase was "Baklunish Hegemony."
    Forum Moderator

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    Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:04 pm  

    Good call Rasgon. Hmm, Hegemony of course brings up a totally different picture of how the Baklunish Empire came to be. Ah...history!
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Apr 15, 2011
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    Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:17 pm  

    I didn't know that "hegira" was so recent an addition.
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