Journal Entry Number Two: A bit about my planet …

My Uncle Ardenai, who teaches five and six-year-olds, says that the first thing children ask when told about strangers, is “How are they like us?” Not how are they different, but how are they alike.  These are some basic things so you can compare your planet to ours size, season and weather-wise.

Planet Equus is 26,206 Statute Miles in circumference.  We have a large, ice-covered cap at the top, and a smaller one at the bottom. 

We have three large continents: Andal, Benacus, and Viridia that form a sort of disjointed belt around the middle of the planet.  We also have a good-sized chain of scattered islands called Achernar, which are warm and tropical – or as warm and tropical as Equus gets.  (We are a cool planet, which is odd, given the amount of thermal vents and hot springs we have.)  Our population has held steady for thousands of years at around 1.1 billion people, which allows us to balance population with consumption.  Because we do that, we are the wealthiest planet in the Seventh Galactic Alliance.  I say that, not to brag, but in praise of our people and our policies, and in thanks to the Creator Spirit – Eladeus – for our good fortune.

There are three hundred and eighty-four days in a year, divided into forty-eight weeks of equal length and six seasons of sixty-four days each.  We have eight days in a week.

We are an agrarian planet and our schedules revolve around the demands of each season.

In our cold seasons of Aellaeno and Chionos, it snows almost everywhere but Achernar and our sports and games move inside – except for skiing and ice-skating and snolo, which is a kind of  game played on ice-skates with much the same rules as our planetary sport of polo, or pulu.  It’s a very rough game, just like polo, but it can be played at many different levels, too.

In Omphas and Segens, which are our seasons of birth and growth, most of us are busy delivering foals or lambs and helping with the family orchards and gardens.  We also go out into the woods to gather mushrooms and herbs, along with tender spring greens, and we play spring games of different kinds and start tuning our horses up for warm weather riding and sports.

Enalios is our warmest season, and we swim and sail and go out on long horseback riding expeditions to camp and explore. This is the time between planting and harvest when we have the most leisure time outdoors, and there is no school unless you are taking special classes, like Enalios Lycee.

Oporens is our season of harvest, and everyone on Equus takes part in one way or another.  Even the children have chores to prepare for winter, and school lets out so they can help.

We do have terrible storms which sweep across our planet, with devastating lightning strikes and winds which can bat an Equi Flyer right out of the air.  We have ancient computators which keep the worst of the strikes off the surface, but still, our homes and barns are built of stone, just in case.