Windawill: The Land and Its People

I found myself considering whether or not to include the great land of Windawill in this book. While there are certainly less hospitable places for travelers to wander, there are few full of more mystery or strange ways. A small land, few travelers are allowed entry into the Conference’s territory. Fewer still return eager to tell tales of what they experienced. As such, the majority of what I will convey is a combination of rumor, hearsay, and subtle suggestion.

I myself have found travel to Windawill becoming more and more difficult. For any number of reasons, many points of access are becoming harder to access. Ports are closing, doors are locking, and the once friendly land has become colder to visitors these days. It has become more and more common for travelers to require native friends or known travelers to be accepted to Windawill.

Currently, there are five well known and reliable methods for reaching Windawill:¹

Ravn Alaska

This small Alaskan airline specializes in serving small communities in northern Alaska, but also serves as one of the few airlines with clearance to travel to Windawill. Note that, while it is true the journey will not require the plane to be fueled, there are other costs involved in making the trip; do not expect your ticket’s prices to be significantly cheaper than any others.

Tanka

Sadakichi Hartmann’s tanka poem titled simply Tanka is a somewhat unreliable method to reach Windawill. If you write this poem in ink on a square of white paper and read it out loud under the full moon, you should be whisked away to the gates of the Palace of Horn, but this does not always work. Also, note that you will only travel with any luggage you are holding in your hand, so do not use this method for long stays.

Honeybush Tea with Honey

This is a reliable but involved method. Brew a cup of Honeybush Tea and add honey; how much is not important. Pour this tea into a porcelain cup with a saucer, and place a copper teaspoon in the cup. Take this cup of tea to a crossroads with your luggage. Any kind of crossroad will do, so long as there are no cars. Once you are there, drink the tea while turning in place. Eventually, you will find yourself at a crossroads outside of Damasi and may continue your travels from there.

Cat’s Eye

If you fall asleep while staring into the eyes of a black-and-white cat, you will wake up in a room of The Half-way Inn. You will need to pay for the night’s sleep, but your clothing and toiletries should all be present. Anything missing will accrue a reduction in price. It is polite to eat a single meal at the Inn before you leave Windawill, or else you might find your room less comfortable during your next stay.

The Corner of Tamaspur and Bazar

If you stand on the split where Tamaspur Road breaks away from Bazar Road in Arunkhola, Naya Belhani, Nepal; and face the west, you will see a small dirt cliff. If you stand perfectly still for seven and a half minutes during the dusk hour, you will see a blurry outline of an arch in the earthen wall. Close your eyes and walk confidently forward seven paces, and you will find yourself in a small meadow just outside Yopshim.

Vassalate Road

The most unreliable method, but the most accessible; If you gather your belongings and head down a straight road only to turn around and head back the way you came, after several turnings you will find yourself on Queen’s Road heading into Mémré. This method is generally underutilized, as there is no consistent distance you need to travel before turning, nor number of about-faces you need to make for the method to work.

Culture for Travelers

While it is easy to call Windawillians “individualistic” or “independent,” a careful understanding of their rich history reveals that they are less concerned about their own personal freedoms or stubborn predilections, and more understanding of the complexities of life.

While many modern cultures may see their Laissez-faire “not-my-business” attitude towards visitors, neighbors, and life in general as callous or isolationist, in truth it comes from a place of compassion and humility. To pass judgment on someone else is to presume you understand their lives better than they do, which is an absurd idea given your lack of experience. Windawillians always assume that an individual’s actions are rational and reasonable, given their circumstances, and believe that were they in the same situation, they too would behave similarly.

This isn’t to say no one ever passes judgment,² but it is always couched in terms of what drove a person to behave in such a manner. At its worst, it can come across as infantilizing, while at its best it is a call to action; a focusing on the worldly issues that plague a fellow Windawillian, and the ultimate reminder of fortune’s influence.

Fortune is a significant aspect of Windawillian culture. Personal successes are always weathered with an awareness of how lucky one was they were not stymied by events beyond their control. Preparation and foresight are considered great virtues among Windawillians, and taking a significant risk is offensive.

A common phrase heard out of the mouths of the locals is; “today passes.” This is a shortened version of the longer “Today passes, while tomorrow is yet to come.” This phrase is used both as an expression of sympathy³ and an urge to plan ahead.

This has also led foreigners to believe that Windawill has a larger-than-average number of prophets, seers, and oracles than any other land. This is untrue, as Windawill has a cultural distrust of prophesy; such things can be misinterpreted or tell only half the story, and make you under-prepared for what may come.

This is not to say that there are no games of chance or gambling in Windawill, but the more familiar games are different in fascinating ways.⁴

Windawill has sometimes been characterized as having a culture of cowardice. This was largely due to the nation surrendering to the Red General during his War of Perversion, allowing him to march towards Jik’kyivvic without resistance. While several regional governments have long since apologized for their unwillingness to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Red General’s soon-to-be-victims, their surrender allowed Windawill to rebuild faster than any other region once the war was over, take in more refugees, and provide aid to those who needed it.

Cuisine

Similar to Chikurry, Windawill has no established cultural cuisine. Instead, the land is a veritable melting pot of styles, dishes, techniques, and tastes; all practiced by individuals. There is only one certainty when you sit down for a meal in Windawill; it will be unique in the land, unmatched by any other cook you find.

It’s unclear where this individualistic cooking tradition arose from, but it has not severely limited the number of cafés and restaurants in the region, though they have not yet come around to the idea of menus and individual orders. When you enter a dining establishment, your meal is largely at the mercy of the cooks in the kitchen. This isn’t to say you can’t express a preference or get a sandwich without tomato, but if the chef is cooking soup today, be prepared to eat soup.

Trains, Busses, and Taxi Services

Travel in Windawill is as varied as its cuisine. Bussing is common, though the means varies considerably; from water-mirrors to tamed wind-striders, you will never get to your location the same way twice. A couple of notable examples:

The Shortwind Trail is the fastest and safest way to travel between Yopshim and Allsdone Peak; simply grab onto a brightpalm leaf and step off the upper or lower Shortwind Bridges. The prevailing winds with take you safely and comfortably to the other bridge.

The Bubble Barge between Almeda and Typtoffin is a delightful way to travel, capable of taking seven people and one driver at a trip. Please fight your instinct to touch the bubble, as while you won’t break it, it will make things more difficult for the driver.

The Dancing Inn is one of the more esoteric methods of travel, but certainly one of the most fun; making a circuit through Loskin province, the wandering inn travels as long as someone is dancing. The more dancers, the faster it goes, and so the inn is in near constant celebration. I recommend spending at least a few hours dancing, singing, and enjoying the light food they offer.

Yempi’s Buss is my personal favorite. Yempi is a delightful little gnome who drives their two-floor buss wherever they have a mind to. The entire upper level has been converted to a comfortable apartment, and they live there with their two cats and an old raven named Buwd. They’ll take you where you want to go for only a few coin, but only if they’re interested in going themselves. Thankfully, they are an easy-going sort, and find most places in Windawill interesting.

Inside the towns and cities of Windawill, taxi services are largely unknown; most places are small enough for walking to be the best method of travel. In the largest towns, cart-runners will sometimes offer to take you from one end of the street to the other, or get you where you’re going faster than you would otherwise, but this is largely considered an emergency method of travel, when speed is of vital importance.

Weather and Climate

The weather in Windawill is temperamental to say the least. If you plan on staying in one place for your whole trip, you may be able to get away with packing for only one kind of weather, but as soon as you venture out between the provinces, you’re going to find everything from freezing to burning climates.

Be extra careful if you are traveling to the outer provinces, as the weather in some places can get unnatural. Stonefalls are relatively common in Ruusk, for example, and pepper-storms sweep in from the pepperdomme fields outside of Kantefiel. The weather is turbulent enough on the Hrask’gnaign sea that crab-rain occurs at least once or twice a year in Wshishk.

If you are planning a trip to multiple places in Windawill, it is always a good idea to either speak with a local before traveling to learn what kind of travel-gear is most helpful, or check with a travel guide or trip planner to see what they suggest.

The Windawill Dale (D)

Windawill existed for centuries without a common currency. For generations, bartering was commonplace and written notes served as markers of debt. Bartering is still the preferred method of economic exchange, but after Endeprin province was lost to the Weft and the Unified Compact of 1515 was signed, the Windawill Dale became a widely accepted form of currency.

A simple coin, there are six canters to the dale, and two half-canters to the canter. Easily recognizable by their square shape, dales are made from iron, while canters use copper, giving both an equal weight in spite of their varying sizes.

Coin	Worth (D)
Five-Dale Piece	5
Two-Dale Piece	2
Dale	1
Canter	1/6
Half-Canter	1/12

In addition to dales and canters, you may come across nipks or win-dales. The Windawillian disparagement of risk-taking does not extend to games of chance, and culturally this has led to a separate kind of currency that is sometimes used in gambling.

Nipks are small wooden disks with old Windawillian numbers carved in them. They are small and can be easily made by anyone with a marginal skill in wood-working. They have no intrinsic value, beyond a means of keeping score in games of chance. Many people keep their winnings with them, carrying them from game to game, though this is by no means ubiquitous. There is some small social status gained by having a large amount of winnings, but someone with a lot of nipks is generally viewed as someone who is primed for ill-fortune.

It is also a common tradition for any winnings to be thrown in the fire in order to pay for a free meal or drink from the host or establishment.