What are the months?

I am sure I could find it in the files. however a little lazy at the moment, thought possibly if someone knew the months in the game?

the names of the months go,

      "Bittermun",
      "Deepmun",
      "Dewmun",
      "Rainmun",
      "Growmun",
      "Goldmun",
      "Feastmun",
      "Warmun",
      "Newmun",
      "Azuremun",
      "Hearthmun",
      "Northmun"

taken from stonehearth\data\calendar\calendar_constants

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ahh thank you! I literally just woke up but had this question in mind before I went to bed lol

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I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever made it to Azuremun or anything after thatā€¦ :no_mouth:

What do these months holdddd??

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the months dont mean anything right nowā€¦ but when they add in seasons it will act like a normal year with seasonal changes ect.

If I could throw in my two cents (although by the end I threw in more like a dollar and seventy fiveā€¦)

It has also been confirmed that the names of the months do hold lore value. I have many theories as to what significance each name has, but until I can ā€œdragā€ a little more out of the team Iā€™m not a hundred percent sure what the significance is.

To lay a bit of the groundwork, there is an obvious theme of the growing cycle starting from Deepmun going until Feastmun. Bittermun and Warmun also may be included in this growing cycle, but one could easily see them being attached to their own ideas as well. Newmun is interesting since it doesnā€™t appear to be the new year (although it could be, considering the game may take place in the beginning of the farming cycle not the calendar cycle.) Newmun could be the beginning of the new farming cycle, but I find this hard to explain considering the next three or four months do not seem to be related to the farming cycle at all and if you see below this would not fit.

Azuremun is interesting since it means ā€œbright blue sky monthā€ that sounds like a summer month (winter months tend to have grey skies) but it is not very specific. All I will say is that it is almost for sure not related to the growing cycle. Although Hearthmun seems obvious, it is the biggest head scratcher of them all. It probably just refers to the fact that every settlement has a hearth (and the name of the game is stonehearth after all) however it is a tad bit strange that the hearthlings would name a month like this, especially since every single other month is based of season or growing cycle. I theorized at one point that Hearthmun was the hottest month, so it was ā€œhot as a hearthā€ or something, this is probably not the case as you will see below. Finally Northmun, it is somewhat related to Azuremun, since sky and direction are sometimes compared. This is not much to work with. It more likely have to do with winter, since in many literary works North means cold. and a better proof then that is that the Northern Alliance dwell in cold climates.

With the above ground work you will see how I ā€œfiguredā€ out which months are which season. All the below is if we say there will be a four season calendar. Usually the growing season starts with the beginning of spring until the frost of fallā€¦so presumably Dewmun is the first of spring, that would make spring Dewmun, Rainmun and Growmun. Goldmun, Feastmun and Warmun would be summer (so far all these names fit very nicely,) Newmun, Azuremun and Hearthmun (and now you can see why I think my theory of Hearthmun is problematic) would be fall. Finally Northmun Bittemun and Deepmun would be winter all these names seem fitting as well except for maybe Bittermun and Deepmun should switch places in the order.

This seems to work relatively well, the biggest problem is the fall months are a little strangely named. As far as I know there is no calendar system anywhere that starts in the beginning of the fall. Since stonehearth is indeed a made up universe this could be the case. So Newmun would be the new yearā€¦during the growing seasonā€¦a little strange but doable. Azuremun could apply to Fall since Fall days sometimes do have brilliant blue skies, still it makes more sense for this to be a summer month considering summer days almost always have ā€˜azureā€™ blue skies. Hearthmun is once more a problem. Mainly since I have no idea why the hearthlings have named one of their months Hearthmun. But Northmun makes sense, it is the beginning of the winter season.

If we are dealing with a two season cycle our work is much reduced. It is a little harder to figure out when the wet cycle begins, if you start with Dewmun then Warmun means the end of the wet cycle, that seems to make the most sense since all the months included have ā€œwet cycleā€ sounding names. Newmun now makes perfect sense, since it is the beginning of the dry season, and one could easily see a calendar starting from that point. Azuremun also makes sense now, since it is in the dry season when the sky would be consistently ā€˜azure.ā€™ Hearthmun now could be it is as hot as a hearth, since it would be nearing the pinnacle of heat in the year. Northmun is problematic, since it is certainly not related to the cold. But perhaps a creative answer could explain it. Bittermun could refer to the fact that people are bitter waiting for the wet season (this is a bit of a stretch but it could be said) Deepmun once again seems a little misplaced, since it would be the end of the dry seasonā€¦not deep into it.

You can see that whichever system I use there are a few months that just donā€™t seem to fit. It seems to me that the four season cycle ā€˜worksā€™ better overall but Iā€™m not sure. Maybe I should make this a separate post and make a poll.

It is likely I am off the mark in many areas, but it certainly is something to think about. I am especially curious what Hearthmun has to do with anything.

Sorry for the long post, just like me to make a simple thing super complicated. What can I say though? It is lore.
-Turtlesquish

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The stonehearth months fit the British seasons/ culture perfectly. Starting at January is bittermun and December is Northmun.

So Winter is North, Bitter, Deep (Dec Jan Feb), February is the month where we are most likely to get snow, so itā€™s most like deep winter.

Then you have spring, Dew, Rain, Grow. Rain is April, where we have the phrase April showers.

Summer is Gold, Feast, Warm, warmmun being August which is the warmest month of the year here.

Then autumn is new, azure, Heath.
All 3 of these have explanations,
New refers to the new academic year, which starts in September here. But maybe the hearthlings have some holiday like Easter at this time of year.
Azure is October, which the weather tends to start out really foggy/misty in the morning but by lunch time has lifted and there is clear blue cloudless skyā€™s, which is a rarity in the U.K. (Itā€™s not like that today unfortunately :frowning: )

And then Hearthmun is called that because the temperature gets to the point where you start to feel it being too cold and all the hats and gloves come out and you have to wear a massive coat everywhere you go.
So hearthlings have to huddle round a hearth to keep warm for the first time since last winter.

Thatā€™s my explanation anyway :slight_smile:

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What if ā€œmunā€ refers not to months, but moons?

Then, Newmun would be a month where the moon is ā€œnewā€ for a longer time than usual. And Azuremun would refer to a ā€œblue moonā€.

Now, a Blue Moon IRL is when there are 2 full moons within a single calendar month; caused by an inconsistency between the calendar dates and the lunar cycle; so one monthā€™s full moon is ā€œpushed backā€ to the next month.

So, in the month of Newmun thereā€™s a new moon but no full moon; and Azuremun has a full moon for both the start and the end of the month?

Now, if there were some magical shenanigans related to this (the moon appears blue-er in Azuremoon, and magic is more powerful because of the link to the lunar cycle or something like that, as an example), it would make sense as to why the hearthlings chose these names for the month in question.

My personal headcanon regarding Hearthmun is that itā€™s the first month that the hearths are lit for warmth, rather than just for light. Perhaps thereā€™s a ceremony, and a tradition of never letting the hearth burn down until Dewmun? So, on the last night of Azuremun, the hearth fire is stocked just enough to burn until morningā€¦ or perhaps thereā€™s even some other related ceremony, where offerings/poppets/some other trinket-effigies are burned, possibly related to the end of Candledark? IIRC, Candledark falls over Azuremun, but this could just be me totally confusing the timeline hahaha.

Either way, on the first of Hearthmun, the old ashes are raked over and piled into the edges of the hearth, making room for a large fire to be set. The ashes are never raked out entirely, as per the fragment from the Ballad of Cid found on the tooltip to the stone fireplace (ā€œFire is life. Ashes are death. In these stones, the story of our peopleā€. Sweeping out those ashes would be like throwing out the memories of the departed; so I rather think that the hearthlings simply push them to the sides of the pit and leave them to be pressed into the lining over time, forming an incredibly strong layer of ash-glass which forms a literal and spiritual foundation for the hearth); but those loose ashes from the previous seasons are scraped back to reveal the hard-baked floor of the hearth. A great pile of logs is built, and taking pride of place on top is something similar to a Yule Log; one of two large logs cut from a single tree. Once this fire is lit (the culmination of this ceremony), it is added to for the whole of winter until the first morning dew (rather than frost) of Dewmun announces that winter has begun to release the land from its icy grip. One final large log, sibling to the original log used to start the fire, is added to see out the remainder of the lean times; and only after that log has burned away can the fire be allowed to go out.

Naturally, this tradition works a lot better in the grander hearths of more established settlements; our settlers must contend themselves with smaller logs sized to fit in their much smaller firepits. It is only after years of preparing the ground with hard-baked, tightly packed ashes that a suitable foundation is made for a grand hearth which can burn for an entire winter.

/headcanon

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@Freedom that is fascinating. I was not aware how well the seasons of the UK fit with Stonehearth I also specifically like the idea of the hearth meaning (and @YetiChow mentioned this as well) this seems a very logical meaning.

Although it seems to fit very well, I donā€™t think that the UK weather is the source of inspiration for the month names. I will ask the team if it was, but being that the team are all from California they are unlikely to know the weather patterns in the UK. One point which I think I can debunk right now is that Newmun is for the new academic year, although it is a creative idea ;).

@YetiChow the moon idea is interesting. The major result of your idea is to force the calendar to a solar cycle (since the very definition of a lunar month is the new moon.) It also would result in an interesting idea, stating that the solar and lunar cycles are consistent.

Your idea about the hearth ceremony is certainly creative, but as far as I know there is no evidence in the lore to support this. Sorry :frowning:

The idea of Candledark in Azuremun is fascinating I need to think about that more.

-Turtlesquish

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First off: the idea about the Hearthlighting ceremony is pure headcanon; i.e. fiction I made up because it fits the known story; but yeah thereā€™s no evidence for it in-game. In fact, thatā€™s why I included that last line about stone firepits being unsuitable for the tradition since theyā€™re too small and new (i.e. donā€™t have the ash layer built up enough yet to contain the heat from a large, season-spanning fire).

So that was more of an indulgence of my writerly side than my scholarly side, heheh. Although the idea was inspired by real-world traditions of the Yule log, and something akin to an Olympic flame (that is, donā€™t let the fire go out so that you keep the blessings of whatever is helping you get through the winter.)

Moving on to @Freedomā€™s idea about Newmun and the academic calendar, I think that lines up pretty well, given that @Albert is studying (and I believe he was there when the seasons were added, and studying back thenā€¦); and that the Summer break plays such a large part in the US calendar. The idea of the Summer Job, the Summer Romance, the Summer Getawayā€¦ (all capitalised because theyā€™re all Cultural Things, BTW); all of them stem from the fact that the Summer in the US is the time to undertake new long-termā€¦ erā€¦ undertakings, a chance to not only relax but to do all those other things now that school is over for the year. While some schools go back in August, some hold out until September, particularly in the colder regions; and AFAIK most of the colleges wait until September too (and if we take Albertā€™s studies as a possible influence here, then it would make more sense that theyā€™d inspire him to suggest a month in line with the college/university timetables rather than highschool timetables.) So, thereā€™s a sense that Fall is a time of new beginnings; even though itā€™s also leading into the end of the year.

So, I wouldnā€™t be prepared to say that itā€™s definitely, undeniably based on the academic calendar; but I would say itā€™s conceivable that Newmun gets its name from the sense of Summer Break being an end to the (schoold) year, and Fall being a ā€œnew beginningā€.

Of course, Iā€™m Australian, so Iā€™m certainly no authority on American cultural nuancesā€¦ but thatā€™s the sense I get from all the books and movies and so on.

Another thought I had, although this is more of a stretch, is that Northmun might be related to Christmas, or in the World of Hearth that would be Frostfeast. Thereā€™s the link between Santa and the North Pole, but thereā€™s also the fact that at that time of year the prevailing winds in the US are largely blowing down from the North. I donā€™t think this is a direct link (so, not like someone at the meeting said ā€œooh, I know, since Santa comes down from the North Pole letā€™s name the 12th month Northmun!ā€); but rather I think itā€™s a case where all the different images and themes associated with that time of year were steeping together in the teamā€™s collective thoughts; and the idea of the North (as a vague, amorphous concept rather than something specific) was a common thread.

Ultimately, I suspect that a lot of these months are named for a convergence of ideas and inspirations, rather than a single inspiration or direct reference. But itā€™s certainly fun to pick them apart, hahaha!

As others have said though, what Iā€™m most interested in is seeing how the months can interact with gameplay later on. If Growmun is a great time to grow crops, or Goldmun is the best time to harvest them; if Bittermun is bitterly cold and Deepmun is the time when the world of Hearth is most deeply gripped by Winter; then these kinds of stories will basically write themselves as players interact with and explore the gameā€™s seasonal mechanics. Thatā€™s what Iā€™m looking forward to, down the line :smiley:

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I was wondering why some traders sold huge parkas I ended up buying out of curiosity. That explains it once winter is implemented fully. I have 25 parkas I just figured out arenā€™t really useful right now. :joy: But at least I know.

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I am not convinced for various reasons. First of all if it were based on summer break then they would have named it Breakmun or something similar. Second, is that @Albert is not (to my knowledge) included in the lore making process. @sdee @Tom and @Ponder were in charge of the lore back then. Thirdly it is a violation of ā€œOccamā€™s Razor.ā€ It is mighty far fetched to say that a month is based off the academic year, when even according to @Freedom most of the months are based on the season cycle.

About Northmun, what you are saying is possible. Either way I think it is in agreement by all that Northmun refers to cold or winter.

Edit: paging @malley

Found it!

Iā€™ve already posted in our work slack (team communication software) and Iā€™ll make sure @sdee sees it : ).

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@malley do you like all the theories weā€™ve come up with?

I do, they are all very creative and well thought out : ). I like that so many ideas can come from so simple a subject, and that you guys have created so much depth out of it ; ).

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Malley confirmed in the latest stream that the months are based on what is happening during the year, and that it is based on the American year ā€œwhat ever it is calledā€

I hope this sheds (no pun intended) light on the issue.

This was exactly what i was thinking! living in Denmark my self i saw the same pattern as you describe :merry:
An exstra note on the Hearthmun, is the time to get all your provisions for the comming winter into your home/hearth for storage. about 120 days worth of food should cut it :merry:

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