The Splendour of the Great Lanterns

Ontolosna is set upon the back of Huksae, the World-Bird, the Crane of Being, whose flapping wing cycle (visible across the parasol sky) determines Ontolosna’s seasons and years. Three suns are eternally visible. The movement of On, the primary, can only be measured across decades, though she undergoes a daily colour cycle that determines ‘night’ and ‘day’.

The Three Suns, Mother, Brother and Child

Samhae – The Great Lanterns

Samhae, the three suns or Great Lanterns light the cloudy parasol of Ontolosna. They are the Mother, Brother and Child.

On is the Mother. She moves only slowly, barely discernible from wing (year) to wing. Her cycle of shifting colour determines the Ontolosnan day and night. She also changes size and luminosity in the cycle of a year or wing. On’s average size is that of a peach held at arm’s length.

Ta or Tagra is the Brother. He is smaller than his sister, though constant in position. The Brother or Uncle Sun is usually pale blue in colour.

Ti or Tik is the Child. She is also called Seeker of Fortune or Little Sister. Small, highly mobile and capricious, Ti sometimes dips very close to the surface. She manifests all the primary colours of On, but at a slower and unpredictable cycles that are the subject of much arcane speculation.

The sacred, chanted, base three number system (‘on, ta, ti …’) uses the names of the Great Lanterns.

Hanul, the Parasol, ‘the Cloudy Deep’ or upper sky is always filled with cloud. They scatter much of On’s light, lessening the intensity of shadows. The parasol’s colours range from wispy grey to stormy blue-black, and sometimes the entire sky is transfigured by stunning geometric and cyclic patterns in the cloudscape.

A variety of unusual but minor meteorological phenomena are also known.

Time

On’s eternal cycle of shifting colours determines the Ontolosnan ‘day’ and ‘night’.

On manifests the prime, female colours of white, yellow, red, blue and black in a 36 earthly hour cycle called an onil or turning, divided into gleamings (‘hours’) or onshen of light and shadow.

An onil is said to begin with the first red gleaming. Light (day) consists of the red, yellow and white gleamings.Shade (night) consists of the blue and black (actually a deep violet) gleamings.

Onshen are three hours and thirty six minutes long, though the apical Black and White gleamings have both ascending and descending halves. Bik (daylight) is six gleamings long (twenty one hours and thirty six minutes) and narim (shadow or night) is four gleamings long (fourteen hours and twenty four minutes). A combined light and shadow cycle is equal to thirty six earthly hours.

There are no native terms for minutes or seconds, though ‘heartbeats’ can be used.

On’s sacred cycle of colour is central to everything. Life has evolved under this cycle of colour. Higher animals can endure longer, but also sleep longer.

QUESTION FOR EXPLORATION: Life has evolved under a 36 hour day. What does this mean for endurance, patterns of activity and rest? What is a typical human day? How many meals, how long and when do they sleep?

Five onil comprise a jubon, or Ontolosnan ‘week’. Each onil’s name is derived from one of the base elements, and every ‘day’ and ‘night’ has its own name and associations:

And time unfolds one wingbeat at a time towards Kasangsari, the Edge, the end of history.