the Almanac The World
The Hollow Almanac
Every member looks after a Vetti — a friend’s child. The tales begin with them.
In the record: tales · the Ways · the Harvest Fair · the Lantern Moon · the people of the Hollow
- not yet
The Seed Thief
Something has been at the biscuit tin in the night — three toes, a tail, and a smudge on the leaves that still glows.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
Fenwick’s Forty-First Word
Auster’s Woolli has known forty words for years. This morning he said a forty-first.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
The Lost Kite
Old Tam’s Wingi went up to the Shelf last evening, the way he always does, and didn’t come back for the spin.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
The Calling
your Vetti is grown. At the Wards’ House, Oriel has a question the Hollow asks its own — not what they’ll be, but what they want to learn, and from whom.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
Following the Weather
Dill, the Shelter’s Leafi, heard the weather turn over the Overgrowth and went after it. That was two suppers ago.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
Nothing Where It Was
Auster has drawn the Drift’s lichen beds exactly where they were. He has it on good authority that they aren’t there now.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
The Fourth Reading
The inscriptions in the Sunken Halls have been read three ways. All three are wrong, says the fourth. Wen would like a fourth.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
The Question over the Door
There’s a temple in the Bonefields with a question cut over its door. Brakka read it when she was young, and did a thousand push-ups.
with a Vetti in your care
- not yet
The Eighth Hinge
The brass pin fell out of the eighth locker’s hinge and rolled away while Nub watched. There’s brass at the Tip, if the recycler hasn’t had it.
with a Vetti in your care
- the Fair
The Bake-off
The Harvest Fair’s Bake-off: the hand bakes, your Vetti presents. Three judges, and each has said what they’re after this year.
with a Vetti in your care
- the Fair
The Roshi Show
The Harvest Fair’s Roshi Show: one of your roshi round Hollis’s ring, on a bit of string, with your Vetti. He doesn’t care if it’s pretty. He cares if it’s looked after.
with a Vetti in your care
- the Fair
The Tall Tale
The Harvest Fair’s Tall-Tale Contest, at the Inn after supper: tall, hanging together, and explaining something everybody knows. Auster judges. Nobody who smiled has ever won.
with a Vetti in your care
- the Fair
The Moonlit Race
Old Tam’s race round the Hollow by the light of the full moon: the meadow, the stream, the hill. One of your roshi against seven of the Hollow’s. Kite has never won.
with a Vetti in your care
Every member looks after a Vetti — a friend’s child, left in their care. Log in
The hand
The hand is you. Move it over the world; click a roshi to pat it (it comes to like you), right-click to scold, drag a roshi to carry it somewhere, drag a thing — food, a toy, a seed — to move it. Let go of either over a doorway — a door, a cave's mouth, a room's way out — and it goes through. Click the ground and your Vetti walks there. A biscuit drops where the hand is.
The Vetti
Your Vetti is a person of one of the eight peoples who lives in your Plot, minds the roshi on your orders, grows by the week on the schedule you set, and walks the Hollow and the Wilds for you. Click it and the Info window shows its sheet. Home is its room: talk to it, praise it, scold it, give it a pat on the head, let it nap, dress it, give it things from the pockets — and it answers in its own temper, which what you do shapes, slowly.
Its day
Your Vetti keeps the hours where you live, and is in one place at a time — the Dock, the Home and the Plot all say where. It sleeps in its bed at night (an infant from seven, and after lunch too); breakfast at seven; the morning round in the Plot when there are roshi to see to; from nine to five the week's activity, where it is done — lore at the table with a book, the garden in the Plot, errands and the counter in the Hollow, an outing in the Wilds; lunch at noon; the afternoon in the Plot; supper, then its own corner till bed. Out, it can't be talked to at home: call it home (the Home's card, or the Vetti menu) — called from its day's work, the rest of that work is lost from what the day gives. A word wakes it from sleep, and it is cross about it; a pat doesn't. What it can be set to do grows with it: an infant has stories, tummy time, naps and play; lessons and work come with childhood; the arcane, the counter, the Drill and the Curio with adolescence; teaching the roshi and the Fair when grown.
Telling the Vetti
Type in the box under the world (Tell, or its name first: “Wren, explore the map”). It keeps rules — feed and take care of them · no breeding · pat the scared ones · don't let them eat the beans — and goes where it is sent, from wherever it stands: explore the map · enter the cave (the nearest) · go home · go into the round hut · go to the incubator · find Pip · go up · come out · go to the plaza · find a seed. It carries a roshi in its arms — up ladders, through doorways, into rooms — till it puts it down: pick up Pip · carry Moss home · take Fen into the cave · put Pip to bed · put her down. “Stop” clears its list. What it can do grows with it (D117): a young child plays, feeds and waters; a child carries, explores and teaches; an adolescent matchmakes — pair Pip with Moss — and may mind a stall; an adult can be told take charge, and runs the Plot: every order on, the grown paired while there is room.
Rooms
Caves, the castle's halls and cellar are rooms to walk into, dark till your Vetti has been. Huts, the tree house, the watchtower, the shrine, the temple and the gate house are scenes: click the door and the room opens over the world, whoever is in it standing before its backdrop. A roshi inside is looked after — fed, watered, warmed, put to bed — and comes out when it is ready, or when you send it out; drag one onto a door to put it in. Things set down in a doorway are kept inside — food for whoever is in, a toy to play with — and the room lists them, to take back out. The big hut is your Vetti's home: its door is the Home, and it sleeps there at night.
The places
The Places box takes you anywhere a Vetti can go: your Plot, the valley (the neighbours' freeholds, seen from their gates — the hand can't reach in), the Hollow's shops and services, the Wilds' six regions, the Commons, the arena. Nothing leaves this window.
The kits
Info — whatever you clicked last: a roshi (its loudest needs, pat, scold, what?, why?, teach), your Vetti (its sheet, what it is doing) or a thing (what it is, what it is for, how much is left). The week — the schedule, the standing orders, a moment to decide. Hatchery — the seeds. Pockets — what the Vetti carries, and what to do with it. Speech History — the log. Orders — the standing orders.
Keys
F follow · arrows look around · Esc closes the top kit · F1 this · H Info · P pockets · L the log.