Hello Everyone,
I’m a new GM to Mouse Guard. Been playing many RPGs over the last 20 years, found the comics, found the game, and can convince my wife and her friends to try out RPing. I hope not to offend anyone here.
Does the year 1152 mean anything? I can find no “official” mouse-religion on this forum so there was no mouse-ly messiah to speak of. However, I really like the idea of the Unseen religion and other talk. My wife wants to play a scholarly Archivist type mouse. I was thinking a good plot point would be to find out what the years where counting from.
Is this the 1152 year of the settling of Lockhaven, 1152 years after the first mouse spoke, 1152 years of the Battle of Hawk Mouse and Fox Mouse, or 1152 years of the Great Aging Cheese Log? (ummm…):lol:
As I understand in our world, 2012 A.D. is an approximate year since a birth in the middle east, and 2012 C.E. is suppose to be close to the fall of Rome or something like that. Calendars have changed from orders of different Popes, belief in power, discovery of new stars (astronomers use the Julian calender, not Gregorian) so the date is something we are guessing at and kinda making up in our world to communicate. It’s a long story about how the modern world chose the calendar.
I guess the Matriarch of the Mouse Guard would be a spiritual leader, possibly setting the date on some new information or deed using the Unseen belief. Ideas or thoughts?
Maybe 1152 years since the first laying of the scent border? I strongly suspect that the 1152 is simply to give us a feel that it is medieval, in line with the medieval period of our history. However that reading is not very romantic.
I think that if you look really closely it will not bear up to scrutiny, because the author has not explicitly written what is the mile post. If real world history is anything to go by, the 1152 date is not one which actually happened anyway. When the recording of dates began, some legendary time in the past was picked to give antiquary authority to the present. For example, the official date of the founding of Rome is 758 BC, according to the Romans of the Imperial age. There is no archaeological evidence to support this. In fact it was most likely centuries later than this. That did not stop them from picking an older date to give themselves “cred”.
Maybe 1152 years since the sun first rose or some other mythical event like you suggested - mice first speaking. Better yet, you an the players of the game make it up your selves!
Maybe its been 1152 years since mice first started acting the way they do? Maybe it’s been 1152 years since mice became the primary cultured species? Maybe its been 1152 years since the fall of humans? Maybe its been 1152 years since anyone started counting?
From the comics, it’s obvious that (at least some) mice believe in an afterlife of some sort.
SPOILERS
Read the funeral song from the last issue of Winter 1152.
END SPOILERS
If memory serves, Weasels had spiritual/religious beliefs too.