Tleng

Tleng is a city that has grown up around a giant grandfather clock that fell through an enlarging drip. It is circular, has twelve districts, and at dawn the big metal chimes of the grandfather clock are struck by an intricate mechanism. The grandfather clock is known as Ul-Tleng, and is housed in the Clock Temple at the center of the city. As is the case with many old, large societies, life is highly ritualized. Society is divided into 12 guilds, with adolescent Tlenga choosing a guild when they reach twelve. Each of the 12 guilds resides in a specific district. There is a hierarchy of status among the guilds, with the Plekko guildmembers being the highest status, composing the moral and spiritual center of Tleng. The guilds break down as follows: Pikk, the guild responsible for farming; Pokk, the guild responsible for city maintenance, ;Pekk, the guild responsible for educating; Plikk, the guild responsible assisting in the home; Plokk, the guild responsible for everyday engineering; Plekk, the guild responsible for something like therapy; Plikki, the guild responsible for trade and general merchantry; Plokki, the guild responsible for specialized, engineering such radio construction; Plekki, the guild responsible for scientific inquiry; Plikko, the guild responsible for governing and making laws; Plokko, the guild for the arts (who are the clockmakers), and Plekko, the guild of the priesthood. The guilds are not permanent, the goal being for an individual to move through the entire progression twice in their lifetime. This does not always happen however, due to an individual Tlenga's preference to stay in a guild due to taste or ability. Guilds are sometimes skipped, but most Tlenga take it upon themselves to spend some time in the more menial guilds, to spread out the unpleasant labor. The Tlenga are polytheistic, worshipping the Divine Hours, twelve gods representing the 12 different guilds. These gods are understood to be something like avatars, manifestations of Tle, a transcendent deity symbolizing cosmic stability. Drips are conceptualized as a kind of "anti-stability", a melancholy reminder of the disorder of the physical world. Wable is not "fallen" like in the Christian context, but the Tlenga conceive Wable as incomplete, and Drips as evidence of its incompleteness. Tlenga generally avoid Drip Mining, preferring to trade for items that come through, and assist in cleanup. The most important festival is Hursdey, where the titular Tlenging happens, all the clocks in Tleng sound off at midnight to welcome the New Year. The Tlenga are renowned throughout Wable for their engineering prowess, being a major exporter of clocks and other mechanical devices. It is due to the efforts of Tlengan engineers that all of the large Wablan cities have electricity, and Tleng was also instrumental in the dissemination of the radio. There was a clockwork robot that the Plekko built, and that broke apart generations ago. It was called the Relk and an expression of sadness, of the frailty of life, is "Ah, Relk." It was a city tragedy, and the Relk's destruction came when it ventured outside the city and was attacked by a tiger mantis. There is a memorial erected in the 6th district where offerings are left, and Relkstime is a popular festival in early summer, with both food and parts vendors entertaining the Tlenga during open air concerts with bagpipes and accordion like instruments. Tleng is also one of the oldest cities in Wable, with the inner sanctum of the Clock Temple being over 2000 years old.