The Ashen Vale

A week's travel from the capital Silver Loch, just at its south western border, lies the Ashen Vale. How old it truly is, no one really knows. Just, that it always has been there.
It is an ancient place, full of dark and dangerous energy. It is a place where none now dare pass unless absolutely necessary. And even then, one will still try to avoid it and pass by as far away as possible.
This ancient place, is rumored to exist since the dawn of the world, when only elves and dwarves roamed its surface. It is said to be a burial site, where once the first massive battle between the elves and dwarves took place, where even up to this day those ancient souls still roam about, still trying to decide the battle in their favor.  Sometimes wispers, moans and clanging of weapons can still be vaguely heard among the ruins scattering this giant open plain. No real vegetation grows there. Trees and shrubs and grass, all are wilted and dead, rotted to the very core. Yet they remain present, dead but not gone, not recycled into new life. The vale is not only lifeless, it is even deadless. 
An ever overhanging deep dark blanket of clouds clings over it as a stark warning and reminder of the ominous and inhospitable place this vale truly is. It never rains, it is just dark, a blanket of clouds that does not even allow the sun to touch the ground underneath. An atmosphere of death and despair constantly present.
The first lord of Silver Loch, Lord Ravenhair I, has build a great wall around the Vale to keep the people of the villages around safe, and to contain the evil inside the Vale, if it should ever venture out and wreack havoc among the citizens of Silver Loch. The road leading through those villages, ran right alongside this large wall, leading straight to Silver Loch Castle, a couple of week's worth of travel.
Due to the Vale's ominous atmosphere, even at the edge and despite the giant wall, horses and catlle passing by still got spooked easily. He had no choice but to create an alternate road toward the Castle. Thus a shorter and more direct route to Silver Loch was created, resulting in the disuse of this road alonside the Ashen Vale. It also meant the decline and eventual dissappearance of any village near the Vale as well. Since there was no longer any population or traffic to be protected against the evil of the Vale, which never seemed to care to leave that place, the great wall around it fell into decline.
Now, several generations of Ravenhairs later, no attention or need for repair of the wall has been deemed neccesary. The wall has crumbled to mere stacks of stones being reclaimed by the vegetation growing at the edge of the Vale. No one still ventures close still. No one dares anger the still battling spirits of those roaming ancient warriors.
This however, may soon come to change.