The Valley

The Valley

The Valley is so-called because it is the only Valley in Nioshi. This great expanse of green situated within the mountain crescent that demarcate Nioshi's borders comprises the largest area of geologically distinct land in the world.
The Valley is best viewed from the promontory of the Oracle of the Winds. The Oracle of the Winds is a sacred meeting place for the high canons of the Four Winds, a religious order formed by the airfae but deeply respected by all fae for their objective and accurate guidance. The Oracle is located at the pinnacle of the Ashe mountain, high above the tree line and enveloped in the mists of the higher clouds that are home to the Cardinal Winds, and visitation must be granted by special request through a high canon. The promontory, however, is open to all, day or night. Many of those who pilgrimage to the Oracle wait to be received near the promontory. Those fae who are nomadic in nature often include a visit for the sight in their annual circuit.

Geography

From Oracle promontory, the view provides a complete map of the Valley:

• the larger plain of the Great Woods, which covers now sixty percent of the Valley entire and circumscribes generally the historical seat of most of the Imperial Cycles (the trees moved far less during periods of aggressive competition, though mythology suggests that trees once roamed the Valley nomadically as sprites do in an ancient custom that gave the soil periods of rest to revitalize and refresh itself
• the flood plain of the Sanctuary River, wide and many-tendriled; its blue-lavender shallows increase and decline with the rain seasons and provide home to the Deltans, an ever-growing community of estuarial fae and other water-loving, land-bound creatures;
• the tail of the Stonehall crag, now populated by softer, more approachable limestone collectives, who trade readily with the sea fae that live near the end of their moraine field;
• the rolling hills between the crag and the river, undulating fields of wildflower and streamlets, home to a diverse variety of life from gnomes, wood sprites and moss-pebble nomads to a larger retirement community of airfae (often denoted by a symbiotic residence with one to three fruit trees
• and finally, in the far distance by the once volcanic Flare Canyons, the revitalized firefae protected lands (the best sight of which is had in the evening hours).

History

Within the Valley reside the majority of forests, as the rich, fertile soil and predictable rainfall provide the best opportunities for a dryad seeking a good life. Birch, oak, walnut, pecan, maple - all the major families have called the Valley home for generations. Families once vied for control of the Valley region; each subsequent victory marked by the naming of the cycle of the most victorious leader. What had started millenia ago as a healthy competition among a cooperative culture eventually became more and more driven by the need to secure resources, as the tree population increased beyond a sustainable size for the Valley. An era of conquest began, with successive tree families establishing Imperiums instead of forests: enforcing personal arborcultures on citizens of other woods as well as on other families that resided within their woods such as the fae and the liquids. To continue to live in the Valley during an Imperium was to pay tribute to the dominant family. Some trees left to find a new place to settle their roots: notably, the Junipers of the Northern Cliffs, who still reside companionably with the Quartz Stone, with whom they share a spartan and survivalist worldview. These trees intermingle infrequently even today, their communities insular and unwelcoming of strangers. You can only find a bonsai dwarf or a wandering yew among them, lone individuals who rejected Valley life to pursue the adventurous life of a cliff dweller.

Type

Expanse