Green Vale
The area of Green Vale is the homeland of the nation of Rahhail, and it is the productivity of this valley that has allowed Rahhail to thrive historically, and to become the envy of its neighbours, the much larger Kingdom of Sharisar and the Kingdom of Dazscor and Aramore. Much of the valley has been given over to agricultural practices, though there is a large and growing area in the west that is being exploited for its mineral wealth. Nevertheless, Green Vale is viewed as an idyllic pastoral valley, where most of the landscape has been tamed and is carefully managed.
Geography
Green Vale is the name that is given to the large valley set in the east of the Uplands of Ara, that moves down from the uplands to the Dreki Sea, the inland sea separated from Turoza's eastern seaboard by the Isthmus of Xana. Green Vale is flanked by the large rolling hills that are characteristic of the Uplands of Ara, with the hills that immediately border the valley being counted as part of the area of Green Vale as a whole. These flanking hills are well known to contain large deposits of iron, nickel and silver ores, with the valley being increasingly heavily exploited in the west as the Rahhailians mine the metal ores, and look for other lucrative sources of mineral wealth. Where the hills on the border of Green Vale have not been stripped as part of mining activity, they are covered with thick deciduous woodland.
The valley heartland of Green Vale is especially well known for having good agricultural soil, that is a rich dark brown in colour, and that yields large, high quality crops of produce when carefully managed. Because of Green Vale’s agricultural potential, most of the available land in the valley has been turned over for the use of arable agricultural production, though this means that there are few large areas that have been left wild, which restricts populations of wild animals to the surrounding hill sides as opposed to the valley itself.
Fauna & Flora
Given the heavy agricultural use of the land in Green Vale, the majority of the flora in the area is managed as part of the agricultural process. The farmers of Rahhail maintain large fields of wheat, barley and other cereal crops, but the most famous agricultural products of Green Vale are fruit, with the valley, particularly along the lower slopes of the flanking hills being covered in carefully planted orchards of apples, pears and citrus fruits. As with the flora, the fauna of Green Vale is heavily weighted towards animals involved in agriculture, with a focus on sheep and goats that are used to control vegetation and keep it from encroaching on the orchards. Larger wild animals tend to be a relatively rare sighting in Green Vale, as many of them are unable to establish significant populations beyond the boundaries of the deciduous forest that lines the top of the valley’s flanking hills. Smaller wild animals, rabbits in particular are quite commonly sighted in Green Vale, but they are regarded as pests that damage crops, and almost all Rahhailian farmers will pay local children armed with slings to kill any rabbits they come across, the meat of which is a staple on Rahhailian tables.
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