Valhol

The Land of the Golden Stag

Geography

Valhol is the north-easternmost of all the Holds of Skìrah, and the only one under the High Kingship to be a Midden Hold, rather than a Frosian Hold. Valhol is also the only area of Skìrah that borders the region of Mylrondia, crossing the Blackwater River into Lionmidden. Valhol also borders Streamwood Hold to the south, Frostern Hold to the south-west, Roghavern Hold to the west and the Frozen Sea to the north.

The southern lands of Valhol are covered in the same Great Pine Forests that is found across Streamwood. The Direwood that skirts the edge of the forest are defined by a ring of completely albino oak trees. Inside this ring stands a thicker ring of blackened and petrified trees. Within the rings, normal trees and heavy undergrowth were mixed with petrified trees, all sprouting from reddish soil.

North of the Direwood are extensive plains that stretch across the region bounded by the coast of the Frozen Sea and the Blackwater. These wide, hilly plains covered with hundreds upon hundreds of barrows and crypts where the ancient and religious Korgs have been buried. Between these hillocks are winding roads and numerous streams and brooks, and throughout are countless fields of tall grass and cultivated wheat. Small forests start to pick up the closer one gets to the coastline, with many of these secluded areas being used as hanging trees.

Fauna & Flora

As with bordering Streamwood, the Direwood is home to roaming packs of Beastbloods, undead and wolves but they have never been too much of a problem due to well-armed watchtowers atop the albino trees. Wildlife regularly found throughout Valhol include surpluses of deer (possibly responsible for the overall lack of trees in the geography) including the near mythical golden deer that's found on House Aesmirr's coat of arms, boar, badgers, rabbits, foxes, bears, and northern sabre-cats.

Valhol is also infested by Boavan Vampyres that operate from an abattoir in Valsport and slowly integrating their thralls and own peoples into places of power throughout the region.

Civilisation

Not all of the barrows built across Valhol Hold were ever used for burying the dead, many acting as spares for the future. So, the majority of settlements found across Valhol are built atop and subsequently within these crypts. The city of Valhol, Valsport, is built atop the largest and grandest of these barrows, with the richer families living within the heavily defensible crypts beneath the city rather than as high as possible like nobility across the rest of the GWE.

The people that inhabit Valhol are noted for their mastery of boatbuilding and woodcraft. Limber is taken from the Direwood north through the barrow-streams to coastal settlements and Valsport, where some of the finest mercantile galleys are crafted.

Much like Streamwood, Valhol is teeming with wildlife and it is far from uncommon for nobility across the Great Western Empire and beyond to travel to Valhol for hunting. This also creates a higher number of poachers active in the area.

Alternative Name(s)

Valhol Hold

Type

Region

Location under

Skìrah

Included Locations

• Dun Eldear

Related Ethnicities

• Boavan

As of the 2100EM Imperial Census, the following demographics were present in the Hold;

• 48% - Korgs

• 17% - Bludalfar

• 12% - Dagor Humans

• 8% - Mordwynnian Humans

• 7% - Hellic Humans

• 4% - Susrosian

• 2% - Losalfar