Geography
The Valley sits just on the outside of the eastern edge of Huron. Nested between the Ilori Sea and the mountains to the north. The Vale is perpetually shrouded in heavy mists and features uniquely still air. The location itself is in a calm eddy of air that blows across the Ilori Sea and curves back into Huron, crashing against the Mountains heading north and south. Though this air current slows and comes to a crawl on the tip of this range.
Huron sits approximately 100ft higher than the Vale, in a constant overlook of the pass heading toward Ithrica and the western planes owned by the Kingdom. The vista offered by the valley has enthralled the citizens for centuries. The morning sunrise that graces the City State each day, strikes its brilliant crimson and gold light through the mists in a glow that reminds all of burning fire. That has captured the mind, as the enormous pines peak through the hazy, nested atop the low hills.
Ecosystem
The Vale is shrouded in mist due to two factors. The main one being that the region is the only volcanically active area in the entire Kingdom of Huron, a massive magma chamber just below the Ilori Sea that extends just under the Strait of Ithry and the Valley of Mists. This being the thinnest layer of crust between the open air and the chamber itself, the area is saturated in geysers and hot springs.
These numerous water features steam endlessly that has led to a rather unique interaction with the skies above the region. While the Valley itself is overcast by the mist, as it billows out into both the eastern and western exits of the pass, these exits see frequent rainfall due to this effect. The valley interior seeing rain rarely, raining only on few occations every few years.
The second factor for the region being covered in a constant mist is that being the Mistwalkers. These people have a penchant for carrying the mists with them, their inborn magic abilities allowing them to interact with the fog in unusual ways. They have long since been maintaining the permanent mists surrounding the area, the reason for this particular facet remains mostly unknown. However, they do keep a path open to traverse the pass, where the mists will not touch. This path has become the major thoroughfare between the Eastern and Western halves of the kingdom.
Ecosystem Cycles
In the late Season of Waiting, the hummingbird population that calls the Valley their homes, migrate to the Easifatan Almatariq. While the massive populations of Blue Winged Singers, and Crystal Scaled Warblers rest and recuperate during their stay here, they begin preparing for their flight to the south. During this time the humidity increases as the warm southern air creeps its way over the Ilori. Resulting in an explosion of insect populations.
Little known to all but the most enthusiastic Ornithologist, the hummingbirds are a keystone predator of the ecosystem. The birds need to have a longer lasting source of energy and protein in preparation for their migration, and thus, the birds hunt the insects. On the wing, they have been documented to catch no less than a hundred prey objects per hour.
With the estimated hundred-thousand birds living in the area, catching up to twelve-hundred insects a day, they have been a true godsend to the warm springs of the Kingdom of Huron. Keeping malaria riddled mosquito populations, wasting diseases of midges and infectious biting insects down, the wildlife of the area owes a great deal to these birds.
Localized Phenomena
Tears of the Tree:
While the actual Vale rarely sees rainfall, the local plantlife and wildlife gain more than enough water as the mist condenses on anything it touches. There are on a few rare occasions every few years where it does rain in the valley. This weather phenomenon is caused not by any atmospheric elements but by the sudden and rapid emptying of the geysers in the region.
There are a few thousand documented geysers in the valley, all at the same time for a period lasting only a few hours, every last one erupts leaving them empty. This mass expulsion of water is shot higher into the sky than they typically do, coming back down to the earth in the form of rain. Witnessed by many citizens and naturalists alike, have described the event as like tears falling back to the Great Tree. When the valley exists in a state of clear skies with the floor of the region, the only thing to disagree, to see the skies turn dark and for rain to fall. Well, now that is a change in mood to be sure.
It is theorized that it happens because the magma chamber below the earth has convected newer material toward the top of the chamber, thus increasing the temperature in the geysers. Ejecting the much cooler water all at once. The other theory that many who have interacted with them suggest that perhaps the Mistwalkers play a part in it.
History
The valley has been treated as a main road for centuries as Huron has grown. Only in one particular incident came into conflict with the Clan of Wide Eyes. Where they had left the passage through the vale unclear for reasons that were never made known. Only that the vale was impassable due to the heavy fog for months as the Mistwalkers left the road shrouded in fog.
This lead the City of Huron to believe, wrongly might this poor Historian add, that the Mistwalkers were doing this act intentionally. After a short skirmish with the people, the path reopened once more. Though this was a highly public event, the kingdom has never released the information to the public. A few things to note however are this: The skirmish seemed to have no effect in the road reopening. The thoroughfare reopened on its own a weeks later. The second being this, despite a highly trained military unit responding to the Mistwalkers, very few actually returned home.
In the wake of this event a few things were discovered by the survivors. The Mistwalkers are responsible for the mists in the valley, they have a penchant for heat, light, and fire Domains. They refused to speak of what was causing the road to be closed, only mentioning that "The Queen has tried to help". This statement has left us historians with many more questions, the only other mention of a Queen, being spoken by the Wayfares and in more recent years Gjorn, Fourth king of Dwarves, has also mentioned this entity as well.
To what this nameless monarch has to do with a clan of insect winged people, remains unknown. However, the fallout of this particular conflict has left the Mistwalkers extremely skittish of Humanity.
Tourism
The main draw to the region beyond just portage through the Valley, is there have been quite a few resorts set up around the largest hot springs that dot the lowest lying areas of the Valley. The citizens that seek out the resorts, find the calm air and warm waters to bring a strange peace of mind that isn't found anywhere else on the Continent.
Alternative Name(s)
Vale of Mistwalkers
Type
Vale
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