This volume is not a chronicle of kings, nor a ledger of trade routes, nor a collection of myths retold for the curious. It is, rather, an attempt to record what is—the peoples, creatures, and customs of the realm as they exist in this Fourth Year since Vallisheim's founding, in the waning decades of the Third Age.
It is written for the citizens of Vallisheim and those who would understand the world beyond our borders: the traveler, the diplomat, the soldier, the merchant, the scholar, and any who seek to comprehend the lands from which so many of us once called home. It is compiled here, in the archives of our young Academy, not merely as reference but as testimony—a record of the world as it stands, under the rule of systems we have chosen to reject, before what may come changes it beyond recognition.
Honesty, in such matters, is harder than it appears.
Every people carries its own version of history, its own understanding of itself and its place in the order of things. The Lysfaer remember an empire that stretched across continents and centuries; humans remember the revolution that tore it down. The Veskal remember being pushed to the margins of a world that expanded around them, then pulled into its mechanisms of exploitation; the Lahr?n Imra remembers only economic necessity and the natural order. These memories do not align neatly. This work does not attempt to reconcile them, nor does it pretend to stand outside them. It presents them as they are told, as they are believed, and as they continue to shape the world we all must navigate.
The reader should understand: this gazeteer describes the realm as it is, not as it should be, and certainly not as we in Vallisheim have determined it must become. Slavery exists throughout the known world—not merely as historical fact but as present and thriving reality, woven into the economic and social fabric of kingdoms that span the continent. The Syndicate moves its living cargo through markets from the southern coasts to the northern reaches. The Lahr?n Imra's laws enshrine property rights in flesh as readily as in land or gold, and their merchants grow rich on the labor of those they have declared less than human.
To ignore this would be to present a world that does not exist. To describe it is not to endorse it. In Vallisheim, under the joint rule of our sovereign and the Empress-Consort, we have built something different—but Vallisheim is young, and not yet the world. Our holdings are modest: the fortress that crowns the mountain, raised from living stone in a feat of Caeth that silenced all doubt of our sovereign's power; Fallryn, the posting town that guards the pass below; and Carehold, the mining settlement that feeds our forges. Our strength lies not in territory but in principle, and in the six thousand who stand ready to defend those principles with powder and shot.
What follows is an accounting of the world beyond our borders, the powers and systems most of us once lived under, and the peoples who endure within them still.
A note on terminology, which is never merely technical:
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The names used herein are those the peoples use for themselves, not the terms imposed upon them by dominant powers. The Veskal are called Veskal throughout this work—the name they have always used, meaning "those who endured." The term Beskari, common in the Lahr?n Imra and its client states, does not appear in these pages except in historical or quoted context. It is a slur, carrying the same venom and dehumanization as any epithet designed to mark a people as property. Its use is forbidden within Vallisheim's borders, and it will not be legitimized in our official records.
Similarly, the Lysfaer remain Lysfaer, and those of mixed Lysfaer heritage are called Narfyr—a term that once meant "one of us" in the old human tongues, used as a deadly insult by pure-blooded Lysfaer to deny any suggestion of equality or mixture. It has since been reclaimed by those it was used against, and serves now as a simple designation of heritage. Where a word carries weight beyond its literal meaning, where it is insult or honorific or legal category or reclaimed identity, this is explained.
We do not use the language of masters to describe those they have enslaved. We do not adopt the terminology of empires to catalog those they have conquered. Words shape thought, and thought shapes action. This work endeavors to describe the world clearly, but not through the lens of those who would see entire peoples reduced to property.
What follows is organized by people first, then by the lands and powers that govern them, then by the creatures and phenomena that shape the world, and finally by the customs and systems—trade, magic, movement—that bind it all together. Each entry begins with what can be observed and proceeds toward the historical, the cultural, and the contested. Where sources disagree, this is noted. Where knowledge has been suppressed or destroyed, this too is acknowledged.
A note on magic: the Laith—the unseen current that flows through all things, that becomes Mára when drawn into living vessels, that manifests as Caeth when shaped by will and skill—is treated throughout this work as observable fact. Those who have never felt the movement of Mára through their bodies may doubt; those who practice as Draíar, Draía, or Draíen know otherwise. This work assumes the reader accepts its existence and proceeds accordingly.
A note on perspective: this gazeteer draws from many sources—merchants who traveled the trade roads before coming here, soldiers who served in foreign armies, scholars who studied in great libraries, and Veskal, Narfyr, Lysfaer, and humans who lived the experiences described within. The Empress-Consort has contributed directly to the sections concerning Veskal culture and history, correcting generations of human misunderstanding and deliberate distortion. Other entries reflect the best available scholarship, eyewitness testimony, and the accumulated knowledge of those who have made Vallisheim their home.
The world is vast, complicated, and often cruel. It is also resilient, endlessly varied, and full of peoples who have survived against remarkable odds—who continue to survive, to adapt, to endure, and in some cases to build new orders on ground their oppressors thought conquered. This work attempts to capture some measure of that complexity.
What follows is an accounting of those who endured, those who ruled and fell, those who still rule, and those who have chosen to build something new. It is an accounting of the world as it stands in the Fourth Year of Vallisheim—a world that knows of us, watches us, and has not yet decided whether we are a threat to be crushed or a curiosity to be tolerated.
May it serve you well in your studies, your travels, or your preparations for what is to come.
Compiled by Archivist Tarien Velanis with the Archival Staff of Vallisheim Academy
Fourth Year of Vallisheim's Founding, Third Age
