Heartwood of the Great Vale

Overview

The heartwood of the Great Vale is located in is in northern Summersend in the Navarr territory of Hercynia. Custodianship of the Heartwood grants an Imperial title; a seat on the Imperial Bourse; and a seasonal bounty of valuable weirwood

The Resource

The Great Vale in Hercynia contains large areas of precious weirwood. Located in northern Summersend, the area came under threat from Thule barbarians during the occupation of Skarsind, but tthe Empire maintained control of the Heartwood - albeit barely. Even when the barbarians occupied the Glen of Shadows the production of weirwood was uninterrupted.

The Heartwood is an Imperial, rather than Navarr national resource. Unlike with the Golden Trees of Seren, there was comparatively little argument with this decision. The forest here has a bad reputation. Sometimes, when a tree has been felled and the stump excavated, the workers find a corpse. Sometimes the corpse is just bones amongst the roots, and sometimes it looks fresh enough to have just stopped breathing. No-one knows who they were, or how they got there (especially the fresher looking corpses). By tradition, any remains are handed to the Navarr, who inter them in a corpse glade set aside for the purpose. The priests who tend the glade have a reputation for being dour and odd.

Attempts to use magic such as An Echo of Life Remains reveal nothing - as if the dead had no names. Likewise, there is every indication that the dead died violently - many bear obviously fatal wounds. Their garb is strange - fur and leather, and very little iron or steel. The accepted explanation for the remains is that the Heartwood grows atop an ancient battlefield - but there are no convincing theories as to why the dead were allowed to lie undisturbed for long enough for a forest of weirwood to cover their remains. Some of the oldest trees are estimated to be more than a thousand years old, adding to speculation that the corpses belong to people who pre-date the Terunael.

To add further mystery to the Heartwood, there have been repeated sightings of a grim phantom in the forests. Called the Valewoman, the spirit appears to be that of an old woman wrapped in white fur. Stories of encounters tend to follow the same pattern; a figure appears in the distance, far away enough for detail to be obscured. She usually stands and watches, but occasionally she is seen to gesture or beckon. Whenever a witness comes closer, however, she vanishes. Despite countless attempts, no person has ever managed to get close to the Valewoman, never mind speak to her. Very occasionally, a lumberjack is found lying dead among the trees - dead without any sign of violence. Such deaths are generally attributed to the grim wraith, and as a consequence many workers view her with a mixture of awe and dread.

It is no surprise that, mentally at least, the workers of Weirwater Vales are some of the toughest in the Empire. If they know anything, they stopped bothering to talk of it generations ago. Template:Bourse Seat