The Nentir Vale: Geography and Weather

The Nentir Vale
The Nentir Vale is a northern borderland region of the continent of Nerath The vale is now mostly
empty, with a handful of living villages and towns scattered over this wide area. Abandoned
farmsteads, ruined manors, and broken keeps litter the countryside. Bandits, wild animals, and
monsters roam freely throughout the vale, threatening anyone who fares more than few miles
away from one of the surviving settlements. Travel along the roads or river is usually safe—
usually. But every now and then, travellers come to bad ends between towns.
The Nentir Vale is a northern land, but it sees relatively little snow—winters are windy and bitterly
cold. The Nentir River is too big to freeze except for a few weeks in the coldest part of the year.
Summers are cool and mild.
The “clear” parts of the map are covered in mixed terrain—large stretches of open meadowland,
copses of light forest, gently rolling hills, and the occasional thicket of dense woodland and heavy
undergrowth. The downs marked on the map are hilly grassland, with little tree cover. The hills are
steeper and more rugged and include light forest in the valleys and saddles between the hilltops.
Geography and weather

The Nentir Vale is neighboured by the Stonemarch to the west, the Harken Forest and the
Witchlight Fens to the south, the Dawnforge Mountains to the east, and the Winterbole Forest to
the north.
The vale is a cold and sparsely populated land, mostly covered in grasslands and light woods. The
Nentir River and its tributaries run through the vale, ending in two main lakes. Despite its location,
the Nentir Vale sees little snow. The Nentir River only freezes a few weeks during the coldest part
of the year, and summers are cool and mild.[7]
History
In the age before recorded history, the Nentir Vale was a huge forest known as the Nentir Forest.
This forest was home to a commune of treants that used magic to protect their home from the
dragon overlords of the elder world. It is believed that the first elves that left the Feywild after the
Kinstrife Wars ended came to the World in the southern region of this forest, a place now known
as the Spiderhaunt Thicket.
Eventually, the Nentir Forest was destroyed when Malorunth the Eternal Ash died, and scores of
dragons invaded the forest, triggering the so-called War of Endless Branches that destroyed most
of the old forest. The region, now divided into the Winterbole and Harken Forests, became known
as the Nentir Vale.[8]
Before the age of the Ancient Empires, the Nentir Vale was dominated by the undead city of
Andok Sur. In time, not even the gods could abide the evil actions of the inhabitants of the city,
and they triggered an earthquake that destroyed Andok Sur, burying it below the region now
known as the Old Hills.
In time, the empires of Arkhosia and Bael Turath conquered the lands of the Nentir Vale. Arkhosia
built enclaves in the Winterbole Forest, and in the Ogrefist Hills, while Bael Turath constructed
theirs in the Witchlight Fens. During the Arkhosian-Turathi Wars, the vale was the battlefield of
some of the most violent battles of those wars.
The Nentir Vale
Up until about 400 years ago, the Nentir Vale was thinly populated. Human hill clans lived in the
area along with remote domains of dwarves and elves. Stories of the hero Vendar and the dragon
of the Nentir Falls date to this era, as do some ruins in the Gray Downs and the Old Hills. Giants,
orcs, ogres, and goblins troubled the area. Saruun Khel, a city located in the depths below
Thunderspire Mountain, was the center of an oppressive minotaur kingdom that subjugated most
of the central and western lands of the vale.
When the southern Nerathi Empire was at its height, settlers began to travel to the north of the
continent in order to expand the borders of their nation. Those brave would-be settlers navigated
the Nentir River through a trackless swamp or traversed the uncharted Harken Forest that
separated the region from the Empire.The first soldiers and paladins of Bahamut who came from
the south founded the Gardmore Abbey as a key fortress, and launched their Crusade of
Conquest to defeat both monstrous humanoids and the indigenous human hill clans to pave the
way for the Nerathi colonization of the vale.
At the same time, a thane from the nearby dwarven kingdom of Shatterstone, sent a battalion of
dwarf warriors to establish a forward operating fortress in the mountains to help quell dragon
assaults that were razing the new settlements founded nearby the Dawnforge Mountains. The
dwarves named that fortress Hammerfast.
Along with the village of Fastormel, Gardmore Abbey defined the northern frontier of Nerath until
the founding of the village of Winterhaven and the Barony of Harkenwold three decades later. As
the borderlands became more settled, the heirs of Nerathi noble families began to move to the
region and claim land of their own. They established manors, settlements, and even monasteries
throughout the region. About 310 years ago, the Nerathan hero Aranda Markelhay built a tower
near Nentir Falls. Around this tower, and the Moonstone Keep that was built later, the city of
Fallcrest began to grow, until it became the centre of trade in the region for the next 200 years.
150 years ago, Gardmore Abbey was destroyed when a resurgent force of orcs from the
Stonemarch laid siege to the abbey. And a few years later, the Nerathi Empire fell as well,
destroyed by the demonic hordes led by the "Ruler of Ruin".
Even without the Empire, the people of the vale prospered for a time. However, 90 years ago,
chaos and ruin came to the Nentir Vale when an orc horde called Clan Bloodspear swarmed down
out of the mountains to the northwest. Without the Imperial Knights to aid them, Fallcrest's army
was defeated in a rash attempt to halt the Bloodspears in the Gardbury Downs. The orcs burned
and pillaged Fallcrest and went on to wreak havoc all across the vale,destroying all in their path
until they found their match in Hammerfast. The orcs suffered great losses and were forced to
withdraw, leaving behind a broken and battered land.
The vale is mostly empty now, though there's a handful of towns and villages scattered around.
Fallcrest and Hammerfast are shadows of their former selves. Abandoned farms, manors, and
keeps can be found scattered throughout the countryside. Anyone traveling beyond a few miles
from settlements risks attack by bandits, wild animals, and monsters.
This is a place in need of heroes.
The Nentir Vale

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