The Valley lies in the shadow of an icy mountain range that curves around it like a protective wall of rock and ice, and ends to a vast desert on one end and a wide ocean on the other. And with such differing climates, the Valley is a land that can provide for itself. Even if the mountains were crossable, the desert a little less vast, the Valley would still be inhabited by thousands of contented people, despite the forest that lies in the center.

The forest is dark and unexplored. The River Siranim runs through the forest, coming out the other side, but on the other side it is given a different name: Sir-en-Sereg, the River of Blood, because it is death to drink water that flows from the forest. It is surrounded by four large cities in the north, south, east, and west, and winding around the forest like a snaking ring of thread is the Great Road, along which many small towns are scattered. In the forest there is said to be a house, a frail structure of discarded metal built into a tall, thin tree in the center of the forest. A small stream runs around the tree, the roots like bridges arching over the stream only to dig themselves into the soil on the other side.

The northern region, governed by the city Mantathar, calls the forest Teir En-Daglen, the forest of shadowed green. Their stories say the resident of the House is a beautiful woman, a sorceress, who steals men’s souls if they look into her golden eyes. She keeps the souls in colored glass jars which hang from twine from the branches of the tree.

The city of Baradnumen holds dominion of the western region which calls the forest Enotime-Uduile, Forever Night. According to the western peoples, a twenty foot long snake with black and red scales lives in the house. Its fangs are filled with a burning venom that causes the victim to first lose their taste, then their sight, then their smell, and then their touch. They are only left with their hearing so they can hear themselves scream when their bodies burn from the inside out.

The eastern region is ruled by the city Rhundor. The eastern peoples call the forest Orfuin, Dark Days, and believe a spirit lives in the House, a spirit with unlimited power. It is most well known to send a murder of crows to peck the eyes out of lost wanderers in the forest or making the stream rise to a raging river to drown travelers.

The city of Dor Lorelin, the largest, most populated city in Aglarnen, and also one of the most active trading centers of the world, is in the south, on the coast. It governs the largest region of the valley. There, the forest is called Hasimor, the Land of Mist. There, it is said that an evil magician lives in the House, master to a pack of wicked elves, the Valley’s natives who were corrupted further than their savagery. The magician has a thousand eyes that are always open and if he spies an unfortunate wanderer he turns him to dust and scatters him in the wind.

Long ago, settlers from the north—farther north than Mantathar, farther even than Loslonde, the mountain city, and Ared En-Dinenien—traveled south, driving the natives down and down, along the Coastal Road, and down into the southernmost wilderness. The few tribes that fought back were overtaken by the Northern settlers and cornered into a small piece of land between two thumbs of the forest and the cities of the settlers. This land was called Kemad, also called the land of the savages. The Kemeneans, the last of the savage tribes in Aglarnen, call the forest Sair Lainloth, the Forest of Blue Flowers.

However, all regions, including Kemad, believe that anyone who enters the forest never comes out alive.