Only once in the last thousand years has there been an earnest invasion of the Kingdom of Two Valleys. Even the Valleymen are not immune to the fickle whims of weather, and while amassing a great war fleet to engage in slaving raids against Nostrum, their fleet was lost at sea. It is said that ten thousand war slaves died in a single day, and for years afterwards flotsam and skulls would wash ashore from the sea.

Taking advantage of their adversary's weakness, Aethelwulf the Unready - king of Nostrum - rallied all the ships of Nostrum fit to carry men and a hundred more war galleys bought from Eastla. Thirty thousand men, the largest army ever amassed since the fall of Midasgard, sailed to the Wet Markets where Valleymen bought lives and souls with gold and steel.

It is said that the market fell in a day. A war slave betrayed the Valleymen, and left open a gate in the night. Nostrum's forces rushed into the city, and butchered the garrison. They freed all the slaves therein, and burned down the Guild of Commerce's hall. They prepared to march on The Rock, a mythical fortress a day's march inland from the sea.

And when they reached it, it is said that the king and all his men wept. No mere fortress, but an entire mountain. A mountain of carved arrowslits, portcullises, battlements, and exotic machines of war stretching from horizon to horizon. So much land was cleared in front of the fortress that the fortress seemed tinted blue from the distant perspective of the war host's camp.

The campaign ended that day. Aethelwulf left with his massive host, and a great bounty of plunder from the Wet Markets, not to mention thousands of freed slaves. Some years later, Aethelwulf fell to assassins and a subsequent Valleyman invasion burned down Redwine, the Nostrum capital.

Valleymen

Those who rule this great land call themselves Cthonians, and they call their homeland Cthonia. Those who do not inhabit Cthonia often call it The Kingdom of Two Valleys. Both outsiders and natives will usually call the land, informally, "the valley." For the purposes of this article, we'll just call them Valleymen.

While Valleymen vary in height, most are slightly taller than the average man. The tallest Valleyman ever recorded is nine feet and four inches tall, though he could only be measured as he is a member of the Immortals, the slave guard for the king of Nostrum. The shortest, by contrast, is a little under five and a half feet.

In appearance, the Valleymen are universally strong, broad, and overbuilt. They are not rippling with aesthetic muscles in the way an elven warrior might be, but closer to an exagerated form of a strongman. All other features tend to vary. Common eye colors run the gamut of usual human colors, but some Valleymen also have black or maroon colored eyes.

Their Strength

The most striking element of a Valleyman's appearance is their sheer physicality. The most unique feature of their anatomy is that their muscles never atrophy. No matter how long they gone unused, no matter how old they are, the strength of a Valleyman never fades. They are always and forever at the peak of their physical condition.

This could be said to be a double edged sword, but it really isn't. While a Valleyman must consume several times more calories than a mundane human, they are rarely left wanting for food. And that they are almost impossible to kill makes them also almost impossible to starve.

Their Fortitude

Valleymen are extremely hard to kill. Within moments of a wound's formation, no matter if they were even cut in half, their blood will staunch and the wounds will begin to close. If a Valleyman's head is cut off, the head will remain conscious for hours, and the body's heart will continue to beat for weeks. Longer, if they are tended to.

If a Valleyman is mutilated or maimed in the course of their life, assuming that Valleyman is able to return to Cthonia, it is not uncommon to see Valleymen with advanced, magical prosthetics. If a Valleyman is so maimed that they are unable to really function anymore, they will be made into what the Valleymen call a Dreadnaught. What remains of their body completely encased in magical armor, these elite constructs have never been seen outside of Cthonia, and even inside Cthonia are almost never seen outside of The Killing Fields.

Why not grafting?

While Valleymen may resemble most human derived lineages of man, under the hood they have extremely different anatomy. If a Valleyman is extremely injured, it is virtually impossible to replace their body part with another, unless that body part is from another Valleyman. This does happen, sometimes.

Their Souls

Cruelly, they were given souls. They are capable of all the magic of the Hours, though finding a Valleyman practitioner among modern circles is somewhat rare. Because of their uninterrupted history from the days when the Hours walked the earth into the modern day, most of their magic feels foreign and distinct from modern understandings of how magic derived from the Hours works.

What makes this cruel is that while they have all the capability of using their souls, including invoking the true names of others, they are denied from entering the Halls of the Dead. No one really knows what happens to a Valleyman when they die. Or rather, they used to not know. It was the life's work and legacy of Baal, first dictator of the Valleymen, to create his woods. Baal's Woods, an imitation of power vast and ancient, forms both an impenetrable protective barrier to the north of the Valley, and provides an afterlife for Valleymen.

The Bound

Valleymen who commit particularly egregious crimes suffer a punishment unique to their culture. Their soul and consciousness will be taken from their bodies, and emplaced in objects of power that require a consciousness to function. Their true names will be taken from the Hall of Names, and they will be essentially programmed with a series of complex but nonconflicting orders, making it functionally impossible for their souls to escape or refute their new purpose. Much of the functional magic of the Valleymen depends on these Bound, and makes the magic of Cthonia particularly stable and integrated into the daily lives of those who reside there in a way that magic simply isn't in the rest of the world.

Society

While the exact number of slaves varies, the lowest it has ever been according to the Guild of Records is 1:30. That is one Valleyman for every thirty slaves. At times, the ratio has been into the hundreds and even the thousands. Because Valleymen are totally incapable of reproduction, except by magical means they have historically had no access to, they have depended on others to perform work they would consider otherwise too risky for themselves.

The Killing Fields

Work such as fighting in The Killing Fields. Not that there are no Valleymen there, but beside for a rare few volunteers most Valleymen are sent there as a punishment. Slaves, too, are often sent there as a punishment. But if there are not enough penal soldiers then slaves cannot refuse to be sent to fight.

War has been waged here since before the Valleymen were created by the Forge of the Hours. The Valleymen continue a legacy of endless war that predates their very existence. Ever since the Hours reached out into the stars to attempt to reconnect with their lost civilization, when the Artificers fell to the world.

The Pit is in the titular second valley of The Kingdom of Two Valleys. Though it has never been inhabited by Valleymen, they lay claim to it all the same. And because it should be theirs, the Valleymen continue to try to take it even after a thousand years of failure.

Magic

Though they fight the Artificers and were enslaved by the Hours, Cthonia features the most seamless melding of their different technologies and magics as can be found in the world. Magic and technology is integrated into every aspect of their life and society, whether that be refrigeration for their vast stores of varied foods, or that there are several trains which Valleymen and other inhabitants of Cthonia can use to navigate to different underground chambers.

Mines

The surface of the valley is not inhabited by people. It is instead inhabited by a forest. The forest absorbs the energy of the sun, and through the roots of the trees this forest is used to power the magic of Cthonia below. Cthonia is itself hundreds of vast underground chambers, some small, some larger than the largest cities in Westfal. The only settlement in Cthonia that is not underground are a few fortifications on The Killing Fields, and the Wet Markets where slaves are bought and sold.

Guilds

The Valleymen organize their society into guilds. The two largest guilds dominate all the rest, and are considered subsidiaries of their broader operations. Those guilds are:

- The Guild of Commerce. These ones are responsible for all trade in Cthonia.

- The Guild of War. This one is responsible for waging war, and collecting slaves through violence where gold cannot buy them.

It's unclear how many lesser guilds there are in total. A few are known to operate in the Narrows, such as the Guild of Records or the Guild of Binding, but most guilds never leave Cthonia.

Women

Valleymen women have never been seen outside of Cthonia. Indeed, even inside of Cthonia they are rarely seen. In Cthonia, Mother is both a literal term for one's mother but also a title of respect. The Mothers of Cthonia are held in the highest possible esteem, but are also restricted by societal expectation. They live lives of extreme luxury, but in isolation from the rest of society. Little is known about them, or where these traditions developed.

Language

The only language unique to the Valleymen is Cthonic. It developed as a secret language during the days of the Hours, when they were first made. But most Valleymen are able to speak Empyrean, as well as likely one or more modern regional languages.

Outside Cthonia

A few generations ago, Valleymen living outside of Cthonia would have been unthinkable. Since the fall of the Fourth Hour by the hand of the Valleymen, no new ones had been born or created up until fairly recently. Now, for reasons largely unknown, more and more Valleymen are leaving Cthonia. And stranger still, the prolifiation of Fruits of Elysium across the world are allowing those Valleymen to reproduce for the first time since the conception of their civilization.

Traits

These are some of the traits someone from Cthonia would likely have.

Name	Description
Runaway	This character made an agreement with Valleymen, and then managed to escape The Kingdom of Two Valleys. Their true name is known to the Valleymen, and they are being pursued. They can raise any attribute of their choice by one, reflecting the nature of their life there.
Slaver	This character has made a living taking others into bondage and keeping them there. When using a weapon against someone who is unarmed, their effective Prowess raises by two.
Hunter	This character has made a living finding those who have wronged others. For all checks related to finding or pursuing another character, they increase their effective Cleverness by half again.
Apologist	Some people have no moral compunctions about dealing with Valleymen, living and working in the Wet Markets as if it were any other city. Though they were not raised to speak Cthonic, they have learned it and many details of Cthonian culture through study.

Valleyman Traits

These are traits someone who is a Valleyman will possess.

Name	Description
Divine Slave	This character was initially conceived as a servant to the Hours. They do not age. They are infertile, only able to reproduce by magical means. When their true name is invoked, their effective Erudition is always zero.
Cthonic Might	Valleymen grow stronger with age, and their muscles never atrophy. Every trait they have is treated as being an identical strength trait. For every trait they have, they require an additional serving of food more than a normal person would.
Cthonic Immortality	Valleymen are extremely hard to kill. They can sustain any number of wounds, even if their Prowess is reduced well below zero. If their head is cut off, they will be considered incapacitated. However, it will still take them over a month to die. Valleymen do not go to the Halls of the Dead when they die, and cannot be reached after death.
Darksight	Valleymen are able to see in total darkness. Their eyes glow in darkness, and are reflective like a cat's.