The Valley of Mourn

There weren’t always Dragons in the Valley. The Valley was a desolate place, with no good soil to grow food and too warm for anyone to stay longer than it took to pass through on their way to the capitals on either side. It was a dangerous path to take as there was no water and it was only used as a last resort for trade caravans or travelers. It was the meeting place of the two great mountain ranges from the north and south, the Reaching Highland and the Mourning Peaks. These ranges divided the continent for the most part. Many people did not dare cross the Mourning Peaks because of their dangerous sheer cliff faces and jagged spikes that made it impossible to pass for even the most daring adventurers that wished to test their mettle. The Reaching Highland was impassable because of its sharp rise that none could climb. The only way around these ranges was far to the north, south, or through the Valley.

This division lasted for centuries until the advent of the airships from the capital to the west, making travel much more common, uniting the capitals of the two nations on either side. But with this unification, came conflict. The differences between the two nations soon overcame the joy of the unification, and war soon followed. The airship, the vehicle that was thought to bring a prosperous new age, was soon turned into an engine of this war on both sides. This war went on for decades, with many lives lost on both sides. With the development of new weapons to bring down airships used to carry soldiers to either side of the Valley, both armies began marching troops directly into the Valley to gain ground, but with both armies marching at once the land soon turned the Valley into an even harsher landscape.

Engines of war, weapons, armor, and the bodies of the fallen were strewn across the many miles of the Valley. The Valley was now renamed the Valley of Mourn, as the spikes of rock that were once contained within the Mourning Peaks were somehow growing into the Valley itself the longer the fighting went on. No one knew how this happened, but it seemed that eventually, the spikes would engulf the entire Valley, cutting off both sides from marching on the other. Some saw this as a blessing, an end to the endless fighting that had seen no end in sight, but as the battles continued to rage, these spikes continued to grow and began to spread to the east and the west, even beginning to enter into the plains on both sides. The Mourning Peaks were growing.

When it began to seem like the Mourning Peaks would even begin to overtake the settlements closest to the Valley of Mourn, something changed. The cries of the soldiers, the families caught in the fighting, and the children that were being threatened by the ruthlessness of the leaders of both of these nations rang out and were met by the deaf ears of these men who only wanted to win out over the other. But that was not the only thing these cries for help were met by.

One day, no one knows exactly when, something came from the tops of the Reaching Highland. This place was seldom explored because of the impossibility of reaching the heights of the mountain and even when the airships were developed, the generals of the war had no interest in exploration. At the time, we didn’t know what these creatures were, but they came suddenly, massive creatures with wings wider than the airships and a power that no one had seen before. History had spoken of these creatures, but the only name the historians could find was Dragon.

These Dragons fell upon the Valley of Mourn below, and unleased their power on what at first seemed to be the clashing armies was actually the spikes of the growing Mourning Peaks. Fire, ice, and the brute strength of the Dragons destroyed the growing spikes. Over the days that followed, they began to destroy the spikes that had been growing outwards toward the villages bordering the two nations. When they reached these villages, they stopped. Many were terrified of these massive beings that seemed capable of so much destruction, but the Dragons only spoke to them, telling them simply that this war was over. They returned to the center of the Valley of Mourn and turned their power on the Mourning Peaks themselves, driving back the mountains themselves until they were nothing more than a large singular peak, far to the south.

With this new land opened, water that no one knew was within the Peaks began to flow through the Valley from the remaining hills, and with the cultivation of the Dragons, the land of the Valley began to prosper. Over the years, the animosity between the two nations subsided, and a new capital was formed in this land under those closest to the Valley that were saved by the Dragons on both sides. A new era began under the distant watch and guidance of the Dragons, who returned to the top of the Reaching Highland but returned often to visit those that ruled over this new land. The Valley of Mourn was no more, the capital that grew from its roots was known as the City of Reach.