The Valley of Gon is a disputed land between Ariaka and Hadun, that is occupied by feuding warlords who vie constantly for control and riches. It formed as a separate political entity in the aftermath of the long border war between Ariaki and Hadun. This war came to its exhausted conclusion perhaps 300 years ago, when the people of Hadun and Ariaka decided that they could no longer justify warring over the valley. New borders were drawn, with Hadun ending at the western and northern side of the low mountains on the northern side of the valley, and Ariaka ending in the forests on the southern side. The river valley in between was left unresolved, and in the period of peace that followed free peoples from around the Archipelago moved here to settle and farm the fertile lands. They were followed by warlords who conquered settlements and formed their own tiny principalities, made and lost by violence. By the time the people of Hadun and Ariaka realized what was happening in Gon it was too late, and no one wanted to spill more blood on the land; from then on it became a wild zone of separate, overlapping warlord’s holdings. Exhausted from the border war and seeing the benefit of an ungoverned wilderness separating their kingdoms, Ariaka and Hadun stood by as the valley fell to warring chieftains.

The Patchwork Demesnes of Gon

The Valley of Gon is a fertile land, and has many small settlements. Over time these settlements have been captured by warlords and amalgamated into their holdings, so that now the land is a patchwork of different warlords’ possessions. The area of land held and defended by a single warlord is called a Demesne, the villages and towns within it subject to the whims of the rulers, and its capital usually characterized by a stronghold of some kind surrounded by a shabby township. Most of the strongholds are remnants of the Ariaka-Hadun border war, or older towers built by dwarves or elves to help the humans fight deepfolk when they first settled after the Harrowing. Some of these strongholds are beautiful and enduring works of military architecture, while others are decrepit ruins crumbling slowly under the poor stewardship of their warlord owners. Nonetheless, at the centre of every demesne is the stronghold and the warlord’s personal army; possession of the stronghold, combined with the death of its former owner, gives someone the power to declare themselves ruler of the demesne – though they will still need to be able to defend it against rivals.

Some demesnes are successful and have been passed down through generations of descendants. Others change hands regularly, as one warlord is slain and replaced by another, neighbouring warlords steal land, and border conflicts sap the warlord’s fighting strength until an incursion finally leads to his overthrow, or an outside usurper takes over. Many adventurers have ended their career of delving and fighting deepfolk by moving to Gon and overthrowing a weak ruler of a small demesne; they soon fall prey to some other retired adventurer, a mercenary band with ambition, or a neighbouring tyrant. Sometimes they impress the citizens of their demesne into fighting for them, or tax them until they bleed while war ruins their crops and hopes. Such is the life of an ordinary person in the Valley of Gon.

By common agreement, citizens of demesnes cannot easily leave. They will not be openly allowed into any other demesne, and must live their lives within the demesne in which they were born until such time as a rival warlord captures the land and makes them part of a new demesne. They are not serfs per se, but in many ways their lives are similar to those of peasants: nominally free, but unable to leave and subject to the whims, the taxes, the wars and the cruelties of their masters. Such is life in the Valley of Gon.

The Freeports

The river Gon meanders through the middle of the Valley of Gon, and at points along its banks one can visit a Freeport, a small town not held by any warlord, free for all to visit and trade in. Not every town on the river is a Freeport: El, for example, held by the fourth Elizabeth, is a town on the banks of the river that is not free; while Azell, a half day’s boat travel upriver, is a Freeport. Why some towns are Freeports and some are not is not known, and not all towns remain Free: Azell, for example, is disputed by the Warlord of Ar and his western neighbour, the 11th Indri. One day, if the power balance in that rivalry fails, Azell may become a new holding in the demesne of one of those antagonists. In the meantime it makes a roaring trade, taxing all goods heading to the demesnes surrounding it while charging passage fees to all boats heading past.

Anyone can live in a Freeport, and any resident of any demesne can leave to live in any Freeport. By common agreement Freeports are neutral towns where Warlords’ disagreements must be set aside and all must live in peace, though no Warlord would be foolish enough to put their safety in the hands of common agreement. Commoners, too, do not often take advantage of the freedom on offer in these ports, because by common agreement any Warlord is allowed to send soldiers to recapture any citizen who has moved to a Freeport, unless they can pass three Harrowings in the port and thus be declared a freeman. Because by common agreement no one can interfere with a Warlord’s exercise of power in his or her own demesne, no one can stop a Warlord from punishing those commoners who leave a demesne, and grisly torture can await those who fail to stay hidden for three Harrowings. Thus it is that the Freefolk of the Freeports and the commoners of the demesnes live different lives and rarely experience each others woes and joys.

The largest Freeport is Gon, at the mouth of its eponymous river, ruled by a merchant family, teeming, filthy, busy and raucous. The other Freeports are all along the river, growing smaller but richer as one heads inland. No one knows how a Freeport is made, though all know how they are lost, and Warlords all watch each other carefully for signs one is planning to take over an existing Freeport, with all its riches, artisans and opportunities. The forcible capture of a Freeport is a rare moment when Warlords will unite in common purpose, and fear of the massed vengeance of other Warlords is the primary reason that the Freeports remain free. War is all in the Valley of Gon, and it is the threat of war that keeps the river open and its towns prosperous.

The Book of Broken Nights

In every Freeport one can find Nightmasters, a kind of archivist who keeps the complex history of the Valley. These people maintain special registers of the major events of the Valley of Gon, in which they record every time possession of a demesne changes hands, maps of every demesne and records of every change in boundaries and laws in the demesnes. These books are called Books of Broken Nights, for reasons no one understands. They are the only history of the Valley of Gon that matters: who killed who, who wrested what right from whom, and who belongs to whom.

Most Nightmasters also hold other books called Almanacs, which chart the history of individual demesnes. The Book of Broken Nights at Azell, for example, will record that 11 years ago the Warlord ruling the demesne of Ar was overthrown violently by an incursion by another warrior, who captured the demesne and declared himself the new Warlord Argalt. The Almanac of Ar will record that following this capture there were two years of sustained raids by the 11th Indri on Ar’s southern border, attempting to wrest control of three sheepfarms and an elvery; that these raids failed; and that after the payment of 30 cows and a young woman whose name is not recorded the 11th Indri ceased attempts to conquer that stretch of border, and had returned to him his own son, captured in war. The Almanac of Ar will also record that that son had been rendered a dribbling lunatic by a blow to the head during his capture (so it is said!) and that the 11th Indri harboured much resentment for it which likely led to two assassination attempts, though the details of those attempts are uncertain. The Book of Night will therefore record no adjustments to the borders of these two demesnes, since the 11th Indri failed in his efforts.

This is how history is recorded in the Valley of Gon. Should one seek knowledge of a rival, whether for trade, love or war, one must seek a Nightmaster in one of the Freetowns, pay them the coin they demand, and put their faith in the dismal record they are given.

Possession and freedom

The people of the Archipelago consider slavery abhorrent, and will tolerate no capture or control of others for profit or ideology. While this consideration extends to the Valley of Gon, it is interpreted differently within its borders, and generally with a much greater degree of moral flexibility. While outright slavery remains unheard of, indentured servitude, forced labour, conscription, human trafficking and inherited obligations are common. It is a bad idea to become indebted to anyone powerful in the Valley; crimes committed against the powerful can meet with far worse punishment than simple imprisonment or corporal punishment. Demesnes in the Valley of Gon can have many strange customs, including hereditary castes, inter-generational labour obligations, permanent captivity and hard labour. Some Warlords practice human trafficking or use the slightest excuse to enforce punitive labour punishments on their commoners; for some reason no one has been able to understand this is particularly common in demesnes that have old mineshafts within their boundaries. Sometimes warlords do population swaps, exchanging for example 10 shepherds they no longer need for 5 potters from a friendly neighbour. Whether those shepherds’ and potters’ families will accompany them in the swap is rarely discussed, since it is of no matter to those who matter. Of course this is not slavery – the shepherds are free to flee to a Freeport, as are their confiscated family. No one is constrained!

This possession and freedom extends beyond individuals to demesnes themselves. Some demesnes are tributary to larger, more powerful demesnes, providing annually taxes and sometimes conscripted labour in exchange for “protection”. Many warlords, after taking possession of a crumbling stronghold in a tiny demesne ravaged by war and mismanagement, soon realize that it is better to live on your knees than to die on your feet, and attach themselves to a richer, more powerful rival. It is well that these poor and war-ravaged demesnes always have too many mouths to feed, because inevitably their tribute-holding master will find a need to sacrifice people in the frontline of their latest battle. Why would they risk their own, when they have desperate allies paying tribute?

Such is the nature of freedom in the Valley of Gon.

Strange ideologies

While investigating the selkie killings in Estona, the Wrathbreakers met some strange people who followed an ideology called “monarchism”, and advocated for serfdom in all of the Archipelago. These monarchists did not develop this ideology by themselves, but learnt it from a Warlord in the Valley of Gon. With so many demesnes and so many rulers, the Valley of Gon constantly reveals strange new systems of political organization, most of which are soon put to the sword. Some, however, survive. Occasionally a warlord attempts to unite the entire Valley under one leader, and in doing so they usually present an ideology of rulership and a vision underlying their conquest (they are never doing it just for themselves, and those who claimed otherwise can be seen outside the stronghold windows, sinking slowly on the impaling spears). After their inevitable failure these Great Uniters leave behind their ideology, which festers and spreads long after their vision has disappeared from the earth. Sometimes these ideologies even escape the Valley to find a foothold in the more civilized regions of the Archipelago, though Kyansei showed the contempt in which many such ideologies are held. Nonetheless, the Almanacs are full of strange visions and mad philosophies.

No Deepfolk

Part of the reason for the Warlords’ continued success is the absence of deepfolk in the Valley. Aside from a few incursions on the northeastern edge of the Valley, where its mountainous borders encroach on the Spine, there are no deepfolk anywhere in the Valley of Gon. War in the Valley is an exclusive conceit of the humans who make it their home. This was not always the case: until perhaps 500 years ago there were Deepfolk here, and they left behind them some of their workings, including mineshafts, occasional towers and structures aboveground, which are assumed to have been used against humans, and abandoned tunnel networks. Some demesnes are rich because of these abandoned mines, which they continue to work; occasionally they uncover buried secrets of the deepfolk that inevitably lead to ruin. Some Warlords have deepfolk artifacts, which they use to enrich themselves or destroy their enemies, and occasionally a mining team will uncover some dark beast from the time of the deepfolk, abandoned in a deep shaft for hundreds of years, and catastrophe will follow.

Generally, however, the Valley of Gon is free of deepfolk, which gives its human Warlords more time and freedom to kill each other for money and power.

Strange religions

The spirituality of Salt, Sun and Storm can be found throughout the Valley of Gon, but here it co-exists with other, stranger religions drawn from the minds of people too long freed of any obligation except constant war. Oftentimes a traveler in the Valley of Gon will come across a strange Shrine in which devotees of an imagined god sing strange songs. Sometimes these religions will be a harmless mish-mash of folk wisdom and the teachings of distant lands; other times it will be a philosopher’s work turned into a creed to which the lost blindly cling; but sometimes the traveler will find themselves being sacrificed to some dark and insane religious icon. All of these religions are empty of power and gravity: they cannot heal like a devotee of Salt, or call upon the weather as does a Stormcaller. But here in the Valley of Gon every madness has its place, and many strange religions can be found.

In amongst these strange religions are rumours of dead gods, buried gods, ancient magics with strange powers that cannot be compared with anything humans know or normally use, and mysterious alchemies. Devotees of strange gods brew mysterious potions and devotional tinctures on twisted altars, to be used in religious ceremonies that should never be known by simple humans. Even, it is rumoured, human sacrifice, blood magic and cannibalism can be found in the Valley of Gon, if one dares to look.

And it is to this strange and twisted realm that the Wrathbreakers now travel, seeking a lost girl and the answers to questions about lost secrets. Something is stirring here, and they are going to find it – and kill it.