About the vales

[aldarron]

So I've been working out new details for my campaign now that I'm switching over to the Blackmoor +C&C map version of the world and I'm wondering about the vales.

So, from the DA series, about the only thing I've been able to gather is that there is some kind of organized polity there whose armies specialize in Heavy Foot.

There's no real cultural info that I missed, is there?

I turned to CHAINMAIL (p14) and found this list for Heavy Foot: "Normans, Saxons, Turks, Vikings, Men-at-Arms."

Given the proximity to the peshwah, etc., "turks" would seem to be the best fit off that list and I'm leaning toward modeling them on a scalled down version of Powers and Perils Rogizini empire, but I wondered what thoughts others might have before I commit. (Havard, I think you used a celtic model for the vales, right?)

[Havard]

(Havard, I think you used a celtic model for the vales, right?)

Correct. I could be forgetting some things here, but I believe the original idea was Vales=Wales. That is, a Welsh inspired culture living in the Vales. I extended that to include inspiration for various Celtic nations though, not exclusively the Welsh. Names like Starmorgan and Vale of Glenfinian in western Ten probably also contributed to this way of thinking.

The second point of inspiration were the maps indicating the presence of Picts in the western parts of Blackmoor. I assumed that these would be ancestors of the Valemen (people of the Vales) and that they were more widespread around Blackmoor in historical times, but that they had been driven Westward by the expansion of the Thonians.

This also helped me integrate some of the lore about Druids that seemingly had no proper place in Blackmoor lore. The existence of Druids would suggest an older culture coexisting with the dominant one. IMC the First Druid, Halgred Forestwalker, who appears in the BMPG (D20) was the founder of the Valeman culture. The Vales Campaign goes into more detail on this.

Valemen can also be found within Thonia as will be revealed in future installments of my Thonian Provinces Sourcebooks.

There is alot more I could add, but I dont want to risk spoiling future developments in the campaign

-Havard

[aldarron]

Ah, okay. I think I will go with the turks for my vales, but I really like the idea of fleshing out Pictish culture with welsh influence, especially linguistically.