A
Hartsvale is far in the windswept north, a fertile
mountain valley where th e Ice Spire Mountains abut
the High Ice. The Clear Whirl Rive r, easily the clean-
est and coldest I have ever bathed in, flows south into
the valley out of the lands of the Endless Blizzard,
feeding the rich soil tucked between the northern and
southern arms of the Ice Spires. The river splits as it
runs through the hilly lands, eventually draining into
a series of lakes along the southern ed ge of the vale.
Two small woods also grow in the vale, one a long its
northern e dge, between the vale proper and the north-
ern Ic e Spires, and another fed by the la kes on its
southern edge.
Originally the home of giant clans and ragtag barbar-
ian tribespeople related to the Uthgardt, Hartsvale was
conquer ed by the hero Ha rtkiller. He was a giant who
ha d ventured into the lands to the south a nd learned of
their ways. When he cam e to Hartsvale, he ra llie d the
human tribes, uniting them into a fighting force capa-
ble of defeating the giants who tyrannized them, and
they threw the giants down, claiming the vale between
the mountains for their descenda nts.
Giants aplenty still dwell in Hartsvale's mountains
and forested hills, but they've reached a n accord with
the humans of the vale. So far as I know, they live
peaceably distant from the huma n la nds , and taboos
exist among both huma ns and giants that keep them
separate. In my time in Hartsvale , I saw no giants, but
surely I saw their works. At the boundaries of lands
w here humans (and other folk smaller than giants)
may not go stand titanic menhirs, likely erected by
s tone giants.
The folk of Hartsvale are ruled by House H artwick,
a line of royals suppose dly descended from Hartkiller.
Though human, House Hartwick's scions ar e all very
tall and strong, most standing seven feet in height.
The king of Hartsvale s its on the Alabaster Throne in
Castle Hartwick, and the many earls of the vale's duch-
ies owe the ir fealty to him.
Peace has r eigne d for many year s in Hartsvale.
Grauman, calle d the Good King by his people, s its
the Alabaster Throne, though his years are advanced.
His eldest son a nd he ir, Taumarik, is a young ranger
who has recently returned from a three-year journeyCHAPTER 2 I THE SWORD COAST AND THE NORTHto explore the North. He came back with a wife, the
sorceress Ylienna of Silverymoon, and has begun to
take on more of his father's onerous respons ibilities.
There is some strife in the court, however, for the earls
don't seem to trust his "out-vale witch-bride" (a phrase
that infuriates Taumarik, but seems to gently amuse
Ylienna). For myself, I found the lady Ylienna a delight
on the one occasion when I was in her company.
The vale is well guarded, as all j ewels should be- in
this case by the perils of the mountains and giant-
steads that surround it. Nonetheless, a certain strong
breed of me rchant travels the narrow mountain passes
leading into Hartsvale. The dwarves of Citadel Adbar
jestingly refer to these peopl e as "goats of coin," for
they will cling like such animals to the most precarious
of mountain ridges while seeking the opportunities
that wait beyond. My own journeys with the goats of
coin have impressed upon me the skill of these folk,
who brave crumbling paths, avalanche- ridden passes,
terrible howling blizzards, and monsters of all sorts to
reach Hartsvale and get safely out of the vale again.
It is n't merely the high mountains around the vale
that hold dangers. Though th e valley has scattered
settlements, all of Hartsvale can hardly be cons id er ed
civilized. In my time traveling these lands (with one of
the few goats of coin that refused to be daunted by the
fens around Castle Ha rtwick), I've found these lands
to be still frontier-like, similar to some of the wilder
portions of the North, particularly in the days before
the founding of Luruar and the resettleme nt of Mithra!
Hall. Fell beasts aplenty make their lairs in out-of-the-
way places across the valley, and raiding ba nds of ogres
often come down out of the mountains.CASTLE HARTWICK AND STAGWICK
Between two branches of the Clear Whirl River lies
a great is land on which Hartkiller built his castle.
Stagwick, on the east bank of the river, is a small
community of folk who work as farmers, fishers, herd-
ers, and a rtisans. These folk do a bris k business, as
most outland merchants choose not to journey beyond
Stagwick and inste ad sell thei r wares to the Hartsvale
me rch a nts. P erhaps a third of the m erchants who jour-
ney to Hartsvale choose to undertake the trip out to
the fiefdoms of the earl s, who pay more to e ncourage
this behavior.THE OGRES
For reasons I can't fathom, Harstvale a nd its sur-
rounding mountain ranges host many tribes of
ogres- indeed, not mere family groups, but whole
tribes of them! Whereas elsewhere ogres seem to live
like bears, near Hartsvale they act more like ores.
Thankfully the brutes are still too stupid for s uch com-
plex tasks as working m etal, but from what I heard
in my time in the vale the ir culture is surpris ingly
sophi s ticate d. Different tribes worship diffe re nt gods,
Vaprak being the one I heard most about, and these
differences in religion apparently set the tribes against
each other. From what I heard , both the giants and the
people of Hartsvale hate the ogres, a fact for which I'm
sure many are grateful. If one or more giants decided