When the human kingdom of Nerath was at its height about three hundred years ago, the Nentir Vale stood as the northernmost extension of that great realm. Would-be settlers navigated the Nentir River through a trackless swamp or forged their way through a thick forest that separated this area from the rest of Nerath. At the end of their journey, they came upon a pocket of rolling grassland and light woods more than a hundred miles wide and ringed by mountains and forests, a frontier area that held both promise and peril for those who braved it.
Several settlements sprang up in the area. Foot paths between these outposts of civilization turned into welltraveled roads, and most of the towns flourished over the next two hundred years or so.
Then, nearly a century ago, chaos and ruin came to the Nentir Vale when an orc horde called The Bloodfury Clan swarmed down out of the mountains to the northwest. By this time, the Kingdom of Nerath had begun to crumble under the relentlessness of the Orcish Horde Invasion, and the hardy souls of the vale got no help from the south.
Before the Orcish Horde Invsaion was over, much of the Nentir Vale had been ravaged. When the orcs finally withdrew, they left behind a broken and battered land. Now, for the second time in its history, the vale is a destination for those of stout heart and great prowess-adventurers who seek to turn this near-wilderness once again into a place where peaceful folk can forge a life for themselves.
The Vale Today
The Vale is still struggling to rebuild itself, with a handful of living villages and towns scattered over this wide area. Abandoned farmsteads, ruined manors, and broken keeps litter the countryside. Bandits, wild animals, and monsters roam freely throughout the vale, threatening anyone who fares more than few miles away from one of the surviving settlements. Travel along the roads or river is usually safe, usually. But every now and then, travelers come to bad ends between towns. The Nentir Vale is a northern land, but it sees relatively little snow, winters are windy and bitterly cold. The Nentir River is too big to freeze except for a few weeks in the coldest part of the year. Summers are cool and mild.
