Nesut Biti is a double halfling village in Vala — the very old settlements of Nesut, “of the Reeds”, and Biti, about twenty kilometers apart — and the seat of authority of its region.
| Type | Place (double village) |
| Population | Halflings; about 500 in the village |
| Spanish entry | Nesut Biti |
Geography
It lies two days from Tres Arroyos, past the Salto de Juncos, on the highlands of Bala (the Lands of Fable), five kilometers from the lighthouse, set back from its beaches, “sheltered by a well-tended forest” kept on purpose to break the winds that ruin the crops; there are no walls. It is “very rich” — marble cliffs, nursery forests — though some call it “that dump”.
History and government
Both villages were founded in the era of the Dual King, after “Justin’s leap to the Port”. The double village belongs to the Andreas family; the territories of Nesut, Biti and the cliffs of Marbol belong to the Governor. Old quarrels between the villages are settled in football matches. Nesut means “reed” in the old tongue of Vala, and Nesut Biti was the name of an ancient House.
The temple-palace
The main building is temple, “guard post” and prison at once, seat of the region’s authority and of the Blue Group. In its grounds is a pond where the priestess of Ishtar lives, “rather sad and wasted”. In the central courtyard, beside the ñumo dwarf smith, stand “immense machines”, one a gigantic “dark mass” of the kind called “viper beetles”.
Beneath the village lies “a true necropolis, an underworld, a series of humanizations of the dead”, reached through the catacomb. A vellum map shows three connected structures: the temple, “the crusade” and “the busta farm”.
Disasters
Luigi Vampa’s activity cuts off trade. A meteorite devastated the coast; there was a massacre; a dragon emerged; festivals were canceled, a curfew imposed, and the people evacuated to Viti, led by the Captain and the Governor.
Open questions
- Whether “Nesut has now been exiled” refers to the village, the region or a person.
- What links Nesut and Biti, and what “Biti” means.
- What “Justin’s leap to the Port” was; what the machines are.
- How the disasters relate; where the Governor resides.