Valakhan of the Mist (also Valachhan) is the demiplane sewn over the valley of Barrado Balacán, formerly Ardis Vala, during the Fifteen-Year Hiatus. It is ruled by the vampirized Caladan and afflicted by the white fever.
| Type | Place (demiplane, domain) |
| Lord | Caladan |
| Formed | During the Fifteen-Year Hiatus |
| Spanish entry | Valakhan de la Bruma |
Nature
It is not a new region but the same valley, with its rivers, villages and roads, cut off from the world by a mist that closes at the edges, does not lift with the sun, cannot be crossed at will, and returns travelers to their starting point. Those inside before the closing remain; no one can enter or leave. The valley’s people do not name the closing, and children born under the domain do not know there was an outside.
Rule
Caladan, once a Novirian wonderwalker, was vampirized by Malakita in the middle cycle and, after the fifteen years, is the suffering lord the domain claims. In the doctrine of misty domains, each has a lord who is also its prisoner.
His official residence is the castle on the hill. His actual residence is the Palace of the Prism, below ground, where Pope Alexander VI has his ecclesial seat. This coexistence of a vampirized lord above and a luminous Pope below has no known parallel in other misty domains.
The white fever
An anemic disease of abyssal origin struck the valley’s humans in the second year of the closing: skin loses color, eyes lighten, memory turns translucent. The sick do not die; they grow lighter, quieter, less present, until some cannot be seen without deliberate effort. The Decadian’s records find no medical precedent.
Inhabitants
- Valdemora, with its palisade and Guard of Rangers.
- Estellara, with its inn and Baba Iliana, binder of prophecies.
- Stejara, fused over the same streets by the demiplane’s double fold.
- Minor hamlets on the slopes, and Ritornello, razed fifteen years ago by the dragonfly of Kerbog Khan, now a refugee.
- Surviving noble families: the Vălcan, the Balmora, and the Glastum-Burdock in the neighboring region.
- The Knights of the Scar of the Sun, in a new mode converging with the papacy.
- Many refugees.
At the foot of the Stejara ravine stands the Gulthias Tree, a rhizome of the greater Tree, ruled by Bellaca, a flying-head vampiress who was Lali in the domain’s first days. The tree bears weapons as fruit, and Bellaca consecrates new knights.
History
- Fifteen years ago: the valley closes and the domain forms.
- Second year: the white fever appears.
- Through the Hiatus: Caladan’s rule consolidates; the Pope rises below ground.
- The Seekers of Ardis Vala return and discover the domain.
- Present cycle: the edges remain closed; the Pope’s judgment is pending.
The Ardis Vala Mega-Dungeon lies beneath the valley.
Conflicting accounts
On the coexistence of Caladan and the Pope, some attribute it to a dark negotiation, others to forced symbiosis, others to a longer trap neither has yet seen.
Open questions
- It is rumored, unconfirmed, that Valakhan is a late replica of a greater canonical Valachhan, in which case there would be other Caladans, Valakhans and white fevers in other folds.