The Valley (Urcea)

The Valley is a term referring to the central region of Urcea and its most populous. It includes the Archduchy of Urceopolis, the provinces of Westglen, Eastglen, Northgate, Goldvale, Killean, the Cape, most of Harren, and Niallsland.

The Valley is so named because it sits between the Ionian Mountains to the east, the Pralia Mountains to the north, and the Hortus Mountains to the south. With the exception of the western most parts - Harren and Niallsland - the Valley is a large, flat, sweeping plain which has historically been the site of significant settlement and agricultural use. The Urce River runs down the central and northern portions of the Valley, serving as a major transportation corridor as well as a major ecological site, being the source of significant irrigation throughout the Valley. Besides being merely a geographic area, however, it has remained a source of identity. People from within the Valley typically consider the Valley - whatever it may encompass at any period in history - to be the "settled" and "civilized" part of Urcea with the remaining part being either foreign or frontier in some variety, an attitude which some scholars posit originated in Great Levantia. Accordingly, the Valley was viewed as the source of settlement and civilization for the rest of the country, especially as residents of the region were settled elsewhere as Ómestaderoi, a program which brought increasing cultural integration throughout the possessions of the Julian dynasty that would become a cohesive Urcean nation.

The Valley is one of the most populated places in the world, and its residents form the majority of the population of Urcea as well as the place of origin of the Urcean people. Prior to the resettlement of the Valley by Gaelic people and the cultural exchange that created the Urcean people, it was the seat of Great Levantia, one of the ancient world's largest empires and the largest empire in the history of Levantia. The agricultural yields in ancient times allowed the Latinic people who settled in the Valley to become numerous and prosperous, spreading out throughout the rest of the continent. Following the collapse of Great Levantia, the Valley was divided among many different states, including the Duchy of Urceopolis, the cities of the Latin League, and other polities. It was gradually reunified by the Julian dynasty under the Holy Levantine Empire, culminating with the creation of Urcea as a Kingdom in 1098, though the unification itself would not be fully complete until centuries later.

Geography

The Valley, as its name would suggest, is a mostly flat expanse of land sitting between the Pralia Mountains to the north, the Ionian Mountains to the east, and the Sea of Canete and Odoneru Ocean to the west. The flat expanse is largely disrupted by the Hortus Mountains to the south, but the Urcean frontier region, with its separate climate and distinct culture and history, make up the southern end of the "bowl" formed by these mountains. The region has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters, making it ideal for many types of agriculture and pleasant for human settlement. Accordingly, most of the natural ecology of the Valley has been replaced with urban and suburban sprawl as the region is among the most densely populated in the world.