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, and southern Harren.

The Valley is so named because it sits between the Ionian Plateau to the east, the Pralia Mountains to the north, and the Hortus Mountains to the south. With the exception of the eastern most parts 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 Riparian Urceans. 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 Plateau 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. The Valley naturally has relatively sparse trees, with many types imported to the region from abroad with the advent of global trade.

The Urce River and its tributiaries are the dominant geographical feature of the north-central part of the Valley, with the Urce River watershed more or less corresponding to the geographical extent of the valley with the exception of tributaries flowing through the Ionian Plateau. The main course of the river flows northeast from the Ionian mountains to the southwest, where it terminates in the Sea of Canete. The best known tributary of the Urce, the Esquiline River, bisects the city of Urceopolis and flows from the Ionian Mountains in Harren and flow due west until it meets the Urce in Urceopolis. A large part of the population of the Valley live in cities along the Urce River, and a majority live in either those cities or suburban networks which extend from the cities.

The Valley has a western coastline that sits on the Sea of Canete and Odoneru Ocean. Its coastline is characterized as generally uneven but good for human commerce, with a large number of capes, peninsulas, inlets, and large bays cutting the coastline up and down the country's western seaboard. Besides the Urce River, the western coast of the Archduchy of Urceopolis is one of the major population centers of Urcea. In terms of culture and economy, the western seaboard and its cities are somewhat more like the the Islands than the rest of the Valley.

History

For most of human history, the Valley has been one of the most habitable areas in southern Levantia, and has been the center of major agricultural and urban development for more than a thousand years. Prior to the Latin Heroic Age, the Valley was predominantly settled by Gaelic people, who established small cities and extensive agricultural clearances in addition to retaining hunter-gatherer lifestyles. The arrival of the Latinic people heralded the dawn of more extensive urbanization, especially along the Urce River itself. For the first several hundred years of Latin settlement of Levantia, Latins were mostly contained to the Valley, and for a time the term Levantia and the Valley were considered interchangeable. The Latin-urbanized Valley eventually gave rise to the first very large polity in Levantine history, Great Levantia. Emerging from the Urceopolitan city state, Great Levantia became a continent-spanning empire thousands of miles in breadth. At its height, the Valley - along with parts of Dericania - were considered to be the core parts of the empire. During the peak of Great Levantia, the Valley was divided into five provinces and the region directly adjacent to Urceopolis, known simply as "Urcea".

After about 1 AD, the demographic, political, and economic "center" of Great Levantia gradually began to shift eastward with the conquest of Gaul. During this middle Antiquity period, Urceopolis was the capital city and center of power for the Great Levantine state, but had not yet established clear demographic supremacy over the earlier-established coastal Latin cities along the Creagmer. Accordingly, the ancient Valley saw relatively uniform economic growth both along the coast and up the Urce River. Between the major cities were an untold number of small-hold farmers, considered the traditional source of Great Levantia's military manpower.

The region saw significant economic change from the transition of the state from republic to potentate, especially as slaves from the east and eventually Gaul were imported into the region. The massive importation of Gallian slaves had an overall negative impact on the economy of the core region, as most small-holders were replaced by sprawling plantations primarily worked by slaves. The Valley's cities grew significantly during this period, and especially Urceopolis. The economy and society of the modern Valley area remained in this condition through late antiquity until the eventual transition to serfdom began.

The modern Valley was the part of Levantia most grievously affected by the decline and fall of Great Levantia in terms of demographics and economic condition.

Economy

The economy of the Valley is largely characterized by major urban centers, with both the service and real estate industries serving as the two largest in this region.

Outside of the main riverine corridors and coastal regions of the Valley, some major agricultural areas exist, with agriculture serving as a top ten industry in the Valley. The warm but still-temperate climate of the region makes large parts of it ideal for farming, and historically the Valley was one of the most productive food-growing regions in the world. Large scale irrigation efforts supplemented the agriculturally-viable weather beginning in the medieval period to make most of the Valley fairly verdant and fertile. Its agricultural output has largely remained steady since the dawn of the 20th century, as rapid increases in farm productivity from chemical and industrial improvements have offset the equally rapid reduction of farmland in favor of cities and suburbs.

Culture

The Valley is considered by many to be the cultural heart of Urcea. The region is the historic heartland of the Riparians, the predominant ethnic group of Urcea, and many of Urcea's primary social traditions originate in the Valley. Within the culture of Urcea, people's cultural mores are often described as "intra-" or "extra-Valley", with the former referring to people who adhere to the "base culture" of Urcea as represented in Valley life and those who belong to a more geographically peripheral cultural group, such as Gassavelian or Caenish people. Accordingly, much of the music and cuisine usually associated with Urcea can predominantly trace their origins to the Valley.

Despite being viewed as culturally monolithic by those Urceans who live outside the Valley, the culture of the Valley is generally diverse based on geography. According to both scholars and cultural observers, the traditional "Valley culture" primarily only exists in a uniform basis in the Urce River corridor from south of Urceopolis within the Archduchy to the northeastern corner of the province of Westglen, and in suburbs radiating out from those urban centers.

Most prominently, people living on the coast of the Valley have their own unique culture which has a historical foundation in maritime commerce and fishing, with significant influences from Sarpedon and the Ancient Istroyan civilization incorporated throughout the millennia. These people, generally referred to as "Capers and Coasters", are more similar to people living in the Urcean Island region than those living in and around the city of Urceopolis.