Valleys

The game Valleys, now very popular among the higher classes, has a long and storied history. It began, of course, as a recreation and commemoration of the nigh-mythical Battle of Bainbridge Valley. Fought between House Malaya and House Tinden before the installation of the Throne on the Land, both house's records claimed their house the victor, as they still do to this day. Astrath Malaya and Inigo Tinden both led armies of equivalent size into opposite ends of the valley, making  it extremely difficult for later historians to guess at who the true victor of the battle might have been.

The solution proposed by noted philosopher Sian Warwick was to simulate the battle, and designed the now ubiquitous board of five squares by ten squares to serve as the simulacrum of Bainbridge Valley. The pieces, he recorded, were merely black and white, for of course he needed only to represent Houses Malaya and Tinden respectively, and had none of the colours or sigils we know of today.

And the distinctions between the House pieces may have stopped there, had it not been for the feats both houses claimed their representatives had performed in battle. Inigo Tinden was claimed to be such an unmatched swordsman that he could take on multiple foes alone while it is claimed that Astrath would have been felled by an arrow had he not called a miracle from Malux to save his life. These supposed abilities were given to the pieces representing the generals in Warwick's game, and were this not the case the game as we know it may have lacked a major strategic element.

The game itself was played with a similarly famed mind, Nils the Pensive. With Nils playing the Malaya side and Sian playing the Tinden side, it is noted that after a long game Sian won. As Sian pointed out later in his writings, the whole business may well have been folly, for even the greatest minds were no replacement for the minds of the leaders themselves. Crucially, though, Sian saw the potential for recreation in the game, almost immediately offering Nils a rematch. Shortly thereafter, the historian Wyatt Irvine heard of the game from Nils the Pensive, and thought it may also serve as a fine commemoration of a skirmish between House Toffin and House Tinden, The Battle of Arthright Valley. He modified the rules of the game, ascribing a similar boon to the leader of the Toffin House as held by the pieces representing the Malaya and Tinden leaders. This began the tradition, enthusiastically followed by the sons of Sian, of inducting new House Armies into the game that was already becoming known as Valleys and giving them their own boon.

Ulfrin and Ultern Warwick, as sharp as their father but ultimately concerned with the game of Valleys rather than any broader designs, brought to the game a standardised set of rules for each major House of the time. They abandoned the idea of Valleys recreating famous battles of history, quite content to pit Houses known to have been allies for centuries against each other. Ultern was particularly concerned with pulling the game away from its origin as a recreation of Bainbridge Valley by attempting to popularise the notion of other styles and shapes of boards. Sadly, while there are players happy and even dedicated to playing with alternate battlefields, most people and players are only familiar with the traditional valley style.

More modern additions to the game are widely contested in their validity. Minor houses, added through generations of the Warwick family, are rarely played far outside their holdings. And of course, the addition of House Reaper is still controversial despite the fact it has now been a part of the game for decades, and was done by the still-living Saldan Warwick, considered a fine authority for the game to be under.

As the world around it evolves, Valleys will surely continue changing and expanding to include new Houses and so forth. Artisans and craftsmen will always find work making finer sets, and no noble family will be seen without a personally commissioned decorative set of their own House Army.

Rules of Valleys

Setup: Each player begins with four archers, five swordsmen, and a leader, arranged on opposite ends of the valley, the swordsman in a line in front of the archers, the leader in the centre of the archers. Generally accepted practise is that the house to most recently hold the Throne moves first.

A Turn: On each players turn, they move a piece or pieces, and/or slay a piece. A piece can by moved one square in any direction. Two adjacent pieces of the same kind may be moved in the same direction at once. A piece may be slayed if any of the following conditions are met;
A swordsman or leader moves to occupy its square
Two swordsmen flank it
Three swordsmen line it on one side
An archer has been stationary for one round within two squares of it
A player may only slay one piece per turn unless he slays multiple pieces simultaneously with a single move (e.g. a swordsman moves between two enemy pieces and causes them both to become flanked). When it is the case that two pieces could kill each other, priority goes to the player whose turn it is.

Victory: A player is victorious when the enemy army is eliminated or the opponent surrenders.