Valak

Valak is located on the northern side of the Osterbijan crater, in a very mountainous region. There are several small entrances to the Osterbijan heartlands through Valak, but penetrating the forts built over them would be just as difficult as attacking Tenja--possbily moreso, since at least the Tenjan Gate doesn't totally freeze over ever winter.
=== The King of Winter ===
The Ravensburg dynasty has ruled Valak since a Marju invasion destroyed the last ruling family in an invasion a few centuries back. The Ravensburgs were Kamens who came to help defend the country on the church's orders, and ended up running the country after the death of the old King and his sons.
The current King, Sergiu II, is a hard man with a grim reputation. He earned his nickname, The King of Winter, for his defense of Valak during the Marju invasion, which (if the estimates are to be believed) killed four out of every five people in the country. The King refused to bow to the Khan, and when an army arrived to force the issue, he outran them for months (no mean feat in and of itself) and burned the food stores, fields and animals of his own country. He successfully strung the Marju along until winter, when the country froze, leaving his army, as well as the Marju, trapped in the highlands with no food, for about four months.
The Marju eventually ate their horses, and then turned on the people of Valak themselves--but found themselves competing with Sergiu and his men for food, to say nothing of the winter, which was killing people faster than they could. It was only in the final weeks of winter, in a snowstorm, that the single, decisive battle of that war was fought. When the snows thawed, there were fewer than a hundred men of Sergiu's army left. Sergio went back to his castle, and resumed rulership as though nothing had happened.
After that they started calling him the King of Winter.Category:Countries