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The Vale of Stars
The Vale of Stars is the heart of goodness in the cosmos and the final home for souls who, by their deeds and purity of heart in life, lifted themselves above the gray mists of Feindorn. It is a limitless realm centered on a high ridge of snow-crested mountains, which are themselves crowned with the shining spires of Amalthir. The Vale encompasses verdant forests, lush valleys, and arid, wind-sculpted deserts of stark and entrancing beauty. Waterfalls cascade through its mountains and pool into great rivers that course through the lands, finally ending in the sun-dappled infinity of the Timeless Sea.
The eladrin dwell primarily on the western side of the Vale, where the earth is slightly wilder and the air filled with tingling, eldritch energy. The weather there is as changeable as the moods of its inhabitants, varying from tumultuous storms to gray-clouded serenity within hours. Celestial animals stalk through the oldwood forests and teeming swamps, re-enacting the savage dance of predator and prey with an intensity undiminished by its impermanence -- for in the Vale of Stars, death is but an illusion, and like the legendary blood-brawling warriors of Asgaror, those who are slain rise untouched the next morning.
On the eastern side of the Vale, and along the crystalline slopes leading up to pristine Amalthir, the angels make their home. This part of the realm is given to serenity and order; the roads are perfectly straight, the cities marvels of geometric precision. Even seemingly random, transient phenomena, such as the bloom of roses on a prayer-garden's trellis or the ripples left by carp leaping in a meditation pool, show in subtle, intricate ways that they are part of a greater design. Law in the angels' realm is never imposed from without; it is a matter of tacit understanding, recognized obligation and shared courtesy, and those who follow it do so willingly.
Yet even this celestial realm is not without its sorrows. Those who come to the Vale of Stars after lives as mortals remember those that they knew and loved in the realm of the living, yet whose compromised natures did not allow them to ascend to the Vale. Many of these believe that the influence of evil in the mortal world is what prevented their friends and loved ones from making the ascension -- for the touch of evil corrodes, and often brings out the worst in people who do not have the moral strength to answer evil with good. Celestials often share this view, and are painfully aware that their realm exists only as long as they can hold back the Abyssal forces that would love to corrupt it. Both celestials and once-mortal spirits, therefore, are militant when dealing with the great evils of the cosmos, and are equally determined to bolster whatever hope they can in Bierilon.
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