The Vale

The Vale runs along Westeros's eastern coast, closed in by the Bite to the north, the Bay of Crabs to the south, the Narrow Sea to the east, and a natural wall to the west: the Mountains of the Moon. That range keeps the region hard to reach for most of the year, and in the depths of winter the passes shut completely.

The only land route in is the High Road, which links the Vale to the Riverlands, and even that path isn't safe — the mountain clans living on the slopes prey on anyone who tries to cross. That isolation has spared the Vale from much of the warfare that has torn through the rest of the continent, and it has shaped the guarded temperament of the people who live behind the mountains.

Long before the Andals arrived, the land was split among the First Men's Mountain Kings. It was an Andal warlord, Ser Artys Arryn, who struck down the last of them and took his crown: the Falcon Crown.

Out of that victory came a new line of rulers. Artys's descendants took the title Kings of Mountain and Vale, and the land itself was renamed for their house. For generations they ruled as an independent realm, until they bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror and his line.

In exchange for the crown they gave up, the Arryns kept command of their lands under a new title, Lord Protector of the Vale and Warden of the East, one the house still holds from the Eyrie.

Those born in the Vale are held to be people of their word, devout followers of the Faith of the Seven and dependable in a fight. That reputation doesn't reach everyone, though — clans living on the slopes of the Mountains of the Moon, such as the Black Ears and the Burned Men, answer to no one at the Eyrie and keep to their own customs.

Bastard children born in the region are given the surname Stone, a mark of an origin they can't fully claim. The land itself plays no favorites: the Vale grows wheat, corn, and barley in abundance, and it's said not even Highgarden grows bigger pumpkins or sweeter fruit.

Among the region's trading curiosities is House Waxley, known locally for scented candles worked with nutmeg and other costly spices.