Valley of Four Winds

"'Newcomers, eh? Welcome, welcome! Pull up a chair, and tell us a story!'""—Mayor Fung"The Valley of Four Winds is located in north-central Ascaria. It is a sweeping expanse of land, with mist-shrouded mountains bordering it on all sides and the Winding River flowing through it. It is often considered by many to be the closest thing to paradise on Ascaria, and the idyllic sights and easygoing townsfolk help cement this notion. That being said, the Valley has not emerged unscathed through the years, and its people are more than willing to fight to defend their homeland.

Halfhill
The largest settlement in the Valley is Halfhill, a village that takes up the majority of the center of the Valley. Founded long ago, it has maintained a pacifistic culture of farmers, who eagerly trade or give away their oversized crops to feed most of Ascaria.

The Ostirmirk War
Once upon a time, the people of Halfhill came under the scrutiny of Ostirmirk's trade guilds. The guilds, sensing a permanent source of food for their burgeoning population and a potential new source of income through Halfhill's farms. In the first act of the now-infamous Ostirmirk War, the guilds' militant branch, better known as the Blazing Fists, marched on Halfhill in an attempt to annex the town.

The people of Halfhill, seeing the armies of Ostirmirk on the horizon, begged the monks of the Riverwheel Monastery to assist them. The monks refused all forms of payment offered to them, asking only for only enough food to sustain themselves in the coming winter. In exchange, the Riverwheel Masters were deployed to Halfhill's frontlines.

The Masters of Riverwheel conjured up a wall of mists around the whole of Halfhill. The soldiers who attempted to breach the barrier found themselves stumbling away, and all ammunition launched into it was harmlessly redirected by strange wind patterns. Moreover, while the Masters themselves did not attack, the soldiers of the Blazing Fists found themselves stymied in their efforts to strike them, and they quickly exhausted themselves in the attempt.

Frustrated and eager for war, the Fists' High Marshal, the great golem Torgrim, took to the field to challenge the Masters. His call to battle was answered, but not in the way he anticipated - it was Grandmaster Ojutai, swooping out of the mists, who stood before Ostirmirk's champion. As Torgrim prepared to fight, Ojutai lambasted the golem, declaring the war a waste of everyone's time and resources. Moreover, the Grandmaster alerted Torgrim that he had sent messengers to all of the great nations of Ascaria, alerting them to Ostirmirk's sudden conquering streak against the peaceful people of Halfhill.

In the face of such a grave embarrassment, and the threat of a united Ascaria against Ostirmirk, Torgrim quietly fumed, but surrendered. He and his troops were allowed to return to Ostirmirk freely, but on the sole condition that the trade guilds amend their laws, preventing them from attempting to subjugate their neighbors in the future. A day later, the mists dissipated, and the people of Halfhill began their regular convoys to Ostirmirk once again. The subject remains a sore spot for Torgrim, but all are grateful that this was a war without casualties.

Mayor Fung
Halfhill's mayor, Yao Fung, is an elderly pandaren. He was first elected to office some sixty years ago, when he was young and full of vigor, during the onset of the Ostirmirk War. Given that Halfhill does not have term restrictions with their public offices, Fung has been reelected to his position no less than twelve times (elections are held once every five years). Occasionally, a younger candidate will run against him in the spirit of fun competition, but none have managed to win the election.

As mayor, Fung is the democratically elected head of Halfhill, and as such it falls to him to oversee Halfhill's laws, trade, and proper place in Ascaria. Instances where he truly needed to flex his mayoral powers (such as in the Ostirmirk War) are rare. More often than not, he is called upon to settle a farmer's land dispute. He would sit down both farmers with tea, and by the end of the conversation those same farmers would embrace each other as though they were siblings.