Valley People

The Valley People are a reclusive, xenophobic humanoid people whose hidden homeland lies in a secret valley north of the mountains, somewhere beyond the old Wenshari frontier. Most inhabitants of the Five Duchies are entirely unaware of their existence, and those who meet them tend to come away confused: Minalan describes them simply as "human-enough-looking-but-damned-strange."

What the books make plain is that they are not ordinary humans. They possess three striking biological traits that set them apart.

Near-Alka-Alon longevity. Lord Aeratas observes in Necromancer:

Only the Valley People have anything close to a reasonable longevity.Lord Aeratas, Necromancer

Near-universal multiple births. The Wenshari midwife brought in for Pentandra's triplets was chosen because:

She's dealt with Valley People before, and they are all multiple births.Necromancer

Striking physical perfection. Minalan notes:

Absolutely perfect specimens of humanity, the men well-muscled and the women beautiful and perfectly proportioned.Minalan, High Mage

Taken together, the implication is one the Alka Alon quietly confirm. In Necromancer Haruthel tells Minalan of the Alka Alon actions during the Narasi conquest:

We sealed off the Valley People from the rest of you, rescued our scholarly allies from Wenshar, secured what dangers we could from the barbarian horde.Haruthel, Necromancer

Sealed off — the verb is telling. The Valley People appear to be an ancient Alka Alon project: humans altered or enhanced at the biological level, given longevity and prolific multiple births (perhaps by means related to the Natal Spark processes that later produced snowstone), and hidden in a remote valley for their own preservation.

In the present day they remain almost entirely isolated. They worship their own pantheon (Pramm the Blessed is mentioned in Warmage); the Duchy of Vore occasionally contends with their "insurrections" along its northwestern frontier; and the Wenshari — always at the margins of Imperial respectability — were notorious for having intermarried with them across generations, a fact that may explain the unusual incidence of magical Talent and multiple births in Wenshari-descended lines. Pentandra's own triplets by the Kasari captain Arborn arrived with a Wenshari midwife on hand, a quiet suggestion that Valley People blood runs more widely than the Valley People themselves would like.

The Alka Alon ambassador Lord Darvios, encountered at the Alkan Convocation in High Mage, is the only Valley People representative seen up close in the series. He is aloof, elegant, and about as interested in humani company as any native Alka Alon — a diplomat representing a people who would much rather not be represented at all.