The Chiming Vale

A limestone valley riddled with wind-caves, hanging formations, and stone flutes carved by a million years of weather, so that the whole region hums, rings, and sings depending on the season and the wind. It is the Pooka homeland, and the only place in the world where the landscape itself is considered a member of the community.

Geography

Karst: caves, sinkholes, and hanging stone, tuned by erosion. Vale residents can date a season by ear, and a change in the valley's voice is treated as news.

The Round

A terraced amphitheater-city built into the valley's throat, where the acoustics carry a whisper from the floor to the highest gallery. Pooka governance is conducted as performance: proposals are sung, opposition is sung over, and consensus is literally harmony. Outsiders find this ridiculous until they attend one.

Relations

The Round is the most politically dangerous place in the Kingdom, and the court has never quite noticed. A Pooka ballad travels faster and further than any decree, is impossible to confiscate, and the Kingdom's censors have no vocabulary for prosecuting a melody. Nearly every seditious idea in circulation has a tune.