Little known facts about Mystic Valley

Today, Cherished Destinies, Book Three in the Mystic Valley Series will be released. (Everything Lovers Can Know is a Prequel to the series.) So I thought I would list some little known facts about the valley for those who are interested.

1) The natives are blue-skinned, with small fangs and pointed ears. Hair and eye color are a wide range of colors similar to out-valley.

2) Life expectancy in the valley averages around 150 years, though some have lived longer. Middle age is around 75.

3) For the past century, the average family has two children. The exceptions are among couples where at least was born out-valley. (Most noteably, Merlyn and Jade who have fourteen children at the beginning of the series, but end with sixteen total.) Prior to that the average family had four children. The drop in reproduction rates has led to a much smaller gene pool.

4) In the valley, women choose their mate, though men may present themselves as a suitable mate. The ultimate choice is up to the woman. A woman's mate choice is an extremely important decision and therefore not taken lightly.

5) All youngsters must attend bonding classes. Classes are taught by local healers and cover a multitude of subjects related to bonding, including sex education, pregnancy, child care, and delivery.

6) Many, but not all inhabitants of the valley exhibit various paranormal abilities. The most common are telepathy and healing, but others are precognition and animal communication.

7) From age six, all boys are trained in warrior classes until they reach approximately fifteen. At that time they can choose to take the warrior's vows (once they have passed all the requirements) or not. Warriors are easily identified by the twenty-five braids they wear.

8) The valley laws and history are inscribed on an enormous hanging wall at the north end of the valley called the Talking Wall. A full time team of Archivists study, transcribe, and translate the wall which is inscribed with glyphs in the "old language".

9)Valley laws are enforced and judged by specially trained warriors called Justicars. Certain crimes are judged by the Judgement Stone which is located at the summit of Needle Rock. Miscreants are taken to the top of Needle Rock and left there for judgement. If they are guilty, they are consumed by the valley. If they are innocent, they are released by the valley. Crimes judged by the Judgement Stone are rape, murder, and all forms of abuse.

10)There is no electricity in the valley. Light is provided via "lightstones". Heat is provided via fireplaces or in small areas, "hot rocks". In Lost Market, the homes are domes engineered to retain heat in the winter and cool in the summer, but in most the of the valley, homes are anything from stone huts, wooden huts, woolen tents, and in a few cases, caves. The "modern" domes from Lost Market are gradually spreading across the valley.

Have a question? Leave it in the comments section. When I collect enough questions, I'll do another blog to answer them.

Anny

Please don't forget to stop at Amarinda's blog where she has the Saga today. http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/ Then pop over to Kelly's blog where she's interviewing Sandra Cox at http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/ Blessings on your day!