Koom Valley

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Revision as of 21:55, 29 January 2018 by Wonderful Fanny (talk | contribs) (Added a paragraph about Methodia Rascal's painting of Koom Valley, and Lady Sybil's pentagraphic replica.)
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Koom Valley is the site of the oft-told Template:Battle of Koom Valley and of several other battles over the years, always between dwarfs and trolls. The battle of Koom Valley was the only battle in history where both sides ambushed the other. The most notable battle of Koom Valley occurred when the ancient dwarven king B'hrian Bloodaxe came to meet the shiny Diamond king of the trolls, to sign a peace-treaty, ending centuries of warfare between the two races. During the course of the peace talks, hot-heads on both sides instigated fighting that expanded beyond the leaders' grasp. In the midst of the battle, the biggest storm Koom Valley ever saw flooded the valley and quelled the fighting. In the aftermath, B'hrian Bloodaxe and some of his followers became trapped under the valley with Diamond and some of his trolls. Several of them passed the time playing Thud, until eventually all were dead. The bodies can still be found below Koom Valley, encased in stone.

The valley is riddled with pits and holes; the landscape is changing constantly as boulders shift and bits fall into other bits. After the events of Thud! the Valley has become a tourist attraction; however, it is still no less dangerous.

A map of the valley was sketched by Eric Wheelbrace in his book Walking in the Koom Valley.

After visiting Koom Valley, the maddened artist Template:Methodical Rascal created "The Rascal" a 50-foot panascopic depiction of The Battle of Koom Valley, with annotations in the margins. The Ramkins eventually donated the painting to the Royal Art Museum. In Thud! the painting was stolen from the Royal Art Museum. However, all was not lost, for when Sybil Ramkin was a schoolgirl she created a scaled-down replica of the painting.

Annotations

Koom Valley seems to be another redundancy joke, combe or coombe (Welsh: cwm) being an old word for a valley of that shape. See also the Forest of Skund.

It may also convey connotations of Doom Valley.

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