Location Artwork - The Valley of Sleepers (Patreon)

'They came at night - in the darkness that enveloped the valley, thick as ink. But then pale ghost light appeared and danced all over the carvings of the old tombs. The stink of terror was awful. And then I heard the screaming. Not that of the horrifying specters... but that of my comrades.'

- Excerpt from the account of Gaius Falco, sole survivor of an expedition into the Valley of Sleepers

The Valley of Sleepers is an eerie, seemingly abandoned valley of tombs and temples that were carved into the very rock walls of this large region of canyons. Before the Calamity, the Varotians - a strange and xenophobic people - used the area to build tombs for their rich and powerful. The magical cataclysm spared the valley's structures but ever since, the tombs vomit up terrible, ghostly Undead during the night that attack and destroy anyone who is bold or stupid enough to spend the night. The burial chambers hold untold riches, but few dare delve into them as the disturbed specters roam their corridors even during the day.

As with many location art pieces, we worked with Péter Kovács on the illustration of the Valley. We talked extensively about the real-world influences on Varotian culture in lore. They are decidedly reminiscent of ancient Assyrians and Sumerians, and when it came to their tomb architecture in the Valley, we went for a look that invokes the ruins of Petra in Jordan (even though it was a Nabataean city, it invokes the ancient middle-eastern wibe we were looking for) only on a much larger scale. Peter's amazing attention to detail, sense of composition, and use of colors has resulted in one of the most memorable location art pieces for Vagrus, which is quite an achievement in and of itself.