The Vale of Tiderun

Tucked between the steep cliffs of a winding green valley that leads down to the sea, the Vale of Tiderun is a halfling settlement like no other. Sunlight pours down the valley’s length during the long mornings, chasing mist from the stonework and vines that wind around its multi-tiered buildings. From above, the town looks like a spiral unfurling toward the sea, each level a ring of life stacked upon the next.

Tiderun is structured vertically.
The elders and long-rooted halfling families reside on the lowest floor, closest to the heart of the land and the ancient oaks planted by the town’s founders. These stone and sod homes are warm, built into the land itself, with root cellars older than some bloodlines.

The second tier is where trade happens; shops, bakeries, potters, flower stalls, and rope bridges crisscrossing between buildings carved into the valley walls. Market days here are vibrant, musical, and reverent. Old halfling songs drift across the gap from one side of the valley to the other, echoing in harmonies no one sings alone.

At the top, under the clear sky, are homes for travelers and guests light-framed dwellings with wide porches and wind-chimes made of shells and copper. Visitors staying here are seen not as strangers, but as "Kinbound," potential family in the making. The Adoption Hall, a cultural center and archive, sits here too a place where outsiders are sometimes formally invited to be part of the town, not just in name, but in bond. Those adopted are called Waybound, and their names are etched into the community's living record tree.

At the mouth of the valley, a great dock platform stretches out into the bay bustling with trade ships and fishing vessels. But at its center, left untouched, is a humble wooden pier known as The Wanderer's Hook, said to be sacred to the mysterious god who once walked the valley. Locals do not disturb it, for it's whispered that he still comes to fish in quiet moments, and those who meet him never return the same.

Above all, Tiderun is a place of care.

Bridges are not only literal they are emotional, spiritual, and communal. Everyone has a place, and if you don't yet, someone will find one for you. Tea is always served hot. New names are given with ceremony.

It is not just a town.
It is a welcome.