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The Valley of the urRu
The urRu made their way to the Valley of the Stones. There they could shelter and meditate concealed. They chose the twisting valley, home of mists, for that it resembled the world they had left; water flowed from abundant springs, caves filled the rocky slopes. They made it fit for their use. Aughra helped choose stones and guided the stones to allow themselves to be shaped. There the urRu made stone circles of power, the framework of the valley, everlasting protection.
The valley of the urRu contains rocks and cascading pools, trees, berrybushes, flowers, and grasses. Its boundaries are surrounded by the outer Standing Stones. There is a spiral path which runs halfway up a cliff past eighteen caves.
Jen likes to swim in the green pools below the waterfall.
The bottom of the valley is called the thalweg. Standing Stones form a triangle with one in the center that lays flat. When the wind is in a certain quarter, it blows down the spiral path; and filling tunnels and passing the mouths of caves, it resounds through the valley like a reed pipe. The urRu would arrange their own bodies to stop some of the cave mouths so that the pitch of the wind is modulated.
On the shoulder of the valley, at its highest point, are another line of Standing Stones. They are tall and narrow, shooting up from the ground like needles. They mark the boundary of the valley. They have carvings similar to those on the stones that form the triangle in the thalweg.
Apart from the Standing Stones, nothing at all in the valley can ever represent a threat to the empirical tyranny of the Skeksis. The valley of the urRu is an enclave of notions, the province of clouds, nothing more.
There is a spiral ramp leading out of the center of the valley.
The valley, itself a spiral of powerfully shaped stones, is so decorated and transformed during the centuries of urRu occupation that it is hard to say where the natural structures end and the sculpture begins.
Over the centuries, the stones of the valley were worn away by wind and rain, blasted by lightning, covered with lichen, until only traces of their original patterns could be seen. The soft sandstone pillars have been eroded to a fraction of their original size; the complexities of their initial patterns can be guessed at from their design.
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This is an unofficial DARK CRYSTAL website. THE DARK CRYSTAL, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of The Jim Henson Company. © 2001. Artwork by Brian Froud and Roy Carnon. Visit the official website at www.henson.com.