The Army of Vale began as a frontier levy assembled 87 years ago when the Vale’s river towns were cut off by the Ember March invasion. Its founder, High Marshal Ansel Valehart, was not born a saint or visionary, but a tax assessor turned militia organizer who understood roads, grain, and morale better than grand strategy. He built the Army from river ferrymen, caravan guards, disgraced nobles, and conscripted farmers, promising that no village would be left to defend itself alone. The Army’s first great triumph came at the Battle of Red Ford, where Valehart flooded the lower crossings and trapped an invading column long enough for local militias to regroup. For decades, the Army was admired as a disciplined shield for border settlements. Its watershed moment came three years ago during the Everland flight, when the Army broke with its old doctrine of guarding only Vale territory and escorted more than two hundred refugees to Thornwatch Keep. That act saved lives and transformed the Army into something larger and more contested than a border force. Since then, it has become a protector, administrator, and political problem all at once.