East of Xi Chin, the mountains open into Wister Valley—a high bowl of terraced farms and scattered villages that feeds the Timekeeper city. The valley's volcanic soil grows grain, vegetables, and the famous Wister apples, small and tart, that ferment into a cider prized across the Greenwater Isles.
But Wister Valley serves more than agriculture. Its orientation creates a natural corridor for observing specific star-rises, and ancient standing stones—predating Xi Chin itself—mark astronomical positions that the Chroniclers still use for their most precise calculations. Some scholars believe Xi Chin was built where it was specifically because of Wister Valley's sight-lines.
The valley folk are a mix of humans and dwarves whose families have worked this land for generations. They're proud, practical, and suspicious of the marble-city intellectuals who depend on their harvests but rarely deign to visit. "Xi Chin counts the stars," goes a local saying, "but Wister counts the sacks of grain."