THE ROCK AT VALLAR

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THE HOUSE AT VALLAR

It took almost one hundred and sixty years to finish construction of the Vallar house.  The Extraction Farm (which was eventually converted into an Observatory) and Signal Tower were built first. The upper section of the Rock was primarily composed of a rare element [Va] whose leached neutral particles act as a super-conductor of Khor, which is highly valued by the Institute and essential for their ground-breaking, and often revolutionary, experiments. There were three separate catastrophes during the eighty year extraction process, but these were deemed acceptable losses for the Institute and the overall project was considered a success. 

After the conversion of the Observatory, Dr. Ingmor Vallar -- being a poor father and husband -- decided that he no longer cared for the quite short, but longer-than-necessary, trek from the mostly-abandoned town where he and his family lived and began construction of a new domicile so that he could spend more time with his true love, research, while maintaining an acceptable appearance of being a ‘family-man’. What is now the Main Living Area took the least amount of time to finish as it was built around the Rock and designed and constructed in a utilitarian -- and quite indifferent -- manner. 

Ingmor’s daughter, Lyddia Vallar, had a much bolder design in mind. 

The variable density of certain elemental bands [L and La] made excavation slow-going and near impossible at times, but over a forty year span, Lyddia oversaw the construction of the multi-leveled, current configuration of the house, including the assembly of the central lift (which was the only reason why Ingmor -- ancient at this point -- tolerated all the noise and distraction). 

Lyddia’s daughter, Dr. Soo Vallar, who in 852 LC / 8207 KC, was the first person to successfully scan the embedded base of the rock (made of a believed-to-be unknown material which, when reported, sent shockwaves through the Institute). She used her success to secure additional funding for ultra-modern upgrades and renovations from the Institute, which is how the house remains to this day.

Dr. Soo Vallar’s scientific discovery and resultant funding came with one proviso: an Institute Judge. 

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JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED

Bound in secrecy, and subject to no law outside their own, an Institute Judge acts as a counsel, an advocate, a confidant, and sometimes spy for any project and/or individual that is deemed to need Institute-oversight for their high-profile (and possibly heretical) work. 

Four generations of Vallars have lived under the watchful eye of an Institute Judge, but with each passing year, and the relentless peace of the assignment, the Judge in charge of Vallar-oversight has transitioned from being adversarial to almost an adopted family member -- especially after the disappearance of Dr. Tajo Vallar during an Institute mission to Academy ruins on Kaoso. 

But there is one thing to keep in mind, regardless of sentimentality -- the Vallars are wards of the Institute, and the Judge is their warden. 

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THE VALLAR RECORD

Over the years, Judges have made many documented observations about the Rock at Vallar and the Vallar clan. From their loyalty to the Institute, to the family’s ingenious generational commitment to ‘the work,’ to the unexplained oddities of the rock itself -- the strangest of which are the alien sounds which whisper out of the otherworldly rock and resonate through the earth in which it stands.

Is that sound ‘Val-lar’ as the moons wax and wane? Or is it ‘Vahl-lahr’ -- a wail to ORDO, and a croon to KAOSO?

This, the judges do not know, and is reflected as such in the record.

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THE ROCK [937 LC / 8292 KC] FLOORPLAN

LEVEL TWO
[01] QUARTERS: JUDGE SKOLTI NIX AGE: 50
[02] LABORTORY [VACUUM]
LEVEL THREE
[03] ROBOT LAB: ALPHA ROBOT / OMEGA ROBOT
[04] QUARTERS: HENRI HYATT-VALLAR AGE: 20
[05] TERRACE / LIVING AREA
[06] QUARTERS: HOPE HYATT AGE: 16
LEVEL SIX
[07] LIBRARY [CONVERTED FROM GUEST QUARTERS]
[08] GUEST QUARTERS
[09] KITCHEN / DINING / FAMILY ROOM

NOTE: Not pictured in this diagram are levels one, four and five.

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Final ROCK AT VALLAR post up late Friday. You’ll like where this goes.

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