Zone Designation: ZEPHYR VALE

Code: ZN-ZV-04
Zone Type: Elevated Sanctuary Environment
Status: Stable / Inhabitable
Threat Class: None
Classification: SAFE HARBOR

Zone Overview

Zephyr Vale is the only Zone on record officially classified as non-hostile. Suspended in permanent golden-hour light, the Vale spans miles of soft meadow terrain, floating cloud paths, and harmonic wind currents. Air quality is perfect. Pressure, temperature, and elevation self-regulate with no intervention. The Zone appears designed — or willing — to sustain human life.

There is no sun. And yet, everything grows.

Unlike all other Zones, Zephyr Vale has demonstrated no pattern of hostility. There are no containment fields. No observed structural shifts. No confirmed anomaly tears. For over a century, it has remained the Bureau’s only approved zone for permanent settlement.

Bala Interactions

While Bala have occasionally been sighted drifting or wandering through the Vale, they are typically passive, harmless, or simply observing. There have been no hostile events, no containment breaches, and no reports of direct aggression. Locals refer to them as “Wanderers” or “Floaters.”

Human Presence

Zephyr Vale is the heart of human civilization in the post-Zone world.

Subzone: Halcyon Post

Designation: Civilian Arcology CP-01
Population: ~500,000
Bureau Status: Passive Observation Only

Halcyon Post is the largest and only permanent city in operation. Built along the contours of the Vale’s wind corridors, it is a multi-level, floating, gardened urban complex that drifts gently through the Zone. It is not controlled; it is accompanied.

Within the Post, citizens live without fear. Without mutation. Without disappearance. Education, farming, art, and light Bureau research continue uninterrupted. The air itself appears to promote long-term psychological wellness.

• Crown Terrace: former Bureau center; now a public library and observatory
• The Petal Ring: communal market, garden-trade zone, and emotional archive
• The Lofts: high-altitude settlement domes, launch points, and orchards
• The Drift Below: former subterranean containment units repurposed as peaceful housing

Containment Protocol

None required.
Zephyr Vale is not under watch — it is under respect.

All entry is allowed.
Exit is voluntary.
Permanent migration is encouraged by the Bureau only under duress or final designation.

Additional Notes (Declassified)

• Wind echoes occasionally match human voices. Response not advised.
• Several children born in the Vale have mild perceptual enhancements. Bureau considers this a non-disruptive anomaly.
• Vale-grown crystalfruit has minor psychic preservative qualities. Long-term use results in unusually vivid dreams.

A Bureau memo dated 3.7.14 simply reads:

> “If anywhere is real, this is it. Let them have it.”