The valley
The valley is a location somewhere in Rayman's world, most likely in the Glade of Dreams. The events of the original Rayman game, its handheld adaptation, an early version of Rayman 2, the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman Raving Rabbids and Rayman 3's 2D Madness and 2D Nightmare minigames all take place in the valley. In late 2009, concept art for the cancelled Rayman 4 surfaced which revealed that the developers were considering the idea of having some, if not all, of the series' fourth installment take place in the valley.
Geography
Geographically, the valley appears to be located either on an island or some other coastal area, possibly the Archipelago marked on the map of the Glade. The shape of the valley is defined by the winding course of a single river which flows through its centre. The valley contains a mixture of two distinct types of environments – the natural, and the fantastical. Its known 'natural' locations include the Dream Forest, the Blue Mountains, the Caves of Skops, and possibly the Dark world which forms the base of the Rabbids in their Game Boy Advance outing. Known 'fantastical' locations include Band Land, Picture City, the Candy Château, the Organic Caves, possibly the Temporal Palace, and the Toy world, which overlaps with Picture City to form the Child world.
Inhabitants
The valley is notable for being the only place in Rayman's world where other characters of Rayman's own species can be found; almost all of its inhabitants carry at least some of Rayman's distinctive visual features, such as his limblessness, his large nose, his round body, his white gloves and his frond-like hair. Natives such as the Magician and Tarayzan, as well as the Musician and his family, are all ostensibly members of Rayman's species; other characters, such as Space Mama, Betilla the Fairy and Joe the Extra-Terrestrial, share some of his characteristics, but are different enough that they may or may not be considered members of the same species.
Most of those who live outside the valley do not seem to be aware of its existence; the fishermen who first found Rayman on the shore of the Sea of Lums were puzzled by his lack of limbs. However, the outsiders to the valley only came to trust Rayman once he had defeated Mr Dark, indicating that the valley and its inhabitants had become more widely-known by the time of the events of Rayman 1.
In other games
The Game Boy Color adaptation of the original game is quite different to the original game. While it still appears to take place in some version of the valley, it does not fit the events of the main series and presents a largely alternate take on the valley and its environments. All of the original game's levels are altered, rearranged and renamed, save for the Candy Château, which is omitted.
Rayman 3's first minigame, 2D Madness, is a flashback in which Rayman revisits the Dream Forest, complete with 3D graphics (though still on a 2D plane). Strangely, Rayman also fights Hoodlums in this level, though this is likely to be simply because the minigame is taking place in his imagination. The Nintendo GameCube version of the game adds an additional minigame, entitled 2D Nightmare; this minigame, which supposedly takes place in Picture City, has been proven to exist; however, the method by which it is meant to be unlocked is still unclear.
