[@Obscene Symphony]
Aria raised it with me; sorry errybody, I'll cut back on my character a bit. 

[hider=Logical response to questions and concerns]As for how Valence knows all this:

I have heard nothing of Drakken being ordered that information on Gem targets to be Brides is not to be disclosed. Given that the Cult has easy access to the primary way through Drakken and Gem territory, since Valence is based more or less on its roadside, they have easy access to those riders.

Those riders are likely susceptible to bribes. Why not pass on information to a Drakken-looking fellow in a cloak, for some more coin? They report back same as ever, and shortly afterwards, carriages are dispatched to collect the Gems. 

Now here's something I do have a bit of a quarrel with. It will not take one day, two days, or even three days to collect someone deeper into Gem territory: the pass is not a short journey, and you cannot travel very fast over land in this day and age. A full day of travel with a carriage, on a paved road (which doesn't exist in this day and age, maybe just a brick road in a major city), can get nearly 60 miles. I do not think that you can go up to the northern reaches of Geminite and back within a day. I do not think you can do it in two days, or three days. I think you can maybe do it in a week, if Geminite is especially small. 

The drive to the nearest city, for me, is seventy miles. That's over a day of horseback riding. Between here and there, there are, what, FOUR towns. If it takes a day to get to the northern reaches and back, then I suppose it could also take a day to get to the southern reaches and back, and maybe two days to get to the opposite side of Geminite and back.

Which means that there would be about... I dunno, a couple dozen towns in Geminite? And that's with modern food production and population. Towns, I figure, would be spread farther apart, due to resources and such. They couldn't clump so many people together so periodically- the land wouldn't support it too well. The cities, as well, wouldn't have very many towns nearby- too much resources being taken by the city. I'm pretty sure Geminite is bigger, because then the taking of a couple dozen to a couple hundred Gem 'Brides' would take a definite toll on the Gem population- whatwith a lesser amount of women to go about- and Geminite would slowly but definitely wilt over the edges, becoming something much less able to support the Drakken conquest of their women.

So no, I'm pretty sure that the Geminite population is much larger, and therefore have much, much more territory, and the population to sustain such a consistent loss of breeding stock. So no, I don't thin it'd take mere days to get to and from a pretty Gem's home, unless they were especially close to the pass. And due to the proximity to the pass, it can be suspected that the Cult has more outposts, and a greater idea of what the Drakken look for- pretty women. And so they can gather information beforehand, since they won't have the time to collect it before they're all gone. 

Travel in this sort of age took weeks. Not days. It takes hours and days in the modern age; it'd take weeks back then. 

As for information gathering- Valence did not collect it all himself. He stayed in the mountains, biding his time and reading about those who would be taken. Messenger pigeons, people not unlike those from the real world's Pony Express, and runners give the Cult a much, much faster system of moving information from place to place within Geminite territory. A rider can go to the next outpost, pass on the information to the next rider who immediately sets out to the next outpost, and on and on until the information reaches Valence's hands, much, much faster than the traveling Gem to-be Bride and her guard. 

The main problem is that I want to be involved in everything, and forcing myself to do it. Which I'm not going to do anymore. Sorry about that- I'll bother Sia from now on. 

But it IS reasonable that Valence has that information beforehand. Given that he has studied the notable Brides extensively in the time that he's prepared for it all, it is possible that he has some connection. As said in my app- he's very, very dedicated. If he believed it important to know all their names and study their descriptions, he would and he'd get it done. He'd have trouble, which I'm going to have to incorporate.[/hider]

tl;dr
Geminite is big to sustain so many consistent losses of women
You can't travel it in a few days
you travel it in weeks
this means the Cult can move information faster than the Brides or the Drakken move, to and from the Brides' homes
The Cult can know who's being taken before they're being taken
The Cult can study those who are being taken before they're taken, and after they're taken
Valence is dedicated; he can study all this stuff
Drakkens are assholes for stressing him out so much

Sorry about all that.

I hope this clears up some stuff, and again, my apologies for overreaching a little too much. Let's just go with it being coincidental that he actually remembers these particular Gems so well, and that he still couldn't name half of the others so well? Sorry.

I'd edit it if I could, but RPG is blocked on my school-issued laptop (being the only computer I can use), and proxies don't like me editing posts.