Hjoldus

As Hjoldus grew from the World Egg, monsters and people both roamed all of Hjoldus. People who lived during this First Era did so in constant fear and danger. The people of Hjoldus lived a nomadic lifestyle, avoiding conflict with the monsters meant being quick; no tribe or family would stay in one place very long. The dawn of the Second Era came with the Great War. This was a time of enlightenment for the people of Hjoldus, organization and diplomacy grew in value, knowledge became a commodity, thus written language and recordkeeping began to emerge. It is said that Four powerful Tacticians of Old devised a plan to secure Hjoldus for the people, to create a world safe from monsters. The Conquest began in the southern planes, progress was slow and deadly, but the Four Tacticians were incredibly talented and the people of Hjoldus found eventual success. Once the planes were secured the first real city began to grow, protected on all sided by rivers or mountains it became the center of civilization. With a capital of operations and farms settling around the Tiamat River, progress on the frontlines became faster and faster. When the frontline reached the Isthmus of Ød, the Four Tacticians conceived of a new project to aid in the efforts of the Conquest: a network of watchtowers was to be built to communicate danger from the frontlines all the way to the capital. Expansion was progressing rapidly by the time the frontline reached the Banded Steps, but it was then that the Four Tacticians vanished. The pyres were lit, and the people of Hjoldus were pushed back twice as fast as they had progressed, until they were met by fortified allies at Ød. The monstrous forces relented, seemingly satisfied with this delineation of territory, and a new period of peace was achieved. The Wilds beyond the Sentry at Ød must still be littered with Sentries from the First Era, but for over a hundred years the frontier of civilization has remained the Isthmus of Ød.