The World

A guide to Heartland and its mysteries

The Long Twilight

Once there was a whole world. Then came the Long Twilight — not war, not a curse, not the work of any god: a forgetting. The distant lands faded from memory and were erased from maps. The roads that once led everywhere began to lead nowhere. And what remained was one continent, surrounded by endless sea, with a single lake at its center that never freezes: the Heartmere.

While the Heartmere pulses, the land around it lives. The forests grow. The cities endure. The sea does not rise. This is why the kingdom survived when others fell — and why they call it Heartland, the land of the heart, the one that would not forget itself.

The heart has two faces. Under the moon of Ward, the Heartmere's protection reaches all who stand on its earth — mercy, safety, the rule of law. Under the moon of Wild, that protection does not reach — the old rules hold, and each person answers for themselves. The Moongates connect all cities across both faces. No one built them. They have always been.

The Seventeen Cities

Each city serves a purpose in the kingdom. Each has endured the Long Twilight and learned to thrive.

City Character
Hearthold Capital, at the shore of the Heartmere. Seat of the Crown.
Southwall Walled city of the south. Fortress of the Wardens, the order of frontier guards.
Ironhollow The great mining city of the north. Forges burn day and night.
Tidemere City of canals and merchants. The lifeblood of trade flows here.
Elderwood Ancient forest city. Abbey, tribunal, and the deepest roots of the kingdom.
Fairisle Island of rangers and hunters. The bow and the bow-string are first here.
Bladeholm Islands of the warriors. Steel and honor meet in the training grounds.
Starhaven Island of mages and scholars. The observatory watches the sky.
Goldspire The proud city. Wealthy and ambitious, always reaching higher.
Sunreach Island resort of the south. Where the crown takes leisure.
Greycove Village under siege by the wild. Ever watchful, ever defended.
Wyrmhold Island fortress and seat of military might. Dragonslayers train here.
Blackharbor Port of free sailors. Merchants and mysteries dock in its shadow.
Firstshore Island where the founders first landed. Birthplace of the kingdom.
Stillpeak Hidden city of mages. Not all seekers find it.
Farholt Outpost in the Lostreach. Supply post and sanctuary from the wild.
Marshend Village of the swamp. Hunters, gatherers, and those at peace with the wild.

The Twelve Depths

Below Heartland lie the Depths — ancient dungeons holding the world as it was before the Long Twilight. The deeper you descend, the older it becomes, and the less human.

Dungeon Peril
Grimhollow The first depth. Evil dwelling, twisted and dark.
Hollowbarrow Tomb and prison. The dead do not rest peacefully here.
Emberdeep Caverns of flame and dragonfire. Ancient wyrms dwell below.
Gildmine Halls of greed and golden corruption. Avarice made manifest.
Stoneroot Domain of earth and primal elementals. Unmaking given form.
Chainkeep Ancient prison and sanctuary. What it held, we no longer know.
Netherdeep The deepest known place. Demonic and forbidden. Few who descend return whole.
Rimecave Caverns of ice and frozen sorrow. Breath turns to crystals here.
Cinderdeep Halls of endless fire. Ash and flame are the only inhabitants.
Tuskhold Lair of the tusked ones. A kingdom unto itself, below.
Spindlekeep Fortress of the multi-legged. Chitin and webs fill every passage.
Oldbarrow Ruin of what came before. Ancient evil sleeps uneasily here.

The Two Faces

Ward

The Guarded Moon

Under this face, the Heartmere's protection reaches all who tread on its soil. No violence falls between man and man. The cities are safe. The roads are safe. The law holds.

This is where the kingdom learns, builds, and remembers who it is.

Wild

The Unguarded Moon

Under this face, the Heartmere's protection does not reach. The same cities stand, but each person answers for themselves. Conflict is real. Glory is real. Death is real.

This is where the kingdom tests its courage and learns what it is made of.

The Five Eras

The world remembers itself, era by era. Each return brings riches and threats in equal measure.

Era I: The Awakened Heart

The stable state. The player explores Heartland and its Depths. The Lost Lands to the south are known. This is the Era of Foundation.

Era II: The Eastern Isles

Ships arrive bearing a people who never forgot the art of the blade. New lands, new customs, new challenges.

Era III: The Forest Awakens

Elderwood stirs. The Elves do not arrive — they wake. They were always there, sleeping in the trees.

Era IV: What Slept Below

A new level opens in the Depths. The Gargoyles rise. Something ancient and powerful stirs.

Era V: The Endless Sea

The horizon gains another shore. The world grows again.

Figures of the Long Twilight

The Long Twilight did not only erase places — it erased the names of the people who lived before it. Their stories remained; their names did not. What is left are titles and deeds.

  • The Crown — Who rules Hearthold now, by custom more than by force.
  • The Pretender — Who once defied the Crown. Their fallen seat is the Old Keep.
  • The Nameless Sorcerer — The first great evil, lost to the Twilight along with their name.
  • The Nameless Sorceress — Apprentice to the Nameless Sorcerer.
  • The Forgotten Engine — An ancient construct of unknown origin.
  • The Steadfast Knight — A companion from an age no one recalls by name.
  • The Wayward Mage · The Court Enchanter · The Silent Ranger · The Wandering Bard — Other companions of that same forgotten age.
  • The Hermit of Visions — A seer who speaks in riddles, said to glimpse what the Twilight erased.

If the Twilight ever recedes, names may return — that would be an event in the world's history, not a patch note.

Beyond the Map

Not everything fits inside the Seventeen Cities and the Twelve Depths. Heartland has edges, and the edges have names too.

  • The Lostreach — Lands to the south, known but sparsely settled; home to Farholt and Marshend.
  • Rimeisle — An isle of ice, north of the mainland.
  • Cinderisle — An isle of fire, said to never cool.
  • Starisle — The small isle that shelters Starhaven's observatory.
  • The Bladeholms — The cluster of islands that give Bladeholm its name.
  • Founder's Isle — Where it is said the first reckoning of the kingdom took place.
  • The Ironcrag — The mountain that holds Ironhollow's mines.
  • The Moongates — The bridges between every city and both faces. No one built them. They have always been.

The Institutions

The kingdom is held together by custom and by those who serve it.

  • The Crown of Hearthold — Governs by custom, not by force. The source of royal quests and the keeper of the realm's memory.
  • The Wardens — An order of frontier guards, rangers, and knights. They stand at the edges. Their seats are in Elderwood and Southwall.
  • The Guilds of Craft — Blacksmiths of Ironhollow, traders of Tidemere, scholars of Starhaven. They do not rule, but they sustain the kingdom.
  • What Dwells Below — Without name in this era. Not yet time to know its true nature.