Introduction to the Land Once Known As Ugohls Ergdan
My house is perched on a hill, the backyard sloping into a small valley that sweeps dramatically upward into dense forest. When the trees are cloaked in fog, creatures can pass through a gate in my garden from a realm once known as Ugohls Ergdan.
From what I’m told, Ugohls Ergdan is now split into four lands: the populated Half Moon Hollow and Midlands to the south, and the misty remains of Once Was and Never Been in the far north. After an event (referred to as The Great Vanishing), the two northern regions broke their tether to the world, trading landmass for misty mirage. There but not. If you approach the border, you’ll find only a wall of silent grey in its place.
For a time, there were some who bravely (or foolishly) attempted to enter into this seemingly empty space, claiming they caught glimpses of mountains or forests before stepping into the mist only to be swallowed by the nothingness. They did not return.
Centuries have passed since the Great Vanishing, and the time of the Fallen Sisters (a legend explaining both the cause of this chasm and the claim of brief windows when it is possible to cross into the nebulous northern hills). Presently, most folks don’t bother to travel beyond the Walled City of Vigilo. They have no desire to. In fact, it’s fair to say they have an innate aversion to the north, and that deeply rooted instinct to stay far from its borders takes a firmer hold with each generation. So commonplace and powerful is this subconscious avoidance that there are those who simply believe there are no northern lands at all, and never were. The land simply ends in mist and void. Anything you might see is a trick of the light, something to be pushed from wandering thoughts while accomplishing daily chores.
As far as the public knows, no one has tried to venture north since those initial, troubling disappearances. Besides, who would be foolish enough to even attempt it?