The Wanderers of Solace

Numi speaks:

    Long ago, the land was One Land. But after the Cataclysm, the land was rent asunder. 

    The Cataclysm birthed the Darkness of the Beginning; the Winter of Endless Night. Our land became the Southern Continent: The Land of Solace. Our safety. Our domes. We, the Children of Mann, took refuge in the domes while outside the Fallout blotted out the light from the sun and poisoned the soil of Tarra. The world crumbled under the weight of its own folly; the ocean rushed into the mouth of the Great Crater, swallowing what was left of the O-bombs.

    Only through the salvation of the Generator were we able to prosper in the Darkness of the Beginning. Our soil, our earth, shielded from the Fallout by the high domes above us, bore fruit and all the green things. Water streamed through the grates and was made clean. And here we sheltered under our green-black sky as the World of Mann faded from memory.

    The dome of Watertown, on the western edge of Solace, was built upon the tributary, where the Great River spills out into the sea. In time the Great Wall was built encircling Solace, dividing land from shore. They said it was to keep the evil out. But by then the ocean was too polluted to fish, the waters too rough to sail, and the storms of the Hinterlands too unpredictable for anyone to make much use of the sea. We became comfortable in our complacency.

    At the heart of Solace beats Sol City, the Capitol. Beneath her clear, mirrored dome works the Mother Generator, connecting us all in a web of energy. She feeds us her energy, and in return we give her food, goods, and resources. And, for a time, she requires our children, our beloved hivekinder. 

    But not you, my dear. You, we get to keep. In you will live the memories of the Old Ways, and I am the Elder Historian, and I’ll make sure you learn. Not like the others, who are molded to be just the way the Capitol wants them to be. You are ours, and we are yours. Never forget this.

    Never forget.