The Village
There has been continuous or near-continuous human habitation of the mountain range for millennia. Although no exact age has been determined, Mediæval folklore would indicate the region was once the heart of a powerful kingdom so ancient that nothing else was known of them. Ruins left by this people included the remains of an underground city and four towering statues carved in the image of the "Four Kings", who mysteriously disappeared along with the entire population they presided over. The village itself may have been established considerably later, with four people in particular named in myth as its founders: Nichola, Berengario, Guglielmo, and Cesare, who was a nobleman. The Pagan roots of this community are evident by Nichola's stone idol of a goddess, and a steel icon of the mythological Norse creature, Hræsvelgr.During the Late Mediæval Period, efforts were made by the emerging states to expand into the mountains. One such state was responsible for the construction of a castle to the south in the 15th century, later known as Castle Dimitrescu, which would be inhabited by Cesare's descendants. Over time, foreign powers attempted to establish Orthodox Christianity to the region. As such, the villagers were treated with suspicion and contempt by the more pious of soldiers who had set up their own fort to the west, who saw them as either heretics or Pagans; a practice which would last well into modern day. How successful these efforts were is uncertain, as even by the 19th century it would remain a refuge for people such as Norshteyn, who were ostracized from their own communities due to their religious beliefs. Crystallized remains below the fort, and a stone relief depicting a demon with tentacles emerging from its head, suggest the Black God may have laid waste to the region during this time, possibly negating these attempts.
In the years leading up to the 20th century, the successive generations of Nichola, Berengario, and Guglielmo would lose their power, surviving only as gentry and finally as the petit bourgeoise. By at least the late Industrial Period, the Moreaus ran a clinic from an archaic reservoir in the north, the Heisenberg nobility established a mining factory in the region's northernmost alps, and the Benevientos became established dollmakers in the region, where they were known to operate from the seclusion of their fog-enshrouded home in the east. Only the Dimitrescus managed to retain noble recognition, though they had become regarded as dictators due to their tyrannical hold over the villagers for generations, resulting in them either abandoning their family lineage or dying out as recently as the 17th century, as suggested by Baroque-style interior in their family castle which had not become prominent until that time.