Lakelands

*This article is about the **Lakelands** map, often called Lakeview. You may be looking for the spawn town, **Lakeview Village**.*

## Notable Settlements

* Commune
* Slums
* Sleepy Hollow

The **Lakelands**, sometimes called Lakeview after its capital, was a region of Dragonhollow settled during the First Era.

# Geography

    The Lakelands were named after their most recognizable feature—The Lake, a body of water split in two by Lakeview Village and connected by Bloody Brook, the shores of which became the regional center for trade and civilization.

The region was a diverse collection of grassland, forests, rolling hills, and open water. It was not unusual to cross a blistering, barren desert only to met on its edge by lush jungle or snow-covered taiga forest. These biomes were often quite small and some residents could see a wide variety of landscapes from their property.

Nearly the entire population was concentrated on a single major continent surrounded by a network of shallow oceans. Due to the common lack of experience and fear of the unknown that characterized the First Era, few ever ventured beyond a kilometer from the capital and fewer still made their homes across the sea. For this reason, there was very little transportation infrastructure beyond the airship, several roads such as the Lakeview Lanes and MatiRoad, and the underground subway link between the Red Light District and Blackrose, though a minor natural curiosity known as the Greenbelt was also occasionally used.

# History

    Untold aeons before the age of humanity, divine Eris and a Pantheon of deities directed awesome forces of creation to bring about the natural splendor of what would one day eventually be known as the Lakelands. During this earliest Ancient Era, the magnificent Old Oak surged forth from the soil with roots that touched the Heart of the Hollow, Rachnis and her spiders wove their webs, and Mesonyx made his nest in the rocky hills above The Lake.

On 1E:1, Acey welcomed her subjects to the new capital, Lakeview Village, laying in the shadow of the Old Oak.

Their inexperience led to a cautious, slow-developing society that favored rugged individualism over large communities. While there were a number of partnerships and alliances, the Lakelands were home to no organized factions and few towns beyond the Commune and Sleepy Hollow.

An attack by the dragon Mesonyx laid waste to Lakeview Village and the surrounding territory on 1E:7, forcing Eris to restore land back to its previous state and leading all early settlers to lose their buildings and belongings.

On 1E:10 Acey announced the Lakelands Best Build Contest, leading a number of citizens to break ground on new projects across the region.

When a skilled warrior named Champ arrived, he saw a young community without alliances or defenses ripe for exploitation. After challenging and defeating its greatest warrior, Champ launched a four-day military campaign that temporarily shut down trade in the central Lakelands and led to countless deaths before ending on 1E:12 with his explusion by Eris for illicit sorcery.

The Lakelands were further threatened when the Skullcleavers attacked Lakeview Village on 1E:27, triggering a sorcerous conflict that involved direct intervention by Eris and her priesthood. This War of Wizards led to structural damage and hardship across the land, leading Eris to declare a Peace Period at its conclusion which led to a golden era of wealth accumulation and architectural creativity.

On 1E:32, the first Monthessary was celebrated with free food and a fireworks display at Lakeview Village.

Acey made the surprising decision to install a beacon near the Old Oak, allowing anyone nearby to heal themselves. The move proved controversial and a spirited debate broke out between the Priesthood of Eris, who naturally supported the beacon's existence, and certain members of the community such as Joey and LegendaryBruno who stood in opposition on the grounds it was antithetical to Dragonhollow's ultra-hardcore identity, and Smitten who felt it was cutting into the profits of his potion shop.

Further unrest occurred when the teleportation cooldown was increased from thirty seconds to fifteen minutes, making quick travel across the Lakelands tedious. After several Priests of Eris joined vocal protests against the change, Eris reverted the cooldown timer back.

Starting on 1E:63, reports of ghost sightings came in all across the Lakelands, which were eventually revealed to be the souls of deceased residents haunting them while their physical bodies were still trapped in the underworld by Grim.

In accordance with her Edicts of Eris, Acey carried out a mass purge of livestock to control overpopulation, instantaneously killing every pig, cow, chicken, and sheep in the Lakelands. It took many days for them to repopulate, though most private farms would never fully recover.

From 1E:54 to 1E:56 the Lakelands were temporarily evacuated due to the time-distorting effects of the World Warp. For two days the region was devoid of all human life.

The first known Temple of Benly was discovered in the Lakelands by Tox, though he was unsure what he had found and its significance would not be fully understood until the Third Era.

On 1E:68, the First Bloodmoon rose in the skies above the planet. Endless hordes of armor-clad monsters besieged the region's residents, doomed by their inability to teleport, and the regenerative beacon at the heart of Lakeview burnt out under the strain of healing so many wounded. By the time the sun rose, the Lakelands were riven and desolate, abandoned by the few survivors for safer lands.

Small parties of adventurers would later travel back in time to visit the Lakelands during Tox's Throwback Thursdays in the Second and Third Eras.

# Gallery

Snow meets sandCadwallen's barnA jungle tower built by DahNirvanaHD's cookie cabinA wholesome exchange between Ebon and a newbieA fortified outpostthemastrodon12's beach houseAn unfinished mountain base

# Behind the Scenes

*The following is out-of-universe information about the real world Dragonhollow.*

The Lakelands—usually referred to as **Lakeview** after the name of the spawn town—was Dragonhollow's first map and was hosted from August 13, 2013 to October 19, 2013. It had no world border.

A project board hidden within Oakenheart revealed early plans for the map, including references to the "Ender Tower, "Vandemere Castle", "Treetops Village", "Halcyon Central", and a potential Spleef Arena. Signs indicated that some of these locations were to be reached using the airship.

An early grief by hackers required a full map reset that purged all player builds and inventories because Acey had not yet implemented an automated system of server backups.

The map was further tested by a group of hackers that were able to use a server exploit that affected CraftBukkit to temporarily gain access to the administrative panel and wreak havoc on Dragonhollow.

A series of attack distributed denial of service attacks caused intolerable lag and led to the server going offline from October 5th to October 7th, leading to a change in both server host and location that greatly improved performance for all players.

Though Acey planned to keep the map at least through the end of the year, the Lakelands began to suffer from worsening chunk corruption. After the server began crashing when anyone entered those particular chunks, she decided the situation was unfair to affected players and carried out Dragonhollow's first map reset by launching Swampwater on October 20, 2013.