Dalvanberg

The vale of mountains. Stretching from the frozen Baltic sea in the north, too the salt dunes of the Mediterranean. following the 15th degree east; the former front line of the alliance/union war. This region has see the worst that man kind has to offer. Every weapon ever imagined fired, dropped, bombed the land, as humanity charged though the storm adding their soul to this hell scape. Souls that would never leave.

Prier to the last war of the collapse, this land was lush and green. Even as the Mediterranean boiled and the Baltic froze. This land stayed filled with vegetation that the surviving wildlife thrived in. But then the first refugees arrived from the east. Soon the land was covered once more in military installations and refugee camps, that continued to grow with each passing day. The lush environment, reduced to a muddy bog, of makeshift roads and streets. Where the sick, injured and starving ,laid, caked in mud, dying as the strong picked at their few remaining belongings.

It was only a matter of time before, humanities desire for war, reared it ugly head. Dragging this land back into hell. Over the course of the war the surface was reduced to mountains of barren rock miles below sea level. Whilst below the surface, tunnels crisscrossed the land, and massive caverns where built to funnel men and resources in to the endless hell of Dalvanberg. The largest of these underground cities became know as Charon by the soldiers of the Alliance. The ferryman of the dead in Greece mythology. Appropriate as only the Charonians (A altered species of humanity created within the city) ever returned from the tunnels.

This is how it stayed to years. Soldiers being thrown into the tunnels never to return, gas filling chambers as the lucky few ran for their lives under a hail of bullets. Diseased, and rotting corpses lining the paths as the next legion of soul followed their ferryman. Millions died in the tunnels of Dalvanberg, and millions more on the surface, but soon the everything was about to change.

## Die nihil

In the hours leading up to the Nullius momenti, thing were very much the same as they have been for the last few years. Soldiers preparing to die, ferrymen leading troops through the tunnels, Nukes flying through the air above. However thing were quieter than they had been. The constant sound of gunfire blunted by moments of silence. The sound of coughing, trails of blood coating the walls. Signs of the bioweapon trident's impact on the Unions desperate soldiers.

In addition the amount of normal alliance soldiers had dropped dramatically. Being replaced with ever increasing numbers of Charonians due to their higher survival rate. Lastly as the war began to wane. The military leadership that had been stationed within the city of Charon, was relocated to Berlin, the bombed out former capital of Germany. That lies less than a mile from the sheer drop of the beginning of Dalvanberg.

Then the Nullius momenti occurred and everything became nothing. In the immediate aftermath things were chaotic. With over half of the alliance either brain dead or reduced to a blubbering mess. Command was in such a panic that no one noticed that things were strangely quiet. That the sound of constant shelling and gunfire were replaced with that of gentle winds and bird song.

It was over 3 hours before word of something strange haven occurred over at Dalvanberg to reach command in Berlin. They didn't understand the reports they were getting. What did they mean that Dalvanberg was gone. It wasn't until they arrived on the scene that, the reports made sense. The shear cliffs, the mountains and creators that gave the land its name were gone. Like they never existed in the first place. The scene before them was a sea of green. the land completely flat. The formerly grey sky, now a pristine blue with not a cloud in the sky.

For the next few days command tried to establish what had happened. Sending platoons in only for them to disappear in front of their eyes. They attached ropes to the next group. only for the rope to become dust in their hands, and the troop to disappear. Then the static that they were getting over the radio began to clear. At first it was nothing more than eerie foot steps, heavy breathing, then a few words could be made out. "oh god" "please" "no more" came from the radio. Command tried to respond but their pleading wouldn't stop until it was replaced with screaming.

It was over a month before something else happened. During that time the alliance had made multiple attempts to enter the region with each attempt failing. They sent a train through the tunnels, sent a plane over the land, lunched missiles, each one disappearing before their eyes. Then a mouth and 13 days later. One of the soldiers that was sent in returned. Just appearing in the green fields.

He looked like a ghost. His skin clinging to the bone, his hair patchy in places and long in others. His clothes hanging from his body caked in mud and ripped to pieces. For a moment he just stood there. Like he was in a trance. His eyes wide as he stares at the encampment that had been set up to monitor the region. Then he slowly made his way over. His eyes unmoving until he reached them. Going straight up to a random scientist, he touched them on the arm and busted in to tears. Falling to his knees as the scientist held him, whilst the others ran to inform command.

## Decades in Dalvanberg

3 days later the soldier was relocated to the safe zone within west Berlin. It was discovered that the solider was private Nathanael Beck of the 173rd. a volunteer that was sent in with the second exploratory contingent. During his debriefing he described what had happened to his group. How as they approached the land everything seemed fine. The grass underfoot was lush, the wind calming. But as they continued things started to change. He described seeing things change in his peripheral vison. A tree that wasn't there before, a rock appearing were he was about to step, one of his fellow soldiers that was behind his appearing ten step in front of him. Small things, things that his just shrugged off at first. Until is commander asked if anyone was seeing the same things. All reported seeing things moving around them. but each seeing different things. Like he could see a tree 10 meters away but no one else could.

At this their commander told them to retreat and return to the base. however as they turned the rope that tethered them to the camp became dust and the camp was no longer behind them. instead a cliff miles high was in its place. He described touching it. saying how real it was. Their commander told them to keep moving. to follow the cliff face to see if their was a way around. so they walked to hours following the cliff. but then suddenly the commander shouted to stop.

He said that be slowed to a stop, not knowing why they did, until he turned around a saw that half of their number was gone and, that the cliff they were following was a jungle now. and not a forest like you get in Germany but a tropical jungle like the Amazon. Now they were scared. He said how he could hear the fear in his commanders voice. He told them to turn back round and keep following the cliff but when they turned the cliff was gone and they found them selves in the middle of the jungle. They continued on after a time. They was lost with no way back and their numbers dropping quickly every time they blink. the commander issued a buddy system to watch out for one another. Even requesting that they hold hands to keep together. none of them was against it. Better to hold hands than to disappear.

He described how time felt like it wasn't moving, how the sun never set or even moving in the sky. How he felt like they had been walking for hours. Only for it to feel like seconds moments later. he said that it continued like this for weeks, or maybe mouths. Their number dwindling from 40 to 6. He described going through every type of biome. From rainforest to rocky cliffs, from marsh, to open fields. each one feeling as real as the last. each changing to the next in the blink of an eye.

Throughout the long march he described feeling watched, not by his fellow soldiers but by phantoms hiding in the trees, rocks and grass. he said that he knows that it sounds crazy but they all felt it. Some even seeing them move between the trees. Then on what felt like mouths later they saw an army of men running at them through the trees of the temperate forest that they found them selves in. He said they ran away as fast as they could only for the army and forest to disappear.

He said that the attacks by the armies became frequent. Bullets flying through the air. Shells falling from above only to disappear the next second. It was chaos, and then when they thought that the bullets and the like were nothing more than the over apparitions a missile fell from the sky killing all but him and one other. when he came too. he described hearing whispers, pleading and screams though the vale of mountains, and watched as the armies of the alliance and union fought before him.

He said that for the next what felt like 20 years he and corporal Sasha Garcia continued to live within the constantly changing world of Dalvanberg. The apparitions of before seeming to leave them alone, maybe stealing the souls of his fellow soldiers calmed the vengeful ghosts that walk the land. what surprised the alliance the most during his story. Was that during their journey they came across tunnels leading below.

He said that they went in to one and found towns of Charonian, hundreds of them, just living their lives. Like the war never happened. He said that they spoke to some and they told them they had lived like this for a very long time. That none of them are even from the time of the war. They told them not to put much thought in to time. As time doesn't work in Dalvanberg. They told them that thing were better below. That the phantoms were calmer and that their Kapitel Mutter will keep this chapters apparitions contented. He said that they stayed there for years, decades until Sasha died from old age.

he said that after her funeral he returned to the surface to join his fellow lost souls. Only for him to return to the present and escape Dalvanberg.

## Present

It is unknown what happened to private Nathanael Beck after his debriefing. However it is suspected that he died in the Berlin trident outbreak. However his report has helped the states of the Commonwealth identify both what it is like on the surface of Dalvanberg and what has changed over time. Currently the surface is still impassable due to the constantly changing world. However it is now possible to travers the land through the underground tunnels of the **Bibliothek.**

Though it is still a unforgiven land and apparitions still roam the halls. Some are kind, others vengeful, and most just stuck in purgatory, reliving the moment of their death over and over again.

Do not trust your eyes in the vale of mountains, do not trust times ordered grip, do not trust the ghost that wonder the vale of mountains. Trust in the the good, the kind, the calm, and the vale will lift from the mountains von Dalvanberg.