Northgate

Northgate is the name of the city sprang up on the location where the Four Ancient Travelers first arrived in the HILT universe.

Early History
Main article: The Corridor

The region was inhabited only by sparse huts here and there. However, when the Four Ancient Travelers arrived and inadvertently started a war, this location became a small military stronghold. When the war finished, the people dispersed and it became an open field. However, the tear in the universe where the four men crossed over grew, very very slowly. At first this was hardly noticed by anyone.

The High Gate
Main article: The High Gate

As time passed, strange phenomena began to happen, and it was impossible to deny the fact that this rift in the universe was causing it. In addition to that, bizarre objects kept slipping through the rift and into the HILT universe.

One of the four ancient travelers asked his granddaughter to take some of her friends to this rift, now known as the High Gate, in an attempt to close it. Unfortunately, this granddaughter was a slacker, and not only did she get some of her friends killed in the attempt, when they finally found the rift, they didn't even try closing it. Rather, they stepped into it and crossed back into the original universe, whereupon their bodies' strange pathogens caused the coronavirus in 2020.

Battle for Supremacy
Main article: Battle for Supremacy

In time, the four original HILT nations went to war in order to determine who, once and for all, was the greatest empire. They chose the fields around the High Gate as their battle zone. Strange happenings plagued the battle, as the rift got all funky and threw bizarre things at them, which sometimes helped out quite a bit.

Aftermath
Eventually thick walls were built around the High Gate rift to protect people from its effects. Guards were positioned around it, both from ROMAN and Shanduchan origin, and throughout the generations this area became a city. The Shanduchan half was called North Gate, while ROMAN's half was South Gate.

Soon this city became a cultural and economic center with Shanducha's influence dominated, and thus the entire city simply became known as Northgate.

The rift gradually got worse, but with simple expansion of the walls, all problems were contained.

The Great Accident
As the world was enveloped in a nuclear catastrophe, the rift itself became uncontrollable. As humanity fled underground, the city was abandoned and there was no one to oversee the growing problem.

When earth was finally terraformed and humanity came back above ground, Northgate was written off entirely as a dead zone to be feared and shunned. However, out of a sense of curiosity, all the nations installed security cameras to keep an eye on the place. They knew, sooner or later, something of immense value must come through that rift.

The Maelstrom
Main article: The Maelstrom

Soon, that object came. Every nation thought they needed to be the one to get this object first, so they hastily assembled teams and sent them in to acquire this object.

It remains to be seen how this strategy worked out for them.