Many large cities dotted the western plains, all developing as city-states in a region isolated from the rest of the world by the mighty Eternal Forest, one of the seven forbidden zones.
It was the richest forest on the entire continent, second only to the Elven Forest, which lay right next to it at the southernmost tip.
Some of these cities had tens of thousands of inhabitants. Others, hundreds of thousands. A few even reached populations in the millions.
They were true metropolises, ruled by fifth-stage warriors, with ancestors who could easily have been sixth-stage.
They were in no way inferior to the cities across the rest of the continent. Their only weakness was their disunity and constant internal conflicts.
Among these many cities was the City of Howling Fire.
It was rather small, with no more than twenty-five thousand people and a standing army of about two thousand men, capable of mustering up to seven thousand in times of utter desperation.
