Founding and Geography:

The Town of Auburn was originally little more than a small farming community high up in the Doribatt Mountains, founded by settlers from the Castine Coastal Region. The majority of the small village sits in isolated mountain valleys where small grazing pastures allowed for dairy cows to flourish and logging in the nearby forests allowed for timber structures to be built by the small but hardy community. The region was very remote, and for the most part, its early settlers had to fend for themselves and become self-sufficient. The area also had wild monsters that needed to be hunted to protect the farm animals so a small culture of beast hunting also developed in the community. For Generations the town continued on in an agrarian manner, the population of the small village remaining low and the larger settlements in the distant Castine Coastal Region paid very little attention to the commune. Occasionally, research teams from the large city of Tarvovesta would travel to the region to catalog the strange monsters of the mountains and investigate the mineral deposits of the mountain range.

The mining and research boon years:

A research team from Tarvovesta discovered a significant iron ore vein just outside of Auburn and members of the team reported their findings to wealthy landowners in the Castine Coastal Region. Outside investment interests arrived in Auburn and negotiated the construction of an iron ore mine. Shortly after the establishment of the iron ore mine in Auburn, a rail line was constructed to transport the ore back to Tarvovesta In the first few years of the mine being open, Auburn prospered and the small population of the sleepy village grew for the first notable amount ever. Mine and rail workers came to the village to work the newly established mine and rail station while members of the research team from Tarvovesta also established a library and laboratory. For twenty year Auburn hummed with activity centered around the mine and rail depot and there was talk of other mines being opened up in the area.

The mining crash:

What was thought to be a significant iron ore vein actually was said to have run dry only 20 years into its mining operation. The organization that ran the mine sold off most of its assets soon after the mine ran out of ore and many of the mine’s workers, especially those who were only one or two generations into the town, moved back to Tarvovesta. Some of the new people and industry lingered on for a short time, but soon the rail line started to cut travel to the small town and 2 years after the mine closed, ceased travel to Auburn altogether. After the train line stopped and fell into disrepair, the only organization from the boom years that stayed in the village was the research lab, which bought the mine and continued to do research in the area. The mine was shuttered and the locals generally avoided it, considering it unsafe as it had fallen into disrepair and rumors persisted of seeing ghosts in the area.

The Spirit fog incident:

About 5 years after the closing of the mine in Auburn, there was a strange incident during the winter where the town was consumed by a massive cloud of Spirit Fog. There were only a few survivors of the incident and there are conflicting reports of what happened. Some survivors claim that fog wove itself through the mountain valleys, coming from the south off of nearby Mount Corbreck while others say the fog seemingly spilled out of the abandoned mine. Incidents of Spirit Fog clouds being seen in the area were few and far between and only very rarely were dangerous, the most notable incident being that of the Dondella Pass Incident where 9 hikers were found dead after a bank of Spirit Fog engulfed their camp site. However, the night the town of Auburn was consumed by this large Spirit Fog bank, most of the city’s residents vanished without a trace. Of the town of 600 citizens, only about 40 people awoke the next day to find everyone else missing. The survivors of the incident gathered up resources and supplies to make the trek back down out of the mountain valley. They checked the Laboratory to find it shuttered and without sounds of life then made their way back to civilization. Despite the snow storm that had come, the survivors were able to follow the abandoned rail tracks to the next town on the rail line. In the spring, people from Tarvovesta sent a search party up to Auburn to look for signs of survivors or discover the cause of the accident, but nothing was discovered.

Since the Spirit fog incident:

In the years following the mass disappearance at Auburn, the area around the small village has been largely avoided due to its remote location and now ominous history. Only a handful of hunters or would-be looters make their way up to the deserted village and many never return, going missing just like the citizens of the now abandoned village. The most significant building in the village, the research lab, was supposedly cleared out by another research team from Tarvovesta who returned many important documents and supplies back to their base of operations in Tarvovesta. There has been no talk of resettlement going on in the area since the incident. The few survivors of Auburn resettled in Tarvovesta most of which refused to go back to the area. When asked about the night of the incident some of the survivors speak of dramatic hauntings while others seemingly slept through the entire incident without even waking.

Related articles:

Tarvovesta - The largest city in the Castine Coastal Region

Doribatt Mountains - The largest mountain range on the Ihlanathian continent

Castine Coastal Region - A thickly settled region between the Thamasan Ocean and the Doribatt Mountains in the nation of Gaolund

Mount Corbreck - The largest mountain in the western Doribatt Mountains chain

Dondella Pass Incident - An incident where 9 hikers from Auburn were killed under mysterious circumstances

Spirit Fog - A strange supernatural weather condition

Real world inspiration:

The town of Hasliberg Switzerland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasliberg

The Dyatlov pass incident - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

The Deserted Village - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deserted_Village

Fraktur folk art - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur_(folk_art)

Final fantasy inspiration:

Nibelheim - https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nibelheim