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Torland is the world seen in Dragon Quest II, although it did technically partially first appear in the original Dragon Quest. It is so vast that the entire group of continents that form the kingdom of Alefgard lie within its borders.

History[]

Torland is primarily composed of two super-sized landmasses, as well as a smaller continent, a large island and a region of closely packed small continents collectively known as the kingdom of Alefgard, with the addition of a few solitary islands and archipelagos.

The first of the two gigantic landmasses is located in the far north-eastern hemisphere of Torland, with a shape vaguely similar to a crescent moon. Despite its vastness, it is apparently mostly occupated by just wilderness, although it is also where two of three great kingdoms that were founded by the descendant of Erdrick after he was successfull in slaying the Dragonlord, the kingdoms of Midenhall and Cannock. While not sharing the same land as the first two, the third and seemingly largest of Erdrick's bloodline's kingdoms, Moonbrooke, located on the second of the gigantic landmasses, is connected to Cannock and Midenhall thanks to the underwater tunnel Gwaelin's Gate, named after the maternal progenitor of the three domains.

Regarding this second super-landmass, it has a shape reminding of a shield with two engrailed tops, with its western coast and its southern end both developing into peninsulas. The western region of the continent is mostly uninhabited, being occupied by a vast desert and a densely forested region riddled with rivers, with the exeption of the port town of Rippleport, located towards the end of the western peninsula, and the forest settlement of Slewse, hidden away among the pluvial jungle. Part of the center of the continent is occupied by a small inland sea, but the vast majority of this central region is occupied by an insurmountable mountain range, at the center of which is a frozen valley known as Rendarak, with only a system of caves connecting it to the outside world. Thanks to its natural defences, Rendarak was chosen as the seat of power from which the wicked High priest Hargon would direct his followers in his quest to cleanse the world with destruction. In fear of Rendarak's evil armies, one of its closest settlements, Burrowell, chose to retreat underground in order to better defend themselves.

Not too far from the western coast of Rendarak lies the continent of Beran, home to the only known teleportal connected with the entrance of the snowy wasteland, while not too far from the southern peninsula a small island can be found where the tree Yggdrasil grows. From there, amidst the open ocean the small fishing island of Zahan can be found. By following the coast of the cresent moon-shaped continent towards south, a much larger island can be found, home to the kingdom of Dirkandor. Lastly, by instead following the cresecent-moon coast towards its western end, approximately at the center of the gulf-like stretch of sea formed by the two elongated north-eastern and north-western coasts of the shield with two engrailed top continent, one would find the kingdom of Alefgard.

As revealed in Dragon Quest III, Alefgard and by extention Torland used to be known in the past as the "Underworld", as they were first populated when settlers from a different world, an unnamed land only known as the "Overworld", crossed though a massive crevasse known as the Pit of Giaga, the only known gate between the two worlds, albeit it being allegedly one way through for anyone who lacks the means to return to the "Overworld".

Both realities are under the protection of the Goddess Rubiss, credited to have shaped both worlds, and as such both worlds have her as a central religious figure.

However, at some point the dread demon Zoma would also enter the Underworld from some unknown reality by carving a path for himself, creating in the process the cave known as the Nail Mark (later known as Erdrick's cave). Imprisoning Rubiss, Zoma would then conquer the Underworld, choosing Alefgard as his seat of power and separating it from the larger whole with a barrier while also shrouding it in a never ending night. Setting his sights to conquer the "Overworld" next, Zoma would then send across the portal between the two worlds one of his most powerful servants, the Archfiend Baramos, to wreak havoc. However one hero, who would later be bestowed with the title of "Erdrick" for their accomplishments, would not only defeat Baramos, thus bringing peace to the "Overworld", but would also cross the way between the two worlds themself, free Rubiss from her prison and challenge Zoma himself. Thanks to a powerful artifact brought from the "Overworld", the Sphere of Light, Erdrick and their party were able to vanquish Zoma, however his demise also sealed the Pit of Giaga, closing forever the way between the two worlds.

While the presence of Rubiss would later still be felt in both Alefgard and Torland during the events of Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II, it is unknown if she also ended up cut off from the "Overworld".

The land of Alefgard would then some time later come under the threat of the Dragonlord, who stole the Sphere of Light and began attacking the settlements of the kingdom with his loyal monsters, even managing to kidnap Tantegel's princess and destroying one of it cities, until a hero directly descendant from Erdrick would appeared and defeated this new force of evil.

Taking the princess of Tantegel as his wife, the hero would then set out to the larger world of Torland, founding three offshoot kingdoms named Midenhall, Cannock and Moonbrooke. Peace would reign the world for at least a century until one day, a new force of evil rose. The malevolent High Priest Hargon, grandmaster of a religious cult worshipping the demonic deity of destruction, decided that the world needed to be purged by the flames of destruction. He ordered a surprise attack to the kingdom of Moonbrooke, whose castle was razed leading to the deaths of everyone inside including the king. Only a mortally wounded soldier was able to escape, and inform the kingdom of Midenhall of the tragedy.

Its prince immedialty departed with a mission to put a stop to the unhinged zealot, recruiting in his quest his cousin, the Prince of Cannock. Together they began investigating the destoyed Moonbrooke, discovering that their cousin, the Princess of Moonbrooke had survived the attack but had been cursed into the form of a dog. After restoring her with Ra's mirror, the reunited Scions of Erdrick began exploring the world, eventually coming into contact with none other than the descendant of the Dragonlord himself. Unlike his ancestor, he decided to aid the group, and informed them that in order for them to win against Hargon, they would need the direct assistance of Rubiss, setting them on a quest to find the Five sigils necessary to summon her scattered across the world, as well as the means to reach her underwater shrine and the key to Hargon's innermost quarters.

After finding these elusive objects, the Scions of Erdrick finally reached the Hall of Hargon, which was protected by a detestable illusion of the castle of Midenhall to torment them, but thanks to the Eye of Rubiss gifted to them by the goddess, the illusion was dispelled and the evils sorcerer was defeated. However before dying Hargon sacrificed his soul in order to directly summon the object of his fanatical faith, the Master of Destruction, Malroth. However, not even this demonic deity was able to match with Scions of Erdrick who, victorious, were able to return peace to the land.

Game appearances[]

Dragon Quest II[]

Alefgard has been severely minimized in favor of the larger world map of Torland in II. As such it's only possible for the Scions of Erdrick to do a passing visit to Alefgard during the quest to defeat Hargon, with most of its locations removed from the map and therefore impossible to stop by. On the other hand, despite being much larger, Torland itself doesn't appear to be much more populated, with only a handfull of key settlements being visitable.

Dragon Quest Builders 2[]

In this reality, we are shown what would had happened if the events of Dragon Quest II had just one seemingly minor difference compared to the original ones, the fate of the illusion Hargon had casted on his hall, resulting in some major consequences showing themselves in the long run. Torland itself does not make a physical appearance in this title, but several of its locales were mentioned by name, Rippleport in particular being noted for being the hometown of Lulu.

In this continuity there are also several mentions and hints that the events Dragon Quest Builders have somehow also happened alongside the ones of Dragon Quest II, but since the former have some major differences from the backstory of the latter (the Dragon Quest' Hero's fate being the focal and decisive point of debate), it is currently unclear how the two sets of events could possibly fit together.

Trivia[]

  • Interestingly, to convince the Hero who would later best him into siding with the forces of evil, the Dragonlord made the hollow promise to gift him "half of the world". Should one consider the kingdom of Alefgard as part of the Hero's legacy, as its royal family bloodline is now related to him at least through marriage if not more, then the combined landmasses of the kingdoms of Alefgard, Midenhall, Cannock and Moonbroke, the Hero descendants and family, approximately amount to half of Torland's total landmass, or half of the world you could say.
  • In most of the later Dragon Quest games, the concept of giving a specific given name to the overall world map would be dropped, Alefgard/Torland being two of the few examples of such a thing.
    • Surprisingly Torland shares its name with an actual small Finnish micronation in the real world.
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