The Great Founding is the first explorable region in the main story. It functions as a tutorial and has a more linear story approach. In the main story, the severed one works his way from the bottom-left towards the top-right corner of the region whilst fleeing the cult of haliphron. The player can choose which path to take towards major objectives, altough they cannot return to previous maps once the objectives are reached. Once the region is beaten, all other regions and previously discovered maps can be visited freely. The only exceptions are The Frozen Wastes and Land's End, which require parts of the story to be completed before they can be visited.
Lore
Before the empire
Not much is known about the state of the region before the empire made it's way to The Great Founding. However, it's clear that the ancestors knew about the excistense of the island that would later become landfall.
Empire's prime
The Great Founding was the capital region of the empire before the fall. It contains Landfall, which was the empires' capital city. The empire wanted their capital region to be a display of power and wealth, constructing many monuments and other great projects. These projects include the Cofferdam, an exotic zoo and even a giant wall in the middle of the ocean around the capital city. The Empire also established many ports and trade routes troughout the regions, almost in every area, as well as farming and mining outposts to provide goods for the capital. Many Empire flagships roamed the area, these ships had large offensive capabilities and were coated with golden plating, further displaying the wealth of the Empire.
Journey of The Severed One
After the fall of the Empire, many Empire flagships were send out towards other regions to maintain order. They failed and many shipwrecks can be found around the region as well as the rest of the world. When The Severed One travels trough the region, the remains of the empire are struggling to survive. Landfall is one of the few places where the Empire still rules, resisting the Cult's rise to power. The Empires' trade routes are still present, altough many pirates and Cult ships raid them because of the lack of guard ships. Many of the Empires projects are left unfinished and factions have taken control of some areas. After waking up, the player flees the Cult's fortress after a Kraken is revived. The player is chased by the Cult, haliprhon and even the Kraken troughout the region, only being able to rest at Landfall and Devilrock. At landfall, the player learns that they can use devilrock to possibly defeat the Kraken. After getting some of the rescource at Devilrock, the player traves to Pullman's Cove. Here they trap the Kraken in the cove by using the tide and defeat it. After their defeat at The Slumbering Giant, the player returns to landfall only to find it under siege by the Cult. The player tries to free Devilrock, but is unsuccesfull in their attempt. After defeating the Cult, the region is freed from the grip of the Cult.
Journey of the explorer
When the Explorer begins his journey, landfall is still recovering from the siege by the Cult. Many shipwrecks can still be found in the harbor, but the city is free again. Devilrock became a very industrial island, selling many shipments of devilrock to whoever wants to fight the remaining krakens. The Cult fortress is mostly abandoned, athough some enthousiasts still remain a treath to the local area. Rumors of The Severed One are spread troughout the region and visiting Pullman's cove reveals that people now know about the first fight with the Kraken.