The City of Herthe's origins are rooted not in aspiration, but in waste and necessity, its founding date lost to time. During the extensive era of Bukhara Spire Gateway construction, a vast quantity of unstable and rejected crystalline slag material was deemed too volatile for the portals themselves. This dangerous refuse was carted off to the remote Cocker region and buried deep within the earth, forming a clandestine landfill.

Herthe initially grew atop this hidden graveyard, beginning as a simple barracks for the disposable laborers tasked with handling the toxic payload. For centuries afterward, the settlement transformed into an unremarkable, muddy hamlet, populated by goatherds and peat miners. Its dark, true origin was slowly forgotten by its inhabitants, who knew only that the local water always tasted subtly of copper and their cellars were perpetually warm.

This quiet existence was shattered on 20 June 1248, when the Dragonbone Vanguard arrived in Herthe. Investigating the town's ancient church, they uncovered a demonic Bukhara Spire Gateway hidden deep within its catacombs. After a brutal and extended confrontation with its monstrous guardians, the Vanguard unleashed a concentrated assault, utterly destroying the portal in a violent, catastrophic explosion that simultaneously cleansed the immediate area.

However, the destruction of the Herthe Gateway sent a massive psychic and magical shockwave through the entire town, with dire consequences. While a local victory, this act tragically intensified demonic incursions across Coia through remaining gateways, forcing the Vanguard to pursue new threats with greater urgency elsewhere. The aftershocks of the portal's destruction left Herthe’s delicate balance completely undone, plunging it into deeper peril.

Just months later, on 27 February 1249, the town faced a new, terrifying threat. Wolfgang, the local barkeep, was taken by an unusually aggressive Wolf pack, his plight forcing a group of heroes to act. The pack's ferocity and behavior were far from natural, hinting at the sinister influence of a greater, unseen power lurking within their den.

This malevolent force had not only harnessed the wolves' primal instincts but had intensified them, making the creatures far more dangerous than ordinary beasts. As the heroes ventured closer to the den, the chilling howls and glowing eyes in the darkness signaled that they were not merely fighting for Wolfgang's life, but potentially their own. The heroes eventually rescued Wolfgang, but the incident underscored Herthe's growing vulnerability.

Today, Herthe teeters on the brink of extinction. The few survivors are starving, gripped by an pervasive terror that the land's hidden fissures will reopen and unleash further horrors. Besieged on all sides by a wilderness now unnaturally hostile, the future of Herthe looks grim, a testament to its forgotten, toxic origins and the cataclysm that exposed them.