Built by the Olman over a millennium ago, the Great Wall of Tanaroa is a massive wood and stone structure located on the Isle of Dread.
Erected from massive upright logs sunk into carefully fitted stone blocks, the Wall is the greatest man-made structure on the island.
Its massive scale is astonishing and clearly beyond the means of even the combined efforts of the seven Olman villages. It rises over one-hundred feet high and stretches nearly two miles; completely cutting off the peninsula from the remainder of the island.
Two massive stone towers adorn the wall at its only entrance point. Each tower is one hundred twenty feet high. Between these two towers are two gates, each constructed of 20-foot-wide wooden doors, 5 feet thick, blackened with age and oil, and strengthened with iron bands.
Prodigious wooden beams have been lowered on the southern side to augment their strength . While the near side of the wall appears well cared for; the northern, jungle-facing side of the Great Wall is pockmarked, scratched, and burned as though it has been assailed time and again.
The most important concern of the Olman natives, outside of religion, is their cooperation in manning the Great Wall. The wall and its towers have been garrisoned with warriors from the seven villages for so long that the practice has become a ritual, passed on from generation ot generation.
Only the presence of this partition “erected by the gods” has prevented the horrors living in the jungle beyond the wall from ending the fragile Olman civilization. The fogs that come and go across the jungle, heralding the arrival of new menaces, never seem to cross the Great Wall.
As long as the natives can remember, the Olman of Tanaroa have taken charge of the massive gate, sending their best warriors to man it day and night. For it is the village of Tanaroa that lives in the very shadow of the edifice.
