Author's Notes: All across Reddit and various fanfiction people pitch their own ideas on exactly when and where Hilda takes place. The technology of the time suggests a time frame between 1985 and 1995, but as to the where of it... Hilda clearly does not take place anywhere in our real world, but rather occupies it's own fantasy world. I've taken to calling it "Hildasraum" (or "Hilda's space" in German) which sounds less generic than just calling it "Hilda's world" or the "Hildaverse".

But as to the world itself, I always envisioned Trolberg as it's own independent city-state, surrounded by similar cities each sharing their land with different creatures from Scandinavian folklore. Together, they occupy a continent I'll call the Hulderlands.

It was late in the afternoon. The sun was just beginning to set over Trolberg, and in the mountains beyond, trolls were beginning to emerge from their rocky cocoons and wander the mountainside.

Hilda was stuck indoors for the evening. doing her homework. Normally there was little to be done as Ms. Hallgrim rarely gave them any, but Ms. Hallgrim was out sick for the week, and her substitute was absolutely dreadful; clearly lacking the patience or the temperament to teach elementary school children, she was extremely rude, and had something of a nasty temper about her. Poor Frida had been sent home early that day after having a panic attack when the new teacher shouted at her and called her an "insufferable know-it-all" leaving Hilda and David to finish their homework together... and the substitute had given them a lot.

"This is absurd," David complained. "How does that flippin' witch expect us to finish a week's worth of homework in one night!?"

"I'm with you, David," said Hilda. "I just hope Ms. Hallgrim gets better soon. Never thought I'd actually miss her, but there it is..."

"Here, here," David said half-heartedly.

"Ugh, let's just get this over with," said Hilda, unfurling a map.

The map covered not just the Greater Trolberg area- the city and the surrounding villages and mountains- but every major city-state on the continent. There were four in total, and at the top of the map was a coat of arms that bore the symbols for each city; a bell, a ring, a crown, and a star, all surrounding a bold letter "H".

Next to this was the name of the continent: The Hulderlands

It meant "The Hidden Lands" or so Ms. Hallgrim had told them in History class. Four independent city-states separated by mountains that cut through the heart of the continent.

Trolberg was the smallest, having been built in the middle of troll country, there were few who would settle in such dangerous territory. It's symbol was of course the bronze bell, emblematic of the bell towers along it's walls that kept the trolls at bay.

To the east was the city of Elvenborough, the symbol of which was a gold crown. The crown represented the Crown of Elves, an artifact dating back centuries; Alfur had told her all about it. A city where humans lived in harmony with elves. The crown was a gift from the elven High King, he who signed a contract with Elvenborough's queen all those years ago to bring about peace between their city all of elf-kind. It was remarkable to think that such a feat could've been accomplished in such a time, when humans feared the Hidden People as much as the feared trolls and giants. It was also the only city on the continent that had no walls.

Hilda wanted to visit Elvenborough one day. Lucky for her, there was to be a school field trip to the city later that year. Hilda's only problem was convincing her mum to go along; as it was a long trip, she needed a chaperone.

Then there was Silbergrad to the west. By far the most isolated, it was under constant threat by lycanthropes. The people of Silbergrad were constantly sending hunting expeditions beyond their walls to cull the herds of werewolves, werebears, and wereboar that stalked the woods beyond their city. Their symbol was that of the silver ring, a band engraved with arcane symbols that protected the city from the lycans as long as there remained a king upon the throne to bear it. As such, Silbergrad was also the only city in all of the Hulderlands that still had a king, the Lord Dimitrescu. Trolberg had it's City Council, Elvenborough a Prime Minister, and Ogrebrücke their Supreme Leader.

Ogrebrücke was the largest city in the Hulderlands, and the first place on the continent to be settled by humans. It was said that long ago, a tribe of Viking warriors crossed the sea and ventured into the interior of the continent, which was overrun by ogres. The warriors hunted the creatures to the brink of extinction and claimed the land for themselves.

Ogrebrücke was the last place in the Hulderlands Hilda would want to visit. She'd only ever seen pictures of it, but in those pictures she'd seen enormous sloped walls of steel and concrete topped with gun towers that made Trolberg's wall look like a picket fence. Of what life was like inside those walls, they'd only heard rumors. A concrete jungle, sterile and claustrophobic, with cameras around every corner, and the City Guard patrolling the streets in a perpetual state of martial law.

The city was also extremely xenophobic. It was said that Ogrebrücke's king had once deceived the very same elven king who'd made peace with Elvenborough, convincing him to sign a contract that would allow all people of Ogrebrücke and their descendents to see elves. But the humans had no intention of making peace, and instead used the contract to drive the elves out of the valley, which is what ultimately led to their making peace with Elvenborough.

Despite the motherlode of homework they'd been assigned, Hilda couldn't help but be fascinated by the four cities and the history surrounding them. Everyone on the continent could trace their lineage back to Ogrebrücke, with many having fled the city over the centuries to found the other three cities. Edmund Ahlberg himself was from Ogrebrücke, and sadly had brought many of the city's values with him... seeing his great-grandson make peace with the trolls surely had him spinning in his grave.

"Trevor keeps telling everyone that Ogrebrücke is going to conquer Trolberg and wipe out the trolls," said David.

"Trevor's full of it," Hilda retorted bitterly. "That's just what he wants to happen. His mum is from Ogrebrücke, and as they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."

"I don't know if you noticed, seeing as you were... indisposed," said David. "But the Supreme Leader of Ogrebrücke was on the television after the Night of the Trolls, saying he would burn Trolberg to the ground for consorting with beasts..."

"So what?" Hilda asked. "Ogrebrücke has been at war with Elvenborough for the last seventy years. Elvenborough doesn't even have a wall around it, and Ogrebrücke still hasn't been able to beat them. They've attacked the city five times, and they've been defeated five times."

"But Elvenborough has a standing military," David reminded her. "The Trolberg Air Patrol Forces only has two squadrons of combat-ready aircraft. Ogrebrücke has hundreds."

"Don't concern yourself, David," Hilda implored. "It's been eight months since the Night of the Trolls, and Ogrebrücke has done nothing. Like Trevor, they're full of hot air."

"I suppose..." David conceded.

"Now come on..." Hilda urged. "We need to finish this assignment or else we'll get detention..."

"But you're already half done," David pointed out. "Couldn't I just copy yours? You know more about history than I do..."

"Then how will you ever learn, David?" Hilda queried.

"I don't know," said David. "But right now, I'm just trying to get through the week, until Ms. Hallgrim comes back..."

"Oh, very well..." Hilda sighed. She showed David the work she'd already completed, privately hoping that their substitute teacher wouldn't notice any similarities.

Hilda continued with her own homework, hoping to get the rest of it done by the end of the night.

"What year did Queen Astrid of Elvenborough sign the treaty with the High King of Elves again?" Hilda asked aloud as she perused her textbook for the answer.

"You're asking me?" David replied, being halfway through copying Hilda's essay on the founding of Silbergrad.

"Frida had the answer to that question in class earlier today," Hilda reminded him. "Don't you remember?"

"No," said David. "After Frida got sent home, I completely forgot... let's see... I think... she said it was... seventeen... eighty-three?"

"Seventeen thirty-eight," Hilda corrected, having found the right answer in her textbook, and scrawled it down as her answer on what seemed like the hundredth page of homework she'd done that night.

Author's Notes: While I haven't put much thought into Elvenborough, Silbergrad is heavily inspired by the unnamed village from Resident Evil: Village... if you couldn't guess from the name of it's king. Ogrebrücke is a police state inspired partly by Oceania from George Orwell's 1984, and modern-day North Korea.

I may reference these cities in future Hilda fanfiction, so I thought it would be good to do a quick one-shot to establish them.