Originally posted by Nefrarya:

IIRC, the lore is that this is a prison world for great beasts that gave Odin lip and you are only there to clean the place up (pit stop on the way to Valhalla, hopefully). Other warriors have come before you (at least Astrid and Ulf, who left lore stones), but you and other players are the only ones there currently. Though I'd love to know why Haldor hangs out for just one lousy customer and where the rest of their people are.

Haldor is a double agent and his real bread and butter is the enemy.
He just has a few items for us to make it look good.
That protective shield around him does nothing to keep away the enemies, all it really does is prevent us from building there. The enemies just pretend it keeps them at bay while we are around.