Wood Elf

Overview of Kelethin

Kelethin is the wood elf tree village, named after the elf that negotiated the treaty with the treants of the Greater Faydark who are now the elves' greatest allies. The ancient forest city is an elaborate network of tree houses and platforms connected by rope bridges.

Several lifts within the Greater Faydark offer transportation to Kelethin. Due to its height up in the trees, young elves should watch their step while traveling throughout the city until they learn their way around.

The wood elves maintain close ties to their High Elf brethren. Their city is frequently attacked by orcish raiders, though they are well able to defend themselves. The wood elves have a democratic form of government, rather than a monarchy like their cousins, and the mayor of Kelethin is an elected official.

Guildmasters

Kelethin has a guildmaster for each class that is available to wood elves. Spell and tome merchants are also available for those classes. Here is a list of the main guildmasters:

Sylia Windlehands – (Bard) Heartwood Master – (Druid) Maesyn Trueshot – (Ranger) Tylfon – (Rogue) Regren – (Warrior)

Through my own experiences, I have gained knowledge and insight into the Feir'Dal. Each part of this history tome can only be completed in its own time.

Story 1

Our mother is Tunare, goddess of nature. One day, she walked alone in the woods and an oak leaf fluttered to the ground before her, so that she need not walk in the mud. She picked it up and breathed upon it, creating the Feir'Dal. The Feir'Dal are most at home surrounded by greenery. Long ago, we lived on Faydwer, in our city of Kelethin among the trees.

The woods of the the Faydark spread as wide to us as any sea and as bountiful. All we could want or need was available in the trees, from food to shelter to weapons and shields. Stories tell of first day of the Growth season, when the Feir'Dal bards would position themselves among the branches and sing songs of blessing and thanks to Tunare. For those below, it was as though the trees themselves were singing.

From the trees first saw the smoke of the first fires in the War of Fay. The twisted Teir'Dal and their minions thought of us as mere inconveniences between them and the Koada'Dal. They thought to march through Faydark to Felwithe.

Our resistance was strong and yet, we had not faced an enemy like this before. The Teir'Dal pushed their minions to death and when one fell, another came from behind in its place. They fought without honor. They cast us aside, burning our homes and mocking our sorrow.

We stood with the Koada'Dal before Felwithe, those who were not still locked in skirmishes throughout Faydark. It filled our hearts with such sadness to look beyond one battlefield to see our homes burning beyond.

Long ago, the elves say, before even they walked this land, all of Faydwer was a single great forest that stretched from shore to shore, covering all the land. The trees were great and fair, their trunks smooth as silk and leaves golden.

This was the Suntouched Forest, so named because the sun’s light suffused every inch, turning the bark to gold and the leaves to fire, and covering the spaces between the trees with a thick carpet of golden-green grass. Animals lived here peacefully, and trees and bushes provided fruit and nuts enough for all.

Though the elves had not yet arrived in the Suntouched, the forest was not devoid of intelligent life, for here dwelt the Woodkine, an ancient race. Tall as giants, they were not cast in flesh — instead the Woodkine were great plants, their skin like that of the trees and their hair and beards like leaves and vines. The Suntouched was their home and their charge, and the Woodkine wandered it freely, tending to plants and animals alike and ensuring that the forest prospered. These gentle creatures were one with the land, and could move swiftly through even the densest thicket — some say they swung from tree branches rather than setting foot on the ground, and others that they leapt from bough to bough.

Certainly the Woodkine possessed powerful magic, yet it was magic of the land, a power focused on healing, growth, and assistance. These creatures, to hear the elves speak of them, were akin to gods, but without any arrogance — their lives belonged to the Suntouched, and all their actions were intended to aid the forest and its inhabitants. Then the Dark came to Faydwer.

No one knows how or why the darkness arrived, but suddenly the sun vanished from the sky, hidden behind heavy clouds for weeks on end. With the shadows came creatures the Suntouched had never known, ogres and orcs and trolls, dark creatures full of hate and malice and greed.

To them the Suntouched was a rich land waiting to be plundered, and they tore into it, chopping down trees to build forts and slaughtering animals for both food and amusement. They landed first in the south, and soon much of the southern portion of the forest had been cut down, leaving only stumps and grass where once had stood ancient groves.

The Woodkine were initially horrified, then angered. The land was under their protection, and for the first time these gentle creatures deliberately sought to do harm. First they struck against the intruders, knocking them aside with powerful limbs and crushing them under splayed feet. To their enemies, it seemed as if the trees themselves were attacking, and they fled to the areas they had already cut down, seeking safety amid the stumps and the darkened sky. But the Woodkine’s terrible anger, slow to build, was equally slow to abate. Yes, they had driven the intruders out, but their precious forest had been violated, and large portions of it destroyed. This could not be allowed to happen again.