CascadiaAnon: On wood elves.

Wood elves of fanksia, despite the stereotype of elves being twinks, could be succinctly described as survivalists (in contrast to the dwarves, who are survivors). Despite the High Elves being "the protectors of all elf kind," in the great collapse they did not allow any other elf-kind the protection of their sanctum cities, these cities admittedly being overcrowded to the point of the high elves having to deny entry, and even exiling some of their own from these sanctums. As such, the wood elves were left out to fend for themselves, and unlike High Elves, who had magically protected sanctum cities, or dwarves, who had highly defensible holds and fortresses, Wood elves merely had their lightly fortified cities in their ancestral forests. Their expansive, dense, and ancient ancestral forests filled with flora and fauna untamed by civilization. Forests that, while they knew well and frolicked in from young age, to outsiders were as unnavigable and hostile as some of the deadliest equatorial jungles and swamps. And on a related note, while they were not as durable as dwarves or as magically attuned as their high elf relatives, their way nary a wood elf that could not handle a bow and arrow with the skill of any experienced hunter from any other race; they needed to, in order to survive beyond the limits of their towns and cities deep in the ancient woods Put very concisely, the wood elves figured out very quickly that in order to survive the age of collapse and the days of chaos, they would need to play to their strengths, and maximize the advantage they had in the land, or woods rather, they called home.


For some 300 years following the age of collapse into the days of chaos it was said the wood elves had disappeared from Fanksia, thought to have been killed off by many. However, eventually rumor began to become more widespread; tales of the ambitious (or suicidal, depending on who you asked back in the days of chaos) merchant or adventurer trading with or encountering small bands of Wood Elves on the fringes of the Great Old Growths. These rumors became more frequent over time, and became more accepted as these bands being the mere remnants of the Wood Elves, the lucky survivors left to pick up the pieces of the collapse. These Rumors were dispelled with the comical, and "contentious" (one may guess by whom), Tale of The Expedition of Eliranil Thramian. Eliranil was a High Elf Noble with a high posting in one kingdom's army. On hearing the tales of Wood Elf remnants, and with the King, one of the last of the pre-collapse High Elf Kings, wanting the High Elves to resume their role as the protectors of elf-kind, sent him along with a sizeable detachment were dispatched to the nearest old growth forest that had been the home of a Wood Elf kingdom. Expecting the need to care for an unknown amount of survivors, they set off into the wood, expecting to make a quick sweep through the known settlements; flush with provisions and heads held high. Unfortunately, not 3 days into the wood they became lost. While they had hoped to use the old maps, they were of course hundreds of years out of date; they had planned for this eventuality however, and had resorted to using specifically packed supplies to mark new routes through the wood, but these too had failed them, their markers being moved counter to where they should have been on their maps, both old and newly made. To make a very long story short, after a month of wandering, and two groups of men wandering off from the main group, Eliranil managed to actually find "remnant wood elves."


Upon introducing himself, and his purpose to them, and lamenting the fact that their saviors were * also * lost in the wood, the wood elves merely laughed. "We are not lost, and neither are you. We are not remnants either; we are a patrol that have been tracking and following you for a fortnight now. You befell one of our Wards of Wandering, and another patrol removed your markers. The Council or Elder have sent us to escort you out of our land." As it turned out, the Wood Elf Kingdom of that particular Forest was still alive and well, and had their patrols remove any markers left by outsiders in order to leave them lost and confused- and easy quarry to track, and ambush in battle, if need be. To ensure this wards of wandering, spells meant to subtly disorient victims overtime, were placed in the wood, but at distances from the edge of the wood that would ensure that those who tripped them would not be able to effectively penetrate the wood further, but also be too far in to simply go to the edge. The High Elves as it turned out, were only a day and a half journey's into the wood for the whole month. Eliranil and his men were reunited, and while they were thanked for their effort, they were also firmly told that the help of the high elves, while "gracious," was not needed, and they were sent back to relay this message to their king. If there ever a lesson that was certainly taken from this story, which somehow quickly became known right after it happened, it was that the Wood Elf Kingdoms were in fact still around, and that one does not find them, rather, that they find you. Unfortunately for the Eliranil's pride, it was a lesson that could've been learned before his ill-fated expedition by being willing to listen to non-elves, as the aforementioned enterprising merchants that were the source of the rumors could've told him that one merely needed to wait at the edge of the forests for the elves to come and meet their "visitors."


Some would point out that Eliranil's markers were not removed, but moved, and that the "fortnight" of tracking them does not match with a month of the expedition being lost, and one could be forgiven for thinking that the Wood Elves purposely let the expedition wander, lost in the wood for longer than they needed to be. High Elves will deny this, saying that it was merely coincidence or spouting off some convoluted excuse involving the wood elves not knowing that the expedition was a high elf one; Wood elves will agree that it is weird but also say it was possible for them to not know they were high elves. Make of this what one will.