Whiteacre Elves

The Whiteacre Elves are the primary inhabitants of Whiteacre Forest in northwestern Xsass. The elves of Whiteacre are known for their hostility to outsiders, far beyond the norm for forest-bound elven nations.

History

Origins

Following the Upheaval, a huge forest covered northwestern Xsass, reaching from the western edge of modern Torranth Saar in the northeast down to the coast of the Middle Sea, south to the Golden River, and west to the coast of the Mecairn Ocean. Many elven tribes settled in this forest, eventually forming into the Whiteacre Confederation, a loosely-controlled assembly of the tribes mostly focused on dispute settlement and mutual defense against drow incursions.

As humans and halflings grew in numbers and power, the Confederation found itself constantly needing to drive off attempts to cut down the forest for lumber and farmland. In time, the tribes of the southern edge began to resent those of the interior for their inadequate assistance against men, despite the latter's claims that drow invasions were too great a threat to allow them to help. As the forest shrank, the tribes began to fight amongst themselves for shrinking resources.

Schism of the Blackacre Elves

In the middle of the Fourth Age, the constant struggles at the forest's edge finally exploded into organized warfare in a series of conflicts known as the Whiteacre Wars. Starting in the fourteenth century 4A, the elves struck out constantly at nearby human and halfling villages and towns, trying to drive the invaders backwards. Instead, the kingdoms in what are now Ereba and western Accordia united and launched a series of full assaults, burning the forest down to destroy the elven threat. A growing minority among the elves began to call for peace and some sort of border settlement, but the leaders of the tribes were adamant that they must not give in ever.

In 1563 4A, civil war finally broke out among the elves themselves. The southern tribes who had been fighting the war the longest demanded an end and the northern tribes, whose lands were beginning to be encroached upon, turned on their own people, declaring them traitors to elvenkind. It was around this time that the term "Blackacre" began to be used to describe the southern tribes. After five years, the Blackacre tribes finally negotiated their own peace with the Kingdom of Gowan and Accordia, fixing the border of the forest at a point slightly outside its position at the time. Able to focus their efforts now, the Blackacre Elves established a defensive line through the forest, keeping the Whiteacre army from invading.

The split between Whiteacre and Blackacre became physical over the remainder of the sixteenth century 4A and the first half of the seventeenth as the forest north of the Blackacre line was slowly destroyed, eventually splitting the great forest in two.

Isolationism

In 1691 4A, the Whiteacre elves and their human neighbors signed a treaty fixing the borders of Whiteacre in perpetuity. By this time the forest still called Whiteacre was roughly one fifth the size of the original forest. The remaining elves withdrew into heavily armed isolationism. Those who entered Whiteacre did not return, and no elves ever came out. This isolationism lasted until the start of the Fifth Age.

The Fifth Age

The first emissaries out of Whiteacre emerged in 0 FA after nine hundred years of silence to investigate the cause of a massive magical wave their wizards had detected. This wave was the pulse of arcane energy released when Scurripak's ascendence spell detonated, vastly weakened by the time it reached Whiteacre but still detectable even to some of those those without magical aptitude. By this time, even the longest-lived of the elves alive during the Whiteacre Wars had died, leaving a legacy of hatred and xenophobia deeply ingrained in Whiteacre's psyche. Despite this, the elves began limited trading with their neighbors - mostly the Accordians, who were in the midst of the wars sparked by the deaths of their entire royal line at Scurripak's tower.

Over the first century FA, the elves began to build a fleet of trading and exploration ships and established their strongest ties with the orcs and goblinoids of Torranth Saar, who had never been enemies of the elves. For the most part, however, the isolationism of the previous millennium continued for another millennium, until the creation of the Ereban Empire. When Ereban forces invaded Accordia, pleas for help were sent to Whiteacre, pleas which went unanswered until the Legions approached Whiteacre. At first, the elves made it clear to the Erebans that they would repel any invasion of the forest, but soon expanded this to say that any further expansion into Accordia would be seen as aggression against Whiteacre. The Empire responded by halting its advance and deploying two legions to the Whiteacre border for defense.

Category:Ereba