Egaroth, the ancient woodlands

Capitol: Lórinand, Valley of Gold

Ruler: ?

Races: Elf, gnome, halfling, human (A faction of humans that desire peace in Eledar thats allowed to live in North-western Egaroth)

Population in capitol: ?

The rest: ?


Politics and history
All elves used to be called the Eldar. They are those who accpeted the summons and traveled to Amaril. Those who refused and remains on Middle-earth are Called the Sindarihn (Grey-elves). As of today the royal elves fight to regain control of Eledar, their former kingdom and get rid of the scum that supresses anyone living there.



The inhabitants

"A savage is not the one who lives in the forest,
but the one who destroys it."



High-elves are divied into different clans:

Vanyar (Fair Elves/Royal elves - referring to their golden-blond hair)
The Royal elves are more organized and preoccupy themselves with smithwork, sculpture, music and other arts, and of course, what to eat. Healing magic, and skills with weapons, are practised as well. In bloodline they are closest to the original elves hailing from ancient Eledar and live the longest of the elves. They are rumored to possess great magical abilities as well due to their close tie with their "ancestors".



The Noldor:
The Noldor are accounted the most skilled of all peoples in lore, warfare and crafts; they are therefore called the "Deep Elves". In Valinor "great became their knowledge and their skill; yet even greater is their thirst for more knowledge, and in many things they usually surpass their teachers. They are changeful in speech, for they have great love of words, and aspire to find names more fitting for all things they know or imagine." They are beloved of Maûl the Smith, and were the first to discover and carve gems. On the other hand, the Noldor were also the proudest of the Elves; and, by the words of the Sindarihn (grey-elves), "they needed room to quarrel in".



Wood elves:
They fully believe in the legends, and this is part of the reason they’ve chosen such an isolated existence in the spruce and oak forests in Egaroth and never leaves. (haha, get it? leaves. Sorry Einar e berre måtta). Wood elves see themselves as guardians of the Tel-quessir forest homes. They mainly live amongst druids. The druids live at Arden (Forest home). Here the greatest trees can be found, not to mention the legendary forest guardians, the ents.


Their homes
Wood elven homes are made of natural fieldstone or carefully furnished wood but on occasion wood elves have been known to do without even these creature comforts, living in the limbs of mighty trees or sheltered caves, rejecting furniture or any possessions they cannot carry with them. So close do wood elven villages resemble their surroundings that humans have been known to wander through one without even noticing.
 

Crafts:
In keeping with their naturalistic inclination, wood elves are not particularly fine metalworkers and have no interest in developing any such skills. However, wood elves are among some of the world's finest carpenters and stoneworkers, masters in the crafting of bows and arrows as well as in leather tanning. Wood elves have even developed a number of specialized arrows, including those that fly further than usual as well as some that are used as signal devices. So carefully guarded are wood elven crafting secrets that even experienced fletchers from other races have difficulty emulating wood elven designs. Wood elven leather armor also often doubles as camouflage, disguising a wood elven hunter from potential enemies. Wood elven crafting often looks surprisingly elegant even though they use only natural materials.


Their life:
While wood elves feel that is best to make a minimal impact on their surroundings, the race has no particular aversion to meat-eating and are passionate hunters. Many hours of the typical wood elf's life is spent on the hunt, which is both a practical activity and a pleasurable one. Most of the time that wood elves are not hunting they are enjoying themselves at ease within the highest branches of their forest homes. Wood elves do not, however, commonly keep pets, but instead form bonds with local wildlife in a manner similar to that of a ranger. Wood elves are particularly fond of mountain lions, pumas, and leopards.

Winter comes to Egaroth in the same fashion as other countries in the eastern kingdoms tp the north. This is the time of the year where the great forests slumbers until spring arrives once more.












Centaurs
Centaurs have many tribes and live as one with the nature. They tend to keep to themselves, watching and guarding the forests like the elves do.


Lycanthropes
Shapeshifters also inhabit the deep forests of Egaroth. They originally sought out the druids advice and helping them to control their abilities, or to learn more about themselves. Lycanthropes have a better connection to their wild side. Thus the wild outdoors suit them better than city walls and dungeon cells.


Treants/Ents
Treants are guardians of the forest and speakers for the trees. As long-lived as the forests themselves, and seeing themselves as parents and shepherds rather than gardeners, treants are slow and methodical in most things but terrifying when forced to fight in defense of their flock. Though they rarely seek out the companionship of the short-lived races, and have an inherent distrust of change, they have been known to tolerate those who seek to learn from their long, rambling monologues, especially if the pupils express a desire to help protect the wildlands. Yet against those who would threaten the forest, especially loggers who seek to harvest wood for lumber or those who try to clearcut a section of forest in order to build a fort or establish a town, the treants' wrath is swift and devastating. They are particularly gifted at tearing down what others build—a trait that serves angry treants well.

Treants are primarily solitary creatures, with a given individual sometimes responsible for an entire forest, known as Mythic Treants. A mythic treant is an ancient entity granted power by a deity or magical pool. They're also the shepherds of forests, and even less likely to converse with shortlived races.

Treants occasionally come together in small groups called groves to share news and reproduce. In times of grave danger, all of the groves in a region may gather for a great months-long meeting called a moot, but such events are exceedingly rare, and millennia may go by between them.

The typical treant is 30 feet tall, with a trunk 2 feet in diameter, and weighs 4,500 pounds. Treants tend to resemble the species of trees most common in their woodland territories.

Today many treants slumber, awaiting for the forest or druids to call for them.










Lightning treants
Unlike most treants, this creature appears to be a moss-covered dead tree, with bare branches stretched toward the sky. Often living in the shade of larger trees, or in the wasteland of a destroyed forest, lightning treants are strange, angry creatures whose powers and talents are almost elemental in nature. Confused by some travelers with shambling mounds, these creatures are much larger and the moss-like vegetation they are covered with is only a thin layer over their hard wooden core.

While many types of treants might make an effort to negotiate, or at least try to determine whether or not travelers might be hostile to whatever forest they are living in, lightning treants tend to simply attack first and, quite frankly, not question anything. They are said to possess the ability to conjure lightning storms, and these creatures can be a true bane to travelers, especially those that do not recognize them at first.

Lightning treants have an inherent hatred of all humanoids and attack them on sight.







The Unicorn
Unicorns are fierce, intelligent creatures of the forest, noble beasts who keep their own counsel and typically appear only to defend their homes against evil. They universally shun all creatures except for good-aligned fey, good-aligned humanoid women, and the woodlands' native animals, though they may fight alongside other good creatures against common enemies. A typical unicorn is 8 feet long and 5 feet tall at the shoulder, weighing 1,200 pounds.

Unicorns mate for life, and the pairs generally make their homes in specific glades or dells within the vast forests they protect (these regions can cover anywhere from a few dozen square miles to hundreds). They allow good and neutral creatures to pass through, hunt for food, or reside in their woods unharmed, but evil creatures and those who damage the local ecosystem more than necessary through sport hunting or commercial logging are swiftly driven out or killed. On rare occasions, lone unicorns without mates or whose partners have been slain have been known to adopt young women of exceptionally pure virtue as surrogates, allowing the women to ride on their backs and becoming their guardians and protectors for life. This bond generally ends amiably if the woman becomes more committed to someone else—such as a lover or child—giving rise to the myth that unicorns only befriend virgins.

A unicorn's horn is the focus for its powers, and in order to use its spell-like abilities on other creatures the unicorn must touch them with it. Evil creatures greatly value unicorn horns as reagents for healing potions and other dark rites.





The Briarborn

“True ‘tis, I saw it wit' mine own eyes! This huge an' beautiful an' sweet smellin' flower blossomed in front of me, and out stepped a wondrous woman, made of plant fibers and such. Even born just now as she was, she smiled knowingly at me, wrappin' a large leaf around herself and runnin' off. I ain't ne'er seen such a thing in all my life!”

- Korgan Timbersplitter, human Woodsman

The briarborn are a race of plant-like humanoids that grow from the earth in secluded, untouched virgin lands. They are born of the essence of nature, a distillation of that untouched terrain. While rare, they are not uncommon in lands unspoiled by other races. As a race, they are born of a collective intelligence, working in tandem with their brethren despite any distance. It is said that they also speak freely with nature's creatures, and seek to right the wrongs of those that would bring harm to the world.

The briarborn are nature's protectors, being born of the world's need for defense. When nature's enemies ravage her gifts, the briarborn blossom and grow to protect her.


Physical Description:
A briarborn is a humanoid creature, standing nearly as tall as a man, seemingly made of bark, vines and foliage. They are of a kind demeanor, with the facial appearance of a faint and almost fey-like. They vary greatly in appearance, as wild as nature itself. They range the colors of all plant life, tending towards shades of green and brown. Their hair grows leaves and branches. The older they are, the more growths they have, sometimes becoming long twisted vines that hang to their waist or longer. Their flesh is odd and disconcerting, being rough and prickly, a number of their kind having bark or even spiny briars that protrude from within. Their eyes are said to vary, being virgin wood green, morning sun gold, rich brown earth, or deep sky blue.


Society:
When a briarborn is first flowered, they sprout from the ground, growing in an undefiled location, far from the eyes of other creatures. They are immediately the size of an adolescent, growing to maturity quickly over the course of a single year. Once they have sprouted, the adolescent briarborn instinctively know the way to the nearest knot, or collective home of Briarborn. They live in communities grown from their natural surroundings, using druidic magic to shape and weave the natural environment to suit their needs. Their homes are well defended and surprisingly well-camouflaged. Without knowing what one is looking for, a briarborn knot could complete elude a passerby.

The briarborn are thought to draw their collective knowledge and wisdom directly from nature itself. At the heart of each knot is almost always some form of exaggerated living tree. This is a Dreaming Tree, their most sacred spot within the community. It is believed that the tree has some divine powers, granting the briarborn spells and imparting knowledge about the surrounding environs. Should a Dreaming Tree ever be killed, all of the briarborn connected to the knot are stricken with a profound sadness. They disband the knot, allowing the site to return to its natural state. They will seek out other knots and feel lost until they find another community. Many lost briarborn become adventurers. Fallen briarborn are allowed to lie where they fall, quickly composting into nurturing mulch. Other races find this practice abhorrent, but the briarborn see this as completely natural. All things return to the world, having been born of it.






Will-o'-Wisp
Every trapper and bog farmer living near marshes or swamps has his own name for these faintly glowing balls of light—jack o' the lanterns, corpse candles, walking fires, pine lights, spooklights, rushlights—but all recognize them as dangerous predators and false guides in the darkness.

Evil creatures that feed on the strong psychic emanations of terrified creatures, will-o'-wisps delight in tempting gullible travelers into dangerous situations. In the wild lands where they're most common, will-o'-wisps favor simple tactics like positioning themselves over cliffs or quicksand where they can easily be mistaken for lanterns (especially if they can set their traps near actual signal lanterns), allowing them to lure unwary travelers into perilous situations. On rare occasions, will-o'-wisps seeking easier pickings will move into a city and take up residence near gallows or follow along invisibly behind an army in order to harvest the fear of the dying men; why the vast majority choose to remain in the swamps where victims are scarce remains a mystery. Will-o'-wisps are not known to use their electric shock to attack people, instead it prefers to let other creatures or hazards claim their victims while they float nearby and feast.

Will-o'-wisps can glow any color they choose, but are most frequently yellow, white, green, or blue. They can even vary their luminosity to create patterns—many will-o'-wisps are fond of creating vague skull-like shapes in their glow to further terrify their victims. Their actual bodies are barely visible globes of translucent spongy material 1 foot across and weighing 3 pounds, capable of emitting light from every surface. A will-o'-wisp's light is approximately as bright as a torch, and though they do not seem to use sound to communicate with each other, they hear perfectly and can vibrate their bodies rapidly to simulate speech.

While vilified by most other sentient creatures, will-o'-wisps are actually quite intelligent, if utterly alien in their reasoning. Sometimes organized into groups called “strings,” their society and goals remain complete unknowns to outsiders, as do their origins, though they have sometimes been known to strike bargains with those who can offer them vast quantities of appropriately frightened victims. As will-o'-wisps do not age, and are effectively immortal unless killed by violence, particularly ancient will-o'-wisps can serve as fantastic repositories of knowledge from the ancient past, although convincing one of these cruel creatures to cooperate with an interrogation can be a trick in and of itself.





Wisp
Easily mistaken for a Will-o'-Wisp these wisps are ancient spirits of nature that inhabit the forestlands of Egaroth. Legends say that Wisps are actually the disembodied spirits of deceased elves, but these rumors have yet to be proven. The wisps act in unison with the treants and serve to strengthen them.

Wisps are mysterious “forest spirits” of unknown origin. Wisps are forest spirits that heal treants and keep the forest clean, pure and tends to its well-being. Wisps show little intelligence, free will or self-interest. They appear to exist purely to serve the will of the forest. Whether this is reality or whether they serve the forest out of some personal agenda or sense of duty is unclear at this time. A tremendous number of wisps were destroyed at the end of the war against Morgoroth. As a result, they are nowhere near as numerous as earlier in the Age of Stars (The first age). The glowing ball of light hovers a few feet off the ground. Within the eldritch glow, inside can be seen the translucent features of an elven face.


Satyr
Satyrs, known in some regions as fauns, are debauched and hedonistic creatures of the deepest, most primeval parts of the woods. They adore wine, music, and carnal delights, and are renowned as rakes and smooth-talkers, wooing unwary maidens and shepherd boys and leaving a trail of awkward explanations and unplanned pregnancies in their wakes.

Though their bodies are almost always those of attractive and well-built men, much of the satyrs' talent for seduction lies in their talent for music. With the aid of his eponymous pipes, a satyr is capable of weaving a wide variety of melodic spells designed to enchant others and bring them in line with his capricious desires.

In addition to their constant frolicking, satyrs often act as guardians of the creatures in their forest homes, and any who manage to turn the satyr's lust to wrath are likely to find themselves facing down dangerous animals surrounding the faun. Still, while satyrs tend to value their own amusement well above the rights of others, they bear no ill will toward those they seduce. Children born from such encounters are always full-blooded satyrs, and are generally spirited away by their riotous kin soon after birth.




Animal life:
Among the larger mammals are: red deer, roe deer, wild boar and fallow deer.  Hares, rabbits, and various types of rodents. Carnivores include the fox, the genet, and the rare wildcat and larger cats such as panthers. Among smaller species are the badger, the otter, the beaver, and the brown bear. The most dangerous beasts are giant spiders, dire catbeasts and large snakes. The forest is often filled with magical animals, plants, even magical rocks and creeks.



Sea life:
The lakes big and small contain fish. There is rumored to be huge creatures in the depths. There is little research done in Egaroth thats shared with the outsideworld.



Landscape:
Egaroth is covered by forest, hills, mounds, mountains and cliffs all over the land.


Economy
The elves are independant and only trade for goods they cant get access to themselves. The royal elves deal more with humans by trading, buying or selling. They usually sell their craftings, furnitures and other luxury items.



Defensive/offensive force, siege weapons

Capitol: The location of the elven capitol of Egaroth is kept secret.

The lands: The forests are thick, and to get in larger armies and siege weapons the forests likely needs to be cleared to enter.

Allies
Other elven clans throughout Middle-earth. Humans need to prove their worth. Elves think the dwarves are to obsessed with digging, and specially since they tend to dig to deep. Still the elves respect the dwarves`s skill and mastery of the earth. Elves are master crafters, but still they admire what dwarves have accomplished in the past and present time.

Elves do not view halflings or gnomes as foes, they are more than welcome into the wilds of Egaroth.


Magic and religion

The Druidic circle
Within the purity of the elements and the order of the wilds lingers a power beyond the marvels of civilization. Furtive yet undeniable, these primal magics are guarded over by servants of philosophical balance known as druids. Allies to beasts and manipulators of nature, these protectors of the wild strive to shield their lands from all who would threaten them and prove the might of the wilds to those who lock themselves behind city walls. Rewarded for their devotion with incredible powers, druids gain unparalleled shape-shifting abilities, the companionship of mighty beasts, and the power to call upon nature's wrath. The mightiest temper powers akin to storms, earthquakes, and volcanoes with primeval wisdom long abandoned and forgotten by civilization.

The word "organized" does not ring well in a druids ears. In Arden and throughout Egaroth they dwell and travel at Middle-earths behest. They listen to what she has to say, and heed her call. The druids do have a Circle of stone in Alden, where their center of power is said to be located.




Wood elves are largely at ease with the ways of the primal magic used by druids, barbarians, shamans, and wardens, which they feel is the truest expression of supernatural power - or rather, a reflection of nature itself, used to protect the wilderness. Wood elves may be sceptic to arcane magic, but they are`nt completely adverse to arcane magic. Thus elven bards, sorcerers, and wizards are far from unknown, although elves as a whole have no particular tradition of the Art. Sorcerers are more common than the above mentioned. Sorcerers have a greater chance of having a fey or elemental bloodline than other races.

Many wood elves, and other elves, have a special place in their heart for the gods Ylvanna, Ánila and Oromëk, whose protection of the wilderness is something the wood elves themselves try to espouse.






The world trees can be found throughout Middle-earth in areas most sacred and untouched by industrial decay. These colossal trees stand as the elves and druid`s stunning testament to the power of their magic and connection with nature. These wonders are tended by the arch druids and eldest of treants.