Wood Elves

Wood elves were the natives of the Kingdom of Boughs Entwining. They are known as wood elves due to living almost completely within forested areas.

History

After the Godswar, the primordials gathered as many of the surviving elves as they could find, and during the Second Creation placed these elves in five locations around Therrmordia. One group was placed in the great forests of eastern Rhyallias. The elves expanded through the forest, soon creating the Kingdom of Boughs Entwining, named after the tree branches spreading from shore to mountain. At its largest extent the kingdom reached to the Terspinas Mountains, covering nearly a third of the continent. The wood elves were friendly but did not go out of their way to interact with other nations. They mentored some of their neighboring human tribes and had strong trading relationships with the nearby elven kingdoms of Horizons Expanding and Waters Effluent.
When the Rhyallian Empire formed, the wood elves stayed polite but distant, but when Forcastril broke away from the empire they resumed their friendship and mentor role. This culminated in an alliance that would doom the wood elves when the empire sought to recover the last of its wayward territories three centuries later. The first of the Elf Wars would see the Kingdom of Boughs Entwining pull the Kingdom of Horizons Expanding and the Kingdom of Waters Effluent into an extended war with the Rhyallian Empire. The wood elves suffered heavy casualties and the devastation of half their forests before The Mishanter destroyed the entire continent, killing most of the remaining wood elves.
The Mishanter would see the end of the wood elves as a cultural group. The wood elves who survived the disaster either assimilated into one of the nearby elven kingdoms or formed the new nation of Namastria, which quickly took on separate cultural and religious practices.

Lifestyle

Wood elves believed in living a balanced life with their surroundings. Instead of clearing land for dwellings or crops, they built around or in trees, and planted crops in natural clearings. Ground based structures would almost always have one or more trees growing within them, but the wood elves were famous for their tree houses. By building in the trees and using rope bridges wood elves could make entire cities without walking on the ground.
Wood elves cultivated many forms of fruit trees, which they would plant in giant orchards. Combined with hunting this formed the elves' main food supply.
The elves domesticated the giant spiders of the forest, creating the Cerisumi. Cerisumi silk was the main ingredient in wood elf clothing, rope, and even armor.
The elves of the Kingdom of Boughs Everreaching tried to minimize their use of metal and substitute other materials wherever possible, such as one of the varieties of ironwood trees that grew in the forests, but they were not able to avoid metal completely. They originally traded for any needed metal but eventually did start small mining operations in the Terspinas.

Cultural exports

Wood elves were famous across Therrmordia for their cerisumi silk and their wood working. Their forests contained trees with unique wood patterns and colors that made olive wood seem mundane. The elves would fashion this wood into tools, objects, or even art and sell them to their trading partners. Within the Kingdom of Boughs Everreaching cerisumi silk was common enough to be used for everyday clothes, but beyond the kingdom it was used for formal and important clothing. It was a favorite material for magical garments.

Warfare

The wood elves tried to be peaceful when possible, and never used war to expand their territory or power. When they did fight, they prefered hit and run tactics from the cover of their trees. This led the Rhyallian Empire to destroy as much of the forest as possible to force the elves into the open. Their preferred weapons were the bow and short stabbing spears. For armor the elves used leather and wood, but their most effective armor was a thick weave of cerisumi silk, that turned blades like mail.