Teldarin (The Frozen Forest)

Geography
The Forest sits north of Meridia and the Dagon River, with Khaz-Merda lining the entire west and Arcatrice Bay and the Orteza Ocean to the east. To the north are the Kyreesh Glaciers - the persisting reminders of the last age’s ice and snow. In addition, the entire forest suffers from a permanent ecological aura of frost and snow, called the White Curse, while the rest of the world has continued to reawaken from the Winterthaw at the end of the Second Age. The oldest and the most massive of the elventrees that serve as the basis for most elvish structures retain their vitality despite the general cold, in no small thanks to a constant stream of magic from druidic tree-tenders. Otherwise, only evergreen trees have been able to eke out survival in the frozen forest. Monsters and beasts of the wood that did not perish to the cold have had to adapt to the frigid environment and its icy entities.

Notable Landmarks
Two lakes - Ly’siela and Ly’ola - produce two separate rivers - Sa’siela and Sa’ola respectively - which each go around massive, singular Mount Horu, which stands at Teldarin’s approximate center. From Mount Horu’s peak stands Mieldrissil, a world tree and one of the oldest and easily the mightiest eldertrees in all of Teldarin, which towers over the center of the whole forest. Sa’siela and Sa’ola meet on the other side of Mount Horu into Sa’rel, which empties into the Arcatrice Bay and the northern Orteza Ocean beyond.

Beasts & Monsters
Bhuer Hags

Dire Wolves

Frost Salamanders

Giant Boar

Giant Bear/Werebear

Giant Elk

Giant Owl

Frostweave Spider

Grick

Owlbear

Remorhaz

Ents

Society
The songs say the elven cities of old once spanned the entirety of the Forest; ever since the Sundering at the close of the First Age, however, elven culture in Teldarin has shrunk and receded into core cities and otherwise sparse estates and establishments around them. Shin’dorei generally live in the further reaches of the wood as rangers, hunters, sentinels, and tree-tenders. Shal’dorei often take on more studious, clerical, or arcane-focused positions within the more developed elven cities still standing deeper in the Forest.

Intelligent Species
Shin’dorei (Tel’dorei) - the more prolific elven race within Teldarin, “wood elves” are drawn to the land’s natural rhythm more than their “high elf” cousins. Their skin tends to be a darker complexion, and any lack of magic they have in comparison to the Shal’dorei is made up with heightened dexterity and natural intuitive wisdom. Most Shin’dorei live about 1,000 years.

Shal’dorei - the rare genetic caste of elves who claim to be the children of survivors of the last Age’s great wars. Though they bear many similarities to their wood elf cousins, the self-proclaimed “Shal’dorei” (literally “the high people”) demonstrate an innate disposition to the arcane and raw mana. Some of the oldest Shal’dorei have lived to see up to 1,200 years, though most only live about 900 years.

Firbolgs - the peaceful and amicable nature of the firbolgs make them one of the few other intelligent races allowed within proper Teldarin settlements. Firbolgs are often content to work a craft or trade for life, their ambition only so strong as to earn themselves and their immediate loved ones a comfortable, relatively simple life for their approximate century of longevity.

Yetis (Bugbears) - Yetis are sub-intelligent sapiens that are able to use basic tools and speak their own garbled versions of Gobbledeegook. They live simple, violent lives in the outskirts and more untamed areas of Teldarin.

Hobgoblins - Using a shallow tunnel system that runs under the ground and around the Teldarin trees’ roots, hobgoblins are slightly more intelligent cousins to their goblin relatives in the west. They are, however, still content with lives of maniacal violence and wanton lack of hygiene.

Fae'dorei
Sentient or intelligent beings that are still linked to the Feywilds more strongly even than elvenfolk. While they each may have their own versions of civilization, they are considered outside the elven perception of societal beings, and many simple townsfolk consider them mere legend.

Satyrs - the playful - sometimes hedonistic - nature of the half-man half-goat satyrs makes them excellent characters in warning stories for those seeking to avoid being swindled or hoodwinked into finding one’s possessions missing after a party. They live under hills in abodes similar to a hobbit hole when they’re not crashing on someone else’s bed.

Dryads - Closely related to the Eladrin, dryads are a meeting of mortal and elemental, though a dryad’s aspect tends towards one singular form. The Teldarin dryads are few in number after so many millennia in permanent winter. Eladrin - there are a few mystical Eladrin that are still known to walk the Forest. Most have become lethargic and cold to match the everfrost of Teldarin.

Government:  High Queen Aceldama & the Teldarin Conclave
A high council of Archlords, consisting of both wood elves and high elves that oversee laws and cultural events, operating under a High Queen. Each of the Archlords represent a major aspect of Teldarin elven society: tending and maintaining the elventrees; recording and recalling Teldarin’s histories through the ancient songs; interpreting and guiding Teldarin’s faith through their druids; trade and commerce; and communications with international entities. The High Queen, however, acts as the final decision-maker when it comes to matters of state. The Conclave’s resilience throughout the Second Age was so impressive it served as the basis upon which Meridian humans re-established their own government in the Meridian Monarchy & Ministries in the current Age.

High Queen Aceldama Onieros

Sunkeeper Aylia Solborn''' '''High Prophet Celia Whisperbark

Archderwydda Malta Shiabaros

Trademaster Veruun Fleetleaf

Realmlord Barthelon Espirius

Culture
Elven culture is extremely nuanced, having been developed and refined by the long-lived elves over thousands of years. Generally, the more “civilized” the location within the Forest, the most particular the expectations of custom and behavior; the deeper into the wilds one goes, the more those rules of etiquette are abandoned. While Shal’dorei and Shin’dorei generally worked together in unbroken harmony throughout the Second Age and into the Third, the high elves tend to quietly regard themselves as a more dignified and well-learned people than their wood elf brethren.

Major Events
The Days of Fury - the primordial, earliest period of the world, when the elves say that the first songs were sung not with voices, but the planet itself. This is an era of pre-myth, where proto-life first emerged and the world was blanketed with raging, raw mana that congealed to form the lands, seas, and first creatures.

The First Age - also called the Golden Age, or the Age of Artifice Arcana. The songs claim this was the birth of the world proper - the beginnings of civilization, and the ordering of the world and its peoples. The eldertrees were planted during this period, and Teldarin was properly established as one of the elvenlands. The First Age definitively ended with the catastrophic Sundering, when the peoples of the planet fell to war and brought about the Cold Dark with their magics and weapons.

The Second Age - the ice age that followed the Sundering. In the wake of the fallout, most civilizations collapsed, and the survivors had to band together in the remnants of the First Age’s glory to survive. Darkness permeated most of the world, and the planet was infested with unchecked monsters and creatures of evil. Teldarin was cast into a deep winter, and the elves drew inward, losing contact with everything beyond the eldertrees that survived. Also called Drowdarin - the “Cold Dark”.

The Third Age - the modern era, marked by most of the world’s recovery from the Second Age with the Winterthaw. Also called the “Age of Mending”. While the world is still called “Talusethra” by the elves and Teldarin remains locked in a permanent state of cold from the White Curse, the planet is noticeably - if slowly - recovering.

The Winterthaw - the end of the Second Age, when the frozen lords and demons that roamed the world were largely pushed back to their own dark planes. The planet has slowly been experiencing warmer and warmer climate farther from the equator each summer ever since.

The Drow Wars - the invasion of Manaris by the Drow’dorei from beneath the surface that began 35 years ago and lasted almost 15 years. Also called the Underwars. While not directly attacked in the war, the Teldarin Conclave officially lent its aid for the first time to the besieged humans and, even more notably, dwarves. The elves’ contribution greatly aided in pushing the Drow’dorei back, but not before the pillaging and territorial occupation of Meridia led to a population boom in half-human, half-Drow’dorei offspring. Once the greater armies had retreated back into the earth and the war declared over, the Conclave felt it their responsibility to help shoulder the burden of the surviving prisoners of war and bastard children. Teldarin took a large fraction of Drow, claiming to the other nations their intent to incorporate them into society. While most of the adult Drow’dorei were quietly killed, the bastard offspring were largely left alive. The Conclave’s aid in combat and removal of a large portion of the surviving Drow once the war was over earned Teldarin a strong standing with both Meridia and Khaz-Merda, and kicked off a new period of economic growth and commerce between Manaris’s nations.

Gods
The elves of Teldarin have passed down plenty of legends, myths, and stories about the ancients and the divine powers from the Days of Fury and the First Age. While there are plenty of tales of multiple powers beyond the Forest, the elves idolize a particular pantheon of two definitive deities and a plethora of demi-gods and spirits below them.

Onedra

Also called the Verdant Lady, Onedra is regarded as the matron of all natural entities and processes, but specifically the elvenfolk. Considered the progenitor of life on Talus, she is also often associated with the living things that embody nature. Her symbol is a tree whose limbs and roots are almost interchangeable mirrors of each other. While some humans from the remains of the Drendal Empire had been told stories of a Lady of the Earth and Sky that were bound to one of the Avalon Godsend Colossi, it was largely thanks to the elven druid-priests from Teldarin that came to help Meridia rebuild that the concept of Onedra (and her counterpart Ula) were solidified in the Meridian pantheon. Onedra is so widely regarded as the maker of all living things she is often referred to as “the Mother”.

The Wild Gods

The Druids who worship Onedra often simultaneously pay homage to what druidic circles refer to as the Wild Gods. They are either elemental or savage entities that serve as conduits to the primal energies of the Days of Fury, and can be prayed to interchangeably and independently. The Wild Gods are said to be everywhere Nature can be found, and come in varying degrees of power and influence.

Ula

Quietly acknowledged but rarely overtly worshipped, Ula is the goddess of death and the antithesis of most everything Onedra represents. Those who pay more service to Ula than the typical citizen often serve in funeral rites, or tend to Teldarin crypts and graves. Some lesser educated folk consider Ula to be the grand designer behind the White Curse.

Industry
Teldarin has struggled to maintain a functioning economy as a result of its self-imposed isolationism and the White Curse’s effects. It has centralized its greatest efforts into trade with Meridia, and more tentatively, with the dwarves of Khaz-Merda. The precision, skill, or rarity of elven products has only further developed an air of mystery about the Forest and its inhabitants to outsiders, and as a means of retaining elvish craft secrets and therefore economic viability with the rest of Manaris, the details of the elves’ crafts are kept tightly secret.

Ice-Mining/Shipping
While winters still bring a veritable amount of ice and snow to most of Manaris, Teldarin has kept a tight hold on the secrets of purifying, harvesting, and transporting the finest quality of ice. This has allowed the Conclave to maintain a strong economic tie to what is considered a luxury product with the rest of Manaris, especially during the warmer summer season. Al-Qerim to the far south, however, is easily the most lucrative client for Teldarin ice.

Glass Instruments
While elven blacksmithing has its own mild noteworthy significance, elven glassmaking is a particularly exquisite craft that the other races have attempted to duplicate throughout the years, without much success. Teldarin glass-smiths are able to reinforce glass to make it simultaneously more malleable during the smithing process and stronger when finished, allowing elvenglass to be added to weapons, armor, and architecture as practical aesthetic accents.

Furs/Leathers
As conservation of heat became a necessity in Teldarin culture, the ancient arts of hunting and skinning became even more essential. True to form, as the elves became more dependant on leathercraft, they began developing more aesthetic and luxurious means of utilizing this trade, and have flourished into a veritable economy of glamorous furs and hardy leathers that serve both fighters and aristocrats.

Hot Springs
Though few elves remember it, Mount Horu used to be an active - if latent - volcano; but ever since the Frostveiled Age, the fires of the mountain have cooled and been contained. The geothermic energies are not entirely gone, however, and pockets of heat have melted some of the ice and snow along the feet of Mount Horu to form relaxing and restorative hot springs. The elves tapped this resource as a luxurious means of healing and relaxation, and one of the few true means of staving off against the ecosystem’s magical cold.