Pocket Guide to the Empire , Third Edition : Valenwood Pocket Guide to the Empire , Third Edition Author : Imperial Geographic Society Content . The great forest to the south - west of the continent has long been a buffer between the ambitions of the humans of Cyrodiil and the elves of Summerset . A sea of endless green , a maze of foliage with half - hidden cities growing like blooms from a flower , the home of the Bosmer is Tamriel ' s garden . History . The history of Valenwood stretches back to the very beginning of recorded time : the date traditionally used as the start of the First Era is the founding of the Camoran Dynasty by King Eplear of Valenwood . As the Aldmer began to change their ways to match their new environment , adapting to the forest in body and mind , they became known as the Bosmer . In return for the patronage of Y ' ffre , the Forest God ( either one of the old ancestor spirits or an aspect of the true pantheon ) , they swore never to kill , injure , or eat any of the vegetation of the new home . Eplear ' s success in uniting the inherently wild Bosmer must be counted among the greatest military feats in Tamriel ' s history . The Camoran Dynasty was itself a far different beast than the empires of man that also rose in the First Era . In the forests , after all , diversity was the law , and the Bosmer welcomed escaped slaves from the Ayleid s , and then Ayleids fleeing the Alessian rebellion , and finally the new Empire itself , forming a trade treaty in 1E 340 with men who had only recently thrown off the brutal Ayleid yoke . The treaty was short - lived , however , and hostility grew between the Dynasty and the Empire as the prophet Marukh ' s teaching began to spread . One of Marukh ' s chief supporters , the Nord King Borgas , became a victim of Valenwood ' s infamous Wild Hunt as he traveled to Cyrodiil to urge a joint war against the Bosmer . Thus did Valenwood simultaneously defend itself and strike a devastating blow against its new enemies . Skyrim would spend the next fifty years in turmoil . Even with the eventual dissolution of the Alessian Reform of Marukh , battles continued to be waged along the Cyrodiil and Valenwood border lands . When the Empress Herda improved relations with the Colovian West , the attacks only intensified , though it was not until 1E 2714 - after relenting warfare and a devastating plague from the island of Thras - that Valenwood fell to the Cyrodilic Empire . The Camoran Dynasty as an entity still existed , but its power was diminished . The Empire , eager to make sure that Valenwood would not unite against its new occupiers , granted independence to each treethane of the Dynasty , so nevermore would they battle together against a common foe . Falinesti , Silvenar , Haven , Archen , Eldenroot , Woodhearth rose from being local trading posts to full - fledged powers in their own right . For centuries , the Bosmer were obedient if not particularly loyal subject of the Cyrodilic Empire . At the fall of the Cyrodilic Empire in 2E 430 , the Camorans attempted to reinstate their authority over the other kingdoms , but culturally each had drifted too far away to be united . Without any other greater power to rein in their ambitions , they began to war against one another , the Khajiit to the east , and the Colovian s to the north . Valenwood ate away at itself , and offered no resistance to the coastal encroachments of the Maormer of Pyandonea . It took another outside force to reunify Valenwood : the home of the ancient Bosmer , Summerset Isle . The unified elven kingdom of Valenwood and Summerset , the Aldmeri Dominion , was the most stable power in Tamriel until the coming of Tiber Septim . The new government of Valenwood was called the Thalmor , a congress of Bosmeri chieftains and Altmeri diplomats . While not particularly popular , the Thalmor proved better than the chaos of the previous years , and endured until Tiber Septim ' s armies swept it away . Wisely , the Emperor allowed Valenwood to keep some of the symbols of her independence , such as the tribal councils and a figurehead Camoran king . For two hundred and fifty years , Valenwood was at peace . The War of the Isle and the War of the Red Diamond , which ravaged other parts of the Empire , left it unscathed . The Empire used the province as it saw fit , and neglected it otherwise . Gradually , the Bosmer began to grow resentful of an authority which seemed increasingly alien - perfect breeding ground for the horror which was to follow . In the year 249 of the Third Era , a pretender to the ancient throne of the Camorans appeared , and with mundane and Daedric allies , stormed across Valenwood , destroying all who stood against him . The Bosmer were slow to unite against the threat , many too terrified to stand against the Camoran Usurper and some delighted that they were being freed , however violently , from the perceived yoke of the Empire . This minority grew as the Usurper ' s power did , and once he had consolidated his power in Valenwood , he turned his attentions northward . It took nearly two decades of tyranny before Valenwood found the strength to shrug off Haymon Camoran ' s rule . When he lost his seat of power , the Usurper ' s conquests in Colovia and Hammerfell rose in revolt , and his army was destroyed in the Iliac Bay between Hammerfell and High Rock in 3E 267 . In Valenwood the Usurper left behind was a broken land . No longer trusting the Empire or Summerset for support , or its local leaders for guidance , the Bosmer have become more and more isolationist in temperament . The people began leaving the cities , preferring life in the forests , returning to their earliest traditions . It is not surprising that when the province showed sign of weakness , its rapacious neighbors chose to attack . No other province suffered more during the Imperial Simulacrum than Valenwood . With the Empire unwilling to lend its assistance and defend her , the land was attacked from the east by Elsweyr and from the west by Summerset Isle , both taking sizable chunks of the Bosmeri land . Current Events . The political weakness of Valenwood has been evident for more than twenty years now , and the Bosmer seem resigned to this state of affairs . The land is considered by most to be a mere geographical designation without any political purpose . If there is honor or pride , it is with one ' s family or clan . National feeling , never strong , seems to have died . The tribal council has not met in decades . Valenwood appears to be adrift . And yet there are signs of other forces stirring . The Wild Hunt has been sighted for the first time in over five hundred years , although to what purpose is not yet clear . Falinesti , the " walking city " of trees , has rooted itself for the first time in recorded history . A new Bosmer prophet has arisen , known only as the Precursor , who preaches that the old Forest God Y ' ffre is returning with new gifts for his favored people . Whether these are isolated events , or signs of some great change coming to Valenwood , remains to be seen .