House Elmwood

Aethelweald is a village in the Nieden region, the village surrounds what is known as a "Mother-Tree" which is a tree sprouted from "The Everglade" the ancestral homeland of the Glade Elves. Aethelweald is inhabited by Glade Elves who settled there thousands of years ago during the Elven Migrations, the Glade Elves have come to developing the area around Aethelweald, creating cottages, farmland, and recreational areas to sustain their quality of life. Aethelweald resides in the Emirate of Najer in the Andamooka province, and is a highly valued agricultural and trade center for the nation - providing things like honey, mushrooms, textiles, leathers, furs, spices, teas, cheeses, wines, jams, and much more. The Glade Elves of Aethelweald are culturally different to the people of Najer. and so for a long period of time Aethelweald has been in isolation from the world. However, **Eorl** **Ælfric Staggamere** has opened up borders between Najer and Aethelweald, as well as The Simulami Empire to the dismay of many of his people, but while the Glade Elves stuck to their ancient woodland the world around them began to overtake them, and for the protection of the forest, that was not an option.

## Geography

To the naked eye Aethelweald looks like a dark dense forest, and a newcomer would not venture into this deep grove on their own intuition, To traverse such a unforgiving terrain would not only take four times as long as if you went around but it may even be suicide for the inexperienced traveler. Luckily, with proper guidance, the common man can be taught to traverse the forest, yet it is still not as simple as if you went around. Once you enter the town of Aethelweald, you can find many buildings decorated with their banner, a magical black stag, with an eye in the middle, sometimes the banner is ordained with the House words "Your Fear is Our Fury". The houses are made of irregular masonry with ornate wooden carvings decorating the windows and walls, and a mushroom cap roof. Mushroom cap roofs are used as they present a light load on the stone cottages, while providing a water barrier as well as great insulation from the cold.

## Climate

With Najer being a desert nation, the temperatures fluctuate in the area around Aethelweald, the warm days are really humid, and hot, while the cold days and nights are really cold, because of this the Glade Elves tend to wear a simple fur pelt over their backs, wide enough to wrap around their torso with their arms, and on hot days they have the sides buttoned onto the back making a make-shift fur cape. This is quite a versatile garment, as it can be used for storage, packaging, a sleeping blanket, or even a camping tarp.

## History

The Glade Elves are descendants from Celestial Elves who established colonies in Najer a very long time ago. It was at this time Eostre saw a future, her forest burning, pillaged, razed... so she sends a call to the recently established Elves, some rejected it, others ventured into the dense forest. The Elven colonies only barely survived the rapid drop in population, yet managed to keep the colonies established for years - the Elves who ventured into the forest did not return nor did they give any signs of life, they assumed the unforgiving nature killed them all. The thriving nature of the Elven colonies angered the Niedene people, despite the overwhelming numbers of the Niedenians the Elves made them pay for every inch of ground, alas, the Elves were defeated, decimated... in the years since Eostre made the call, she had been training the Elves to live amongst the forest, and now it was time. The Niedenians made their way into the forest, burning trees as they passed them with their torches, the Niedenians were met with arrows from atop the trees, though chaos ensued as they could not see the Glade Elves covered by the dense leaves, the vines picking the men up by the necks and crushing their throats, the roots pulling them from their ankles and underground to be ripped apart, eventually the Niedenian's moral was crushed by the sorcery of this forest and they ran back to their homeland.

Centuries passed as the Glade Elves living in isolation inside the forest, not being able to trust men after the destruction they brought. The new settlers of Najer never ventured into the forest, as any who went in never came out again, the Glade Elves were seen as folklore, given fairy-like stories to entertain the children, eventually an organisation with a logo of a black field with a red staff and a circle around it started putting boxes of things right on the edge of the forest, things like boxes of wine, jewelry, cured meats, jams, cheeses with notes like "for you, forest dwellers". this striked the Glade Elves' curiosity and so they sent parties of 4-6 out of the forest to explore, to their suprise they found cities built of sand and stone. The humans welcomed them, though the explorers were on edge due to hearing about how bad humans are their whole life - trust grew more and more as the Glade Elves sent more envoys to the human cities and eventually grew trade relations and even joining the Emirate of Najer. After some time a man wearing the same logo seen on the boxes outside the forest casually walks into the forest, attempting to traverse above all the roots and weeds, the guards had their arrows drawn but instead ran back to call the King, the King approached the man.

>
> "You're bold I'll give you that"
>
>
> "What? Couldn't see me coming?"
>
>
> "You walk so loud I could've shot you with my eyes closed."
>
>
>
>

They both share a laugh and the man is invited to the tea house to discuss, he introduces himself as "Azzar" and his logo being the logo of "The Order of the Red Quarterstaff" he explains what his Order does and after more tea and eventually wine, they come to an agreement, Aethelweald will be a member of the Order. The King passed laws allowing men to enter the forest and even built roads for them and to this day, the Glade Elves have friendly relations with the Order of the Red Quarterstaff, and the Emirate of Najer.