Elvish Re-emergence

The year was 14 350. The Third great winter had just come to a close,. Unlike the previous one that had lasted 150 years this lasted only 5. But for those five years, the temperature hardly went above the normal depths of winter. near round snows were seen in the northern parts of Daswer and Albion and places like Bacland had entire shires go under the ice and snow. It came with little warning and hit the nations of Randore hard.

Only a few hundred years before this, the population had been ravaged by Red Fever. A terrible disease that - [DM note, i wrote this history pre COVID and its not aged well so lets just say this...] there was a terrible plague.

Many of the peoples of Randore were doing this difficult, it seemed to many that the gods had abandoned them. Then, On a seemingly ordinary spring day, the Elves came.

## History

In the begins of time, through means of their own (largely now thought to be the use of the Feywild's unique travel abilites) The Elves spread around Randore long before any but the Giants. They ventured deep under ground, and into the thick overgrown woods.

Before humans ruled the world, the most numerous people were the Orcs. However, for an unknown reason they began to die out around the mid 3,500's. When they did it became clear that the elves would not be able to be the next to inherit the world, as they once had thought.

While they were better located than almost any other peoples, they lived life to slowly. Seeing as high elves could live for 10,000 most of the first elves had not even reached mid life yet. It was clear to the elves that Humans and other peoples would inherit the world, or at least most parts of it.

Because of this, many decided to make an intentional effort to keep away from them, and keep to their own affairs.

Those who would become the Eladrin, chose to live permanently in the twilight land of the Feywild. Others crawled into the depths underground and became the Drow. Many who chose to stay kept close to the forests and woodlands, that reminded them of their assessorial home in Bacland, these came to be the woodelves. Finally a group chose to build themselves fully self sufficient cities, and hide away inside them. These would be called the High Elves - and big surprise they ended up naming all the different elves.

These hidden cities, 'Villecauc' as the elves called them in their tongue, were all over Randore and through special enchantments could only be visited by those who had known where they are at the time of the enchantments casting. Using this, and some good will of those who had already known about them, the High Elves all but faded from memory.

Just over 10,000 years later, after the most intense and deadly Great Winter recorded, many of the elves agreed to open their doors and help Randore.

## Effects

When left alone Elves have a tendency to peace and order. Because of this many of the elven cities stayed very strong during their secret years. Elvish culture however, changed very little. This was reflected in the early years of their emergence, as they did not know or care for the customs of others. They still saw themselves very much as an Elvish people, while the rest of the world had long since moved on to talking about countries and nations.

The Elves, through both the gratefulness of the nations they helped, and a little cunning themselves, secured positions of power through-out Randore, and their slow age has helped them keep these positions to this day.

While now days High elves only live for around 1,000 years there was a gradual transition from this, meaning that some of the oldest high elves today still remember the Emergence, and life before leaving the cities.

## The Lost Elven Cities

Not all Of the Elven Cites chose to open up to the outside world. Of the original 100 elven families, only 68 were recorded as present when the elves remerged. meaning their could be any number of cities still hidden, with only the heads of the elven families knowing where they might be.

The Other City that is missing is the First Elven City, with none of the currently known elven cities holding that title. It could have been abandoned like the First Dwarven city. Or perhaps it is still out there, the greatest original elven city, just waiting to be discovered.