Formatting code for Delverness
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<<{{image url="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z62/ZamahLand/Wiki/Delverness.jpg"}}>>====__**Delverness**__====
Long ago, before the advent of human kingdoms in Meditra, much of the continent was blanketed by primeval forest. Trees great as castles rose to the sky, holding entire worlds of birds and leaf-leaping martens in their branches. It was in these seemingly limitless woods that the elves made their first homes, mirroring the natural grace of their surroundings in their manner and their architecture. Sylvan magic was stronger in this age than it is now; unicorns and fae were, if never common, at least wonders that each person might hope to glimpse once in his or her life. It is said, too, that the malign bent of some fae did not exist before their forests came under threat or were lost altogether. Nature was ever red in tooth and claw, but only with the dying of the woods did she turn from the savagery of survival to cruelty.
As with so many other wonders of the ancient world, however, the great forests fell victim to time. The rise and expansion of the human empires needed timber for houses and ships, fields for crops and sheep; the forests gave way to the axes of men, and tamed farmland replaced the wild woods. Other evils beset the elves, and the slow threat of human encroachment mostly went unanswered. Though the fortunes of the human kingdoms waxed and waned over the centuries, they never fell so low for so long that the oldwoods reclaimed their lands.
Today, Delverness is the last remnant of the truly uncharted forests of Western Meditra. Isolated behemoths still stand in some of the lesser woods, such as the Gildwood and Smokewood of Calantyr; but only in Delverness do they stand among their kin as one among many, and only in Delverness does the old sylvan magic survive as more than a fading spark. The ancient powers are strong there, and civilized men are not welcome in their realm.
How long the Delverness can remain untouched is yet to be seen. For generations the wood-elves who dwell in its depths have fought a quiet, slowly-losing battle against the encroachment of the human lands on all sides; but it is believed by all that they only delay the inevitable. Though the forest's borders have expanded and shrunk to meet the borders of the kingdoms that flourish and fade around it, only the quick-growing lightwoods such as pine and maple are capable of recovering ground in fifty years or less. Any wound to the ancient depths of the forest is agonizingly slow to heal.
Delverness is not only threatened from without. The red scar of Pafund Mal is an ever-festering wound within. That valley is home to Maol's most direct presence on this plane: it is whispered that a permanent gate to the Abyss sits inside a fortress at the heart of Pafund Mal, and only by unspeakable sacrifice is it kept from bursting open. Even so, demons and nightmarishly warped creatures are forever trying to claw free of the valley. Only by the constant vigilance of a secretive order of elves, known as the Halda, are they kept from escaping to wreak havoc on surrounding lands.
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<<{{image url="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z62/ZamahLand/Wiki/Delverness.jpg"}}>>====__**Delverness**__====
Long ago, before the advent of human kingdoms in Meditra, much of the continent was blanketed by primeval forest. Trees great as castles rose to the sky, holding entire worlds of birds and leaf-leaping martens in their branches. It was in these seemingly limitless woods that the elves made their first homes, mirroring the natural grace of their surroundings in their manner and their architecture. Sylvan magic was stronger in this age than it is now; unicorns and fae were, if never common, at least wonders that each person might hope to glimpse once in his or her life. It is said, too, that the malign bent of some fae did not exist before their forests came under threat or were lost altogether. Nature was ever red in tooth and claw, but only with the dying of the woods did she turn from the savagery of survival to cruelty.
As with so many other wonders of the ancient world, however, the great forests fell victim to time. The rise and expansion of the human empires needed timber for houses and ships, fields for crops and sheep; the forests gave way to the axes of men, and tamed farmland replaced the wild woods. Other evils beset the elves, and the slow threat of human encroachment mostly went unanswered. Though the fortunes of the human kingdoms waxed and waned over the centuries, they never fell so low for so long that the oldwoods reclaimed their lands.
Today, Delverness is the last remnant of the truly uncharted forests of Western Meditra. Isolated behemoths still stand in some of the lesser woods, such as the Gildwood and Smokewood of Calantyr; but only in Delverness do they stand among their kin as one among many, and only in Delverness does the old sylvan magic survive as more than a fading spark. The ancient powers are strong there, and civilized men are not welcome in their realm.
How long the Delverness can remain untouched is yet to be seen. For generations the wood-elves who dwell in its depths have fought a quiet, slowly-losing battle against the encroachment of the human lands on all sides; but it is believed by all that they only delay the inevitable. Though the forest's borders have expanded and shrunk to meet the borders of the kingdoms that flourish and fade around it, only the quick-growing lightwoods such as pine and maple are capable of recovering ground in fifty years or less. Any wound to the ancient depths of the forest is agonizingly slow to heal.
Delverness is not only threatened from without. The red scar of Pafund Mal is an ever-festering wound within. That valley is home to Maol's most direct presence on this plane: it is whispered that a permanent gate to the Abyss sits inside a fortress at the heart of Pafund Mal, and only by unspeakable sacrifice is it kept from bursting open. Even so, demons and nightmarishly warped creatures are forever trying to claw free of the valley. Only by the constant vigilance of a secretive order of elves, known as the Halda, are they kept from escaping to wreak havoc on surrounding lands.
