A very, very long time ago, a great forest stretched across the north of what is now the Empire. The elves lived there and made their homes and cities there. We know little else about them at this time.

Perhaps six hundred years ago, humans began to settle in fishing villages on the north coast. We think our ancestors came from across the narrow sea, or perhaps from the plains to the east. The elves began to argue about whether or not these humans were a threat. Some thought they were intrinsically dangerous, and others said they seemed harmless enough for now and could perhaps be trade partners. While they argued over decades, the human villages became towns, and one or two became large enough to be called a city.

The humans began to think about uniting their towns into a nation. They debated fiercely over this, although more quickly than the elves. Some liked their independence and were loath to give it up. Some though it would be more profitable to band together and control all of the ports on this side of the sea. Others thought it would provide defense against the elves, who they thought were planning them evil in their dark forests.

Two strong leaders emerged. The human Nargo was a great speaker and fierce war-leader who spoke against the elven threat and spoke for a union of the humans. The elf Zoricha Deerchaser, tired of endless debate, summoned warriors to her to deal with the ever-more-organized human threat. Deerchaser held the great sword Kirinith, and she said the weapon told her the human presence was a threat. This happened five hundred years ago.

Deerchaser led a strike against a human town. Nargo saw this as proof of elven hostility, and many agreed with him. His group gained power and men, and soon he had armies to field against the elves.

The elves were surprised by Deerchaser's sudden move and chastised her for it. Angered by what she thought was their shortsightedness, she marched off to the south, taking many of her followers and the great sword with her. Some elves say she was killed by drow to prevent her from returning and aiding the elves later.

Even the slow elves saw the necessity of fielding a quick defense against Nargo's forces, and they repented that Deerchaser had left them. They summoned what they could. Thinking quickly, they made many mistakes, for they depended on slow deliberation to prove out ideas of worth. They decided to meet the humans in pitched battle.

That first battle raged for a week and many died on both sides. In the end, the elves, who felt the deaths more keenly, retreated to their forest home. Nargo pursued, slashing into the very center of the forest and leaving destruction where he went. The elves continued to harry his soldiers and both sides felt the losses. This continued on for some ten years.

Nargo began to lose some support. The elven threat seemed to be abated, the elves themselves decimated. What rush was there? Why continue to throw tax money and young people into the war? Nargo, feeling the current of popular support, decided to stop his offensive. The elves, his sages told him, would take perhaps a hundred or more years to recuperate. He could stop, capitalize on his new power, and eradicate them at his leisure. He founded a city in what used to be the center of the elven forest and named it after himself: Nargoth. The coastal cities believed that this was a strong and wise leader who had protected them from a great threat, and willingly submitted to his rule. This was the start of the Nargoth Empire.

Nargo had some forts built, near the remaining elven forests, as precautions, then sent out parties down the western coast. Many tales are told of the heroes who fought evil sea trolls, sea sprites, scaled amphibian men, sirens and even a dragon to make the coast a safe place for humans to live. Less is said of the sea elves who, they say, still haunt the port of Dalen, sinking ships and killing those who sail with sentient cargo.

The elves were quiet, and Nargo and his successors paid them little heed. The elves, for their part, moved as quickly as they could. Children no longer spent lazy days frolicking in the woods as their parents had, waiting for something or other to call them to a lifetask. The strong and fit trained for battle. Those with a pious bent were sent to become members of the elven clergy – the more warlike the god, the better. Those with Talent were sent to study the most violent spells. Any with artistic bent were set to making swords and armor and other tools of war. It is said that one settlement nearly starved; no one was left to hunt or to gather food. In a little over fifty years, an army of children was ready to combat the humans. The elves bided their time yet, not wanting to commit too much and lose it as they had earlier. But when Nargo IV decreed that a new settlement should be built within the Legasha Forest, which is the eastern part of the original forest, his builders ran out with arrow-wounds, if they ran at all.

The elves within the Legasha Forest had decided to hold their lands and wait. Either their numbers would increase enough, or the humans would kill themselves off. Their sages reported that humans had been known to do such things. Patience, they thought, was key.

The leaders in the Kangrel Woods to the west did not agree. They burned with anger and shame at their loss, and wished to give the humans as much pain as they could. Of course, some in the west agreed with some in the east, and visa versa. Most of these individuals eventually emigrated to their kin (if they survived the journey out of the forest) in the opposite forest where their views were shared.

This has been the stalemate for just over four hundred years. Sometimes it seems as if the elves of the Kangrel have reclaimed some land; sometimes it seems as if they are losing more. The number of elves in the Legasha has never risen much, leading them to call for a Prophecy which has only recently been delivered to them. The Prophecy is very unelvish in tone, leading many there to question which god actually sent it. No one wished to speak with me more on that subject and I did not press it, as I was very glad to hear the elven history of the Nargoth Empire.

I have tried to moderate both accounts, leaving out the slurs and exaggerations from both.

Perhaps stalemate is a wrong word, for the Nargoth Empire did not remain static. It grew and expanded, first down the western coast, then back east across the northern boundaries of the desert and the mountains. Our province, Urala, was the last to be settled and is still unexplored in many parts. There are many towns and some cities where the founders passed away within recent memory.

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