The Split of the Wood Elves
Population Migration / Travel
The Wood Elves, living in the northern woods close to Segiirnersis, move south because the north is covered in ice and the forests are dying because of the cold and the rampant energy source. However, there is a divide in opinions as to where they should go. It's crucial for the Wood Elves to move to another forest, but they know very little of the geography of Arregeas and so they split into two groups, each led by one of a pair of siblings, Estishya and Redzayth. Estishya, the older of the two leads her followers east to what would become known as the Estirian Woods.
Her brother, Redzayth, leads his followers more towards south east, where they settle in a forest of peculiar everred color, that they simply name the Redwoods.
Estishya leads her followers east and finds a great coniferous forest, where they settle. These trees withstand the cold and the frost, unlike the trees in the north. Magic is strong, a steady thrum, like a heartbeat that runs through the frozen soil and through the snow covered trees. Estishya listens to the flow of magic and after years recognizes a pattern. Through deep meditation, that makes her followers worry about her, she learns what the pattern means. It's the trees and the earth that are speaking and they teach her how to speak with magic. Estishya's eyes grow fierce and piercing and strangely haunted but she is the first elf to wield magic. A fire, not red and dangerous for the trees and any that would go too near, but a green flame, warming and nurturing, a gift for surviving the deep cold.
The elves had used magic before, in songs but it had never been deliberate and controlled. Estishya teaches others to hear the voices of the trees and the earth and how to speak with magic, but not all can wield it. Many go insane or die and Estishya desperately searches for answers on how to prevent magic taking over her people. Through that she hears the Lord and the Lady speak to her and warn her about the careless use of such a gift. She passes on the message and Nature Dualism is founded. Marks of power are created. Estishya draws them out from the pattern of magic and with coal from her green fire applies them on her people to make them withstand the power of magic.
Meanwhile, Redzayth leads his followers into a forest made entirely from red leaf trees. The place is peculiar and dangerous. Magic runs wild here, like a wildfire and is a lot stronger than in the northern woods. Soon the elves begin to change. Enduring through bitter ice and the diminishing of trees, they develop a strong apetite for meat. With the trees and other plants too rare and precious to eat anyways, their teeth grow sharp and horns sprout from their heads. Their hair colours as red as the blood of the animals they eat and the trees they live in. And in the hunt for meat to survive conflict breaks lose between the elves and as the first of their blood, deep red, almost black, touches the snow-covered floor, symbols of power appear in the blood spill. Sigils of strength, endurance, fearlessness, with each elf's blood spilled a new mark appears on the white canvas of the forest floor, like new stars on the black sky above. What follows is a dark and ugly chapter in the history of the elves. The war of the sigils begins and many, so many, are killed in the strive for power. The blood runes, some call them become the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the redwood elves. Their bodies and minds strengthened but their hearts weakened and easily corrupted by the marks of their fallen siblings. Magic, they realize far too late, is a cruel force of nature with a gruesome sense of humour.
