Borda Elsa, Border Elves

Puny elf, I thought to myself. He was slender and fragile like a leaf! He came to us and said he had no wish for bloodshed! Asked us, us the bandits of the Bloody Bandana Gang to cease our wicked deeds or the consequences would be dire! How could I not laugh? He was pale almost sickly and his long fine hair the color of chestnuts looked like a woman's! We should not have laughed, we attacked only for our blades to find empty air and then we heard him in his gall apologize to us! The attack came so fast me and twenty hardened bandits, all killers dyed red with blood we fell like wheat before the scythe to a handful of these damned elves. The biggest insult was that we all woke up in chains in a prison! They had struck with such power and precision but they had restrained themselves from landing killing blows or else healed those who had fallen from the brink of death only to bring us to the damned law of the land! Now I see that damn elf again and his eyes like damn gemstones that are bloody disappointed in me! and then he says to me that he hopes I have learned the err of my ways and can find peace before the law dogs hang us and the worst of it is I feel that every word he speaks is true.   A second Branching of the Tree of Life   Borda Elsa, a simple name that once meant the elves of the border lands. A name given to our ancestors by the Nytalf Elsa long ago when we were still counted among their numbers. We were the Nytalf Elsa who lived farthest away from the Ivory Towers and Silver cities, we were lumberjacks, miners and traders who according to the Nytalf willing endured labor and communicating with races that they found difficult to understand. And yet we were so much more, for all the Nytalf brag it was we who bridged the gap between Alflar and Elsa, we who would learn to understand Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling and our many friends of the forest and metallic dragon kind.   We were so much more then just the traders and diplomats we protected those distant borders with spell, sword and bow. Our foresters would befriend the direwolves who would become the Mac Tíre Gealach the Moon Wolves who have stood vigilant with our brave guardians for ages untold. We bridged a cultural gap between the Te'ra Alflar and Nytalf Elsa that neither of them could wholly embrace. Most of the animals the world knows the elves for were our doing, the nimble elven steeds, cunning cats great and small and loyal hounds each and every breed and many more started their history as friends to our people.   It was in the distant border lands we branched away, so distant from the great cities of the river valleys where we were not so blessed with great magic to solve all lifes problems, that we stepped away from being Nytalf Elsa. We learned that both arcane and divine magic were important but also learned that prowess in magic does not alone make for a good leader nor strength to protect good folk from the deeds of the wicked. When we declared ourselves the first of the second Branching there were those who scoffed, those who said we would return to the branch that birthed us. The Te'ra Alfar were much more supportive of our independence both then and now. For all the Nytalf Elsa Nobles had thought our declaration of an allied independent state was we proved them and other naysayers wrong and we Elves of the Border Lands bloomed.   Evil Fears Bold Hearts   We proved ourselves as a people and our resolve in the Dark Walker Wars and the later War with Ecress, we held the borders with courage and heart against tides of wicked and unwholesome foes. Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, Giants, wicked wyrms and the rotting undead we held them at bay, we protected the silver heart of the Nytalf Elsa Empire and we learned of the cruelty of tyrants and the nature of monsters in our many battles. We also learned the strength of freedom and friendship. We who stood shoulder to shoulder with every elven Branch, every ally our people had we proudly bleed at their side standing for the freedom and to protect the ones we loved. As the Nytalf pride grew and grew we found it more and more difficult to serve them. We warned them we seen shades of tyranny, pleaded with them to change their course and we were denied, scoffed at as mere traders, laborers and uneducated bumpkins.   Freedom lays in the West   When they declared war on our dwarven friends we could endure no more. We had been disrespected, pushed away in favor of their pride and need for senseless revenge. So we protested the only way that would not stain our hands with the blood of good folk. We followed the Te'ra Alflar and Hargar dwarves and we left. We wandered west for a time, and as we did our kith and kin would form settlements or else join those of the peoples we met that we found to our liking. When we at last came to the west we found the Te'ra Alflar and the great Dark Wood they called home and we remembered the times of old and they agreed to share the great woods with us. To the North we discovered the Hargar had found a nation of stout brave folk and not far were our gnomish and halfling friends. We had left so much behind only to find old friends that warmed our hearts once more. So we made our great city where we could be near our friends of old and called it Borda Elsa Tiea, our Elf Home on the Border.   The Darkness in the Mirror   Although it is true we had foreseen dark days ahead and left our old lands we could not have fathomed the true extent of the darkness of the Tarnished Age. At first we had hoped the Swart Alflar and their bloody cival war would remain far away in Dothmeryji but as they gained power they turned their eyes to our far away lands and desired to subjugate we and the Te'ra Alflar alike. In the end they spread themselves to thin and were defeated and driven into the deep caverns as had the ghoblyns of long ago. Alas there is no rest for the wicked and the vile artifacts, the Mirrors of the Fiendish Realms had been activated and we had to contend with an otherworldly threat of purest evil. In the end we helped to destroy the fiendish mirrors and banish the legions of evil creatures they had brought to this world. We were very tired and wounded from the many conflicts and evils we had faced, when the curse of the thousand year winter came we retreated to our forest home to heal and rebuild until the cursed winter might end.   The First Forest Moot   It was after the Cursed Winter that we emerged ready to rejoin the world outside of our Dark Wood but a terrible Green Dragon named Verdinoxus the Forest-Gloom had other ideas. Forest-Gloom had every intention of claiming all of the Dark Wood as his own and enslaving the elves, fey and gnomes and using them as cattle. So we did as we always did, we found friends to stand with. We called upon the Te'ra Alflar, the Gnomes of the forest, the Centaurs, the Treants and the Fey and the first Forest Moot was held. Together we devised plans to stand against Forest-Gloom and his armies of Goblins and Orcs. We worked with our kin and crafted a sword for our greatest hero, Ethos Mithralmark. The blade was our greatest craft a relic of older magic imbued with the power of the elements and able to cleave through even the scales of a thousand year old dragon with ease. Ethos may have been our kin but it was together that we slew Forest-Gloom and reclaimed our home and cemented the alliance of the folk of the Dark Wood.   For many we are the rulers of the Dark Wood, the face they place with our lands and while we fullfill this duty to some extent we are simply one aspect of our forest home. All Borda Elsa know that we can not, do not nor should we ever stand alone for in friendship and difference we find strength. Many are our allies and many will find the Borda Elsa ready to offer our aid when evil threatens these good folk. Ever and always we will protect the Borders ever and always we will be ready to drive back the Orc, Goblin, Evil Dragon, Evil Giant, Drow, fiend or undead for they are ever and always our eternal foes.