Everaldimor (/Eh-vr-al-di-mor)
History and Government
Everaldimor - the Emerald Forest. Here the very land breathes life and beauty, but so also within it breathe great evils and dangers. The bulk of Everaldimor's population is made up of the Forest Elves, who live relatively solitary lives free of written law of governance. All that matters to them are the unwritten laws of nature, though they are bound by shared social norms and dynamics. Throughout Everaldimor, there also exist various locations which serve as transient cities - places where Forest Elves meet to trade, revel, and reconvene with family and friends. Some of these cities move with the seasons and years, while others remain ever-present. The most reliable of them is the Emerald City, which serves as the de facto capital of the forest, and the hub to which foreign traders often sail towards by way of the Elrenor River. Everaldimor originated naturally - Elves came to live within the forest, and they called the forest their home. These Elves belonged to the empire of Delos'Nordan, which grew increasingly corrupt over successive generations and culminated in the Age of Destruction. As Delos'Nordan disintegrated and its constituent vassals revolted, the Forest Elves no longer felt that the empire represented them and issued the Emerald Declaration. Functionally, they were already independent, and the declaration was merely a recognition of this status in solidarity with other states that fought against the High Elves. It was also a firm rejection of High Elven pressures for a draft; the Forest Elves fought bravely in The Silver War but disagreed with the reconquest of Delos'Nordan's lands against other mortals. The Forest Elves also disagreed with the High Elves' alliance with the Silver Flight, as they viewed the preservation of any dragon as treasonous to nature. Following the Emerald Declaration, Delos'Nordan made several attempts to regain its lost territories. Everaldimor became involved in most of them, resulting in the The Elven Wars. The High Elves were never able to subjugate the dense forest, however, leading to mass wars of attrition on any front against the Forest Elves. In all of the Elven Wars, the High Elves were defeated, and Everaldimor pushed strict demands towards Delos'Nordan's disintegration and disarmament. This resulted in the formation of regions including The Feral Lands, which are nominally disarmed but have come to serve as centers of proxy fighting. The Forest Elves maintain close ties with the denizens of such lands, funding and arming them so that they may resist any skirmishes and incursions by High Elven forces. Today, Everaldimor maintains close ties with the other nations of Pharos, gluing together a powerful coalition that the High Elves can never hope to stand against. This coalition has often been challenged, such as during The Erith Conflict (where Montbay pressed a claim to Everaldimor) and The Grand Sea War (where Barisea and Delos'Nordan entered a formal conflict). The jungle, however, is difficult to tame regardless of what official documents and borders may insinuate, and the Forest Elves have opted for a policy of rapid appeasement when wars have failed to go their way, as embarrassing paperwork is a small cost to pay for the containment of an existential threat. Though Everaldimor lacks official leadership or authority, the vast majority of Forest Elves adhere to and revere the words of the Dal'morai. The Dal'morai are the highest sect of Druids within Everaldimor. Their numbers consist of Druids from all manner of Circles, and their wise words are appealed to when all other manners of adjudication or counsel fail. The Dal'morai carry the fragments of the Dal'sakarokai - the Thrumcaller. This enchanted horn is said to have the power to call all Forest Elves to war, its effects manifesting just as Llelles' Thrum. Some legends also claim that Fey fall under its control, and others that the Faeries of Llelles herself shall come and strike the forest's opponents.Cities
The Emerald City
The Emerald City is the name of a settlement which lies on the banks of Everaldimor's greatest river, the Elrenor. Its population is impossible to estimate, as most Forest Elves merely reside in it temporarily to meet friends and trade before heading back out into the woods. On the other hand, the Emerald City also boasts a high temporary population of foreigners who have come to trade, further complicating the equation. At any point, upwards of a hundred thousand people may live in the Emerald City - whose bounds are also ill-defined. You see, the city itself does not have buildings; in Forest Elven fashion, trees and tents serve as the primary forms of housing. Such residences exist all throughout the forest, and certainly all around the bulk of the Emerald City's population, making a strict delineation hard. The City itself is a font of natural beauty. Falls, springs, and sky-reaching trees lit with glowing lanterns lie within its expanse, and the massive Elrenor splits into several streams. Indeed, boats and ferries are the main forms of transit within the Emerald City; they also make up the primary method of arrival, as there are few ways to find the city except by following the Elrenor. Spices and smoke fill the air with a sickly-sweet scent, and trinkets from all over the world can be found here - for the right barter.Geography
The entirety of Everaldimor is covered by dense forests. These forests vary greatly in character, taking on the qualities of jungles within the deep interior, pine rainforests in the western isles of Erith, and more mild woodlands in the north-east. These woodlands extend out into The Feral Lands, thinning out towards the southern borders of Delos'Nordan. In Everaldimor, water is not scarce, but there are still several critical rivers. The most important is the Elrenor River, which carves a path from the Thal'Nore Mountains to the Bay of Beasts, cutting through the trade glamorous Emerald City - capital of this dense forest land. The Elrenor is fed by the Enren River and the Ura River, both of which serve as the shores of several gathering sites for the Forest Elves. Most of these sites are migratory, moving up and down the banks until they reach the Elrenor or the waters start to run too thin to support the temporary population. The northern Cyhlona River used to share a similar purpose, though it has faded into history because of its importance to the people of the Lowmarch. In Everaldimor's northwest, the land takes on a more marshy character, and the waters tend to be more fetid. Still, smaller communities exist around their banks, and many Forest Elves visit this region on pilgrimages when they come of age as it is considered more wild.Resources
The forest hides a great many resources, though few Forest Elves regularly mine or cultivate them. Foreign traders sometimes attempt to, though they are quickly rooted out by the forest's denizens - or the Forest Elves themselves. Instead, most of Everaldimor's resources are exported through trade with individual Forest Elves (especially in the Emerald City) by way of barter. When a trader has accumulated enough of a resource by engaging with a large amount of Forest Elves, they leave. The process is significantly more complicated than it need be, but such is the way of the forest. Spices and herbs are the primary luxuries that Everaldimor offers. Some grow strictly in its jungles, while others have alternative sources that are just as difficult to tap into, such as the insular lands of Delos'Nordan or the far-off Rainy Country. Among Everaldimor's most-desired resources are anise, cardamom, cinnamon, sugar, avocado, Elvenmint, Emegum and soybeans. None of these resources - with the slight exception of soybeans - have yet spread to be cultivated abroad, and they are thus quite high-valued luxuries. Cannabis also grows wildly throughout Everaldimor and is prized for its mood-affecting, mildly hallucinogenic, and calming medicinal effects. Amidst the aristocracy of other nations, water from Everaldimor is considered a sign of wealth. All manner of charlatans sell "Everaldimorian spring water," and "water from the trees of Everaldimor." Most are fake, though there certainly exists a market for export of real Everaldimorian water. The Forest Elves tend to find this absurd, but they're more than happy to trade such a plentiful resource for jewelry, seasonings, and luxuries from abroad. Everaldimor also has significant reserves of antimony, which is valued as a source of pigmentation. These reserves occur especially in Everaldimor's outlying islands, which are centers of volcanic activity. There are also reserves inland, however, especially around the Deepsprings.Ethnicities
The existence of ethnicities within Everaldimor prior to the arrival of the Forest Elves is disputed. It's believed that most viewed these lands as uninhabitable before the High Elves migrated into them, a belief which is substantiated by state documents of Delos'Nordan from the time. Usually, the High Elves eagerly documented tribes of the Old Faith in the hopes of hatching plans for their civilization, though such documents notoriously excluded Fey categorically (as the High Elves considered them incapable of such a task). Today, some humans do call Everaldimor their home. These include members of various tribes recognized in other parts of Pharos, and they inlcude those who claim to be members of tribes yet unrecognized. Most of these latter tribes have links to extant tribes, however, and no evidence has been presented that they are not merely recent migrants seeking a new way of life. In any case, the Forest Elves greatly outweigh the number of such humans, and they have no problems coexisting alongside them - an attitude which is sometimes not reciprocated, leading to troubles when the tribes do not recognize the authority of the Dal'morai.Diplomacy
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"The Emerald Kingdom"
Adjectives: Everaldimorian (alternatively: Everaldimese)
National Animal: Leaf Ray
National Instrument: Recorder
Ethnicities: Everaldimi
Languages: Sylvaro'rithei
Capital: The Emerald City
Ruler: The Dal'morai
Government: Natural Law
Hallmarks: Forest Elves, the wilds, Druidism, exotic goods
Characteristics: Wild, independent, dependable, pragmatic
National Animal: Leaf Ray
National Instrument: Recorder
Ethnicities: Everaldimi
Languages: Sylvaro'rithei
Capital: The Emerald City
Ruler: The Dal'morai
Government: Natural Law
Hallmarks: Forest Elves, the wilds, Druidism, exotic goods
Characteristics: Wild, independent, dependable, pragmatic