Great Dale

The Great Dale is a great forest and part of what was known as the Dale Forest. It is an ancient and ancestral home for many elves. The Dale Forest was once the largest forest on the continent spanning between the Great Dale, the Dalelands, and southern Cormyr.
The Dale was originally split between both humans and elves who warred over the land and had many bloody altercations. It wasn't until Irric Lothain and Vaella Edhelwn came together that peace was brokered. Irric Lothain was known as a human folk hero who rallied the humans of the Dale and he led many of the efforts of the humans to claim land. Vaella Edhelwn was an elven shaman who was always a proponent of peace since the beginning of the war.
These two fell in love in secret and they had a child, a half elven daughter who represented the joining of these two factions. Due to this Irric Lothain was swayed to lay down arms and peace was negotiated.
This is marked by the creation of the Standing Stone. It was a tall obelisk covered in elven runes that stood as a symbol of unity between the humans and the elves. The stone itself was enchanted in a way to repair any damage or defacing that occurs, allowing it to stand the test of time. This event was called the Dalereckoning and has been used to mark the years as DR ever since.
As time went on, though, the humans spread and started to clear the forest for farmland, eventually clearing it to where only two major chunks of the forest remained, the human Dalelands in the west and the elven Great Dale in the east.
The elves in the Great Dale believe it is their sacred duty to protect their borders fiercely and have refused the expansion of Thesk into their borders many times. An embassy of theirs was created in the Theskan capital of Lanchester to protect one of the remaining ancient trees in that region. They created a sanctuary and called it the Hidden Grove, maintaining the small sect of forest while the city grew around them.
In the Great Dale itself, the elves live in harmony with nature, protecting it, guiding it, and embracing it. Many of them follow Druidic Rites and believe that the humans to the south are a destructive force who only care about themselves.
The forest itself is a beautiful land, with some of the largest trees on the continent. Life thrives here, creating a unique ecosystem among the giant trees. It is also said that due to the upkeep of the druids of the Great Dale this land has a much stronger connection to Natural Magic than other regions on the continent.

The standing stone still stands to this day, even after repeated attempts to destroy it. It is said that it is buried in the forest of the Dale, and still remains in the original spot where humans and elves signed their peace treaty.