East of Sorgusa, a full days walk away, is the Nelian Forest, one of the three in northern Tempore. At its greatest length it is about 50 miles long. It used to be twice as large a few hundred years ago, but as northern Tempore has grown, all of the forests have shrunk.
Around 100 years ago, the town of Araxi was founded along the southern border using trees from the forest. Though no rivers to transport lumber existed, the town quickly became home to lots of lumberjacks and carpenters. Their goods would be made in the village and then sold elsewhere, usually to Serro to the south, which governs Araxi or Golan to the east, the largest settlement in Northern Tempore. But about 50 years ago, the forest became haunted, or so the people of Araxi believed. Accidents would occasionally befall a lumberjack to cut down a tree or someone gathering mushrooms would enter the forest and then never leave. Though the cutting down of trees and the use of the woods to create everything from furniture to barrels didn’t cease, it was drastically reduced. And over the past 25 years, the town of Araxi diminished both in size and in population. A few of the abandon houses were taken over by bandits over the years from time to time, but the main town itself still is a quiet place to live.
What actually happened was that a family Heasirretyn elves, who generally live in the grand forests at the base of the Shyrorn Mountains in Katen, had discovered after hundreds of years of searching that in this northern forest an artifact of great power that had been lost millennia ago. With the rumored return of a great evil in the southern lands, it was decided that it needed to be protected at all costs until the time of the Prophecy came true. So this family of elves on orders from their Queen moved from their home to make a new home. Now around 50 elves live in this forest, having made a small village in the center, high into the old growth trees. Though they don’t care if some of the forest is used by the humans in the nearby towns and village, but they have actively discouraged it from being a place where anyone visits. And if anyone does, they will watch them. Recently a halfling druid had made the forest a home, whom they watched carefully, but realized that she wasn’t there for the artifact, but rather an ancient tree that was a Shrine to a one of Lycretia’s twins, known as Tybeeda, the goddess of wilderness and nature.
Though Elves are a rare sight, anywhere in Elandorr, they are very rare in Northern Tempore, but interestingly enough lot more Half-Elves have shown up in the last 30-35 years. And many of the people who have disappeared in the woods, some were hunting and needed to be taken care of, but others, some still reside deep in the woods. Heasirretyn elves, are the most playful of the elves that migrated to the World of Lycretia, but in Katen they do not interact with either the human or the dwarven settlements much due to not wanting to get involved with either of their wars. But this family of elves is very isolated from others of their ancestry, and need to enjoy life somehow. Some of these shenanigans and the occasional trek into a city, has allowed rumors to exist that there are elves in the Nelian Forest, but having humans live with them really allows them to get any goods or gear they can’t make with their hands or magic while still keeping their existence generally a secret.
The World of Lycretia 