The Bartering

Hundreds of years after the Constellation War, the elves of the various forests of Vault, who were most impacted by the war's violence and slowest to recover, were beginning to once again find themselves. Much of their former history had been lost, and most who were tasked with remembering their people's heritage were gone. Those who remained were left to assemble broken histories and forgotten traditions to rebuild a civilization worthy of their ancestors.

The way in which this should be done, however, was a matter of great dispute. Elfkind on Vault could agree on only one thing: the great forest west of the Final Sea was the only place in all of Vault where this great endeavor could be undertaken.

And so elves throughout Vault rallied their clans and came to tame the great forest, an angry and dangerous place fraught with ancient creation magics. For hundreds of years the elves endured a common enemy; the forest itself. Through countless sacrificed lives, and the destruction of four entire elven peoples, the forest was at last a place they could call home. But after generations of warfare against a common enemy, the elves now looked to peace and found its allure lacking.

Disagreement about which clan's traditions, artifacts, and peoples were the true heir of elvenkind ignited a conflict that came to be known as the Bartering. Despite its timid name, the Bartering was a bloody conflict that lasted nearly 80 years and ended only when two women of incredible renown brought elfkind to its knees. In the end, any hope of recovering the glory of ancestral elvendom was lost. All that remained was a warmongering people who cared more for dominion than their own culture.