Wood Elves

“The Children of Isha will fail us!” The Treeman Ancients were the first magical beings encountered by the Elves of Ulthuan at the very beginning of their history, powerful spirits whose essences had long ago merged with living trees in bonds that only death can sever. The Wood Elves tell that there were once hundreds of such beings, but the collapse of the great polar gates and the coming of Chaos saw many perish in the fight against the Daemonic hosts, before the conjuring of the Great Vortex led to the withering of Daemonkind. Though many Treemen endured the bitter struggle against the Dark Gods, the vast majority of survivors were younger striplings, and only three of the eldest Ancients survived – Adanhu, Durthu, and Coeddil. They are known as the Elders, Treemen whose age is beyond mortal reckoning. For long centuries before the coming of the Elves to Athel Loren, the Elder known as Coeddil was responsible for the many manifestations of the forest’s wrath against its despoilers. When a pact was made by Durthu that would ensure the forest’s symbiotic relationship with the Wood Elves, the distrustful Coeddil was consumed with bitter fury and demanded the interlopers instead be slain. Overruled by his fellow Elders, Coeddil’s resentment for the Wood Elves’ presence eventually drove him to a great betrayal, when centuries later he strode into their glade with his wargrove of Dryad handmaidens to slaughter all he could find. It was an act met with all the rage and awesome power of the Elven Mage Queen Ariel, against which Coeddil and his followers could not withstand. Unable to slay him due to her soul’s binding to Athel Loren’s spirits, Ariel imprisoned the wrathful Elder in the Wildwood, a dark corner of the forest where no Elves dwell. Encircling it with Waystones, Coeddil was abandoned amongst the shadow-glades to brood upon his betrayal. Though Coeddil remains trapped in the Wildwood’s depths, his malevolent will still manifests itself through the actions of his herald, the most spiteful of all Dryads – Drycha, the Briarmaven of Woe. Here are two embittered spirits of common cause, for like the great Elder himself, Drycha remembers well the days before the coming of the Elves and has ever rued the folly that shackled the forest to mortal whim and fate. In the early years of the alliance, she was ever in evidence about the glades and groves, watching the Elves and examining their every action for any sign of betrayal. Though she has been seen little in more recent times, strange tales have emerged around Athel Loren – worrying tales of Drycha’s activities. Amongst the men of the Empire and Bretonnia, rumours abound of trees that come alive, unprovoked yet hungry for blood, leaving settlements ruined and their inhabitants as no more than scraps of tattered flesh. These may seem like senseless events, but there must surely be a greater goal behind Drycha’s activities than mere slaughter, though what that goal might be remains to be seen.

"Pure as starlight… …Wild as Flame!" For thousands of years, the Wood Elves have lived in harmony with the sentient forest of Athel Loren and the spirits which dwell beneath its boughs. Like all Elves, their origins can be traced back to the cradle of Ulthuan, but the Asrai, as they would come to be known, splintered from their ancestral home long before the acts of jealously and spite which led to the Sundering and on to the beginnings of the age-old conflict between their High Elf and Dark Elf cousins. Initially inhabitants of an Elven colony on the fringes of Athel Loren, the Asrai forged an alliance with the powerful spirits of the forest after Ariel, the foremost amongst their magi, learned the art of tree-singing and became the first to speak to the forest. Thus it was that Athel Loren opened up its many secrets to the Elves who made it their home, treating the forest with the awe and reverence it deserved and demanded, seeing the essence of their ancestral gods in its seasonal cycles. Through the mysterious power of the Oak of Ages, the spiritual heart of Athel Loren, Ariel acquired the aspects of Isha, the ancient Elven goddess of nature to become a Mage Queen, ruling over the Asrai alongside her consort Orion, a demigod in his own right. Despite being powerful beings, the King and Queen in the Woods do not seek to act as the world’s protectors, nor enthrone themselves as its rulers, but there are times when Ariel’s will must shape the fortunes of other lands for a greater purpose. Never has this been truer than in these dark days, where every broken bough or withered leaf carries an omen of darker times to come. To assist her, Ariel sends forth her emissaries Naestra and Arahan, twin maiden sisters who can only be told apart by the shade of their hair and their contrasting temperaments. Naestra has a spirit as pure as starlight, seeking out battle only in pursuit of preventing greater harms, while Arahan is as wild as an unbridled flame, welcoming it with wanton joy. Despite the sisters’ different outlooks on war, many a foe has fallen before them in battle. Not only are their armaments crafted by Lord Daith himself, the most celebrated of Elven smiths, but they can only be defeated if both are felled in quick succession, for the ancient magics of the forest mean that the harms inflicted upon one twin are inconsequential as long as the other still draws breath. None save for Ariel herself know the sisters’ true origins, with some stories claiming that they share her divinity, or that they are her daughters and therefore princesses of Athel Loren by blood. Whatever the truth may be, the sisters speak and fight with the authority of their beloved Mage Queen.

Once, Durthu was benevolent. It was he, the eldest of the Treeman Ancients that first bound the spirits of the forest with the Children of Isha. For many seasons, the alliance was considered a good thing; the forest flourished and the Worldroots seeped deep underneath the land. Then, he bore witness to the rapacity of blooded life. He saw untold acres of trees felled and the Elves themselves invite countless calamities not only on their race, but on the greater forest realms as well. Now Durthu's patience has gone, replaced by anger and madness. Once a healer, now he is wrathful, making no distinction between the lost, the innocent and the wicked. The Elves are spared the Ancient's anger… for now at least, but he no longer considers them friends, only allies for common cause. And yet there are many foes wishing to trespass under the boughs of Athel Loren, forcing the ancient Treeman to fight with the Asrai, who respect Durthu still, even if he no longer cares for them.

Orion is the god-king of the Wood Elves, a powerful being who dies each Midwinter upon a pyre only to be born again in Spring. A savage King, he is the vessel of the Elven God, Kurnous, the Hunter. However, Orion's savagery is tempered with the wisdom of Queen Ariel's guidance and that of the countless hosts who choose to take his form each year. Every vernal equinox, a young prince is taken to the Oak of Ages and there fashioned by the Elven Queen into the King's mighty form. With each year that passes, another chosen one is called and another voice added to the choir of personalities that influence Orion. The eldest are now the faintest of whispers, having lived as the King thousands of years hence, while the most recent add their youthful fury to the god-King's will. And yet the 'King in the Wood' persists, continuing to reign throughout the many seasons of his existence. In battle, when his realm is threatened, Orion is the first to fight in its defence. Taking up his mighty weapons of war, he winds his great horn and calls the Elves of Athel Loren to the Wild Hunt!