“It is easy to go down to hell; night and day the gates of Dark Death stand wide; but to climb back up again, to retrace one’s steps to the open air, there lies the problem, the difficult task.”
VIRGIL, The Aeneid
The elven forests of Vaul are a part of a wider territory stretching across multiple planes of existence. Individual settlements are linked by a series of magical gateways known as the Winding Path. To human eyes these portals are barely visible – only a change of light between two trees or an odd ripple across a pool mark the spot where one world bleeds into the next. An unwary wanderer looking for a shortcut through a small stretch of elm trees may suddenly find themselves in a snow covered pine forest hundreds of miles away or lost in a silver forest under alien stars. Sometimes a traveller can retrace their steps but numerous folk tales attest to the existence of portals which only open in one direction. To return from such a place the misfortunate soul must throw themselves on the mercurial mercy of the Twins, the Abyss and whoever else they can invoke before their inevitable end.
Knowledge of the Winding Path and an indifference towards philosophical concepts of good and evil means that elves are one of the few mortal races who maintain an outpost in the layers of the Abyss. The Zaqqum Glades are a never-ending nightmare to the dead souls trapped there but the elves have control of several portals which lead back to the woodlands of Vaul. Elves find the demonic obsession with pain and torture both distasteful and boring, but they have no qualms against striking deals with fiends. At any given time hordes of demons crowded the boundaries of the elven territories in the Abyss waiting for the mortals to open the gates and let the lucky few though. Typically an elf would summon a single creature for a specific task but if a serious threat arises then dozens or even hundreds of demons could be loosed against the enemies of the elves. An invading army moving into elven lands could meet no resistance for days before suddenly finding themselves overrun by hordes of the
damned.
Demons delighted in these chances to shed blood but their long term goal was always to take control of the Winding Path. Fifty years ago they nearly managed this due to the disastrous intervention of the Namtharite Judge Etricht the Unwavering.
Etricht had seen firsthand the devestating consequences of even minor demonic incursions. As he rose in the church’s hierarchy his expanding investigations left him in no doubt that the elves were consorting with demons and he grew to see the Winding Path as the greatest immediate threat to human existence.
Etricht managed to sneak a small band of adventures into the heart of the elven lands and began a ritual which he believed would close the portals leading to the Abyss. Whether the ritual was flawed or merely interrupted at a critical point is still unknown but the results were catastrophic. Connections between elven settlements were disrupted as portals winked out of existence, exploded into multi-coloured flames or opened up to entirely new locations. Thousands of elves died in minutes as demons poured into forests, taking the unexpected opportunity to wreak havoc on the mortals who had caged them for so long. Hundreds died in the first few minutes before any defence could be mounted, and thousands more died over the next few hours as settlements became cramped and bloodsoaked battlefields. The spellcasters and warriors of the elves were able to retake control of the gates by sunrise but one fifth of their entire population was dead, injured or unaccounted for.
Decades later the elves are still rebuilding from this cataclysm. The majority of portals along the Winding Path have been sealed and old alliances with the lords of the abyss have been annulled. This is intended to prevent a repeat of Walpurgis night but it has deprived the elves of their most potent mercenaries and greatly curtailed their mobility. Historically the have elves tolerated nearby settlements, safe in the knowledge that they could evacuate entire communities in moments. Now for the first time they need to link and defend their disparate territories against the encroachment of civilisation.
Unbeknownst to most races the elves have turned their diplomatic efforts towards the elder races of Dragons and Giants, seeking to make common cause with those who can remember a time before roads and cities scarred the endless wilderness. The civilised races will be reminded that this is not their world.
In their new quest for allies the elves have even sought reconciliation with their long ostracised cousins in the depths of the earth…