Prime Material Plane, Cormanthor.
If a human were fortunate enough to set foot beneath the shadows of the gigantic maples and towering oaks carpeting these mountains and fields, they would soon realize they had entered a world that had no need for their existence.
This vast forest north of the Human Kingdom of Cormyr was proof that the forgotten green age still existed—a time when humans had not yet become the dominant force in the world as they were now.
During the years of the elves' withdrawal, over ninety percent of the elves known as the Cormanthor folk had migrated to Evermeet Island or Evereska in the west. Now, only a small fraction remained, gathered in Semberholme near Lake Sember, the Starshine settlement, and the Moonlight Hills of the Valley of the Abyss.
The other elves—those with human spouses, friends, or half-elf children—could only remain in the other fringe regions of the Dalelands. Though these elves appeared to have been marginalized by mainstream elven society and were often harassed by slave-hunting parties from the human kingdoms to the south, they were at least spared from being drawn into the endless friction and wars with the Drow.
When the elves had strategically withdrawn from Cormanthor, they had set countless traps and magical wards throughout this ancestral land to prevent humans and other races from settling here.
Yet Amlaruil, the last queen of the Cormanthor Elven Court, and the High Elves who had designed this system could never have imagined that while their design did indeed keep non-elven races permanently outside its defenses, their ancient enemies, the Drow, would be the first to pass through those defenses and lay claim to the forest.
The extravagant life of the former elven court had gradually been replaced by the hunting of Rangers and the