Alderfolk

The Wood Elven Peoples of Gladewynn

The principal people group in the young Kingdom of Glaedwynn are the Wood Elves, otherwise known as the mali’ame. Unlike the other Elven races, the Wood Elves have a lot of internal diversity, with different creeds, faith variations and tribal identities between them. This post will be a brief guide to the different Wood Elven moieties that inhabit the forests of Glaedwynn, and introduce you to their unique cultures.

There are two main moieties of Wood Elves. The Alder Folk, and the Irrinites.

Shared Beginnings

It is important to understand that all Wood Elven peoples share a common history and a common pantheon of the Aspects and the Mani (collectively referred to as the Gods of the Forest), as well as many overlapping rituals and traditions. These all largely stem from the first Kingdom of Malin, and the Era of the Nomadic Seeds that followed it.

At the beginning of the Elven history was the first Kingdom. This Kingdom was ruled by the elven forefather Malin himself, and thus retroactively referred to as the Kingdom of Malin. This Kingdom existed before a time of any sub racial divide between the Elven people. Malin was a lover of nature, and promoted the worship of the Aspects, the gods of Nature, and the Mani, immortal beast lords, among his people.

The unity of the first Kingdom began to crumble upon the still-unexplained dissapearance of Malin. As a result, schisms formed resulting in the genesis of the Dark Elven and High Elven peoples, who both made their exoduses to new homelands, leaving the ancient city of Malin a depopulated husk.

Those elves that remained true to the old rite of the Aspects and the Mani soon too would make their exodus from the old Kingdom, and adopted a simpler, nomadic lifestyle. They separated into many different Tribes, called Seeds. They evolved into the Wood Elves, and even though they were divided into many clans, they retained a common identity apart from the other Elven Subraces by virtue of their shared Gods and tribal identity.

It is here we begin to see a cultural drift within the ancient Wood Elven nomads. Two distinct sects of the Wood Elven faith developed, Ichorianism and the Emerald rite. This led to the development of two main moieties of Tribes. The Alder Folk, and the Irrinites, two peoples mainly divided along religious lines.