Jales

Native homelands of the elves, Jales is an ecological oddity. The topography of the continent is varied but mostly consisting of low hills and relatively flat land with a mountain range running through the heart of the continent. And the entirety of it is entirely coated with trees and seems to have an impossible climate. Stranger yet these trees stand out from others in the world as they tend to form forests consisting of a single type of tree, rarely portions of mixed species where territories collide.

Naturalists from around the world are still trying to puzzle out how exactly the landscape formed this way. Most credible are two slightly differing ideas. First being the trees are connected to the Ley Lines, Jales is arguably the place in the world most overflowing with magic and it’s possible that the trees are a side effect. The other being the elves and their Rooted Druids artificially altering it as a means of claiming territory.

Regardless of how it happened the land here is painted thick with magical effects. Many magical beasts and plants call the glades of Jales home, sometimes forming small tribes or societies within the elven lands. The plants especially seem prone to operate with some magical spark being able to grow faintly enchanted fruits and seeds or in places normal plants couldn’t take root.

Salted Pines
The most northern elven forest taking up most the northern end of the continent. Technically a group of three smaller factions who act in an alliance, Evergreen Sails, Bristled Peaks, and Verdant Frosts. Largely a mysterious culture due to the hostile lands they inhabit and the xenophobic nature of the elves within. What little is known is done mostly by elven travelers and they tell tales of a world that hides in the snow. Most famous are the beasts, many supposedly gigantic monsters roam in the frosted woodlands.

Politically the Salted Pines are near irrelevant to the world at large. Their Rooted Druids still have their say among others of their rank but rarely chime in unless they feel at immediate threat. However some seafaring dwarves have been known to run into them at sea which invariably results in an attack.

Heartwood Alliance
The largest elven forest, again like the Salted Pines a collection of smaller groups acting as a whole. Though this time more tightly knit and involved as there is a total of thirty five individual forests included under the alliance. Most of these are smaller however and have historically competed for land, being more desirable than their northern kin’s means more fighting over less.

So the Heartwood Alliance was formed to better keep the peace over the midsection of Jales, reaching eastward to the sea as well. Together the constituent parts have reached out into the world for trade and are especially fond of Mistfall. With the varied lands in its reach they have all manner of goods for trade and combined with elven patience has led to a boom in the alliance’s economy. With this they’ve started to leverage peace with the dwarves should they ever encroach inwards to reach their border, allow safe shipping routes, and even a reconsider of policies on elven alchemical items.

With this success of trade most elves who find themselves with an unorthodox lifestyle come from the Heartwood Alliance. They are the most culturally diverse of elves and most have even seen strangers before their first century’s passed, a few forests even have embassies from the outside world.

Untamed Wilds
The majority of Jales unfortunately, seeing how individual forests are generally too small to be worth the effort to larger political powers. These guys are the little unorganized savages that either hide away in their treehouses or start firing poisoned arrows whenever non-elves enter their lands. Thanks to these elves most of Jales is a mystery to the world at large, only the crudest maps available as many have begun to shun contact from the Heartwood Alliance.