The Root-Crown Accord

After the Black Saw Season, the Root-Crown Accord grew from a survival pact into a true nation-within-the-woods. Their first century was marked by rebuilding, seed-saving, and the slow return of ancient paths that mortals thought lost. Their second great turning came during the Winter of Split Bark, when famine forced some elf families to accept grain from human caravans while others refused any contact. The resulting internal split nearly shattered the faction, but it also created their modern dual identity: outwardly diplomatic, inwardly suspicious of dependency. Their third defining moment was the Treaty of Three Rivers, where elf envoys allowed limited human passage in exchange for strict logging bans and burial protections. The treaty brought peace and trade, but later human land speculators forged copies, claimed more land than was granted, and provoked a retaliatory cycle of raids and lawsuits. In recent decades, the elves have been weakened by rising road networks, illegal timber extraction, and an unexplained blight in the western canopy. The faction now survives by balancing three incompatible instincts: isolation, stewardship, and preemptive resistance.