War of the Copper Forest

1

A young boy's bones lay in an Earthen veil, slowly turning to dust. Their decaying salts the Earth above; death, as below, so above. His blood hangs heavy in the clouds that rain about dark-coloured trees, that bay and weep for the innocent child. His flesh, now no more, still haunts those that remember. The fare-faced visage of the youth weighs on every heart that dares venture into the forest, for every lurking thought that dwells at the wood's edge. His spirit is gone to the fields of Helianos, or Moradin's forge, and yet one might catch the giggling of a child among the trees of that accursed wood, or see a small fleeting foot disappearing into the foliage.

The forest was named Jerkuit, after the wood elf tribe that calls its great oaks and spruces home. Ungraciously, its name after the death of the poor boy, became The Killer's Forest, so named by the Dwarven mining town of Coppress. Coppress, named after its Copper mines, known for its scenic view of the forest, and known for being very far away from the Dragon Crest Mountains that bisect the country of Adaheim. The Dragon Crest Mountains are where Dwarves for the majority of the country's history have lived. At one time before recorded history they spread over its land in patches of tribes, until the humans from north Emburon migrated into the west of Adaheim.

A war ensued, simply named the Adaheim War. The human invaders of North Emburon captured West Adaheim, and Dwarves retreated to the East. Some stopped in the Dragon Crest Mountains to watch ever vigilant for the oncoming tides of another human invasion, and the rest migrated further East to restart their lives, hitch their wagons to family caravans, to farm, to mine, all the way to the fringes of the unclaimed land that swallows up the East of the continent of Euriscappe. The land unclaimed because for the longest period of recorded history it was warred over by many factions, some nameless, some blood thirsty, and many more unknown as the land is only referred to in passing reference in the works and literature of the established western nations.

Only 75 years later, a pittance of time to Dwarves, though significant to humans, the western wild lands changed drastically. Starting in the far, far east, and rolling like thunder all the way across the territory, the house of Xinladda tore up their opposition, and laid claim to nearly the entirety of the nation. Their leader, Ivan Xinladda I, named that mighty nation, emerging like a blood-phoenix from millenias of war, Xinlatvia. The imperial forces of Xinlatvia did not stop there, they rallied their fledgling nation and forded into all territory along their border, the Kingdom of Naxut, and the Eastern half of Adaheim. They were deterred by the mountains that separated Xinlatvia and Emburon, as the Embu-Latvian trade passage had yet to be constructed. Xinlatvia pushed into its neighbours, and pushed deep and forcefully. They had made it all the way to the farming town of Genevieve before the oncoming campaign suddenly stopped. Not for excess of resistance, which they faced greatly in the Dwarven cities of Verrkut and Kinoder, but for seemingly no reason at all. No supplies, no forces, no war, came for nearly 15 years, and no word out of Xinlatvia. The soldiers then began to colonize that land, claiming the West of Adaheim as Elven land. Dwarves, stuck between humans and elves, became hardened by the mountains. They dared not aggress in any direction. There was no way south, and only the sea to the north of the mountains. East and West they were trapped, with no way out.

Stubborn patience is what got the Dwarves of Adaheim through those troubling times. 15 years, as I mentioned, after the Xinlatvian advance stopped, there was a new king of Xinlatvia. Sergei Xinladda I, the bastard son of Ivan Xinladda I, had usurped his father. Sergei was the child of a woman from a conquered settlement in Xinlatvia proper, a lowborn farmer, and while Ivan kept him close, and though he was the oldest, his parentage would never allow him to ascend to the throne. He watched spitefully as his father and the Queen, lady Nikita Xinladda II, conceived two young sons. He then watched with outrage as his father gave the orders to push further into the nation when the nation itself was still bitter and weak from its conquering. He devised a plan, assassinated his father, fought off rising factions seeking to claim the now established throne, for 15 long years. His two half brothers, one exiled, one killed in battle, were taken out of the picture. He ascended, with the nation intact. That wise king's first command was to return the nation Adaheim to the Dwarves. A grand maneuver to ensure their trust and loyalty. He offered for them to become a province of Xinlatvia, where all men and women were citizens of Xinlatvia and received the same benefits. He used the force already in East Adaheim to subjugate the western humans, and put into place the law. Adaheim is a province of Xinlatvia, and it belongs to the Dwarves.