Shasarazade-The Elven Haven

Long ago, when sentient life once more began to come together by clan and kingdom, the elves lived a life of peace in the great forest of Danatha'nir, stretching from the Dragon's Teeth Mountains east to the Dragon Sea. At the heart of the great forest was Alfinsham, the city of trees, built under, on, and around the mighty elder trees, coaxing their wide branches into roads between the trees, all without damaging them. As their numbers slowly grew, two other cities came into being, Ossinsham in the East, and Greginsham in the West. The elves main- tained patrols on the edges of the forest, so that no enemy was able to threaten the elves. All was peaceful for the elven kingdom until the time of the sundering, when the drow turned on their surface kin, slaughtering all they could find. The devastation was so thorough that nothing of the city of Ossinsham remained but rubble, long since ground into dust. The surviving elves fled toward the West, and new borders for the elven kingdom were established. The elves gave the eastern region of Danatha'nir a new name, calling it Miden'nir, the bloody forest.

The southern edges of the Danatha'nir were already being affected by the growing desert known as the Forsaken Lands, and many of the elven refugees sought a new home. Some travelled the to forests of the far west, and settled near the human city of Val Miran. Others chose to settle a valley that had been found by elven explorers some years before. The elf king decided to build a new city on the hills above this valley, calling it Shasarazade, Stormhaven in the elven tongue.

There were storms ahead, indeed, for the mountains north of the city had long been infested with goblins. The goblin had fought many skir- mishes with elven scouts, but when the elves began to build a city, the goblin king decided to destroy the elves once and for all. Sum- moning all the clans of the goblins that dwelled in the mountains to form an army, the goblin king led a surprise attack on the the elves under the cover of night. They poured through the unfinished walls of the city, seeking to end the elven encroachment before it could gain a foothold. The elves were great warriors, but the goblins were numerous and wily. Many elven and goblin lives were lost, but in the end, the elves managed to drive off their evil foe. This turned out to be the first battle of a war that lasted nearly ten years, but in the end the elves defeated the goblin so soundly that to this day they are rarely seen in the area.

The city of Shasarazade was finished and continued to grow, as more and more of the elves crossed the mountains to escape the growing blight of the Forsaken Lands. The elf king declared the valley a duchy, and the ruler of Shasarazade was named Duke of the Valley. When Greginsham fell, Shasarazade truly became a haven in the storm, the last bastion of elvenkind.