#title:On the Fallen Kingdom of the Sunwoods, Volume I
#author:Ardegil, teithron Minas Tirith
#types:gondor,rivendell
#reward
#
#By Ithilion Eleruth (High King Ithilion)
#
Volume I: The Early History of the Taurethrim

It is said that long ago, in the Far Harad, a mighty realm held sway. This realm, led by an iron-fisted High King, grew great and powerful, nigh as large as Gondor at its height, and was in its time surpassed only by Númenór and Mordor. But the empire fell long ago, and none now live who remember its majesty.
The Taurethrim, as they are called, are known of mainly through documents of Númenór. Unlike others of their uncivilised kin in the South, they possessed a writing system derivative of the Tengwar, though they wrote little of lore and were for the most part unlearned. Much of what is known about them is surmised from their tales, or the accounts of the Númenóreans. And much of that is now lost, for much was drowned in the Downfall of Númenór.
Here follows what little is known about the people, as can be guessed or surmised from the ancient texts of Minas Tirith, which account for notes of the Loremasters of Númenór, and even those writings made by Black Númenórean hand from the time of the Ship-Kings.

Like all others of the race of Men, the forefathers of the Taurethrim must have awoken in Hildórien - in what time is not known - and there they would have sided against the Edain. After the departure of the Edain, those groups which would later become the Haradrim followed them - in pursuit, or likewise in flight from the Shadow - but they wandered and were lost, and at length they came into the far plains of the South. Scattered folk of many peoples encamped there for a time, dwelling in modest huts amidst the tangled trees and fenlands, before they separated into the later groups.
The recorded legends of the Taurethrim tell that a large tribe of the wood-folk left the inner Harad and travelled southwest, until they reached the Great Forests of the South. Stricken by the beauty of those lands, they drove the former inhabitants (of whom naught is known) into the deepwoods, and became in time one of the most powerful realms of Far Harad. Their tales tell of the first King, one "Namakuish", who united the tribes under his rule.
And it was in those days that they first came into contact with the Men of the Sea, who sailed about the Harad and encountered the Taurethrim on the western shores beyond the mountains. The Númenóreans made landfall in a great bay and there established a haven, which in later days would come to be called Taurelondë, the Havens of the Forest. Further inland, a trading-town, which the Númenóreans called Zadunkadar, was built by the Taurethrim, and merchants of both realms met there to exchange goods and tell their tales. From this Númenór learned much of the Far Haradrim, and of the great riches of the Taurethrim, who they named in the vulgar speech Orunlâi, that is Tree-folk: from which the Elvish name of Taurethrim was later made. And the Taurethrim learnt the arts of metalworking, and stonework, and writing. Though now degraded and near unrecognisable, the first letters of the Taurethrim were, it is said, the very Tengwar of Fëanor.