#author:{name:gondor_male}
#title:On the Elves
#types:dorwinion
#reward
#
Long indeed have we shared these lands with the Elves, though our friendship was not always pleasant as it is now.

Many lifetimes ago - or as the Elves would tell you, not too long ago - Elf and Man met one another upon these fair fields. Our forefathers came out of the West, seeking a new homeland, but they discovered that the Elves were already settled upon these inland shores.

It was not the first time we had encountered the elder race, for some of their western cousins had once taught us of their tongue and gifted us with their knowledge in smithcraft. Thus we expected no trouble from these new Elves, and indeed, at first they seemed to bear no ill will against us. But the children of Men are many, and of the Elves few; and as our numbers grew, and theirs not so much, they became troubled.

The Elves feared that soon there would be no peace for their kind in these lands, where they had lived for ages uncounted. Tensions rose between the two peoples. For neither were our own forefathers willing to give up their realms here.

It seemed that trouble was at hand. But then, without warning, out of the East there came a great host of hide-clad horsemen, pillaging our lands, raiding the realms of Elf and Man alike! Seeing the common foe, our fathers and the Elven-folk put aside their differences, and together we fought the invaders.

After the battle was done, our people and the Elves came together, and we formed an agreement. The forests and woodlands of this country would forever belong to the Elves, untouched by the hand of Man, while we would be free to settle the fields and the wide plains. So it was, and so it has ever been since, in Dorwinion by the shores.