The Felestyr trek

The shadowelves had plenty of time in the hard school of the Refuge cavern to learn how to farm in the Shadowland. After the coronation 1040 BC, the clan Porador was first to venture into the nearest caverns around. Those north and northwest of the City were most promising, their bards already praising them as a "new Grunland". The city Alfmyr did not yet exist; Losetrel, if it existed, was far distant.

Back home, the serpent of strife invaded the paradise. Where Parador had volunteered, Felestyr followed perforce.

There was, on the face of it, plenty of room in the caverns north of the City. Felestyr started, or at any rate continued, the laborious work of terraforming the largest, a rather noxious hellhole watered by the sulfrous springs of Skullhorn and plagued by monsters from its own eastern highland, Talreth's Crown. And all was still close to the City, and mutual tempers remained uncomfortably warm too.

And these caverns themselves were not yet secured. It would not be too long before disaster struck the Cearlian cavern, rendering it uninhabitable.

The Porador predominant in the Cearlian had the stark choice of resisting the blight, moving back to the City, or shifting to the New Grunland cavern. The Porador were farmers, not warriors; they chose the latter. Felestyr and Porador now had to share a cavern, which although large was still barely fit to support even a single clan. Felestyr had just lost a war with Celebryl. It had little stomach to fight another clan, and be cursed thereby as the pariah of the elven race. Some memory of lost Aengmor remained.

So Felestyr sent exploration-parties: northwest, east, and southeast. Tame Fairbrow was considered first. As a cul-de-sac, this one stood a long-term chance of subjecting the Felestyr as permanent clients to the Porador. Talreth's Crown was prospected also, to the east; but deemed too dangerous. It would take a literal army to push back that frontier.

The elf Joran took the southern route. This path, though arduous and leading below (what they now know) was a vast lava lake, ended up at the Willowdew cave and the Sojourner River. Here, the Felestyr could relocate and regroup: Renathys. As they explored west, they found another anchorage at the southern shore of the Dragon Lake.

In the meantime, the Gelbalf in Losetrel and the City trafficked through the Firemouth Road; the Dragon Lake being unsafe for the City. Between Gelbalf and Felestyr, the Gelbalf started with the upper hand, so delegated the mines to Felestyr. Felestyr mined shafts west and north, breaking into the Warrens for the latter. Felestyr profits went back east to Dunedea and to Renathys.

Finally, upstream from the Felestyr main entrepôt Renathys, around 800 BC, a rich vein of crystals was found.

Felestyr there founded Alfmyr, and prospered. Joran's Way became a Porador-Felestyr highway. It was Felestyr wealth which funded the 792 BC expedition upward of Blackstone. Losetrel, too, oriented its trade more with this newly-wealthy city; Dunedea became a free port between Felestyr and Gelbalf. The shamans pledged support for Alfmyr if they got their cut.

Celebryl sued for terms. What else could they do?