- The elves, mortal agents of the fae and rulers of the Weald, are cast out for some offense of which they will not speak. Exiled, they persist in small enclaves in the surrounding lands but remain a race in decline.
- A great kingdom rises to the west, ruled by archmages whose mastery of the arcane rivals the elves. Within a century it falls, struck low by some self-inflicted calamity, its cities drowned in the black marshes or cast down into the darkness of the Under.
- With the exile of the elves, a series of forge-priests and second sons lead dwarven expeditions into the tangled wood, where they battle the fae inhabitants and establish strongholds and mine deep into the forest floor seeking godsblood and star-metal (materials, some say, needed to resurrect their stoneborn deity). These colony-crusades persist for a few hundred years but one by one are defeated, the vaults covered over, silencing the screams of those buried within.
- Raiders from the west and refugees from a failing empire to the east mingle in the lands south of the forest, settling in loosely-affiliated villages along the southern verge.
- Warding stones are raised at the site that will become the village. Protected from the worst influence of the Weald, a community persists within to the present day.
- Unknown artisans construct a set of magical stone gates that connect a cavern far to the north with a similar portal a few miles downriver from the village.
- The du Lacs are granted stewardship of the village and build a sturdy keep in the nearby hills. Lacking the village wall's magical protection, the keep serves as a redoubt against mortal foes -- raiders and bands of deserters fleeing the civil wars in the east.
- Three generations ago, a southern king launches what becomes the Lost Crusade, carving a path into the Weald and establishing several villages and fortresses.
- The crusaders encounter many horrors in the dark reaches of the Weald. Tales tell of a terrible beast found slumbering among the roots of a gnarled and massive oak tree; vanquished by the king's warriors, it is rumored to have only been returned to sleep .. for a time.
- After a little more than a decade, the crusade collapses. Many of the knights and soldiers who return are cursed or corrupted by their time in the Weald.
A generation ago ...
- Contact is lost with the last of the villages and outposts within the bounds of the Weald. Youth from the villages sometimes visit the nearest outpost, known as Firstlast, but not all return, earning the place a fell reputation.
- Peacetime and the loss of valuable farmland to the encroaching woods erode the du Lac fortune.
- After another lean harvest, Lord du Lac shutters the near-vacant keep, moving his family into what had been the steward's estate in the village.
- After falling out with his brother, the duke, Cormac du Lac and several retainers journey into the Weald on an unnamed quest. They do not return.
- Seeing an opportunity for both spoils and glory, Lord du Lac raises a levy of local warriors and marches west, where salt-stained raiders lay siege to the neighboring lands.
- Tales spread as far as the village of a dark spirit called the Obsidian Man, who stalks the Free City of Argos far to the east.
- Plog'loc, an envoy of the amphibious Tekarta, ranges as far as the Cauham Wood before returning west.