The Grey Forest Elven Wars

  The Grey Forest Elf Wars was not a single conflict, but a period of centuries were conflicts flared up often.   If you think the wood elves of Codenya are cold and unfriendly, NOW, it's nothing compared to what they were like in the Red Era.   Their foreign policy was "Stay out of our forests or we'll kill you." and they gave trespasser very few warnings before unleashing their arrows. They also claimed a lot more forests as theirs. What we now call the Grey Forest used to be "southern Codenya". Red Era humans east of the The World Seam Mountains didn't have a whole lot of places they could harvest timber without getting shot full of arrows.   To make things worse, the grey elves kept expanding Elven Empire farther and farther from the coastline.   The grey elves were not a single ethnicity. They were a conglomeration of elf tribes who survived the Second Unmaking. Over time as the human populations expanded, more of more of the remaining elven tribes chose to join the ranks of the Elven Empire rather than allow themselves to be overtaken by the rapidly increasing numbers of humans.     Their newest human peasants whispered tales of terrifying elf archers in the woods to the north, and the grey elves were "This is good, it's been centuries since we were able to welcome in new elf blood!"   They sent adventurers north to make contact with these noble barbarian elves. The grey elves said "Good news, noble savages. We represent the Elven Empire and we are here to invite you to join us."   The wood elves said, "Nah, we're good."   The grey elves knew they were outnumbered and pretended to take the rejection well, but they came back a few years with a large army and a big chest of gold, providing the wood elves with a big carrot and a stick.   They said, "we are hear to unify the elven people under our banner. Join us willingly or taste our wrath!"       Anyway, the humans noticed a bunch of elves killing elves and realized "Hey, elves aren't invincible!" This emboldened humans across the continent to stand up to elves.   The Elven Empire had to abandon their war with Codenya in order to deal with multiple uprisings from their human peasants, but this didn't mean the wood elves were out of the woods, pun intended. Humans were violating their territory left, right and center and the wood elves' demanded retribution. Wood elves made examples of intruders and then human lords would send armies for retribution for their people and wood elves would crush the human armies.     Speaking of history repeating itself, human warlords weren't Codenya's only problem. The dark elves of Kahdisteria were discovering the wood elves for the first time. Like the imperial elves before them, they hoped to get the wood elves to unify under their banner, and they pretty much tried pretty much the same strategy that the Elven Empire used. And they pretty much had the same result.   The wood elves were winning all their wars, but even the victorious side suffer casualties in war. The wood elves knew that fighting a war of attrition was a losing proposition given that humans breed so much faster. Most of the bloodshed was happening in the Grey Forest, and the wood elves were beginning to question whether defending the Grey Forest was still worth it. Then came Vladimir the Conqueror and his army of vampires. This was the last nail in the coffin, pun intended.     The wood elves established the tradition of Rumspringa to promote peaceful relations with nearby humans and they created limited exceptions where outsiders could enter their lands without being shot at. Besides friendlier relations, they wanted to learn about the wider world because they were getting tired of being blindsided by surprise armies over and over again. At it seems to have worked, because Codenya has managed to mostly avoid large scale wars for most of the current Feudal Era.