The Lizardfolk Campaigns

Era of Man / First Age / ~40 thousand years ago
As humans spread and settled more of the continents, they also expanded into territories that were much more difficult to occupy than coastlines. In Valdemar, this is epitomized by the settling of the vast equatorial jungle that surrounds the Center Sea. This region was already home to great populations of monsters such as trolls and lizardfolk, and the incursion of human and halfling settlers to their fringes only led to conflict. Additionally, as the populations of Men spread and they became more capable of defending themselves, the wood elves retreated from being their caretakers. Many of the wood elves thought that humans were beginning to make the same mistakes of the elves of old, and if men would not listen to their wisdom then the elves should not be responsible for their actions. Especially due to the losses the wood elves had suffered for millennia protecting the fledgling species from all manner of threats. And so, without the assistance of the wood elves, the young races fought fierce battles against the various bands of trolls and large tribes of lizardfolk trying to protect their jungle claims.

Then the lizardfolk began raiding the surrounding borderlands of the jungles, attempting to cut off supply lines to the new settlers. Once it became clear the fearful wood elves were not preventing the lizardfolk from leaving their jungles as in ages past, the green reptiles became emboldened. Allying against their common human enemies the many tribes gathered and great armies flooded out into the neighboring regions known today as Heart Vale and the Gold Coast. This began a time of multiple lizardfolk campaigns against the many small human kingdoms that they were not prepared for. Ironically, this departure of so many lizardfolk forces from the jungles for so long gave space for the surviving men and halfling settlers to gain a true foothold there. The terrors and difficulties of surviving in the jungles changed these young races in many ways, the most prominent of which today is the fact that most halflings of the Under Jungle have become cannibals. They would not hesitate to cook a man just as they would a fellow halfling.

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