Blackmoor in the year 500

[Havard]

If I remember my reading from the Campaign Setting book, the Westryn are the more "woods-y" of the elves, rather than the more cosmopolitan Cumasti. Could the split between the two be something along the lines of law-chaos?

The Cumasti, who seem to want to mingle, are seen as losing something of their "true" nature due to the (real or perceived) influence of their interactions with Men and their towns/cities/farming. In a sense, they are becoming ever so slightly more Lawful (ordered, organized, structured), whereas the Westryn want to go back to their more carefree/chaotic/individualistic roots.

The frictions between the two factions could have started before the beginnings of the campaign against the forces of the Temple/cult of Id: the half that would become the Cumasti wanted to join forces with Men and quash the threat, whereas the Westryn felt that isolation and seclusion were the answer: let Men fight their own battles, and not drag the elves into it.

Just some thoughts....

My impression is that the Cumasti are close to High Elves and Westryn seem like a mix of Wood Elves and Wild Elves. I generally think your idea of the split between the two groups building up over time with the War against the Id being an event that causes the whole thing to blow up.

I don't know if the war with the Id would be seen as an affair between humans only. Humans only have a limited presence in the North at this time and the Temple of Id would be a threat to the elves just as much as the Thonians. OTOH there is a difference between that and actively working in an alliance with the humans against the Temple though. I am sure that there could be people among the Westryn who were mumbling about how cozy their king (Uhlmar IMC) was with the humans before the war, but perhaps they didnt have a leader untill the Black Queen (the king's daughter) goes against him over the percieved human betrayal?

I have marked the Fall of Id as the event that marks the End of the Age of Elves (from Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor), so going by that assumption, the event would have had to had dramatic consequences for the elves.

Your attention to the internal rivalries within the elves before the Battle would allow for a more complex elven society in a pre-Id campaign so that would be a good thing. We might even use the subraces, though perhaps downgrade the Westryn a bit. Perhaps they would be more like regular Woodelves at this point.

-Havard