The native wood elves of roundwards Baleutia refer to themselves as the Gol, roughly translating as “Dwellers”. They are hairy for elves, and pale, sticking to their dark pine forests on the far darkwards side of the world. Divided into a number of small familial tribes, the Gol can be broadly divided into three groups - the Ereg Gol, the Namag Gol and the Guāng Gol.
The Guāng Gol primarily occupy the Lightwards coast, and are the most affected by the regular storms coming in from the ocean. Many of the tribes head further inland in times of such weather, though a few hunker down in solidly built huts and burrows. Despite residing on the ocean, they are by and large not a seafaring people and fear of the sea and the creatures who dwell in it feature in many of their folk tales.
The Namag Gol are the most isolated of the Gol, living in the thick fir forests of the interior of the continent. The tribes rarely interact with outsiders, even the other Gol cultures, and many still pursue a simple hunter gatherer lifestyle. They are considered wildmen, great brutes of the forest, led by their druids in worshipping ancient tree gods with animal, and in some of the more extreme tribes, elven sacrifice.
The Ereg Gol live on the roundwards coast of the continent, and have had the most interaction with the Empire - largely due to it being their lands conquered and colonised. They are more seasoned sailors than the other Gol, but are still outmatched by the Magnapuri successor states and the Ódauðlegurfólk at sea. They are a bitter and scarred people, with many taken as slaves in the constant raiding, but they have been reacting with many of the tribes coming closer to form a council of tribal elders which has brought them closer to a more unified system of government.
In recent times, the collapse of the Empire has allowed some of the Gol tribes to reclaim their ancestral lands. The Namag Gol have retaken the sparsely populated peat bogs to the Lightwards of the Counteroundwards Magnacy, razing the few high elf settlements of the area. Meanwhile, the Ereg Gol council of Elders have conquered some much more populated lands from Gastipur, though they have been unable to end Gastipuri influence on the mainland. This loss of land, alongside a souring in relations with the Counteroundwards Magnacy, saw the Oligarchy collapse into piracy. The Ereg Gol seek to push this advantage further, with the goal to end high elf influence on the Baleutia mainland, though they currently lack the military power to invade the Magnacy. The Guāng Gol tribes have not yet been involved in aggression against the high elves, though they have also expanded a little further along the coast with their seasonal migration.