The Raids of Umli unfolded in the far western reaches of Commona, where the logging village of Umli was remotely located in the center of the Woods of Elenmyr. Over a day’s travel from the shipping destinations of Oldoan and Wistimere, the settlement depended on harvesting the rare and unusual trees of the central woods. For generations, its mostly-Human population made a living from the forest, despite longstanding opposition from the Elf tribes who had guarded those woods in ages before Umli’s founding.
A conflict naturally grew, from scattered reprisals against poachers and loggers into sustained violence. Elven warbands struck from concealment, targeting logging camps and patrols; the villagers responded with their own armed forays into the forest, killing defenders when they found them. Neither side could reliably predict the other’s movements, but despite their lack of number, the elves knew the forest better and struck with more conviction. The people of Umli lived in constant uncertainty, often penned within their own settlement, too remote from the Common League to request aid from the Court of the Torch.
The raids eventually ended due to infighting within Umli, its population nearly halved after nearly two months of raids. Yerim Merrywine, a popular former logger who had risen to the village council, issued a plea to the village and rallied its citizens during the night of the new moon. The council ordered the dissolution of Umli, marking the close of its resistance, and its population dispersed under cover of darkest night. Most sought refuge in Oldoan, though some traveled to Wistimere, seeking to continue work in the logging which had sustained their lives.
They carried with them the grievances of the Raids, and all but ensured that the conflict’s roots would persist beyond the village’s fall.