Long before humans came to this part of the world, dwarves and elves made their homes in Thunder Rift. Neither group bothered the other because they did not desire the lands of the other. After a time, however, their racial incompatibility began to wear on them. Since their basic attitudes and outlooks were so different, their infrequent encounters became less and less civil. Eventually, their leaders forbade their subjects to have anything to do with the other race. Feelings of mistrust and dislike grew as the years passed, eventually blossoming into hatred. Often, the younger, more hot-headed dwarves and elves disobeyed the orders of their elders. Members of each race began to stage guerrilla raids on the other. Finally, the elves and dwarves declared an all-out war. The elves, armed with powerful magic, reduced the fortresses of the dwarves to rubble. Their skilled archers also decimated the dwarven offense in the forest. Defeat for the dwarven army seemed certain, but the dwarves were not to be easily beaten. Exploiting the blustery winds of the Rift, the dwarves lit and burned large tracts of woods. Either to avenge the burning forest or to escape the mounting flames, the elves poured out of the woods in droves. As they emerged from the flaming trees, half blinded by hot ash and choking smoke, the dwarves mowed them down. The blood of these two peoples ran thick in the Drake River. Meanwhile, the truly evil humanoids, such as the orcs and goblins, capitalized on a chance to wreak havoc on two of their most hated enemies. They began to covertly destroy the villages of both elves and dwarves, knowing that the feuding creatures would blame each other for these atrocities. The young, the old, the crippled, and the infirm of both races began to feel the bite of both lawful and chaotic blades. For a time, this ruse worked perfectly. The slaughter of the innocents served to inflame the passions of the combatants, and they fought all the more fiercely because of it. The elves and dwarves might well have exterminated one another, had not an elven child escaped the carnage in one of the orc raids and told his rescuers of the monsters who were actually responsible. Then the elves and dwarves met under a flag of truce, where they agreed to set aside their differences and deal with the common enemy. Their combined forces were mighty enough to crush the hordes of evil humanoids. The goblins that remained alive fled into the Burning Hills and hid in the deepest holes they could find, and the orcs left the Rift altogether. Now the dwarves and elves, their populations equally ravaged, withdrew from the war-torn plains and went deep into the mountains and forests to heal their wounds. In time, the dwarves made a new home in the Farolas Hills while the elves moved to the southern portion of the Gauntlin Forest. They actively avoided contact with all other races, save the halflings. (Neither the dwarves nor the elves hated the halflings for failing to join in the conflict-everyone knew that the talents of the halflings lay in different areas than battle.) Humans came to the Rift at about this time, and seeing its natural splendour, they began to settle there. Men founded several towns and began to work to bring the Rift under their control. Castles were built in far regions of the valley and wizards found various parts of the canyon to their liking as well. The humans found great wealth in the area and were determined to exploit it to its fullest extent. Eventually, the humans encountered the other races living in the Rift. At first the chance meetings between humans and the elves, dwarves, and halflings were extremely distant. Many feared that yet a new war would erupt, and all felt powerless to stop it. Once again, as the tension between the basically good races mounted, the threat of evil beings reunited them. The goblins, a fruitful race, had begun to overflow the Burning Hills and to populate the northern arm of the Gauntlin Forest. The orcs also returned in force, to challenge the dwarves for the Farolas Hills. Each of the demihuman races might have been perfectly content to let the others be swept under the rising tide of evil humanoids, but the humans stepped forth and provided a unifying factor of leadership. In a new-forged spirit of cooperation, the alliance easily stemmed the onslaught. Although the allies could not remove completely the vile creatures from the Rift, they at least prevented the outright slaughter of the good races, one by one. While victory earned the humans gratitude on the part of dwarves, elves, and halflings, it did little to lessen the animosity that the demihumans felt toward one another. They no longer plotted against one another, but they felt no kinship whatsoever. Even today they live strictly apart from each other, avoiding contact if at all possible. If and when they do meet, they are often brusque and rude.