Greater Faydark is a relatively safe place to travel and fight in, barring the entrance of Crushbone. The rest of the zone is relatively safe, and the only inherently aggressive creatures here are the orcs. They tend to wander all over the zone and include orc pawns — level 2 lowbie mobs — and orc centurions which are much higher level. These are the most significant dangers wandering throughout the zone. Of the other monsters in the zone, none are notable except that they are "social" and will all group to attack you if you they see you fighting others of their kind. Some evil characters may be KOS to the faeries and fae dragons in the zone.

Near Crushbone, however, things can become a bit more risky for the unprepared adventurer. There are no reliable guards that you can run to except at the northern lift of Kelethin itself, also known as "orc lift." The orcs here are tougher, and there is still pretty reasonable hunting here up to 6th or 7th level before moving to Crushbone for its significantly higher zone experience modifier.

The problem with Greater Faydark — more of an annoyance, really — is that it tends to be quite overcrowded with a significant bottleneck for players around levels 4-6 during peak hours. This means that it sometimes is very difficult to find creatures to hunt, and the only place to find a good number of things to kill after the newbie area is right in front of Crushbone on Orc Hill. When all the camps around the forest are locked down, perhaps you will have better luck in Butcherblock or even at the windmills in Steamfont Mountains.

The other thing to be aware of is that the guards in Greater Faydark are some of the most dense guards around. They tend to stand right next to you and watch you get pounded on before they consider responding, so you might want to run to them sooner than usual because you're going to need some HP cushion while they try to connect their last three remaining brain cells to realize that the orc centurion you brought to them is indeed not a wood elf.

Starting in Greater Faydark has its problems, but they are few and far between once you get the hang of carefully navigating the ramparts of Kelethin and raise your Sense Heading skill enough to avoid getting lost in the woods. Kelethin has most of the goods necessary to craft items (with the occasional short jaunt to Steamfont for smithing supplies and Frosting).

This zone is the most popular bind location for all melee; you can bind anywhere in the zone here, and you have easy central access to all other zones on the continent of Faydwer. This may not sound like much, but a lot of good work went into designing this island to be self-sufficient, and if you know the island well, there are places for you to go to hunt that are perfectly suited to your level and are at most 2 short zones away.

Inherently, Greater Faydark also has the benefit of having easy access within itself to good hunting sites. As you can tell from the above example, my wood elf spent a great deal of time travelling here, and the zone is excellent for anyone up to and including about 6th level. After that you really need to move on to Crushbone or one of the other zones on the island. I knew it was time to move on when I took out an orc centurion, an oracle, and a shaman all at the same time.

To the North of Greater Faydark lies Crushbone. Felwithe lies down the road from Kelethin in the southeastern corner of the zone. Approximately two-thirds of the way across the southern edge of the zone is the entrance to Lesser Faydark, which is how you get to Steamfont Mountains (take a left once you pass into Lesser Faydark at about 45 degrees and run for about 2 minutes, you'll hit the edge and the zone).

Following the path across the southern edge of Greater Faydark to the western wall you'll reach Butcherblock Mountains. You can reach this by following the path past Lesser Faydark to its completion.

Last, but not least, there is a set of portal towers located directly on the path between the zone edge to Lesser Faydark and the zone edge to Butcherblock. Follow the path east from them to head towards Felwithe, Kelethin, or Lesser Faydark, and west to Butcherblock Mountains.

Kelethin

Kelethin is one of the four major cities on the continent of Faydwer. The others include the cities of the high elves, the dwarves, and the gnomes. Wood elves share Greater Faydark with the high elves, although the high elf city of Felwithe is almost exactly the opposite of Kelethin. Felwithe is a grand and opulent city on the outside while being simple and beautiful on the inside. The gnome city of Ak'Anon and the dwarven city of Kaladim are both a short distance away. The journey to Ak'Anon goes through the sparsely populated forest of Lesser Faydark. Kaladim is found in the nearby Butcherblock Mountains.

As far as traveling abroad, Kelethin is about as far from a port as you can be on this island. The trip from Kaladim's port to the human city of Freeport is a long and boring one. There is a set of magical gates near the pass to Lesser Faydark where powerful mages have been rumored to travel, but they have been inactive for quite some time.

Lifts

Northern Lift

Other names: "Orc Lift"

Location: Approximately (988.77, 221.86, -21.26) in Greater Faydark.

(Guard Fayfear & Guard Pineshade at bottom, Guard Orcflayer at top)

Central Lift

Other names: "PoD Lift"

Location: Approximately (138.10, 233.33, 8.60) in Greater Faydark.

(Guard Rainstrider, Guard Fireblight & POD at bottom, Merchant Kwein & Merchant Linolyen at top)

Southeastern Lift

Location: Approximately (27.07, -137.08, 8.82) in Greater Faydark.

Other names: "Newbie Lift"

(Guard Brookrock at base, Merchant Iludarae at top)

Surrounding Areas

The area surrounding Kelethin is swarming with life. Black wolves, wasp drones, and bats move through the forest and provide targets for many a budding archer from the city above. The nearby orc city of Crushbone occasionally sends out scouts as far as Kelethin, but they have never gained a foothold on the city's platforms themselves.

Farther from the main city lies the entrance to Crushbone itself. The orcs have made camps ringing the entrance and many heroes (and corpses) have been made fighting the large orc families that live here. Faeries also move through the forest, but they will leave the average traveler alone unless they are known to hunt faerie-kin. The nearby smaller forest of Lesser Faydark holds the portal to the land of the gnomes and is inhabited by more ferocious orcs and other, more horrible creatures. The way to the dwarven city of Kaladim lies through the Butcherblock Mountains and its dangers.

Local Color

Places

The city itself is really the site to see when you are in Kelethin. It is incredible to an outsider (although I'm part elf myself) that these wood elves live and work on platforms with no rails or protection from falls to the ground below. Although personally not afraid of heights, my barbarian friend who made the trip to this city with me refused to ride the elevator to the platforms and curled up in a bush below to await my return. I can't say that I blame him.

People

The people of Kelethin are a quiet folk. They are sequestered away in Greater Faydark, and since the population reveres nature as a rule, it would be difficult to find any of the poachers or other misusers of the gifts in Kelethin. It pains my human half to say it, but I feel that elves are one of the truly beautiful races in Norrath, and this peaceful city is a faint reflection of an inner peace and harmony that we all could learn from.

History

The Koada'Dal generally like to think they are the closest to their ancestors of ancient Tunaria, but the Fier'Dal know better. When the Elves arrived in Faydwer and saw the marvelous unspoiled woodlands, fae-touched and lovely, some of them saw a chance for a fresh start, away from the mistakes of the past. Some, however, were too rooted in the past to see this great opportunity and set about building walls and buildings and canals, trying to force a portion of the Faydark into their memory of Takish'Hiz.

The Fier'Dal (Wild Elves), as they would come to be called, saw this for the folly it was. When they looked at the Faydark, they all agreed it was much like Takish'Hiz, only much wilder, and they did not see this as a bad thing. They tried to convince their countrymen to abandon their city, but they were unable to convince them. In then end, they left the Koada'Dal to their marble halls and struck out into the wilderness.

Between where Kelethin and Crushbone stand today, the Wood Elves set about their first attempt at a woodland home, Shadow-Wood Keep. There stood-- stands, to this day-- a massive broadwood tree. The Elves spent decades coaxing the trees around it to grow horizontally to furnish a flat surface on which to build. They then laid crossbeams over the trunks, and mats on top, and hung mats from the surrounding upright trees. Leaves served as the roof. For many years, the Feir'Dal dwelled here very happily.

The Orcs and Elves had been at odds since the Elves arrived. When they started building Crushbone as their own city so near the Wood Elven settlement, the Fier'Dal were furious and began preparing for war. Unfortunately, the Orcs attacked first. The Orcs massacred the unprepared Elves and set fire to the Keep, burning it and everything in it. Only a handful of the Wood Elves escaped.

Today, no one knows precisely where to find the ruins of the Keep. Those few who claim to have seen it speak of a burned-out shell haunted by decaying skeletons-- the remains of the inhabitants whose hatred of the orcs keeps them from true rest.

The remaining Wood Elves were heart-broken but not beaten. They began construction at once on an even more magnificent home. Slowly, one of oldest and most respected rangers, Kele, put together a team of rangers to distract the orcs while the others worked on the nascent city. Dispite attacks from both the orcs and the native fae, the Wood Elves build many platforms and huts high above the forest floor. Once there were enough homes for everyone, the community moved in there, and christened it "Kelethin," Elvish for "Child of Kele."

The Orcs, enraged at the seeming disappearance of their hated enemies, began burning great swaths of forest down to drive them out of hiding. It was only at this point, after having established a city of their own, that Kele went to Felwithe to ask aid against the Orcs. The High Elves, who had only been waiting to be asked, graciously granted it. The Orcish threat diminished thereafter. The High Elves made it plain, however, that if their woodland countrymen expected Felwithian aid, they should remember their loyalty to the Felwithian crown.