"Do not lightly rouse the Forest Lords, for they are slow to anger, but when they finally decide to unleash their wrath, all the wood rages with them. The warhawks grow restive as the shadows stretch longer. Creatures who were once prey turn on their predators and we have to guard against the fiercer beasts who suddenly become bold enough to attack our villages. Woe then to any that creeps uninvited under the grand canopy of the Dark Green for never shall they emerge again."
- —Elthias, Glade Guard
A mighty Ancient battling against Daemons during the dawn of the world's creation
Treemen Ancients are the eldest and most powerful of the Treemen — old beyond mortal reckoning — whose names are revered above all others. When first the pact between forest and Elf was formed, it was they who spoke on behalf of Athel Loren, and they were old even then. Treeman Ancients seldom rouse themselves to war; they find the colors of the waking world less vibrant as they get older and so steadily retreat into the dreaming lands of sleep where their magics nurture and shape the forest’s growth. Thus do the Treeman Ancients pass through the centuries in a state of dormancy, tended by small groups of Dryads. Only when dire times befall are they awoken from slumber, for only with their leadership can Athel Loren be roused to its full fury.[1a]
