I was pretty excited as I approached the Windawood gates. I wanted the scoop on the new owners of Windawood, so I had decided to leave a note with the gatekeeper to see if Elvenfather, the prince of Elvenkings, would agree to meet with me. The sight that greeted me was not what I expected at all. The gatekeeper lay in the throes of death in a pool of his own blood, and the outer gates of the castle had been smashed in. I looked around nervously, took my Cloak of Invisibility out of my pack, and decided to go have a look.

I made my way to the inner courtyard and up the steps of the main keep to find, as I had suspected, that the inner gate was down as well. 'Well you are invisible' I thought to myself 'it won't hurt to have a look'. I cautiously made my way up the steps, and inside. The throne room was chaos. Arrows were flying everywhere, and guards where running all over the place. I had walked in on a battle, or at least the end of one. I turned to my right and saw the tell-tell flashing remnants of teleport scrolls being used, and then all was quiet. One of the stronger elves swept his head around the room, and began an incantation. I stood frozen as the Detection spell sent out a flash of light, and left me exposed in the middle of the throne room. Eight sets of cold Elven eyes turned on me as I stared down the shafts of eight drawn arrows. 'There's another one' someone growled.

'NO! NO!' I yelled. 'I'm a reporter! I want to do a story on your pledge!' The elves parted to let someone through, but kept their arrows nocked on me. My mind was churning as Elvenfather stepped through sheathing his sword. 'Weapons down' he said. 'Look he's got his writing equipment out and his sword is sheathed, he's not lying'. I breathed a sigh of relief, and wondered if I needed a change of underwear. Weapons went down as Elvenfather barked out orders. Chairs were brought, and I could have sworn I smelled apple pie baking somewhere. It was amazing how fast the mood had changed, as I had once again flirted with death to bring my readers a story.

Elvenkings was founded two years ago, and like most pledges a solid recommendation is needed for entry. Elvenfather said he also likes members to be level 45 or higher and have a base AC of at least 45 with a +7 weapon or better. The main pledge has 38 members but is surrounded by a pretty strong supporting cast of sub-pledges. xelvenkingsx, Elvenguard, and Hellzfire. The main pledge is all elves, and Elvenguard is mostly knights, including the level 51 knight CLiDE. The main pledge has a red symbol, while the other three are gold, silver, and purple respectively. Probably the strongest elves are Deeqs, Dizoz, and Drame

Elvenfather told me that the pledges main goal is to 'maintain our friends, and keep a strong family through ongoing friendships.' He also says that he frowns on people starting fights, but that the pledge will jump in an instant to defend one of its own. Having only owned Windawood for several days Elvenfather credits their success to participation in the New Alliance consisting of FirstLove, Soul of Lineage, GoodFriends, ReAnimated, COD, and Asura. ElvenFather says at level 28 he's probably the 'lowest level prince to ever own Windawood', but with friends like the aforementioned who needs to be high level? He went on to explain that they are on good terms with many other pledges, and don't really have any pledges that are enemies, just individuals.(Like the one's raiding the castle on my arrival.)

At this point the overwhelming smell of apple pie was really starting to break my concentration. I tried to sneak a glance around the throne room without being rude, but I swear those dang elves see everything. 'Reporter' came a voice from under one of the tapestries. 'Yea Dizoz' I replied. 'You wouldn't happen to be hungry would you?' came his gruff voice. 'Umm well, you know. If you guys are gonna have some I'll try a slice.' I said. A few minutes later Dizoz returned with a slice of pie, some milk, and a smile on his face. I took one bite, and thought I was in heaven. Let me tell you if you've never had some elven apple pie, your just letting the best in life pass you by. I kept shoving my face, and tried to continue around mouthfulls.

Most of the elves in the main pledge are 48+, and I was assured that several would be hitting 50 soon. They have a smattering of cool items, including some +9 weapons, a 50 HP belt, an ogre belt, and some +7 non-elven armors. The Elvenkings like to solve as many problems as they can with diplomacy first, hence the reason I was conducting the interview without eight arrows in me. Elvenfather says they are not 'scared', just that violence should only be resorted to when other options have failed. 'Words first, then bows' was his mantra to me.