Lore Dump.

This section is where I will craft the rich and deep lore for my campaign. Still formatted in rough, salient points. Good advice on how to avoid lore dumps to your players and weave in lore using game mechanics.

For example: Gods and Religion in The Age of Shadow.

When the race of man appeared (an unspecified amount of time before The Age of Strife), the elves saw the primitive and often violent worship of men. The first thing elves did when they took this new people under its wing and taught them the way of civilization was to explain to them that if gods truly existed, they seemed rather unconcerned with the affairs of mortals and immortals. That any gods or spirits demanding bloodshed or living sacrifice was mostly a malign entity (as elves were very familiar with the ways of demons even before the coming of the Enemy), and as such any sacrifices offered to gods or spirits should be of a personal nature, either in the form of of time (prayers of thanks or meditation) or of skills (offerings of cooked meals, carved effigies, painted icons, etc.). Few man tribes rejected this teaching, thinking the elves trying to erase their culture, and became the barbaric tribes of today, still practicing bloodletting and animal sacrifice to appease their primordial deities and/or ancestral spirits. Many of those, however, became swayed by the Enemy thanks to such traditions, and became the wildlings (who sometimes offer sacrifice of sentient beings to the Enemy).

As such, religion in The Age of Shadow tends to be a very personal affair, and organized religion is almost unheard of. Any god, spirit, or "fairies" (if any) worshipped by a community will most likely be completely different than any gods, spirits, or "fairies" (again, if any) worshipped by the closest neighbouring community.

Still, there are many creation myths floating around, many contradicting each others or even themselves for that matter, while others being strangely similar to others (though, it is difficult to tell which inspired which)... (The elves often worship "The First Elf" of which Hathron was said to be a direct descendant(?) The dwarves for their part, have the myth of The Earth Mother and The Sky Father. Their children, the dwarves, were offered the choice of soaring high in the skies with their father, or dwell in the bowels of the earth with their mother. The dwarves chose to stay with their mother, as the bowels of the earth is where the gems and the precious metals the dwarves were so fond of were, and ever since Sky Father has been moody (explaining the various weather patterns)??)

The Elven Language (rough translation from elvish to mannish of most common terms).

A - and.
Alad - tree.
Am - for.
Amandess - shield maiden.
An - denotes a possessive form, similar to the "'s" or "of" in mannish.
Anda - iron.
Aras - wall.
Arothar - (the) king.
Arth - tomb.
~ath - suffix which denotes the plural form, for example "rithirath" means wardens or watchers. (though, for some reason, some words are in plural form even without the ~ath suffix...)
Bach - curse.
Balgroth - wildling(s).
Bannon - road.
Breth - fleet.
Cauth - mound.
Corithen - (awake/wake/woke?) awoke.
Daur - bleak.
Delrim - felgrim(s).
Denyr - night(s).
Dirait - men.
Dranroth - beastling(s).
Elgarth - forsook.
Elith - silver.
Elroth - ?
Eragoth - vampire(s).
Erain - day(s).
Esan - veil.
Ethenath - elves.
Gad - bright.
Galarin - blessed-crystal.
Garn - stone.
Garnhath - shadow-stone.
Garnnil - stone-lady.
Gist - lore.
Gorgoth - werewolf(ves).
Hath - shadow.
Heran - start.
Hurn - hound.
I - in.
Intha - bridge.
Iset - within.
Ithron - moon.
Lane - (fall?) fell.
Lenc - slow.
Lin - song.
Lirol - sings.
Lorin - quiet.
Mal - gold.
Melen - end.
Mindas - tower.
Nan - long.
Nos - rain.
Oborher - horse master.
Onno - gift.
Rafarlir - hunter.
Ragroth - demon lords/(the) Enemy.
Rithir - warden/watcher.
Rorg-Degnar - (the) wolf-slayer.
Roth - helm.
Sineth - (sleep?) sleeps.
Sinn - now.
Sold - root.
Telgalil - starlight.
Teth - short.
Ulgarth - undeath.

The name of the demon Lords. Since there used to be four of them, maybe base them off the four elements? Or perhaps the setting has its own version of the four deadly sins?

Arhulduul. - water? He-who-drowns-the-land.
Iyinniawae. - wind? She-who-shakes-the-skies.
Bielgaroth. - earth? He-who-splits-the-earth-open.
Shemeshaan. - fire/deceased? He-who-reduces-the-world-to-ashes.

Halflings (if they ever end up being selected as a player option)

Halflings are a relatively recent addition, having appeared near the end of The Age of Strife. As many of the the tribes of man went to fight north, and were later granted the land to the east of the Lunuin River, moving there to settle their new home, much of their land to the south were now left bare and empty. It was a surveying expedition of dwarves from Gandagethul (or Hadothron as the elves call it) who first discovered the small folks settled in the gentle rolling hills at the foothills of the Arasgar Mountains a few decades into The Age of Shadow, and it looked like they had already been settled here for some times now.

Very little is known about the halflings. They claim to have migrated from further south, beyond the Harnan Raith when they came upon the abandoned villages of "giants" (from their point of view). They decided to settle the area, trying to reuse and repurpose as much as the large empty homes that they found for their own use.

The race of man seems to think the little folk related to dwarves due to their small size, while the dwarves claim that the small folk must be an offshoot of the race of man as aside from their large hairy feet, they pretty much look like miniature men, and that their language and alphabet bears many resemblance to that of Mannish. The elves for their parts, were only concerned to find out if the strange small folks were not some agents of the Enemy. When they realized that the halflings preferred a simple living full of creature comfort, with good food, good tobacco, and cozy homes, it became quickly evident to the elves that the halflings were no threat, and as such the matter was settled for them.

Though the halflings possess no large settlements, their small communities are very welcoming and it is not rare to find the odd man, dwarf, or even elf living among the small folk.