What's official and how does it work in your campaign? Do wood elves get their iron from humans? dwarfs? Or are they down in dark mountain caves digging for it?

How about other metals such as gold, silver and ithilmar?

jh

Wood elves get their iron from ironstones in streams. Basically, dissolved iron in groundwater precipitates in streams, when it is oxidized.

Gold, silver etc. are washed in streams which originate from mountains, i.e. the Grey Mountains.

They may also do it as the Vikings did, dig up mud and dirt from marshlands, heat it up so the iron melts through, and then use the slag to make stuff.

Reduce use of organic matter (bone, tendon, skins, hemp, silk, ironwood, stone, etc.) for many uses that other races rely on metal to fulfill.

Reuse elf constructed metal objects are built to last, and are repaired instead of discarded when they do break down.

Recycle goblinoids, beastmen, and errant humans all bring plenty of metal into elf lands; elfs greatly appreciate the kindness.

Afterall, they are a bunch of tree-huggers, aren't they?

If by tree hugger you mean genocidal xenophobes, who will kill outsiders as soon as look at them, who use psychotropic drugs, esctatic trances and shamanic magics to call on the spirits of the woods to destroy anything that they percieve as a threat, then yeah, they are tree huggers

zombieneighbours said:

Aren't they all like that? The tree huggers I mean.

From what I've read about the Wood Elves of is that they really are "barbaric, nomadic, xenophobes" who live in dangerous woods. They are not Tolkien's Legolas elves. Tolkien's elves (any of them) are much more like the "high elves" and that's what makes Warhammer's wood elves truly a seperate race.

They certainly are a lot cooler if they're a rougher, more dangerous blend than if they're just "elegant snobs living in the woods who are friendly and pretty to hobbits and humans alike."

Maybe they steal their iron

jh

Well, I suppose "errant humans" bringing metal to the Elfs might not fully convey the idea of farming families being murdered in their sleep. . .

But that was the intent; Elfs don't survive attempted extermination by the Dwarfs, Orc Hordes, Undead, and who knows what, by dancing and singing songs around the biggest Elm tree. Well, not just that.

Wood-elfs don`t murder farming families in the sleep. they capture them and sell them as slaves for iron.

After all wood-elfs are HUMANE, meaning for them, Yes we in trade in humans.

I think the native-american approach to Wood-elfs in the Old world are blown out of proportions. Yes there have been some problems with Middenlanders and the elfs of Laurelorn forrest. But that is because of the knights of the white wolves involvment in that area. Other places I would assume there is much less tensions between humans and elfs.

On the other hand you have that weird lady of the lake in Bretonnia which seems to ****** a male-child from time to time, and oh, there no male magicians in Bretonnia, coincidence? hardly.

And it seems to me that the wood-elfs of Athel Loren have successfully inserted a a belief system into Bretonnian society, based upon their Queen (no, Lady of the Lake and the Elf queen are to different beings. really? thats what they want you to beliveve.). the Holy grail and the lady of the lake are clever designs to make Bretonnia subjected to the rule of Athel Loren in a very subtle manner. Nevertheless Bretonnia is the Elf Queen`s *****!

tree huggers you say?

I haven't seen anyone mention, yet, how Wood Elves (the Athel Loren variety) use those kidnapped human children as drugged, magically age-fixed, servants and slaves. Laurelorn elves, on the other hand, seem to have much more in common with some of the High Elf kingdoms, particularly the more rustic, outer kingdoms like Chrace or Ellyrion. It's something about the latent intelligence in Loren that bonds elves to itself and makes them go a little savage.

Wood Elves largely skip Tolkien and go right back to the original mythology.

morskittar said:

You raise quite an interesting question there. And your hints are fascinating and intriquing.

Maybe they sacrifice them so that the elf-Queen may remain immortal (and imoral?), and powerful? to further expand her influence over the nobles of Bretonnia? But a few handful of them are valuable enough to serve as magical eunuchs at her court?
we could only speculate of this. but the evidence or (speculation of evidence) could suggest there is a conection between the powerful, immortal Elf-Queen of Athel Loren and the missing male-children of Bretonnia.

No good sir, you`re right about the Wood-elfs of warhammer being fare from the romantizied sylvaen of Tolkien, they`re too sinister.

there`s a lot of questions here, and dear I say most of it will remain unanswered no matter what sourcebook will be materialized in the distant future and find its way to presence, riding the winds of Azyr.

doc_cthulhu said:

Modern treehuggers tend to be of a pacifist/non-violence ideology.

Wood Elves are basically the same thing but without the pacifism/non-violence illusions.

KjetilKverndokken said:

But that would just beg to question: how the hell do Wood Elves make fire?

I mean, wouldn't burning wood be like blasphemy to them or something? What would they use to fuel the fire's with? And where would they have their forges? I mean if you light a fire in the woods, chances are you'll kill a few innocent grass straws on the ground where you start the fire.

Mal Reynolds said:

Just the way Warhammer should be!

Varnias Tybalt said:

I think thats taking them for to crazy. They would most likely use dead trees as firewood - use prayers and get "allowed" to fell a healty tree. Use magic to get back what they took, as they are tree singers.

KjetilKverndokken said:

Yet they shoot any trespasser who does as little as stepping on a dead branch on the ground causing it to snap. And they even go to great lengths o not disturb branches and grasstraws when they move about in the forest themselves.

Also, what about the poor moss? It lives on dead trees you know, cutting them down would mean destroying an entire growing, living moss colony which is also a form of plantlike "creature".

(hehe, I could get a Wood Elf to commit suicide if I just informed it of how often their ways kill innocent plants and trees )

Varnias Tybalt said:

Do they not shot the trespasser for encroaching upon their lands, thus protecting their settlements and not because the trespasser is walking on grass, moss, and the like? As for themselves going to great lengths not to disturb the enviroment, is that not simple forest lore that any hunter would also follow, in simple terms it makes them harder to be tracked than an unskilled forester bumbling through the woods.