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<blockquote data-quote="Khisanth the Ancient" data-source="post: 6856613" data-attributes="member: 11368">I wouldn't really expect elves to have &quot;a vast amount of mineral wealth&quot; - that's more a dwarf thing.I'd expect metal to be relatively rare and valuable, acquired by trade. Most elvish metal items are probably magical; you don't waste metal on ordinary stuff.I'd expect their general tools to look pretty Stone Age -- ordinary knives, awls, etc. are probably stone or bone.Mmm... sorta/maybe/yes/no.If you define &quot;natural&quot; as unaltered by humans, nobody's seen a &quot;natural&quot; landscape on Earth in close to a thousand years, except Antarctica and some polar islands. It turns out that even very low-tech, low-population peoples tend to change environments quite a bit with fire, introducing dogs and rats, etc.'What is nature' is a big open question/issue in RL environmentalism/conservation these days.So, on that principle, I'd say elves certainly alter their environments greatly - but the result &quot;looks natural&quot; to a human eye. It includes a wide variety of species, there are no monoculture grain fields or paved roads or brick-and-stone towns and cities, and when possible natural/ecosystem processes are incorporated into the agriculture/economy rather than replaced.Well... I do think there would be elven 'farmers'. But since elven agriculture is more like ecosystem-management, they're going to look like hunters/gatherers/trappers/fishermen rather than like wheat farmers or cattle ranchers or shepherds.Well, I think they tend to have chaotic leanings, so I don't think it's a discipline and intense training thing. It's more an accumulation of skills over a really long time (elves aren't really considered adults until 100). Plus, their form of agriculture doesn't require nearly as much time and labor as classic grain-field agriculture, so they have more time to learn other stuff.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Khisanth the Ancient, post: 6856613, member: 11368"] I wouldn't really expect elves to have "a vast amount of mineral wealth" - that's more a dwarf thing. I'd expect metal to be relatively rare and valuable, acquired by trade. Most elvish metal items are probably magical; you don't waste metal on ordinary stuff. I'd expect their general tools to look pretty Stone Age -- ordinary knives, awls, etc. are probably stone or bone. Mmm... sorta/maybe/yes/no. If you define "natural" as unaltered by humans, nobody's seen a "natural" landscape on Earth in close to a thousand years, except Antarctica and some polar islands. It turns out that even very low-tech, low-population peoples tend to change environments quite a bit with fire, introducing dogs and rats, etc. 'What is nature' is a big open question/issue in RL environmentalism/conservation these days. So, on that principle, I'd say elves certainly alter their environments greatly - but the result "looks natural" to a human eye. It includes a wide variety of species, there are no monoculture grain fields or paved roads or brick-and-stone towns and cities, and when possible natural/ecosystem processes are incorporated into the agriculture/economy rather than replaced. Well... I do think there would be elven 'farmers'. But since elven agriculture is more like ecosystem-management, they're going to look like hunters/gatherers/trappers/fishermen rather than like wheat farmers or cattle ranchers or shepherds. Well, I think they tend to have chaotic leanings, so I don't think it's a discipline and intense training thing. It's more an accumulation of skills over a really long time (elves aren't really considered adults until 100). Plus, their form of agriculture doesn't require nearly as much time and labor as classic grain-field agriculture, so they have more time to learn other stuff. [/QUOTE]

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