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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 6604132" data-attributes="member: 6787503">The Silmarillion doesn't have much information about Wood Elves, at least not as Tolkien defines them. I suppose the original Quenya, living by the Waters of Awakening could be characterized as having a way of life similar to that retained by the Avari after the sundering of the Eldar, but little is revealed about them. They lived in the original home-land of the Elves in the Ages of Starlight and were hunted by the agents of Morgoth, who took the form of Black Riders. Those who were captured became his slaves and may have been bred into the first Orcs. Their non-Eldar descendants were afraid to heed the summons of the Valar and stayed behind, so presumably they had a woodland culture like that of the Wood Elves presented in greater detail in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.The people of Beleriand, where most of The Silmarillion takes place, were not Wood Elves, but were Eldar of the Grey Elf, Green Elf, and Deep Elf varieties, all of whom I would equate, in D&D terms, with High Elves. The tale is set in a time in which the Dark Elves, or Avari, from which the stock of Wood Elves is derived, have not yet journeyed as far west as Beleriand, and so do not come in to the tale. At least, they are not mentioned. The Grey Elves of Doriath and Beleriand in general, and the Green Elves of Ossiriand are the closest to being Wood Elves in that they have a woodland culture, but their culture has benefitted from having leaders who have been in contact with the Valar.The Woodland Realm of King Thranduil in The Hobbit is populated by Wood Elves. Their king, however is a foreigner, a kinsman of King Thingol of Doriath, and so is more properly a Grey Elf or Sinda. For intrigue in the court of King Thingol, cf. the sub-plot of Peter Jackson's Hobbit in which Legolas, the son of the king, is in love with a common elf-maiden. This is unacceptable to his father because she is not of the Eldar, but is rather one of the Avari, a Wood Elf. Interestingly, Thranduil himself most likely gained the throne of Mirkwood by marrying into its Wood Elf dynasty, which would make Legolas half-Wood Elf.The elves of Lothlorien, in The Lord of the Rings are probably the best detailed Wood Elves in Tolkien's works. They live in tree-platforms, called flets, and guard their realm jealously from outsiders, to the point where men see the wood as perilous. Their rulers, Galadriel and Celeborn, however, are not Wood Elves. Galadriel is one of the Noldor, or Deep Elves, and Celeborn is another kinsman of Thingol. By some accounts he is one of the Sea Elves from Alqualonde, a branch of the Teleri, and so related to the Grey Elves. Both are High Elves, or Eldar, once again bringing a higher culture to the Wood Elves over which they rule. Galadriel in particular seems to hold the elves of Lothlorien under a kind of spell, preserving and guarding their land by use of the ring of power she wields. A bewitched, elven woodland might be a good location for an intrigue campaign.</blockquote>

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