Editing 23a:Elf

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'''Elves''' are intelligent [[humanoid]] [[creature]]s who live in [[Map legend#Sites|forest retreat]]s. They are one of the races playable in [[Adventure Mode]]. Their retreats have no buildings, but the [[tree]]s in the area are named.  They love nature and are ready to defend it, typically with [[bow]]s. They may invade a fortress which violates their tree-cutting limit.

== Elves in Fortress Mode ==
Elves are a [[trading]] race and send small [[caravan]]s without [[wagon]]s in [[Calendar|spring]], bringing [[cloth]] and various [[plant]]s.

They are very picky about what they will accept in return: Elves will not accept anything made from or decorated using a previously living creature (bone, shell, leather, horn, ivory, meat, fish, tallow, fat, or soap) or [[wood]] (including [[charcoal]], [[ash]], [[lye]], [[potash]], [[pearlash]], [[soap]], clear and crystal [[glass]] items, and [[obsidian]] short swords).  Even offering them something wood-related will make them immediately pack up and leave.

[[Metal]] items are acceptable, even when [[charcoal]] is used in their production. Items made from [[silk]] are acceptable, as are all non-wooden plant-based products such as [[plump helmet]]s, seeds, and ☼Dwarven syrup biscuits[45]☼ (as long as no meat or fish was used in the recipe). You can also transport your goods to the [[trade depot]] in a wooden [[bin]], as long as you do not try to sell the bin. In order to sell food and booze, however, your [[barrel]]s will need to be made of metal. Living [[animals]] are acceptable, as long as the [[cage]] or [[trap]] is not made of [[wood]].

Although [[tower-cap]]s are giant mushrooms, they are considered [[tree]]s by the elves and thus are not acceptable.

==Diplomacy==
The first Elven caravan which arrives while a [[Baron]] is present at your fortress will be accompanied by a [[diplomat]] who will attempt to make first contact. This visit will consist entirely of either a stern warning (if you cut down any trees, which is all but guaranteed) or a congratulation (for not harming the forest) followed by leaving the map. During subsequent years, the diplomat will arrive a few weeks before or after the caravan and try to negotiate an annual quota on your woodcutting activities. Note that growing tower-caps does ''not'' exempt you from the woodcutting quota; evidently, elves don't like you cutting down giant mushrooms, either. Your remaining quota is viewable on the {{K|c}}ivilizations menu; select the elves, and hit tab a few times to cycle through the available information. The quota counts down towards zero as you cut more trees.

If your ignore their demands, the peace-loving elves are all but too happy to take up arms. While they consider it barbaric to harm living creatures for food or craft, they consider it perfectly acceptable to massacre sentient dwarves and their pets in ambush. Being that they're all highly skilled markselves, you'll be in for a world of hurt. Just a handful of markselves will sneak up and start mowing down anything they see. However, it isn't a siege, and after a certain amount of damage is done, they'll leave the map, leaving you to deal with the aftermath of their hippie carnage. Unless you have some highly trained marksdwarves of your own, your best move is to simply get everyone inside the fortress, as you'll not be able to get them out of the open and inside the fort where dwarven prowess would have the advantage.

== Elves in Adventure Mode ==
Elven forest retreats are represented by yellow symbols in [[forest]]s on the world map. They do not have any [[shop]]s, but they seem to have a great amount of elite marksmen to recruit. The leader and quest giver of a retreat is called the "druid", who can be found wandering the forest floor with the other elves.

Elven characters start with a wooden [[weapon]] and a set of basic wooden [[armor]]. This limitation often leads to a quick death. They do have some advantages, however: they're one [[size]] larger than [[dwarves]], which makes them hit harder and absorb more damage, though they also have a natural armor penalty which causes them to take slightly more damage than normal. Their main redeeming quality is their speed, being roughly 20% faster than the other playable races.

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{{gamedata|title=Entity ([[civilization]]) Raws|{{raw|23a:entity_default.txt|ENTITY|FOREST}}}}
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{{Category|Races}}
{{Category|Humanoids}}