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Elven Houses and Buildings

Wood elven, nature-friendly architecture

Special thanks to Rosana Dos Santos Pinto for giving the idea of the living roofs

Introduction


"Wow... I've seen only a few homes of my people but... these are surely the most beautiful!"
— Alex Yaerian at Springdrop

Wood Elves stand out from other cultures for many reasons, but perhaps the most noteworthy is their architecture. Elven homes and buildings are constructed in a way to avoid harming nature as best as they can, while still worrying about comfort and aesthetics. The result is beautiful constructions that only a few will ever have the opportunity to set their eyes upon.

Details

Architecture

Built over and around the trees, the elven homes are one with the environment they are in. Their structure isn't as strong as most of the human buildings, but it isn't an actual problem considering they rarely have to face the elements directly inside the woods. There were two problems that the elves needed to avoid when building their homes: guarantee that the houses didn't impede trees from growing, and that the trees wouldn't destroy the houses as they grew. For that, they have devised a new technique using a material known as Living Wood.

Treated with magic since their seed stage, the trees the elves grow gain new properties, one of them being the ability to morph and adapt to the environment around them. The roofs and floors are made from weaved tree fibers, made from living wood, that can be torn and molded around any trees or branches that grow through them. With this, the house stays in one piece and protected from rains, even as the vegetation grows through them.

History

Deciding to live their lives in the freedom and peace of nature, the survivors of the Calamity developed a unique culture, much different from the other peoples. To never harm nature unless if needed for one's basic survival, such as hunting for the day's meal, was one of their culture's core tenets.

This culture quickly created an issue: they couldn't cut wood to make their homes. To circumvent that, they started growing trees with the sole purpose of using their wood as materials for all kinds of constructions and crafts. But then, the Elves also couldn't cut down trees to make space for their homes, and for that they started building their houses with the trees. Many adaptations had to be made in the shape of their houses, but they eventually settle down in the archituctural style we know today.


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