Elvish Parchment

Originally created during the elvish empire, Elvish Parchment is a rare paper-like material harvested from the bark of the Birch trees in the Whitebark Forest.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Elvish Parchment is a very flexible, yet durable writing surface. The special herbal treatments performed during its creation prevent yellowing and cracking with age.
It is very absorptive, and ink dries on the parchment very quickly. While this is a desirable characteristic for wizards and scribes, it makes the parchment susceptible to water damage. To combat this, many users treat the parchment with a water repellent oil after writing on it. This also prevents other ink from being used on the parchment, and can be used to prevent alterations of the document.

Geology & Geography

True Elvish Parchment can only be created from the Birch trees in the Whitebark Forest. According to legend, these trees were created from the dreams of elves by the power of the Orb of Dreams, and as such are considered sacred to the elves that live there.
Elvish Parchment can be purchased in the city of Oman on the eastern edge of the Whitebark Forest, but the cost and quantity limitations put on the parchment by the Prince of Oman means that very few people outside of wizards or elvish scribes use it.

History & Usage

Refinement

At its base, Elvish Parchment is a sheet of bark from Elvish Birch trees. The parchmenter harvests the bark with a razor-sharp curved blade called an E'li. The blade of the E'li is used to strip the top later of the bark off in twelve inch strips that are about eight inches wide.
It is considered a cultural faux pas to combine the parchment from two different trees into a single work, so a master parchmenter is a capable climber to reach and make use of as much of the tree's surface as possible.
Once the bark is harvested, it is soaked in an herbal oil for seven days and then it is stretched and dried in a smoke chamber where it is treated with the smoke from various incense. Different parchmenters use different incense combinations and the highest quality parchments are recognizable by the unique scent that the parchment retains from this drying.