In the backyard of my childhood home was a single tree onto which my father had grafted plums, nectarines, and peaches. The oddness and wonder of how humans could manipulate plants has stuck with me. And if you've been on the internet long, you've most likely seen posts of trees shaped by people into chairs or woven patterns. These fascinate me as well. A braided tree could make for a memorable feature in your sandbox:
These trees always seemed very elf-like to me. And just think, what elves, living for centuries, could coax from nature with patience. Bridges:
That is in Bangladesh. Or this:
Of course those are crude in comparison to what elves would be able to craft. I'll leave the elf-bridges to your imagination. How about roadways lined by trees for miles, even across plains where trees are scarce. Or, within, forests, avenues of trees still discernible to the observant:
But, the truly fantastic would be whole buildings shaped from trees:
And even that is just the barest idea, crude in comparison to my imagined elf cathedrals. Even whole elvish cities shaped from trees only to be abandoned.
The last few pics came from here, look there for more interesting landart ideas.
Beautiful.
ReplyDelete--Nice to see someone else with similar visions of Elfishness. :)
How would they see though? Wouldn't magic have to be far more common in a building or city where even lanterns are unusable? And how would they cook their food?
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind, housing has been based on flammable stuff for most of history and you have problems with fire only in the densest urban locations (Rome, London).
ReplyDeleteBut even with that, these would be living trees, green wood is muuuuch harder to get to light. And lastly, presumes a culture that needs/uses fire as we do; maybe they use tiny efficient fires, or maybe they use none-- living in warm environments, eating raw vegetables, etc.
Good points. Even if they do use fire the way we do, in theory they could have underground areas specifically for when they need to.
ReplyDeletebrill i love the bridges you've captured beauty
ReplyDeletei like nature it means all my life i wish to spend the rest of my life in such places.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but feeling hurt for those trees that aren't allow to grow freely in the shapes they want, but are forces and bent to the human will. Don't forget they are living beings just like we. How would you like to be shaped and bent in unnatural shapes and forms, by some other race of beings??? It makes me sad to look at it.
ReplyDelete