Hello there, and thank you for visiting Zonnemeer Borg.
As you can see this holt based on the graphic novel Elfquest is entirely in dutch. It is the first language for it's members and holtleader, and so they are able to express themselves at their best in the RPG. And of course they can fully understand anything that's written for the holt, be it stories or information, without the need of a dictionary.

However, we always welcome guests, people from outside the holt who are interested in what we do and what's going on here. That's why this page was created, to tell you a little bit about the holt and it's surroundings, the characters living here and other information you might be interested in.

Submitting guest-art
We are happy with every drawing and perhaps even story you can come up with. Anything you have made that is Zonnemeer related, you are welcome to send to afke.rpg @ gmail.com with at least Zonnemeer Borg and perhaps guest-art or drawing in the subject line, to prevent it from going into the Junk folder. The website gets updated in the first week of the month, so you can see your contribution appear online around that time.

Besides attaching your drawing or story, please add the following information to your email.
Name: Your first name, not a nickname.
Credit: Your website or a working email-address which may be linked.

Zonnemeer information - The elves - Their world - History

The elves   [ May 10th 2007 | Afke ]

Even though the Zonnemeer elves are pure elves, not Wolfriders who share their blood with the world of two moons, they have grown to love this place and are in peace with it. They don't feel the need to go back to the stars and part of their heritage of the High Ones is lost from their memories. This is mainly because I didn't want to go completely by the Elfquest books. My interest goes further than that, and so I've taken little things here and there, from movies and other books and human history, and given that to the elves. This shows mostly in their way of thinking and how they see the world, and of course in their traditions. For example, the lake called Zonnemeer (sunlake) at which they settled their holt is part of their daily life, in summer and winter, and brings food and life. But when the spirit leaves the body in death, the elves start a goodbye-ritual in which they honour the deceased by sharing stories and kind words for their family. It is a peaceful ceremony held at dawn, during which they chant and leave candles drifting on the lake. At the very last a boat takes the deceased and some close relatives to the middle of the lake, at which the body is released to the water. Not canon with the books is that the spirit does not go to the palace, but may roam wherever it pleases. This gives us the oppurtunity to keep everything close to home. Their active time is during daylight and only part of it takes place in the shadows of the forest, so their skin is usually that of a slightly tanned nature. They are shorter than humans since many elves have gone before them, although some of the elders may be a bit taller than the average elf. They are familiar with soulnames and Recognition. The usual magic abilities can be found among the elves like sending, plantshaping and healing, but also several others like deep-sensing, animal-bonding and watershaping. The list of tasks to be done in the holt is much longer, mainly because they like to spoil themselves with nice clothes (cotton) and good food (bread), but especially since their world is getting broader now they know other elves are around, and because of things they learned from these new elves. Yes, the majority of the elves living in the holt nowadays are those born at the Zonnemeer (with exception of Schudspeer, who was part of the group of travellers which originally found the lake), but for some time now they have had a few elves from Zomerbron living with them, who got locked out of their holt due to heavy rockfall caused by a huge groundquake. Some Zonnemeer elves decided to go back to Zomerbron to find out if there were any more survivors, and found the holt and elves still recovering but doing well. Other beings living closeby are humans, that do not interfere with the elves much so far, and they are not enemies. The humans are ignorant of what the elves are, they think of them as spirits and don't want to disturb them. However, the elves did have a lot to do with trolls. In the past the elves had a trading agreement with the trolls living inside a mountain south of them, but some years ago the trolls suddenly didn't want to bother with the elves anymore, chased them away and later on even attacked them. The elves never received an explanation for this, and the youngsters see them as an enemy which has killed their kin, while the elders just want to understand. It's what saved Schroef's life when the elves bumped into him, the curiosity of elves like Schudspeer and Zwaardslag. Unfortunately the troll was too young to remember any of the old days and he couldn't explain the elves why the other trolls always told him elves were evil. Unable to return, the gentle and shy Schroef came to live with the elves.

Their world   [ May 17th 2007 | Afke ]

The Holt is made of a huge tree intertwined with rock that contains many dens, a collaboration between a rock- and a treeshaper. Nearby is a rockformation in which a small cave for the troll is located, and a big room for winter gatherings. They learned to dig in from the Zomerbron elves. In the summer the elves usually have their feasts in a sitting area with huge fireplates on which they can grill meat or fish. The Holt looks out over the lake, which turns to gold in the afternoon when the sun shines her bright light on the giant waterfall across the lake. It's so big it's dangerous to get near it. There's a smaller waterfall too though, somewhere close to the beach where the elves often dwell to relax. On the other side of the Holt is the big forest in which they hunt and gather food and other supplies. South of the Holt towards the trolls the area is nothing but grass. The forest, lake and these grasslands are surrounded by several high mountains, the biggest chain is that from which the Spiegelaar (mirror, the giant waterfall) falls, it leads north all the way to Zomerbron (summerspring, named after the hot water springs that keep the Holt from freezing over in winters) where the other elves came from. The lake is a world on it's own. Two rivers are born from it, and there are two small island in it. The biggest of the two is a great mysterie to the elves, it's called Geestenrots (spiritrock) and the elves avoid it. Every generation has had some youngsters who were brave or foolish enough to go there and return to the Holt with fearfilled hearts. The island seems to attack the soul, stabbing it with it's heart's most horrible fears. The elves never stayed long enough to find out what's causing this, perhaps some will find out in the future. The flora and fauna found around the Holt is based on (Northern) Europe and similar areas of North America.

History   [ May 18th 2007 | Afke ]

It's been almost 6000 years after the High Ones came. A little less than 2000 years ago Wand (wall) decided the large group of Firstcomers and their offspring should split up and he left. Many joined him, eager to learn more about the world. Years later another elf leaves the Firstcomers, but this time to search the previous group. They eventually settled in Zomerbron. But what about the first group? After 700 years of travelling the world of two moons, knowing good and bad times and adventures for many a story, Spaander (chip) son of Wand finds the Zonnemeer and decides the tribe needs a permanent place to live. Not long after he dies and his daughter Honingkern (honeycore) takes over. She doesn't lead for long and dies young, but she accomplished a lot for her tribe. She finds the trolls and they decide on a trading agreement. Roodklauw's mother Meerval (catfish) has been chief for the longest time so far. All elves living in the present were born after she was made chief, with exception of Schudspeer who even knew Spaander. Meerval's leadership knew a period without a healer for more than 300 years, and the tribe learned a lot from it. Then it was time for Roodklauw (redclaw) to take care of the tribe and he still does, now more than 900 years since the Holt was founded. There have been a lot of changes in the tribe's shape, deaths and Recognition following births all in balance... With exception of the period after the trolls rejection some 50 years ago. Many elves have lost their lives since then due to the trolls sudden agression, and the tribe is at it's smallest ever. But now the elves are used to the situation, they have adapted and death has appeared less frequent because of it. And thanks to the visit of the Zomerbron elves new Recognitions have sparkled and new lives have begun.

List of translations
The menu may not be very interesting for you, because you're not able to understand the information found behind the links. But several information pages contain drawings that you can view no matter what language you speak. If you need more translations, please contact me.

Index - Brings you right back to the main page.
Karakters - Several lists of the characters. Those living in this holt, those who are travelling and those who have died.
Informatie - A lot of what is written here I've rewritten above in short for you. Several images and maps can however still be found here for your viewing pleasure. Click the links found under "Omgeving" (surroundings) or view the "Plattegronden" (maps).
Regels - The rules for the holt, only text.
Forum - An interactive place where the members can discuss new story ideas, write in the RPG or just chat. There's also a "Gastenboek" (guestbook), where you can leave a message by clicking "nieuwe topic" (new topic) and after writing something "post een nieuw onderwerp" (post new message).
Tekeningen - Here you can find the drawings for the holt made by members (new and old) and guest-artists. Old stuff has been moved to the archives. You can still receive those in your mailbox by emailing me, telling me why you'd like to see them and naming a character or artist of which you'd like to see the drawings.
Verhalen - The stories written for the holt. Of course all are in dutch, but some contain illustrations (note the little pencils). See "Verleden" (past) for all the canon (RPG) stories.
Activiteiten - Several activities and contests the holt had in the past, with the current one at the top. Follow the links to see some of the (art) results.
Zusterholts - This links to the website of Zonnemeer Borg's sisterholt Zomerbron.
Leden - The members of the holt and which characters they play or moderate. More information like their email addresses are password protected on the Zusterholt site.
Lid worden - If you want to become a member, please read this page and send me the proper information.

Please remember to not copy, modify, publish or display anything found here anywhere else without my permission. You can email me at afke.rpg @ gmail.com for more details.