For veterans of the first five Survivor seasons, you'll find very little surprising. But for those of you who are Survivor virgins, here's a primer:

The Episodes
Each episode is divided into three days. In a typical episode, the first day has a reward challenge, the second day has the immunity challenge, and tribal council meets on the evening of the third day. In the earlier episodes, however, the immunity challenge sometimes takes place on the third day. Every three days, someone is voted off the island. The 51 day game is divided into 17 episodes.

The Tribes
The elves are split into two tribes of 10 (8 in the original Survivors), and are sent to separate camps. There they have to hunt their own food and carry their own water from designated watering holes. The elves have no weapons apart from one dagger per tribe, and no wolves. They have to make their own weapons, their own tools. The elves get one first aid kit in case they vote off their healers early on, and each elf has one luxury item. Everything else must be won in reward challenges. The two tribes compete against each other while trying to survive on Beacon. Every three days, one tribe has to vote one of its members of the island, until the number of elves reaches 12 (10 in the original Survivors). Then the two tribes merge.

Tree-mail
On the day of challenges, the elves will receive little poems, along with detailed instructions and maps to their challenge meeting places, inside the little mail boxes by their campsites. The poems are usually cryptic and always in verse - sometimes very strained verse.

The Group Challenges
Initially the elves are divided into two tribes, compete in opposing teams in the reward and immunity challenges. The challenges can be mental or physical, or a combination both. In the reward challenges, the winning tribe shares the prize. In the immunity challenges, the winning tribe takes home the immunity idol, the Little Palace, which guarantees that all tribemembers will survive for three more days. The losing tribe has to go to tribal council and vote out one of its members.

The Individual Challenges
After the Merge, the two tribes become one, and the elves begin to compete in the challenges individually. In the reward challenges, one elf wins the prize, although often the winner is invited to treat a friend as well. In the immunity challenges, one elf wins the immunity necklace, Bearclaw's wolfshead necklace, which guarantees that no one can vote them out at tribal council. The other elves are vulnerable, and can be voted out.

The Merge
Once there are only ten elves left, the two tribes merge. If the wins have been equal, there will be five elves from each original tribe. Otherwise, one tribe may have the advantage. Tribal loyalties may prevail, and one tribe may destroy the other. However, in Survivor: ElfQuest, the elves have known each other before they come to island, unlike in the CBS Survivors, where the contestents are total strangers. Thus different alliances may emerge in Survivor: ElfQuest. The elves compete and vote each other out until only two elves remain in the game.

The Jury
The Jury is comprised of seven elves. The eleventh elf voted out of the game becomes the first member of the jury, and each subsequent elf voted out joins the jury. At the end of Survivor, there are seven members of the jury, who judge the two remaining contestants. These seven jurors vote on their choice for sole Survivor, and the elf with the majority votes wins.

The Final Four
The final episode chronicles the last four contestants. In two days, two immunity challenges and tribal councils elimate the fourth place and third place contestant, then on the third day, the final two face to jury, answer questions asked by the jury members, and plead their case to become sole Survivor.

The Location
Beacon is a large island in the Redmist Ocean, off the coast of Hearthstone, an island contient east of Iceholt and Sunholt (original ElfQuest land) and west of Junland (the New Land). Hearthstone has a climate much like Australia, and is the home of Cam Triompe, the famous human explorer. A string of islands stretches out north from Hearthstone, while Beacon sits slightly north-east of the continent. The elves of Survivor ElfQuest live on the north coast of Beacon, which close to the equator. The climate is hot and relatively dry on the coast, and wetter in the interior. Scrubland fringes the beaches, and tropical rainforest covers the floor a few miles inland.

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