Clarify lore articles: accessibility wave 12

Delvehold/Lore/Peoples/Elves.md

@@ -3,16 +3,18 @@ title: Elves
 description: Cultures for whom nested ecological personhood has never been a new discovery.
 ---
 
-Elven traditions treat landscapes as nested societies of spirits. A forest has identity; so do its groves, trees, rivers, animal communities, and seasons. Participation in a larger self does not erase the smaller one.
+In elven traditions, a forest can have an identity of its own, as can each grove and tree within it. Rivers, animal communities, and seasons also belong to these societies of spirits. Each smaller being remains itself while taking part in a larger one.
 
-An ecosystem with personhood fits readily inside these traditions. Many elves recognize it in dungeons long before dwarven researchers build instruments they trust.
+This gives many elves a familiar way to understand dungeons: an entire ecosystem can be a person. Many recognize such personhood in dungeons long before dwarven researchers have built instruments those researchers trust. That recognition belongs to elven traditions; it does not settle the dispute for everyone else.
 
 ## The industrial dispute
 
-Elven law can treat a core farm as the mutilation of a juvenile spirit and a deep bore as surgery on a sleeping god. Dwarven manufacturers hear categories broad enough to outlaw any machinery an elven rival dislikes.
+These beliefs affect what elven law allows industry to do. A court can regard a core farm as mutilating a juvenile spirit, or a deep bore as operating on a sleeping god. Dwarven manufacturers object that such categories could cover almost any machinery an elven rival wants prohibited.
 
-Courts use the cognition case to restrain dwarven expansion. Their injunctions can protect juvenile cores while leaving shorter-lived neighbours bound to older, dangerous spirit compacts. Dwarven negotiators make certain that contradiction appears in every trade hearing.
+Elven courts use the case for dungeon cognition to issue injunctions restraining dwarven expansion. Those orders can protect juvenile cores. They can also leave shorter-lived neighbours bound to older, dangerous spirit compacts. Dwarven negotiators bring this contradiction into every trade hearing.
 
 ## Escalation
 
-Elven seers connect surface mutation, mana storms, and distant dungeon activity into one system. Scientific delegations and trade pressure precede sabotage and intervention. Later, roots break into industrial galleries and carry armed defenders with them.
+Elven seers interpret surface mutation, mana storms, and distant dungeon activity as connected parts of one system. The response begins with scientific delegations and trade pressure, then escalates to sabotage and intervention.
+
+Later, roots break into industrial galleries, carrying armed defenders with them.

Delvehold/Lore/Peoples/Halflings.md

@@ -3,14 +3,14 @@ title: Halflings
 description: Early beneficiaries of industrial magic whose farms become evidence of the spreading crisis.
 ---
 
-Halfling communities are concentrated in fertile agricultural regions and trading settlements. They benefit early and visibly from dwarven industry: enchanted pumps, refrigeration, preservation runes, improved mills, mechanical harvesters, and cheap light.
+Halfling communities are concentrated in fertile farming regions and trading settlements. They are among the first to see everyday benefits from dwarven industry. Enchanted pumps move water, refrigeration and preservation runes keep produce usable, improved mills process crops, mechanical harvesters help gather them, and cheap light becomes available.
 
-Refrigeration keeps grain through a wet summer. Enchanted pumps replace the old hauling gangs, and local workshops buy work once monopolized by distant mages.
+These changes replace familiar burdens. Refrigeration keeps grain through a wet summer. Pumps take over work previously done by hauling gangs. Local workshops win paid work that once went only to distant mages.
 
 ## The turn
 
-Opposition grows when underground instability reaches soil and weather. Mana contamination brings crop mutation, magical pests, livestock abnormalities, untimely storms, and localized ecological collapse.
+Support for industry begins to turn into opposition when instability underground affects the soil and weather above it. Mana contamination mutates crops, brings magical pests, causes abnormalities in livestock and untimely storms, and can leave local ecosystems collapsed.
 
-Agricultural communities are excellent observers of slow environmental change because livelihood depends on remembering what a field did ten years ago. Their records supply politically awkward evidence that deep extraction produces effects far beyond dwarven borders.
+Farming communities are well placed to notice these changes, including those that develop slowly. Their livelihoods depend on remembering how a field behaved ten years ago and comparing it with what grows there now. Their records provide politically awkward evidence: deep extraction has consequences far beyond dwarven borders.
 
-Radical meetings begin when the pump still works but its irrigated field grows glassy weeds. Campaigns demand a different crystal supply and restitution from the mine; few volunteer to restore the hauling gangs.
+The machinery can remain useful while the land it serves deteriorates. Radical meetings begin when a pump still works but the field it irrigates grows glassy weeds. Campaigners demand a different crystal supply and restitution from the mine. Few volunteer to bring back the hauling gangs.