[1][2] It was started 1 May 1996 by Thomas Abrahamsson[3] and claimed to be the largest science fiction and fantasy art site in the world.

Elfwood was founded on May 1, 1996, by Thomas Abrahamsson, heavily inspired by Massimilianno Bertuzzi and Robert Orta, under the name of the "Lothlorien" project, and was aimed at amateur high-fantasy artists.

[3] The site was hosted as a non-profit maintained by the academic computer club Lysator of Linköping University in Sweden, and run on the Roxen Software.

A few months later, FARP (Fantasy Art Resource Project) was created and their email list, WoodChat was designed.

Originally, Elfwood was moderated by a small group of five, which included Thomas F. Abrahmsson as the founder, Mirar, as a software maintenance technician, Henrik 'Hedda' Wallin as the systems engineer, Eliza M. Leahy as a recruitment co-ordinator for West Coast America, and Peter 'ZinO' Bortas as an applications administrator and moderator, along with the Elfwood Review Board.

In June 2001, Elfwood was closed due to death threats after a man with the alias "Assassin" threatened to throw gasoline on the ERB crew and burn them alive.

Before the move, Abrahamsson was frequently physically unable to access the servers to maintain the site due to their former location at the university grounds, which were locked down during the holidays.

The Extranet was taken down its functions fully transferred to the main site, replaced by a more user friendly upload interface and simpler moderation process.

Later on Elfwood's first Art Collaboration Club was born called "Bitfrost Fantasy", founded by Paula Fletcher.

[19] The FARP section of the site had been frequently recommended as a free resource for tutorials in a wide variety of creative topics.