I evision toady's elves this way:
1) they don't kill animals for food, but will reat carrion. (Eg, wolves rush that deer, eat all the good parts, and elves take care of the rest.) Eating of carrion extends to sapient flesh as well.
2) they are masters of horticulture and create trade goods and houses through pleaching.
(See image)
3) they live primarily on vegetable matter.
4) they don't use soap, because soap is made from fat/oil (to precious in a vegetarian dominated diet to use for soap), and wood ashes.(heresey!) As such, they have "nasty hippy smell" and bathe in lakes and streams without any cleansing products to keep the grime under control.
5) they don't use metal or stone tools, only wood, made through pleaching and non-lethal harvesting techniques.
6) because of the lack of animal proteins in their diet, their (overwhelming) B.O. lacks several noteworthy characteristics that make herbivores panic. The elves thinnk that it is because they are at peace with nature. The real reason is that they don't smell like carnivores.
7) elves practice ritualistic avoidance of dangerous creatures, and treat savage maulings with the rationalization of "I deserved it for violating his territorial space." Young elves learn from a young age that aimals don't attack you without probable cause, of which proximity is such a cause in some circumstances. See point above.
elves have a superiority complex, that is re-enforced by their suffering. They think that their suffering these self-imposed handicaps makes them superior, and use a twisted psychological rebus (see points above) to ascribe incorrect but mentally pleasing (to them) significance to benign natural phenomena to reinforce this worldview.
9), they employ ostracism to any and all amongst them who deviate from the group delusion.
10) living this way for centuries has given them a very high disease resistance, through slective natural pressure.
11) elves practice "magical thinking", (see several points above), and as such ascribe power to ritualistic practices, and also to the practices of other races. This is why they react with such hostility to the alternative worldviews of other races. (Tree quotas, horror at the sight of blood, leather, bone, etc.)
12) elves survive in their horrible "natural" (cough) state through a combination of "immortality", and high fecundity. This counterbalances the naturally high mortality rate from disease, animal maulings, starvation, etc.
So, to properly play toady's elves, you need to "naturally" promote the growth of berry bushes (done with selective harvesting techniques that cause wild animals to forage farther, depositing berry plant seeds in animal poop farther than they would normally travel, but not so heavy that the animals migrate away completely), have a high child birth rate, have a high child mortality rate, lots of eating of starvation victims, and complex, ritualistic horticulture concerning tree species. Elves should always flee from "dangerous" wild animals, but not in a "hunt" inducing manner. (Flee by walking away slowly.) Elves should exhibit no hostile intent to herbivorous animals, and not touch or bother them in any way. Elves should ostracise members of their own social group for aberrant behaviors with unrelenting and unforgiving intensity.
There are no industries outside of pleached woodcraft, plant fiber textiles, and foraged berry picking. Elves spend all their time talking, singing, playing among the trees, and cranking out babies they can't feed, so they can eat them later.
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Topic: Anyone have any ideas how elves survive worldgen? (Read 5266 times)