Regarding Elves and Rabbit Food

[wordwalker]

If they're elves, in a world where "elven harmony" means vegetarianism, that should mean their bodies are built to work on vegetable protein. --Unless they used to be omnivorous and this culture turned veggie as part of a cultural purity movement...

(Anyone remember RuneQuest and how closely tied its elves were to nature? RQ trolls considered the elves to BE vegetables, of the tastiest kind.)

 

[AstralCat]

If they're elves, in a world where "elven harmony" means vegetarianism, that should mean their bodies are built to work on vegetable protein. --Unless they used to be omnivorous and this culture turned veggie as part of a cultural purity movement...

(Anyone remember RuneQuest and how closely tied its elves were to nature? RQ trolls considered the elves to BE vegetables, of the tastiest kind.)

The elves may or may not be built to digest plant mater better. That's certainly a possibility. Especially considering most of the humans living among them are at least part elf.

But these are only the southern tropical elves. There are elves in the north who live in cold hostile environments, and probably don't have access to lots of edible plants. So they probably are omnivores. ...But they might be considered a subspecies of elf so that might not even matter.

...Speaking of trolls though. I realize I have none in this particular world. I need to fix that. :/

 

[Phietadix]

I'm wondering what exactly 'fleshy' animals would mean. Mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles? Just mammels, birds, and fish? Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and insects? What?

 

[AstralCat]

I'm wondering what exactly 'fleshy' animals would mean. Mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles? Just mammels, birds, and fish? Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and insects? What?

It's like this... If you have to kill something in order to eat it, they won't eat it. ......Plants don't count.

 

[Mindfire]

Technically a fruit is still alive after you pick it. Not particularly relevant, but interesting.

 

[brokethepoint]

sorry but every time I read the name of this thread I think of all the little pellets you find where a rabbit has been

 

[Dio]

Just a quick thought, but if you plan to go the Lord of the Rings route and make elves immortal this could bypass the necessity of meat to survive. If a person has been around for thousands of years, they would wrack up a huge body count of dead animals. I could see how this could be seen as immoral, and with thousands of years to practice discipline, becoming a vegetarian would be easy.

It could play into some interesting plot points if the humans living amongst elves are viewed as weaker due to their vegetarianism.

 

[Queshire]

I would just like to say that if you just say that the elves are vegetarians and don't show them eating meat or anything then the reader's willing suspension of disbelief will do the rest. No need to over think things.

That said, the only true requirement for it is that they get all the nutrients they need. If that requirement is met then any culture would work. So what you need to do is research what nutrients vegetarianism doesn't provide and figure out how they would get those nutrients. The simplest way would be fantasy or magic veggies as talked about earlier.

 

[Steerpike]

Since they're elves you also don't have to assume they need to take in all the same nutrients that humans do in the real world. Even if you research it and find out that humans need certain nutrients that require you to be careful with a vegetarian diet, or to supplement it, there's no reason whatsoever that your fantasy elves can't produce those nutrients themselves, if they even need them to begin with.

 

[Dio]

I don't know much about what nutrients vegetarianism doesn't provide, or the side effects and lethality of generations of vegetarianism. But if this is world is in a medieval time period, the elves may not even know about the idea of getting all your vitamins. You could even introduce it as a plot point, that due to a lack of protein the elves are physically weak and maybe use magic to get by.