Dwarves, elves and food gathering

Pretty sure that started with Dwarf Fortress.

V's significant other was an elf baker.

Every elf is an aristocrat. They might have a race of enslaved goblins to till the fields, they might sell magical bullshit to the humans so they can eat, or maybe they just subsist on airy nonsense because while they look like you or I they're ultimately fairy spirits and they don't have gross bodily wants of that sort.

Dwarfs, though? A dwarf will work a farm like a motherfucker. Wherever there's hard and unglamorous work to be done you'll find dwarfs trying to prove they're better at it than anyone else, though not as good at it as dwarfs of the old days were.

Wood Elves are hunter-gatherers. Dwarf tend to some small crops on the side of mountains and farm sheeps for food and wool

This is, and will always be, idiotic

>it's unrealistic that this fantasy species of Dwarves would eat a fantasy species of subterranean fungus

MAGA

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Read up on terraced agriculture. After the admittedly gigantic start-up costs to excavate the terraces and build the irrigation channels to handle water retention and runoff, it's a remarkably manpower-efficient system with a long growing season for its altitude. That's all large-scale stonework but only has to be done once.

It's also obviously dependent on terrain (mountainous, on a sun-facing and rain catching side), a sophisticated grasp of stonework and water/site management, and very good site security. All that screams "dwarf".

What you're parroting stems from subsistence agriculture using cereal grains as the primary source of calories. Dwarves would grow some, no doubt, but not depend on it as much. Other crops are much easier to grow and harvest.

Humans leaned so heavily on grains because of the perishability issue. Lacking refrigeration, you needed grains because only they could be stockpiled in a granary. Dwarves do massive stoneworks all the time. On the arid side you have cold dry air for refrigeration, and above the snow line you have year round freezing temperatures for freezing and freeze-drying. Cereals might be tasty and brewable, but they aren't necessary as a daily mandatory staple food.

>Pretty sure that started with Dwarf Fortress.
Is that a joke, or have you just never heard of this thing called Dungeons & Dragons?

>permaculture food forests

Here's one resource. Warning:hard core hippie shit

wildernesscollege.com/permaculture-food-forest.html

Sure, I'd be happy to explain:

Dwarves in most fantasy settings aren't typically portrayed and seen in a vacuum or for that matter even they're own countries: they've always got access to some other species to co-habituate with and in that kind of society they don't produce farmers as they're almost always shoehorned into racial stereotypical jobs or positions where their physical differences benefit them: miners, forgers, blacksmith, jewelers, loggers, charcoal burners, etc..
Anyway, left to their own devices Dwarves CAN and WILL Farm and do so with just as much if not more proficiency as any Halfling or Human. Dwarves may build their cities in mountains, by the surrounding valley and hilly land is usually used for agrarian purposes: they grow grain, hops, barley, oats, massive orchards with fruit or olives & vineyards (if they've got the climate for it), with vegetables being grown closer or ontop of their country earthen houses or cottages n' so forth- If you're deep in Dwarven country you'd probably be surprised at how many Dwarves don't actually live in their massive city fortresses. Livestock as well isn't an issue: goats and sheep are extremely common and come in more or varied breeds than even humans or halflings have, but they also have pigs, cattle, etc.. Dwarves don't typically raise horses, or if they do they're usually small work ponies.
Generally speaking; Dwarves are engineers, architects, and builders at heart, so all of this agriculture is usually well irrigated, well organized, and usually far more efficient and productive than most human kingdoms due to terraced constructions and the fact that most Dwarven cities can refrigerate LARGE crop stores in villages and their cities due to the location. Dwarves, as well, don't suffer from many land disputes or quarrels as they opt-in for share-cropping, open range herding, due to their species natural communal nature.

Fungi are a thing, sure, but I think you want 'normal' Dwarves.

I answered this, but within my setting.

The mountain dwarfs use trenches, stonework and terraces to cultivate black crops within microclimates. Said plants absorb sunlight from a wider spectrum, radiating heat to melt snow. Some look like cactuses, other look like fleshy bromeliads. Natural groves are quite warmer than the surrounding areas and may provide the equivalent of oasis above the snowline.

The other answers mostly use magic.

That is only to start out, Dwarfs have a voracious appetite. Trading with Dwarfs is lucrative in part because they give a good price for a large selection of high quality food and spices.

Fuck if i know where they get it, but god damn does it look good.

...

Blood sacrifices. Monsters get all their nice things through theft or blood sacrifice.

>On the surface, the dwarves farm normal shit in the fertile valleys between their mountains, like the Swiss Alps.

Closing off those valleys and sealing the passages for security takes decades or more. But in a long mountain range, it has another major benefit.

You have a big impenetrable mountain range, no way over and a long way around. So whatever else lives in the lands on either side of the mountain range, they are at least two separate realms.

In peacetime, you have two very separate, isolated realms and the choke point between them is a heavily fortified dwarf empire. They sit astride the trade route, and even if they didn't produce anything of value they could support themselves as go-betweens on trade.

In time of war, the dwarves need only make sure that one of the realms are at peace with them and they can't be beseiged.

Puh-lease, monsters can hunt just fine thank you!

I've always thought of dwarves mainly being ranchers for farming, along with a mix of fungi and a healthy mix of sunrods they could even survive like that underground, but when it comes down to it they eat a lot of goat and mushrooms, and high-growing vegetables like cabbage.

Elves are perfectionist, everything they do has to be perfect, that includes farming. You know why you don't see any elven farms? Because they're blended in perfectly with the forest, no need to cut large swaths of acreage when the forest is your breadbasket, and then artisan culinarians make enchanted meals that fill you up regardless of portion that's not just reserved for lembas or whatever version of it your setting has, food is about taste not satiety something you short lived plebians will never understand.

>These small creatures live in forested areas and, while they can hunt and forage for food. do so only when in danger of starvation.
>They much prefer to live as scavengers, raiding neighboring settlements for the food and supplies they need to survive.

One trait that Dwarfs and Elves share is that they view their respective community members who farm in a less respectful light.

Dwarfs will poke fun at the "Soft-earth workers," who must spend their days above ground and move soil instead of stone.

Elves, on the other hand, look down on all laborers. Sweat and dirt are unbecoming of a proper Elf.

So neither side likes to show off their farms to humans.

>Wherever there's hard and unglamorous work to be done you'll find dwarfs trying to prove they're better at it than anyone else, though not as good at it as dwarfs of the old days were.

This. A dwarf takes his profession seriously, and someone has to grow things to brew/distil into booze. The dwarven terraces are an amazing sight, carved from the native rock and propped up and bounded with constructed stone.

There's also mushroom farms. All the shit and food waste has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is mushrooms.
Now, you can't eat something grown in your own shit. That's how diseases spread. So, the mushrooms are harvested and fed to livestock, or mulched and used as fertiliser for the terraces or for fancier mushrooms.
There are also Dwarven hunting parties. They go out, either into the above-ground wilderness or deep caverns, and hunt. Industrial hunting, massacring everything around them. The dead animals are brought back to a central location and processed by the hunting party; not a single piece of the animal is wasted. Not out of respect for nature, but out of respect for not wasting a perfectly good resource. Stories abound of dwarves tracking herds of elephants in order to slaughter every single one, turning them into meat pies and roasts and elephant jerky and ivory scrimshaw and bone marrow stock. Even the hides are tanned and used to transport the goods home.
Dwarven hunting parties are an ecological catastrophe searching for an ecology to happen to. The mountainhomes routinely end up surrounded by mile after mile of blasted wasteland; once all the animals are gone, they proceed to take the plants as fuel, and then the soil for use in the terraces and to get access to the bedrock.

Now, elves? Elves live in harmony with nature. They squat in the treetops, hunting only what the ecosystem can spare, and keeping their numbers down to what that can support. Their plants are gathered and carefully, lovingly tilled. Every part of everything is used, because it's a gift from nature itself. The animals will prance up and willingly give their lives so elves can live.

Or, at least, that's what they want you to think. In reality, they squat in the forests and jungles, slowly warping the ecosystem to suit them like a giant farm. Their long lifespans let them do that, until the fruits and berries grow there they're wanted, and the animals know nothing other than elven land management.

What's the difference between elf and dwarf? Mostly, the elves have to live with the consequences of their actions, while the dwarves will just continue to rape the above-ground ecosystem because most of their interest lies underground.

Yes, but dwafs also grow a lot of food to feed their military-culinary complex, because it provides infinite high-quality trade goods.

What does the fungus live on? And before you say manure, consider thermodynamics.

Dwarves probably DO eat a lot of mushrooms, but they need energy entering the system from somewhere.

There are plenty of bacteria and fungus that eat various minerals. Toss in some water and a quick whiff of dwarf farts? You've got all the ecosystem you need for fantasy-fungus based on real-world analogues.

Plus the some nutrients could come from the surface through water tunnels.

Meh. We aren't talking about an ecosystem that consists of bacteria/fungus and insects. We're talking about a city's worth of calories. IMO you have to have some kind of major source of energy, and having it in the valleys and on the mountainsides is the way to do it.

Well what we're talking about is actually magical dwarves who live in caves under the earth. So we can have whatever energy source we want and it doesn't make less sense than anything else in the world.

There are fungi that get energy, and lots of it, from just iron and water. As far as fantasy ecologies go "like those but they make bigger fungal mats" is pretty tame.

If the dwarves were living deep enough, it is possible that the liquid in flow would be sufficiently rich to grow what they need.

Dwarves do farm in their valleys and on their mountainsides, they need their barley and oats. They also have shepherds and woodsmen which is how dwarves have Rangers.

I dont know about the elves, i suppose they do it gracefully and magically with all their bullshit.

Mushroom farms, mountainside farms in the misty valleys that are filled with all manner of hanging plants, with a large portion of them being devoted to moss. Cultivation of species of animals that provide multiple benefits, like species of giant snails which form incredibly hard shells usable as hardy waterskins and containers, while also producing various byproducts dependant on their diet.

Various tubers, insects, and small animals, likely largely gathered via trapping or farming processes.

Shit, I could see dwarves engineering a complex that'd be the perfect home for some sort of local animal, stocking it with forms of fungus and other things, hooking their trash disposal chutes up to it, and either sending in gathering parties to retrieve them or just setting up traps that they'll fall into and get delivered right where they need to be.

>Cultivation of species of animals that provide multiple benefits

At first I didn't like this because I didn't feel like snail shell artifacts really fit with the dwarf aesthetic. But on second thought it's a cool idea.

To me, the go-to animals are boars and mountain goats. Especially the goats. They're a great animal. You get milk, meat, horn, leather, and wool. They take care of themselves, more or less, and love the high altitude mountainsides that the dwarves have plenty of. In Iceland (and this is sheep we're talking about now) they used to lead the sheep out to pasture regions and then let them fend for themselves for the season, only collecting them later to bring them down to winter over. If you kill off all the predators, then their numbers increase and you can cull them for meat yourself. They eat weeds and other crap that you don't need anyway, leaving trees for orchards and growing wood.

Boars work the same way, though they're more about lowland forests and don't produce much besides meat and leather.

Some breeds of sheep (like the Icelandic) can take care of themselves much like goats do. So they'd work, too, though something about goats just seems more dwarvish.

What do you guys think about dwarves and falconry? Perhaps with eagles, like the Kazakhs traditionally did? Catching pheasants and ducks and such would be useful for gathering meat and the feathers have their own uses.

Finally, I can see a breed of domestic cave bear, perhaps bred the way humans breed dogs and elves breed the great cats. Used for defense and labor and hunting. Plus of course you get some great pelts from the culls and the ones that die. It seems to me like a dwarf might appreciate crafting a fine bearskin cloak out of a favorite pet who served the clan well and is worth remembering. Especially if it's gilt in gold or something.

Snails are an interesting choice. There's horn, of course, and leather. Feathers. Wax from bees.

Imagine the ability to selectively breed a species of snails that secretes a naturally-created alcohol flavored by their diet. It even creates it's own stein.

For dwarves it depends where thier community lives.

A hill-dwarf for example is far more likely to be part of a farming community than a regular tunnel diggin mushroom munching mountain dwarf.

As for elves:

High elves are cosmopolitan and mostly trade for their food.

Wood-elves are both highly likely to be parts of farming communities or hunters.

Aquatic elves fish for what they need.

Drow probably munch on mushrooms and other denizens of the underdark.

Winged elves probably go full eagle mode or use their whole community to hunt down dragons for food but mostly for dragon removal since they have a hateboner for them.

Lycan elves can shapechange into wolves so most likely they eat like wolves.

Space elves... Well they are technically just extraplanar High-elves.

Rock elves...They look like slenderman with an Elven face slaped on it. So i guess they feed on souls of the unfortunate wanderrers that enter their mountains or caves.

Come the hell on guys. What do you think the Dwarves make their brews from, lava? Of course they farm stuff, anything with sugar can turn into alcohol over time.

>>Of course they farm stuff, anything with sugar can turn into alcohol over time.

Some fa/tg/uy a while back actually went out and made beer from mushrooms (as opposed to most mushroom beers on the market which are regular beer + mushrooms). IIRC, it was technically a wine because of the yeast used though.