What Do Drow Eat? :P

[Ra]

I know it's a wierd question, and pretty much irrelevant to any FR game or even fic (a lot brush over such mundane things as eating, obviously), but seriously. What would your typical drow eat?

I mean, elves are not carnivors (IIRC they mostly eat fruits and nuts, ect. hunting only occasionally for meat), so that means drow aren't gonna go around herding and killing cave monsters, I suppose.

And then the only "plants" that grow in the Underdark are like lichens and gigantic mushrooms. Is that all they have to subsist on? As far as I know drow don't have magic "moon well" things to provide nourishment, like WC night elves do.

[Masterharper]

Well there are always magical food creation spells. And items that create such things as well. I know that there are Ghost Rothe (which are like...buffalo/bantha/bisony things.) that live in the underdark.

But, honestly, when you look at ANY dungeon ecology, you have to sit and wonder what anything eats. There really isn't much of an ecology there, it would be MORE feasible to have some guy running a two days ahead of whoever is there and putting all these monsters into place.

[Cynical Cat]

1) Elves eat plenty of meat.

2) Drow eat fungi, fish, and meat as the bulk of their diet.

[Ra]

Well, there goes the whole theory that drow are short and skinny because they don't eat enough meat.

Anyway, thanks for the input. It may have been a rather tongue-in-cheekish OP, but still enlightening.

[Narsil]

I mean, elves are not carnivors (IIRC they mostly eat fruits and nuts, ect. hunting only occasionally for meat),

What they are, is omnivores. They're like us in that regard, and I think the only occasional eating of meat is a cultural thing rather than a genetic thing... and elves can produce fertile offspring with humans, which kind of cements the fact that elves and humans aren't going to be particularly different on the genetic level.

[SirNitram]

Well, there goes the whole theory that drow are short and skinny because they don't eat enough meat.

They're short because they're in caves. And all elves are skinny little fucks, save the Wood Elves.

Also, scariest thing ever: Wood Elve arm-wrestling a half-orc.. AND WINNING.

[Ra]

What they are, is omnivores. They're like us in that regard, and I think the only occasional eating of meat is a cultural thing rather than a genetic thing... and elves can produce fertile offspring with humans, which kind of cements the fact that elves and humans aren't going to be particularly different on the genetic level.

True enough. But, when you get right down to it, all the major races are basically the same species as humans (even orcs), for the simple fact that they can all produce fertile offspring with each other. That's why we have all the half-elves, half-orcs, half-drow, etc. running around. The only exception really in the hybrid department is dragons because they can produce offspring with us through magical means; naturally they are more than suffiently speciated, being reptilian and all.

Also, scariest thing ever: Wood Elve arm-wrestling a half-orc.. AND WINNING.

[Stofsk]

I mean, elves are not carnivors (IIRC they mostly eat fruits and nuts, ect. hunting only occasionally for meat),

Traveller has a particular definition for carnivores: they give consideration for the resistance of their food, so if they hunt a prey that is going to resist being eaten, then they're carnivorous. The definition of herbivore follows the reverse: they eat unresisting food - which doesn't mean plants! Under this definition, a whale that opens it's mouth is a herbivore because anything can get sucked in.

An omnivore gives no consideration to their food's resistance.

[Cynical Cat]

The problems with drow height is complicated

1) Drow males are of average elven height.

2) Drow females are taller than drow males.

3) On Faerun, other elves are as tall as humans, with females being slightly shorter than males. Everywhere else, they are shorter.

So being cave dwellers doesn't really explain it. I tend to say it was one of the alterations impossed upon them by the curse.

[Ra]

So being cave dwellers doesn't really explain it. I tend to say it was one of the alterations impossed upon them by the curse.

Probably so, and it could probably explain why drow females are taller (a fact I usually ignore in fics, but that's off-topic).

Forgive me for the lack of knowledge here, but is this curse something the Seldarine imposed, or was it Lolth's doing? If it was the latter, than it would explain the "taller women" thing.

[Narsil]

Also, scariest thing ever: Wood Elve arm-wrestling a half-orc.. AND WINNING.

Of course, wood elves kick arse... But what I don't like about them, however, is the penalty to INT, which doesn't add-up when you look at the fluff material. If wood elves are one of the only three races in existance that can take the Elven High Mage prestige class, why are they one of the races that are least suited to it without a roll of 18, divine manipulation or slight alteration of the house rules?

I'm working by the stats presented in the Third Edition, mind, I don't have the 3.5e equivalent to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Player's Guide to Faerun, was it?) so it might have changed.

Forgive me for the lack of knowledge here, but is this curse something the Seldarine imposed, or was it Lolth's doing? If it was the latter, than it would explain the "taller women" thing.

The curse in general is the Seldarine, but as a wild (but not unfounded) guess; Lolth made women an inch or two taller as a seperate thing.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Just a question: do Drows have to grow anything they need to eat? Can't they just trade with surface civilizations for food, especially vegetables and such?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Just a question: do Drows have to grow anything they need to eat? Can't they just trade with surface civilizations for food, especially vegetables and such?

Drow trade with the surface is limited almost entirely to raiding parties or slaughters.
They do trade with other underdark races though, so it's conceivable that they could get food that isn't meat through sufficient degrees of connection

[Ra]

I'm pretty sure the drow also have some proxy nations on the surface that they probably get trade through, as well, even if it isn't much.

[Cynical Cat]

Just a question: do Drows have to grow anything they need to eat? Can't they just trade with surface civilizations for food, especially vegetables and such?

Yes, they do. Large scale fungal agriculture is common.

[Narsil]

I'm pretty sure the drow also have some proxy nations on the surface that they probably get trade through, as well, even if it isn't much.

The Vhaerunians and Eilistraee-followers in the forests of Cormanthor, and the half-drow nation of Dambrath could probably qualify. But most of the vegetation that the drow live on, like Cynical mentioned, is fungi and mushrooms essentially, the latter of which is called the 'happy plant' and is often eaten by young drow college students.

[Ra]

So that means mushroom tea must be the most popular drow drink.

I mean, it answers everything. Why the drow like spiders, why they're so fanatical; they're on a neverending trip.

Just imagine if someone imported weed into Faerun, then the drow would probably become a gigantic race of hippies.

[Narsil]

It's the same explanation for Moses and the burning bush. You merely have to accept, deep down, that the burning bush was in fact marijuana or a local equivalent that made him as high as a kite.

Stay on Topic Narsil

[Lia]

This conversation gives me an awful image of a Drow equivalent to the 'feast' on pathetic, wilted, tiny vegetables from the movie Soylent Green.

Except, of course, they'd be a lot less nice about it.