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Originally Posted by (E)
The first part of the process is to figure out what the core assumptions are.
For example;
- Elves are long lived or immortal, one consequence of this is that Elves must therefore have good or even miraculously good teeth.
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They grow new ones, like sharks or crocodiles.
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- Elves are omnivorous but eat less meat that the human norm.
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Which human norm? Modern westerners? Early medieval peasants? Japanese peasants?
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- Elves are semi-nomadic with some permanently settled communities. This assumption might be replaced for a later write ups (if they happen).
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My 'standard fantasy' worlds usually have one group of elves like this. Others are more settled (and many of those are simply the elite, living on the fruits of others' labour).
Given that elves live a long, long time, after the first few horrible mistakes they are probably better about sustainable land management. Their forests will have the right mix of species to thrive, and they'll slowly move as farmland is allowed to return to woodlands, and forests are cleared for new farmland, and so on.
There may be complete dustbowls where they originally came from, if their first attempts didn't turn out well, possibly also mana-dead, or with strange distortions in the mana-field from overuse of magic to boost production and keep water flowing after natural source had been used up.