Dung Elves

The Dung Elves are a lesser-known cousin in the Elf family – one which most Elves prefer to remain lesser-known. Many Elves go so far as to claim that Dung Elves are not even really Elves at all, but rather, some relative to the goblins, or perhaps the gnomes.

Etymology
The word elf is from the Old word most often attested as ælf (whose plural would have been *ælfe). Although this word took a variety of forms in different Old dialects, these converged on the form elf during the Hominum Aetate period. During the period, separate forms were used for female elves, but during the Hominum Aetate period the word elf came routinely to include female beings.

Morphology
Physically, Dung Elves tend to be scrawny, thin, and short. While fungi provide sufficient nutrition for subsistence, they are not enough, on their own, to maintain a brawny or high-energy physique. However, due in part to their knowledge and use of medicines, and in part to their exposure beginning in early childhood to a wide variety of pharmacological substances (not to mention close proximity to domesticated herd animals), Dung Elves are very hardy, with iron constitutions and a high resistance to disease and poison. Dung Elves have black, brown, or dirty blonde hair, sunken, hollow-looking eyes, tiny and insensitive noses, small chinless jaws with tiny under-formed flat teeth, and extremely long, pointed ears – so long that some Dung Elves tie the ends together behind their heads, using decorative twine knotwork. (Despite their length, these ears are not especially sensitive.) They stand between 4 feet and 4 ½ feet tall, and their hunched, wiry frames rarely weigh more than 90 lbs. Their skin is normally a deep tan or ruddy color, due to a combination of constant earthy filth, and plenty of exposure to the sun. Dung Elves normally wear thigh-high boots, combined with loose-fitting cloth garments which are tied at the waist, knees, elbows, wrists, and neck with intricately knotted twine. These garments, normally woven from flax, burlap, or other tough natural fiber, are usually dyed brown, black, or a deep grey color, to help conceal the ever-present dung-stains. Dung Elves reach adulthood quickly (for elves), maturing by the age of 30, but paradoxically, they tend to live longer than their cousins, typically reaching middle-age at around 600 years, and becoming elderly at around 1,100. Some Dung Elves are reputed to be over 1800 years old. They invariably attribute their long life spans to “healthy living and a good diet.”

Society and Culture
Dung Elves are capable of eating and surviving off of vegetable matter aside from fungus, but they find fruits and vegetables extremely distasteful and will always prefer a meal of fungus. Dung Elves are incapable of digesting meat, milk, or other animal products, and will invariably vomit such food if it is forced upon them. They find the concept of eating animals abhorrent and disgusting, and regard all carnivores as threats – perhaps understandable, given their herdsmen lifestyle.

While they spend a lot of time outdoors tending herd animals, Dung Elves also spend a great deal of time in “cool, dark places” cultivating and harvesting their fungi and molds, where their low-light vision is a crucial advantage.

Dung Elves are not warrior-like, and in fact rarely have cause to fight. Other humanoid species tend to avoid them, finding their entire territory to be a foul-smelling and insect-infested place. Further, the only things Dung Elves have which any other species would find of value is their livestock – and indeed, Dung Elves find that when they come into conflict with neighbors, the inevitable result is the wholesale theft of their herd animals. However, dung lasts a long time, and a community that loses their animals can often survive for two or three years without them, carefully conserving their fertilizer stockpiles while new animals are bred, caught, or purchased. Dung Elves are loathe to abandon a territory, but if pressured they will do so, constructing long baggage-trains of livestock hauling great heaping carts filled with their precious fertilizers and hundreds of tightly-sealed earthenware jars filled with their fungus spores. Dung Elves are more likely to leave, than to wage prolonged war, and thus over time, they have mostly been pushed out into territory less desired by other races. Dung Elves do trade with other communities, generally exchanging rare, sought-after varieties of fungus for metals, glass, fabric, cookware, blades, and other useful items.

History
Dung elves are presumed to have evolved from their ancestors over 30 millennia ago, furhter information on the Histoy of Dung Elves not available.

Language
Information on the Language of Dung Elves not available.

Technology
Dung Elves subsist entirely off of fungi and molds, which they cultivate using natural fertilizers. Small, extended-family clans of Dung Elves select territories where they can raise and manage herds of livestock, for the primary purpose of generating and collecting their dung. (Dung Elves never eat meat). Dung is collected, mixed with various types of vegetable matter such as straw, grass, mulch, etc. and then aged, moistened, dried, or otherwise treated for various purposes. Dung Elves erect long, low fungus-houses which they use to create suitable environments for growing their molds and fungi. Some Dung Elves take advantage of natural features such as caves to create their fungus-houses, but they never delve deeper underground – they must maintain herds of herbivorous animals, which require an outdoor environment to thrive.

In addition to growing foodstuffs, Dung Elves use their smelly product to construct housing. All Dung Elf buildings are built from adobe bricks, mud bricks, or other varieties of earthen construction. Dung Elves are expert craftsmen with earth, clay, and dung, carefully combining precise mixtures of sand, clay, earth, dung, straw, and other ingredients to produce building materials with the exact desired characteristics.

Dung Elves often use the hair of their herd animals, along with other natural fibers, to weave their clothing. As sheep are a particularly good source of dung (because they can graze in a wide variety of environments), Dung Elves are particularly fond of wool. Their clothes are inevitably either dyed brown, grey, tan, or black, or, they are stained such colors by virtue of their particular industry.

Dung Elves are universally experts with all manner of fungi and molds. In addition to growing nutritious food, Dung Elves also cultivate a wide variety of species used for medicinal purposes. Dung Elves understand and use many powerful curatives, hallucinogens, and even toxic poisons, which, in carefully measured small quantities, can have numerous medicinal uses. In order to cultivate such a wide variety of species of mold and fungus, Dung Elves generally use many different mixtures and qualities of dung and fertilizer, along with several unique types of fungus-houses – some designed for drier mulch, others for cooler or darker environments, others for a richer mixture of fertilizer, and so on.