Elven Livelihoods and Occupations

Elves earn their livelihoods through whatever craft pleases them most. Often, this will be something that is beneficial to the entire community. Sometimes the goods are traded with humans for manmade wares but, more often than not, the items remain within the elf community.

Since elves need not be concerned with money to the extent humans are, their home lives are rarely marked with worry about when the next meal is coming. As long as they produce something of value for their community (and probably even if they did not), the other elves will support them. Giving something as ephemeral as humor or laughter to brighten the days of others would be reward enough for the easygoing elves.

Even in the harshest winters and the driest summers there is plenty of sustenance for all elves. Because they are so closely connected with nature, they know when bad seasons are brewing and thus plan well ahead to meet the demands of such troubling times.

Elves do not conceive of any one duty, occupation, or profession independently from those connected to it. Each elf does his or her part with a conscious awareness of how the work ripples through the entire community. Like all things in the weave, works are connected: the hunter provides meat to the cook, who feeds the forager, who collects the materials for weaver, who makes the hunter’s clothes. Work is tied to the notion of both giving and receiving, both being shown and giving respect and appreciation, and realizing one’s place in the structure of the community that parallels the inter-connected and inter-dependent nature of the Weave.

Gender:

While elves rarely differentiate or discriminate based on gender, the differing propensities of males and females incline them to different tasks. For example, because of the female’s more lithe and agile form, she may be more adept at moving through forest trees to hunt game. For this reason, elven women sometimes take up positions as hunters. Women are often seen as more spiritual connected to the gods. For this reason, they tend to occupy the more spiritually-centered occupations, like priests and clerics, though not always. While women are generally seen as nurturing, they do not always serve as care-givers. In fact, among many elves, women generally work and hunt while the men care for the household and address domestic matters.

Hobbies:

Elves have a community mindset, and often hobbies are related back to their community. While hobbies may not be considered an occupation, they often serve the community in some way. For example, dancing is not generally considered a “profession,” as it tends to be something arising spontaneously from personal connection to the Weave. However, those who engage in dance often help others to learn steps and movements that explore the physical and spiritual space of the Weave. In this way, they help deepen other individuals’ sense of self and community.

Similarly, basket-weaving is often considered a hobby, as is some types of carving or embroidery. However, those who engage in this activity often do so, not only out of a creative urge, but also out of a desire to help and support the community as a whole.

Occupation List:

Below is a list of occupations present in elven communities. Some are more prominent than others: while most communities have hunters or archers, few may have farmers or miners. This list is not exhaustive, but helps rather to give an idea of some of the professions present among the elves. These occupations often overlap, and in some communities, members may be able to at least minimally perform all necessary occupations to aid the community. the occupations below are listed by category: Providers (those who provide food for the community), protectors/fighters (those who defend or serve in any sort of military a community may keep), artists (those whose creative exploits benefit the guild, often serving more religious/ritual purposes), artisans/craftspeople (who use their skills to fashion the things the community requires), scholars (whose knowledge helps them serve in ritual or as intellectual resources), and others (miscellaneous).

• Providers:
  • Farmers: Farmers are cultivators of the land. They may grow a variety of crops, depending on the area, and the size of their farms depend upon their habitat. Very rarely will an elf destroy part of the forest in order to create room to grow crops, instead opting to grow in meadows and other natural clearings. Because elves generally reside in forests, this occupation is relatively rare.
  • Gardeners: Gardeners keep the gardens, where they may grow flowers, but also vegetables and herbs. Because gardens can often be kept in small areas within the forests, most forest-dwelling elves have both gardens and gardeners to keep them. Because of a gardener’s natural sensitivities to plants, she may also work as an architect (tree-keeper), herbalist, or woodcrafter.
  • Fishers: Most communities have fishers, though the number varies considerably depending on location. Because a lake resides near many forests, and at least a few rivers run through most, almost all elven communities have fishers.
  • Hunters: The natural propensity toward archery makes elves outstanding hunters. No other race is as skilled with bow and arrow, and you would find few individuals more skilled at moving silently through the trees than an elf. Most elven communities have hunters, who provide the community with not only meat, but also leather for clothing and bones for weapons or tools. Hunters will also often work as archers who help protect the land and community.
  • Cooks: Some elves have an occupation for those who cook and provide the community with meals. In some communities, this task is shared, but in others, individuals are given the task of preparing dishes for all. Because the food prepared goes toward the nourishment of the body, cooks often have a semi-spiritual position. The energies they put into making the food will effect those who consume it. Cooks often also work as herbalists or healers.
  • Foragers: Depending on the community and the area, some elves may work as foragers. This tends to be a catch-all term for those who search the forest for whatever the community may need or the wood might provide. They are often skilled trackers, and extremely knowledgeable of the environment, knowing what berries and nuts grow in what season, when the syrrus moss or silkel tree may be harvested, and where such things can be found. Foragers also often work as rangers or herbalists.
  • Beekeepers: Very few communities keep animals, but some elves work as bee-keepers. Because of the nature of the work, beekeepers must be extremely sensitive to the luaía (energies) of the bees, and working as a beekeeper often requires a great deal of knowledge, time, and patience.
• Protectors/Fighters
  • Warriors: While many elven communities have individuals who can work as warriors, very few communities actually have a standing army or military of the sort. Warriors in particular, who tend to employ more hand-to-hand combat, tend to be fairly rare because elves do not generally have room within the confines of their forest for this form of fighting. However, among some communities who focus more on combat, this occupation is present.
  • Archers: Almost all elven communities have archers, due to the natural gift elves have for the bow and arrow. However, because many elven communities are not in much danger of attack, many archers work as hunters. Due to the nature of their work, many archers are also skilled fletchers and bowyers.
  • Guardians: Guardians are those who care for sacred sites in and around a community’s forests. Because of the nature of their work, many guardians are also lore-keepers.
  • Mercenaries: More commonly found among dark elven communities, mercenaries sell themselves to anyone with the money to buy them.
  • Guards: While they may have other names depending on the community, guards help defend the elven settlements. This often involves the use of magic to hide a settlement from those on the outside, or else cause a traveler wandering toward the community to change course. Guards are often unwaveringly perceptive and very clever. They are often also skilled rangers.
  • Ranger: At times the occupation of “ranger” is combined with that of guard. Rangers, however, generally only deal with watching an area, not necessarily taking action to stop those who may wander in to a village. They keep an eye on the wildlife and the state of the forest, and carry warning back to the community if something is amiss. They tend to know their environment extremely well, and sometimes work as trackers, hunters, or foragers.
• Artists
  • Bards: Many elven communities have bards, who often aid in rituals and ceremonies to help balance energies. Elves appreciate music as a kind of celebration; and enjoy the creative aspect, as notes and music coming into being. Because of the association between music and ceremony, many bards may also work as priests or clerics. Elves are known for their bards.
  • Scribes: Those who compose poetry, write stories, develop plays, or record history are known as scribes, and all are considered artists because of their skill with words. They add both to the balancing of energies (in or out of ritual) and to the understanding of the Weave. Some of the most skilled scribes are Elven, and many of them work as librarians, teachers, and lore-keepers.
  • Painters: Because of the materials required, only a few communities host painters. Because many elves do not come into contact with those outside their forests, materials are unavailable. However, there are those who do manage to get the resources.
• Artisans/Craftspeople:
  • Weavers: Almost all elven communities have weavers, who turn things like silkel tree threads or syrrus moss tendrils into cloth. Like many other trades, weavers use magic to help imbue the cloth with certain properties, such as a tendency toward protection, or a quickening of healing. Weavers will often also work as dyers and tailors.
  • Dyers: Those with a discerning eye for colours and a sensitivity to the way patterns and designs affect energies often work as dyers. Dyers use their knowledge to ensure the pattern and cloth aid in the future function of a piece of clothing: that is, the pattern and cloth will correspond to allow the wearer to more effectively carry out her task, or to experience the greatest balance for her energies. Dyers often work as weavers and tailors.
  • Tailor/Seamstress: Those who use materials to create clothing are tailors or seamstresses. While cloth and leather are the most common materials, those who practice this occupation are often use beads, feathers, gems, and other additions to create the jerkins, britches, footwear, robes, belts, dress, etc. that the community requires. They also make packs and bags.
  • Jewelers: Not all elves have jewelers among them, but those that do often create beautiful creations. One of the most well-known are the glass jewelers . Many Elves also work as lapidaries who will polish and even engrave gems or stone.
  • Architects/Tree-Keepers: Those who construct the spaces in which elves reside are termed architects, but do not carry the same implications. Architects tend to have a propensity toward magic and nature, and will often use their abilities to create structures of both stone and trees. Those that work intimately with the Avá’reollár tree go by the name tree-keepers (phera’valturía). Occasionally these individuals, because of their sensitivities toward plants, will work as gardeners.
  • Armourers/Smiths: Elves often have armorers and blacksmiths among them.
  • Masons: While elven communities, due to their habit, may find it difficult to acquire stone, those that do either through mining or trade fashion it into structures half built from trees and other living things. Those who help construct the stone part of a community’s structures are termed “masons,” though the term fails to reflect the creative element of the work. Often masons are skilled sculptors and stone-carvers, working into the stone beautiful designs and motifs. Masons often also serve as architects; if not, they often work closely with them.
  • Tool-makers: Because many artisans also make their own tools, and many warriors make their own weapons, rarely will you find an occupation involved purely in the creation of daggers, utensils, needles, etc., but because of the nature of the Elven lifestyle, such an occupation finds significant use.
  • Woodcrafters: The bowls, utensils, and even some of the jewelry and armor of the elves are created by skilled woodcrafters and wood-carvers. Woodcrafters do not generally kill a tree for its wood, and will instead wait for it to fall or die before taking its wood. Wood is most often acquired following lightning strikes or forest fires. Because of the sensitivity required, many woodcrafters also work as gardeners or architects.
  • Bowyer/Fletcher: Because so many elven communities have a high number of archers and hunters, so they also have a high number of fletchers to provide arrows and bowyers who make and repair bows. While these professions may be separated among some communities, they often overlap, and a hunter or archer will make her own arrows and bow.
• Scholars:
  • Researchers: Researchers tend to be rare among elves, who do not often leave the safety of their forests, and most of the researchers are local. They sometimes work as scribes, and record the knowledge of other professions in order to ensure the information is not lost.
  • Lore-keepers: Lore-keepers are often the elders in a community, and within the recesses of their mind hold the many stories, myths, and details that give a community its identity. They often work as guardians, protecting sacred spaces and objects whose history and significance they are intimately aware. They will sometimes also serve as priests or clerics for the community.
  • Teachers: In many elven communities, all members contribute to the education of an elfling, but in some, education is taught by a group of teachers. Often times these teachers will educate children on the fundamentals before they move up to the next step in their education. Those of this occupation are experts, and while they may serve other functions, most teachers are too occupied with teaching to do much else.
  • Librarians: Those elven communities with libraries generally have a librarian to care for the tomes and scrolls, and who can serve as a reference guide for those seeking knowledge. Librarians are often a compendium of knowledge, and even if a librarian cannot answer a question immediately, he generally knows where to go to find the answer. Librarians commonly work as scribes, and may also serve as researchers.
  • Guides: The catch-all term guide serves as a way of capturing the many individuals within communities who specialize in one aspect and use that knowledge to assist the community. Among the Elves, those with magical or mystical abilities are termed spirit guides. Those who know the oceans are called sea-guides. Often times, depending on the area of knowledge, guides may serve as priests or clerics.
  • Herbalists/Healers: Those with knowledge of herbs and their effects commonly also work as healers: the two are so closely intertwined that no elven community significantly separates the two. Those of this profession use their knowledge to aid those who are wounded or experience pain. Because of their knowledge, they often work as cooks or gardeners, and also usually serve the community as a midwife during births.
  • Mages: Those with a general knowledge in all rituals and magic are mages who act as advisors, and usually also serve as lore-keepers or librarians.
  • Clerics: Some elves have a special connection with one of the gods, and may use this connection to aid the community, particularly in religious ceremony. These individuals are a community’s clerics, and serve in special occasions.
• Other:
  • Miner: Miners make up a very small percentage of those elven communities that have them, generallly areas surrounded by mountains.
  • Politician/Emissary: Every community has a position involving political matters, but especially for those communities who experience relatively high inter-racial contact, those skilled in politics are often important for the peace of the area. For this task, politicians or emissaries are employed.
  • Bankers: Very rarely will a community have bankers. But in areas of inter-racial contact and because of the size of the community’s main city, banks allow for the community to work smoother and more efficient, though many other elven communities find the profession puzzling.
  • Merchants/Traders: Elves remain primarily in their forests, where they are more or less self-sustaining. However, there are some communities who have trading alliances with others in the area, both elven and non-elven. Traders help bring in resources they could not themselves produce. Communities employ merchants to share goods with the outside world.