How would a cave civilisation survive underground?

All I know so far is, they're a developed culture of humans who live in cave networks underground, made fit for life. They speak their own language, and they have some contact with outsiders, with whom they trade. No one has ever been on the surface, and though concepts of "above" and "heaven" are captured in their songs and stories, no one is interested in "going up". Although, they covet a somewhat rare material outsiders call "lightstone" (you can guess what it does.) They trade with outsiders for lightstone.

They get water from underground sources. Food and fire, I'm not so sure. I don't know if they can grow wood there with only light from lightstone and fire. Maybe some really robust saplings, but could they grow without sunlight?

Without wood, I'm not sure if fire is a possibility - could they just use coal and other non-renewable sources? (If so, I suppose this makes light finite, which is an interesting twist.)

As for food, there are beasts which live in the caves which they can hunt, as well as moss and fungus probably, but beyond that I don't know what they eat, or how they maintain nutrition. They're a hardy people, but there's probably a minimum they need to survive.

My chief concern, though, is how do they live without natural light? Can humans do this for indefinite generations? Would I need to modify their biology to make this aspect work?

So to sum up the chief concerns of this question:

1. How could a cave-based civilisation grow food?
2. How can they make fire?
3. How do humans live without sunlight?
4. How well do humans live without sunlight?

posted almost 8 years ago

Lou‭

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