How would a sapient species descended from felids become herbivorous?
In my fantasy world, I have created a sentient species descended from an arboreal felid (it evolved to eat squrriels and small monkeys). They are my elves. The one problem is that I want them to be herbivores. So I would like someone to help me figure out why a carnivore descendant would do this. This world has natural magic, which sort of radiates from magical sources such as mana springs and arcanacrystals) so feel free to use that in your answer.
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1 answer
Farming and direct choice
It is a lot easier to farm plants than it is to farm animals, and easier to store them as well. You don't have to feed the dried apples you have in your storehouse over the winter. Cattle still have to be fed, which means you're growing and storing the food anyway.
Instead of evolving this way, your elves deliberately chose this path. While they may have been carnivores or partial omnivores, they steered their culture towards farming - And while obligate carnivores require meat, your elves were able to harness the nature magic to change their whole physiology to accept and thrive on plants - And to have those plants produce more and better nutrients. This is why elvish travel bread is so good for its size.
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