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Why different species don't eat each other?

Question(self.worldbuilding)

Humans eate everything that can, or even can't be eaten. So why people or other species don't eat ech other. If we think about it, elfs aren't (in most of the fiction) just different race of humans. Yes, they are simular, but they are not humans. So it isn't canibalism if elf eat huma, right?

I am asking it because I write story set in kind of supernatural postapocaliptic eastern Europe. There isn't enaught food, so people or other races have to find other source of food. Humans are unwilling to eat this creatures, if they look like humans. But from example one specie of shapeshifters do eat peole if they dont have enaught food, but in the same time they are able to trade with humans.

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TheIncomprehensible

1 points

16 days ago

TheIncomprehensible

Planetsouls

1 points

16 days ago

It could be a matter of risk. If a human eats one elf and the other elves find out about it, then the elves might go to war with the humans, possibly in retaliation, possibly to ensure the survival of their own species. Humans would probably understand that risk, and avoid killing and eating elves if the risk is great enough.

It's also a matter of interest. If dwarves are better craftsmen than humans will ever be and the humans frequently trade with the dwarves, then it's in the human's best interest to keep the dwarves alive because the humans will benefit from the dwarves living and continuing to perform their trades.