Replacement items in the Underdark?

[Dog Moon]

Okay, say the Underdark is totally cut off from the world above, so no trade, travel, etc. Well, I'm trying to create an area that has been totally cut off from trade to other places and trade between them and the surface, so I'm trying to think of how they might have adapted to various things and I don't want to mention books and be asked 'so where did the paper for the books come from if there are no trees?' and be totally stumped. That, and I'm trying to make this place kind of unique by changing common items for those which might be less common because they don't have them.

Sooo, what items would replace those created only from materials up above?

Example: Inks [or maybe I just don't know where ink comes from], paper, milk, cloth, silk, candles, rope, wool, etc? What do they use for fuel for cooking, heat, etc? I know I'm totally missing a LOT of stuff, so that's why I ask this question.

 

[Imruphel]

IMC, a lot of products come from various types of fungi including ink, paper, rope and fuel for cooking and heating.

I DM in FR so rothe (cave cattle, more or less) are common underground and serve as a source of meat, milk and leather. Their fat can also be rendered down (I think that's the name of the process) to make candles.

Silk could possibly come from some sort of specially bred spider or other type of giant vermin.

I hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[D'karr]

Sooo, what items would replace those created only from materials up above?

Example: Inks [or maybe I just don't know where ink comes from], paper, milk, cloth, silk, candles, rope, wool, etc? What do they use for fuel for cooking, heat, etc? I know I'm totally missing a LOT of stuff, so that's why I ask this question.

Inks would be produced from a multitude of underground plant life that have colorful pigments. Even more resourceful races might have found a way to "harvest" the pigmentation from underground lake lifeforms that have bioluminescense. Their inks could be used to read script even in absolute darkness.

Paper would be produced by a mulching process that takes underground giant mushrooms and makes them into a paste that is then molded, dried, and sliced into thin sheets.

Underground mammals like Rothe would produce your milk, meats, furs. The fat from the Rothe can be used to make soaps, candles, and even some "dirty" fuel for lanterns. If the Rothes are sheared you can make some wool cloths, etc.

Silk would be produced from spider silk. "Silk" rope could be created from the same. Regular rope could be made from either strips of leather, strips of cloth or an underground hemp-like plant could produce some residue that can be used for such purpose.

The same mushrooms used for paper can be left to dry and the stalks used for "firewood". Heat could be ambient heat from deep magma deposits.

The underground is the limit... LOL Resourceful underground creatures would have found ways to adapt.

 

[painandgreed]

Don't forget the use of various minerals for inks and pigments. Similarly, Coal could be burned to replace wood as seams should be here and there.

Mushrooms, lichens, molds, and slimes replace most vegeteble matter. The long fiberous stalks of certain mushrooms could be scutched and hackled like flax and made into a linen substitute for clothig and rope. The tough skin of others could simply be peeled off and scraped to make something like velum.

Then there is always the fallback of magical versions of surface plants and animals meant to live underground. These could be natural or created. Also look to monsters as a source of material like big game. For that matter, since most of the underdark creatures are evil, on't overlook the skin bone and hair of other intelligent races as sources of material. Duergar warriors may advertise their ability by wearing Drow hair and leather clothing made from their kills. The underdark seas would also be a source of food and material just as surface seas are.

 

[ceratitis]

well i'd start a bit farther back. plant life harness energy from the sun and are the primary producers of the entire planet eco system. if your underworld is completly cut off you need a major energy source that can be harnest by something (mostly bacteria and fungus) and everything else can live on them.
possible sources could be lava (most logical too), sulfar and nitrogen compounds that can be oxidized for energy or what ever you feel like. once you got that everything else is an addaption. by the way you have to have something that converts carbon dioxide into oxigen or most life forms we know would never evolve there and everything changes.
Z