As a long time lurker, and first time poster I have decided to jump in with both feet and risk A vicious Gregging by throwing forth my own personal theory of how a "half troll, half human" tribe might have come to exist in glorantha.
Having spent some time to ponder the awful religious heresies nescessary to spawn such a revolting thing as a combined human / Uz tribe, I still think that nothing less than a marriage between their respective rulers would suffice.
(I have written a hymn relating the event, and will be happy to post it if ensuing discussions indicate it is likely to exist).
My thesis is : Durring the lesser Dark KL and Orlanth came to blows over one thing or another. neither could defeat the other. Seeing that this conflict could go on indefinately, (and respecting the other's prowess) they decided it was in their best intrests to get hitched, so they could commence to ignoring each other like all good married couples.
This marriage was in KL's intrest because that damn burning death was bringing down property values in her lovely suburban Wonderhome, and this Orlanth guy expressed an intrest in ousting the bum. Also, a powerful and violent husband (however wayward) is always a feather in the cap of a good troll matron, and I think KL is practical enough to see that her people had enough troubles adapting to the hurtplace without fighting the Storm every step of the way.
Orlanth would quite probably have agreed to this wedding
(year-marriage, one night stand, . . . , insert your favorite contractual
hedge here) because he also had more important things to do then kill
trolls, He was planning to embark on a quest to hell, his crazy Kin
(Ragnaglar and co.) were threatening all sorts of mayhem, and what better
luck could befall him than to bump into someone who could tell him
something of the ways to hell, and could face down any thouble the Unholy
3 could dish out.
Of course they got hitched. Political Marriages are no big deal amongst either Orlanthi or Uz. It was the best (and quite possibly the only) option at the time. If they didn't get married, why didn't they kill each other? or, if they never actually came to blows -- why not? I certainly can't imagine the big O allowing all this hellspawn to crawl all over the surface world without some sort of challenge.
Now, I'm not implying that this was a happy or romantic marriage -- meerly a convenient way for each to get something they wanted. I don't imagine that either god is particularly proud of this turn of events -- but they were desperate. Conservatives of either religion will deny that the event ever happened, or if they happen to stumble across it on the god plane deny that it holds any import. Only the Kitori (curse the swine) have the poor sence to continue to rub past mistakes in their god's faces and even (horror of horrors) think of it as a Good Thing.
This is why (IMHO) the Kitori exist as a combined Human-Uz tribe, and also why EVERYONE else thinks they are completely off their gourd.
The present state of dislike between the two pantheons can be explained quite easily by noting that neither side entirely lived up to their part of the bargain. Orlanth only forced Yelm out of hell half of the time, and though the trolls did fight off most of chaos, they ate most of the good guys too. They both felt ripped off, and have been squabling ever since. (Again, like husband and wife ought).
Food For Thought -- hope it helps.
Dan.
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