>WHY SANDY THINKS TROLL CULTURE IS INSTINCTIVE
> 1) All dark trolls and all snow trolls speak Darktongue,
This would seem to imply that the hypothetical "Troll raised by Humans" would be able to speak fluent darktongue, something I'm not quite ready to accept.
I think that the consistancy of language is due much more to the "inhumanly" close ties Trolls keep with their ancestors, and with the extreme lifespan of the Uz Matriarchy, than any instinctive capability for a particular language.
A troll who cannot speak darktongue correctly looses access to many Thousands of Generations of acumulated knowledge and Magic. An Orlanthi who speaks his own strange variation of Sartarite only loses touch with "Those Durn Furrinners" in the next valley. Also, as a general rule, the further back an ancestor is, the more powerful -- right up to KL Herself. So it should not suprise anyone that Uz everywhere speak EXACTLY the same language, while Humans, with their loose or nonexistant communication with their ancestors, speak a vast array of diverse languages.
> 2) All troll cultures, not just dark trolls, but hot trolls
>and snow trolls, too, worship Kyger Litor as the center of their
>faith.
THIS -- now This might just possibly be instinctive. After all, it could be considered a Human Instinct to Love Your Mother. How much stronger this might be when "Mom" is also the Center of religious worship and racial identity, is certainly worth thinking about. I could definately see our experimental Uz fosterling chewing stones into "motherly" shapes even if (s)he had never been told of the cult of Kyger Litor.
That doesn't mean that religion is Entirely Instinctive for Uz, however. Remember that Uz Children are raised Communally. I don't think that the idea of oneself as an individual is very strongly developed in Trolls. From birth, Trolls are part of a Group, and feel themselves defined by their place in this group of peers. They are isolated from everything but Darkness and Each Other. They are trained in their proper role, place, and behavior, and know NOTHING else untill around the age of sixteen. Even Wild and Snow Troll children are isolated as much as Uzly possible, Though the lack of "Civilized" Xiola Umbar Temples and techniques to bring up properly socialized youth might explain the greater incidence of loners in these populations, and even the occasional Snow Troll who worships only Himele.
> 3) Trolls live in vastly different situations worldwide.
This I would also dissagree with. Trolls live in vastly different PLACES, yes, but they all have communication with the same ancestors. They all have similar upbringings. And an awful lot of them have religious and social Leaders who Personally Remember the GodTime. Humans can only rarely trace their history back as far as the Dawn. Every Troll in Glorantha can trace their heritage back to KL Herself, and more than a few know everyone inbetween.
Which brings up another interesting point... How well do the Uz understand Time? their culture was solidified long before(!?) Time began, and any Troll of Consequence deals regularly with spirits from the GodTime. Some of their apparently instinctive behaviors might be due to an incomplete comprension of Time and Order. ie the order of events is not nearly so important to trolls as the events themselves.
I don't really think of themselves as connected to time in the same way Humans do. This would go a long way towards explaining Zorak Zoran worship (the Deeds are important - not the length of your life), and Uz conservatism (Troll in Pavis in 1625==Troll in Guhan in 0025)
My Argument is that the Uz MonoCulture is a result of their Ubiquitous(sp) Ancestor Worship, Mind Boggling Lifespan, and lack of comprehension of Time, and not a result of All Encompassing Instinct.
> I have other reasons, too, but not enough time to list them
>here.
darn.
>And the fathers are wimps?
Compared to the mothers?... you Bet!
How many Death Lords do you see lining up to Arm Wrestle Miss Cragspider? And With KL sharing a basement apartment in the Castle of Lead, Them Girlies Is NARSTY.
Apologies again for the vast bandwidth,
danm.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #87
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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