How to tell if you're a troll

From: Argrath_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 11:27:22 -0500

The Washington, D.C. area is in Valind's Snowy Grip at the moment, and shoveling nineteen inches of snow out of my driveway made me think about trolls. If you're not sure whether a single birth is an uzko or an enlo, or if the mother claims that a multiple birth is really uzko, then the uzko test the claim by putting the naked baby out in the snow for a while. If it shivers, it's an enlo. (Uzko don't shiver unless severely ill.) You can also perform this test on older trolls/trollkin, but you have to make the time longer.

A test for uzhim (if one is needed) is to toss the troll into icy water. If he or she can survive treading water for a while, uzhimdom is proven. The length of the test depends on the cruelty of the test-giver.

Actually, uzuz can pass the uzhim test, too. An uzuz's skin is freezing to the touch, whereas other trolls are merely cold. (An enlo's skin is cool.)  According to Peter Michaels, if a non-Darkness rune creature touches an uzuz's skin, you get an effect like touching freezing metal: if there's any dampness, the non-Dark-runer's skin freezes to the uzuz. Serves you right for trying to touch one.

The coldest thing in Glorantha, IMHO, is an uzuz's internal organs. I don't think it's the heart that's actually the coldest. Maybe the liver.

Standard disclaimers apply. YMMV.

• --Martin

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