>Martin and Peter are 100% correct in their depiction of those obscene elf
>grafting practices, IMHO.
Thanks for the vote. It _is_ rather Cthulhoid.
>This is *terrifying*, and does far more than anything
>else I can think of to banish the cuddly Tolkienesque image of elves from
>the Aldryami of the deep forest.
Tolkien's High Elves weren't cuddly. The Wood Elves or whatever were kinda fey and cute. (I won't talk about Tolkien's racism.) Despite being Anarcho-Syndicalist Autonomous Collectives (or maybe because of it), Aldryami communities are highly practical and lacking in things humans take for granted. Individual Aldryami (to the extent they _are_ individuals) think nothing of doing things which would cause great anguish for humans: sacrificing their friends and family, dying for the greater good, butchering helpless captives--that sort of thing.
Unlike Uz, Aldryami won't butcher helpless captives out of mere cruelty, but only if it serves the forest's long-term needs. As their calculus of cost and benefit is alien to human minds, their cruelty (and also their kindness) appears random.
>(I think I'm going to have bad dreams tonight, Martin. Thanks!).
No problem. If you have some _really_ bad ones, tell us about them here. It may not be too late for that dream-analysis game session.
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