I think that to understand how elves think and act, we need to understand how they perceive the world. But before we get to that, let's back up a bit. The major deity in elves' lives is Aldrya, the Goddess of Forests. That's important. She isn't the Goddess of Trees; She isn't even the Goddess of "Lots of Trees Growing Near Each Other". She is the Goddess of _Forests_, the mother of the whole eco-system that is the Forest. Every tree, every bush, every earthworm, every woodpecker, everything that goes towards keeping the _Forest_ a vibrant living organism comes under her purview. And elves are Her way of reacting quickly to the needs of the Forest.
Which brings us to elves and Elfsense. In "Elder Secrets", Elfsense is described as allowing the elf to discern what is wrong with a plant they touch. That sounds rather lame to me. I think that description reflects what Gloranthan humans understand about Elfsense, rather that what it really is. I think that Elfsense is the elves' primary sense, the way they gain most of their information about the world. Humans have vision, trolls have hearing, dwarves have touch, and, in an identical way, elves have empathy. We know that in the real world, plants communicate with each other; that if one tree is attacked by pests, its neighbours take pre-emptive steps to protect themselves. That is what Elfsense is: the elves' perception of the constant communication between plants as they exper ience and react to the world around them.
This means that Elfsense has two "modes", in the same way that human vision has two "modes". Normally, as elves go about their everyday business, they perceive the background "hum" of the Forest liv ing, as plants grow, feed, die, rot. This "Song of the Forest" is constantly "heard" by everything in the Forest. As the situation in the Forest changes, plants tell each other about it, and the Song changes. Messages about small things only go small distances; if something big happens, like a fire, the whole Forest will know. Elves will pick up the changes in the Song quicker than most other plants and they will react to it, taking what actions are necessary for the well-being of the Forest. The other "mode" of Elfsense is the specific examination of the Song of one plant in an attempt to learn wh y it sings in such a way. It's like a human looking carefully at a specific thing, and is the use of Elfsense described in _ES_.
So what does this tell us about elven psychology? Two things, mainly. The first stems from the fact that elves perceive the world primarily through their Elfsense. If they go somewhere with less plant life, the Song will be attenuated and the elf will become devoid of sensory input. The equivalent for a human would a deadening of all sense of their own body. No sense of touch, heat, cold, hunger, balance. No elf in their right mind leaves the Forest. Which means that all the elves seen outside their Forests are not in their right minds. They are either monomaniacal fanatics, prepared to suffer terrible privations for the good of the Forest (similar the Krjalki elves of Hellwood, embracing Chaos in order to fight it), or they are actually quite mad. The latter case is like Larry Niven's Puppeteers, a species so cowardly that the only ones that leave the planet are insane. All the Puppeteer's ambassadors are psychotic, manic-depressive, schizophrenic, or the like. The same will apply to the elves.
The second result of Elfsense is that elves cannot really give reasons for their actions. If a human is thirsty, they will reach out for a glass of water and drink it. An elf would understand this as a metaphor for their actions, but instead of seeing themselves in the place of the human, they see themselves as the hand, and the Forest as the organism that is thirsty. An elf can no more explain its actions than a person's hand can explain why it grasps the glass. If the Forest has a need which can only be satisfied by sending its elves outside itself, the elves will go, but they won't know why. All the elves hear is the Song of the Forest expressing a need to fetch that glass of water. If the elf is asked why it needs the glass, it can't answer. And as humans only ever question the elves, it is little wonder that elves have acquired a reputation for being callous, arbitrary, and unfriendly.
Phew! That was long. Any comments?
Neil.
Neil Smith E-mail: nsmith_at_dmu.ac.ukJunior Research Fellow, Computer Sci. Tel: (01908) 695511 x4145 De Montfort University, Milton Keynes Fax: (01908) 834948 http://www.mk.dmu.ac.uk/depts/dcis/research/res_rep/ken.htm
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