I don't think other cultures are aware of the fact that telmori lose their intellect every wildday. Combat is about the only interraction possible with telmori in wolf form, and being charged by a horde of howling telmori isn't that different from attacks of other fanatical foes (Berserkers for instance) On the basis of this I think it's possible that the difference is lost on other cultures. The reason they haven't been exterminated yet is the fact that they travell in small groups(I belive tainted ones are incapable of operating in groups larger than 5 - 10 individuals; the normal size of a wolfpack) attack only isolated farms and have exceptional senses and mobility.(the perfect guerillia warriors if you like) Their reputation works to their advantage too: You got to be crazy to go after the telmori into telmori terrain. Who would want to go into a dense, dark forest hunting a prey that can hear and smell you over large distances.
> >My interpretation of this has always been that, on Wildday, the Cursed
> >Ones become not just beasts but wild, savage beasts driven to acts
> >of violence and slaughter like the traditional werewolf of legend. _This_
> >is what results from Arkat's revelation of the chaos at the heart of Gbaji/
> >Nysalor's gift.
>
> Well it was actually Talor who cursed the wolves. I do think that the
> Telmori are worse than real wolves in that they do not fear men in the
> way that RW and non-telmori wolves do. They know what humans are like
> as they have some within their packs. Thus they are not afraid to
> hunt humans down for food. This flaw would extend to the Pure Ones as
> well as the Wild Ones IMO.
>
But why hunt the most dangerous prey if you don't have to? I still belive
the pure ones have displaced the other tribes from the best huntinggrounds
in telmoria. The best areas would be the more "virgin areas" away from
settled humans. Forcing the tainted ones to find alternative foodsources.
This does make the humans an tempting target. And since the telmory lose
their "common sense" every wildday. This is exactly what they do.
All IMHO of course.
And your right, it was Talor, and not Arkat who did it. But it wasn't a curse. What he did was only make the chaotic origins of Nysalor's gift apparent.
Now over to something completely different: Time.
I've tried to follow the time argument, and it hasn't been easy. But anyway I'm going to present my view of why the orlanthi view the godtime as timeless. I beg your forgiveness if this is old stuff.
Orlanthi say the godtime was timeless because they had no reliable way of
measuring it. Day and night would come at random intervalls, and winter
would strike when Valind happened to invade. The view here is: Is there
time if you can't measure it. And I think the simplistic orlanthi
concluded that time did not exist.
Somebody said that aging and dying wasn'tconnected to time.
I agree totally. I see age in the godtime as the resultof wisdom, not the
opposite. Youth is caused by innocence, not the other way around.
Only my two clacks though.
Frank Rafaelsen
rafael_at_nvg.unit.no
"Si fallor, sum"
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