**CAVEAT**: The following is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
It's not too difficult to find parallels. In some areas of the world, monkey brains are considered a delicacy. Raw monkey brains. Raw, _live_, monkey brains. No-one cares all that much about the sounds, actions and so on of the unfortunate primate whilst its thinking organ's being spooned out. Maybe it's even a matter of some interest, the various squeakings, convulsions and so on - perhaps keeping it alive for as long as possible by eating around the edge, avoiding life-critical bits. Devoid of Western ethos and qualms, it could be a quite intriguing experience for the banquetor.
(Ahem, there are times when being a veggy's a reassuring thing ... um, unless you're near a Troll, that is ...)
> Besides, there is a fine tradition in the official Chaosium stuff of
> labeling trolls such things as "callous," "brutal," and "crude" without much
> apparent worry.
True, but that's going to be written from a human (probably Orlanthi/Lightbringer) perspective anyway; we're back to the business of nothing being canonical; it's all relative to the viewpoint of the (Gloranthan) author.
> I have been considering how the trolls, as a race, are described as "the
> Eaters" who are "preeminently devourers" in the world. Taking a bite of
> something and chewing it, especially for a race that doesn't particularly
> care whether the food is dead or not, is an inherently violent act.
Perhaps that's what a carrot thinks. Probably not what you think, whilst you're eating it (presuming you do...:). A troll probably thinks, "What's wrong with having an appetite?" Violence is a human overlay onto Uz behaviour; Uz themselves I suspect have no real perception of the concept, and those Trolls who speak human languages wouldn't know whether to be puzzled by "violence", or insulted that their perfectly natural behaviour's considered so offensive and unacceptable.
Jon
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