Elves

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cyllene.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 18:37:59 +0800

         The Aldryami orthodoxy re-educating Chris Lemens, I'm afraid...

>
>I am thinking about writing up a bunch of stuff about the Elf Sea area.
> Most of these are blank lands in the Genertela Box. In fact, I can't find
>any entry for the Elder Wilds at all. Question #1: Has anyone published
>stuff for this area? Question #2: Why does the map of Genertela from the
>Genertela box show no forest in the Elder Wilds, but the map of inner
>Glorantha from the same box show an elf population there?

        As I'm sure many people will reply, this is in the out of print and much lamented Griffon Mountain for RQ2. The Elder Wilds does indeed have a reasonable elf population, though nowhere near as many as it used to. The trolls seem to be the main other denizens, so the elves of the Elder wilds need to fight for their survival.

        The map is no doubt a confusion between the pre- and post- RQ3 maps, as before the publication of Griffon Island Balazar and the Elder Wilds where the very opposite of Blank Lands - they were probably the best documented parts of Glorantha, only the Zola Fel valley coming close.

> Question #4: Why was mention of Shanasse dropped from the GoG writeup
>(compared to the CoP writeup)?

        Shanassee has also been used as a term for a light spirit (something like what would now be called a Luxite). It was probably removed due to confusion. Or maybe Shannassee is acknowledged by the elves in some places where they have interacted with human light cults. Or maybe its just been gregged.

>Flamal and Voria are the big dieties for pixies.

        Either them or they are often linked with the aldryami trickster, whoever that may be.

>Voralans use sorcery, yet another reason why no one messes with them.

        Voralans if anything are less intellectual and organised than aldryami. I reckon no one messes with them because of their weird Voralan magic. They are far more likely to sit around all day growing weird stuff and eating strange concoctions than studying old books.

>Elves use two short swords instead of broadsword and buckler. Any right
>thinking elf would want to carry as many arrows as possible, so would not
>want to sling that buckler on its back. A broadsword at one's hip makes
>tree climbing awkward.

        Nah, elves are subject to the same problems with using two weapons as everybody else - a shortsword simply does not make a good parrying weapon compared to a buckler.

        And as for not using broadsword - unfortunately, from a purely game point of view, elves already have enough problems penetrating anybodies armour (having neither any strength or access to Bladesharp), and so I think allowing them to use broadswords or spears, despite their inconvenience while tree climbing, is fair. I see them being more into spears, really, due to their primarily vegetable nature (actually, purely wooden spears with no metal spear head are probably what most elves use). They probably grow them on spear trees.

        In any case, most elves probably try to avoid hand to hand combat as much as possible, let alone trying to get fancy with two weapons.

>Elves do not honor Eirtha, the mother of _herd_ beasts, except to the extent
>that they honor all foreign earth-daughters.

        Well, the elves that know of Eirithra probably honour her, but I can't see there being very many. Probably the elves of the Garden, and not many others. They do so probably because it seems diplomatic - the only other earth worshippers they are likely to meet are the Eirithrans.

        Elves in other places probably don't bother about animal deities much, and if they do, yes, its probably deities of the wild animals (like the Lady of the Wild from KOS).

>Almost no one would say that their experience in the Greater Darkness was to
>get slaughtered, then saved by someone or something totally unknown to them.

 I think the most important elf myths of the Greater Darkness are of High King Elf fighting all the bad things (along with the elves, especially the Green Elves) while the rest of the Aldryami are asleep. This is a mighty and desperate struggle, and includes the Elf version of I Fought We Won. He even gets help from outside sources. Arroin is another Aldryami Great Darkness figure.

>So I'm thinking there is a
>story about one of the Yelmalios and the High Elf Lord being responsible for
>the Dawn. Which Yelmalio? What did they do? Somehow, they got Yelm out of
>Hell, or perhaps manipulated the stupid human gods to do it for them? Is
>that what the elvish Hill of Gold is about?

        Oh no! I can feel another 'who is the Winter Sun' discussion coming on....

        It does sound pretty reasonable that an elf deity sometime in the darkness fought Zorak Zoran and Inora and Chaos in quest of the sun, but I wouldn't like to speculate beyond that - certainly, given past discussion, we are unlikely to reach a concensus about anything...

        David


Powered by hypermail