I suspect they get to 1000 years and consider themselves Very Old, Sonny, but indeed, this is more than lots of Gloranthan humans can distinguish. But the elves can, and just don't have the hangups about mortality that the other major races do, I think.
> I think all red and green elves are sexual only. Probably some are
> capable of parthenogenesis, though.
What about yellow elves, though? Can't be parthenogenetic, have to really Get Lucky to reproduce sexually, but a good candidiate for Budding, me thinks. Send in the Clones? Doesn't _that_ put a worrying light on the "House" of Erinoru?
> For interest, the oldest living thing is apparently a hundred
> meters or so of shrub, a shrub that is sterile and [...] 45, 000 years
Cooool. Elaborate Godtime blessing/curses, anyone?
> There might even be extra big redwood elves, that are both larger
> and longer lived - the Aldryami answer to the Mistress Race.
Sounds like Ents by other means, to me. ;-) I'm inclined to think that elves really do max out about 1000 years of age -- otherwise the Great Trees' reaching back to the Godtime would be less of a cause for special reverence. Of course, exceptions due to HeroQuest, Budding, or Other Factors I could be prevailed upon to.
> a) Why this obsession with elf warriors climbing trees, though? I don't
> see why climbing trees is particularly important for the elf military.
This is, though, where the non-overtly-military-but-still-useful elves are all hanging out. Individuals with modest melee skills, but a bit of magic (which describes all but the occassional broadswordweilding maniac, really).
I suspect yellow elves are _big_ climbing fans. The undergrowth may be thick and swampy enough that climbing is actually quicker, plus: why melee with a jungle troll when you can hang back and use your blowgun, or nickle-and-dime them with Disrupts?
Somehow, though, picturing a Vronkali Wood Lord perched up a pine tree is altogether less sensible-seeming. And if you're in any of the above persistant-tree-hugger categories, then you certainly don't bother carrying a spear, and not unlikely, not any melee weapon beyond a knife.
> Thus, you don't climb trees much, because then you would have to waste
> time climbing down as the trolls charge.
[Surely "further up"? -- Ed.]
> b) a spear might well be used as a tool to help climbing - something to
> help get up the early, difficult, smooth part of the tree.
Clearly more fodder for Games Gloranthan Play -- aldryami pole vaulting!
> If the elves use primarily wooden spears, then perhaps they simply
> plant spear plants all over the elven forests, and they simply grab one
> when they want it?
I'm sure this one will prove True by Acclamation. This sounds particularly green-ish to me.
> BTW why are there elven BGs?
There are. Note, in fact the big foobar in Elder Secrets about yellow Babs worshippers.
> I doubt it was originally an elven cult. Are
> we going to yet again assume its a similar cult that gets confused, that
> has yet another variant name?
Same Actual Cult, I believe. Even ignoring howlers like the Pamaltelan BGs, I think ES greatly exaggerates the prevalence of "other" cults. I think most of these are actually imported (or "associated") human cults, and are only really known in relatively human-familiar areas. ES errs thusly as PC elves just "happen" to come from the human-contact areas, or so I'd believe if they decided to tell me so.
Personally, I don't think I wish to resort to the "similar cult that gets confused" explanation, at all.
> it seems to be assumed that there are no elves (and by extension, no trees)
> that are not deciduous and not conifers. This is rather strange to me, as
> most trees in Australia are neither.
I think the assumption is rather that all broadleaf evergreens are "yellow elf forest". (Perhaps with the exception of some evergreens in mainly "brown" forest, which would be seen as "green", whether conifer or not.) This may well mean them some "yellow elf jungle" isn't very jungle-like at all, particularly where the forest starts to thin out towards the south.
Channeling my yellow streak,
Alex.
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