Alex:
>Which "human cult" do you mean, exactly? Elmal? Antirius?
Heck if I know.
Alex:
>But I do think the elves have some sort of "'Yelmalio'
>gets beaten up in the Darkness by ZZ and other assorted
>nasties" type myths, if you're using it in as general a sense as that.
Yes, I am. I think that an elf, presented with "the" human Yelmalio/HoG
story, would find parts of it familiar and part wholly foreign.
Specifically, they would say "Yeah, our Yelmalio got ambushed in the
darkness by ZZ." but would also say "What fire powers?" and, as Alex
suggested:
>"Where the hell is this "Hill of Gold", anyway?"
Alex:
>How do you rationalise the Protector being both _right
>here_, protecting the forest, and Alone in Hell, at the
>same time? Or is that not what you're suggesting? I
>can only go by your apparent adherence to the LBQ
>for the actual likely structure of the myth.
I think I publically abandoned this idea a while back. If not, I do now.
HKE/Y never went to Hell. He reassembled the physical body of Flamal on
the surface of the lozenge. To do this, he had to collect the pieces from
wherever they had been scattered. Elves say that that is all it took.
Lightbringers would probably say that the resurrection also required the
fact that the gods were, at that very moment, returning from Hell and
Flamal's spirit had already departed Hell at that point. There is certainly
room for Alex's idea that the spirits of Aldrya and sleeping Aldryami were
questing for Flamal's spirit. Perhaps that is _why_ Ernalda (or was it
Ga/Gata?) commanded the sleep. (Complete tangent: is the reason that the
sun was less powerful after the dawn due to the fact that his body was not
preserved/reassembled?)
James Wadsley:
>the greater wisdom of the frequent poster
Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk! <hand flapping on top of head> Woob, woob, woob!
(For those in cultural ignorance, this is an allusion to those sages, the
three stooges.)
James Wadsley objects that we are turning elves into genetic engineers. I admit that I have the same sort of problem, which is why I tried to explain the spear plant in terms that could make it almost naturally occurring. It's sort of a huge venus flytrap. I think where we start stretching credibility too far is when we get plants with features that could not be naturally occurring, like copper arrow trees. Unfortunately, there's the reference in Cults of Prax that we're stuck with. James' postulate that they are very rare and occur only with high POW expenditures would fit with the idea that I expressed (but probably isn't mine) that the song of Aldrya is related to the daily forest ritual and builds in power with time and geographic scope.
I like James' ideas about elves having to sacrifice MP to stay warm in colder climes. Presumably, with would be a bigger problem for yellow and brown elves than for green elves. I also like James' sprout weapon spell, which can avoid the need for arrow-growing bushes (but see DLoD). However, I still think that elves are going to carry with them most of their meager posessions, including tools. It takes too long to grow a new tool and a normal gardening elf will need to do far too much work to do it all with magic.
I also like James' idea that elves can be tended to cause armor-like bark, etc to appear. However, it is, at least implicitly, not supported by current publications, which indicate that elves wear copper armor and use weapons. I think this has to be a variation from "standard" Glorantha (huh? where's that?), at least until we can persuade the future authors of G:tG that we are right about elves being more planty than previously expressed.
James:
>I image Elves mark special locations in the forest:
>'We are encouraging black berries here. If you have
>eaten any, please excrete at one of the designated spots'.
Unlike modern Americans, elves think it is very polite to take a dump on
someone's lawn. More seriously, I think any communications about this would
have to be oral. I don;t think this would be passed on by trees, who
generally think too slowly to gossip. The grass & weeds, on the other hand,
would spread gossip like the wind, but might not be very reliable. Bushes
are a happy medium. But I think that excreting fertilizer and seeds in
another elf's territory is doing him a favor, since you could have used that
good stuff yourself. Doing so could raise your community standing.
Chris Lemens
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