I had always viewed Genert as similar to Pamalt. Genertela would be much more like Pamaltela had Genert survived. There would be a very powerful land god, king of the gods, husband to the earth goddess, father of the grain goddesses, patron of agriculture, hunting, herding, and everything else important. Only his death in the darkness permitted the Yelm and Orlanth to continue their struggle. But maybe I'm wrong.
I must have missed the Flamal from Ralios discussion. Can anyone summarize the evidence?
Stephen (I think) also said he dislikes an identity between HKE & Yelmalio. I think the predominant story in Genertela will be that they were two individuals, HKE/Vronkal and Yelmalio/Mrelio. The exception for me will be Winterwood (because of its long separation under the ban and its green dominance), but the Yelmalio features of their Vronkal are very dilute. Yellow elves would consider them to be the same person. Palmatelan red elves will agree that there were two, one from each coast, but get very confused about which one came from where. After all, it was many, many generations ago for red elves. The few genertelan red elves probably believe whatever the elves around them say, except are certain that he was or they were red. Black elves don't care. All the dead stuff during the darkness was good to eat.
No one can accuse me of having a closed mind, 'cuz I've changed it again. ("Waffler" might stick, on the other hand.) Specifically, I no longer think that Voralans have hive minds. (Although what does this really mean? They act like bees? Bees simply have specific roles and communicate a lot. I see Voralans as generalists as between themselves, but as having a very specific ecological niche.) I do think that they reproduce by asexual division, so they share a lot of memories, which can make them act a lot like each other. They may also be able to distill memories from their own cloned flesh. "Distill" as in make a potion for a sibling's consumption.
Erik Sieurin had some good stuff about Elf forests behaving as a sngle organism when attacked. I think this effect is related to the song of Aldrya. In times of peace, the daily song ritual fortifies the forest's fertility and resistance to disease. In times of war, it wakes the trees, causes armor-bark to grow on elves, causes trees to sprout arrows per Erik's spells, etc. It might be a little like war clans and peace clans (I guess, since I know only what I've read here about war/peace clans).
I like some of Erik's spells. I view his "Mask of the Meaties" and "Take after Thy Mother" as being a change in the mix between plant rune and man rune. "Body of Bronze" seems totally out of place. "Body of Copper" would be more plausible, though still a stretch. The enchant wood spells are very much compatible with what James Wadsley suggested. The problem with all of these is that we are getting a little far from the published sources, such as CoP, Elder Secrets, etc., which have elves toting around metal weapons and armor and wearing clothes. If the suggestions are IYG only, that's fine, but I'd like to see a more planty elf that is still compatible with the published sources. My personal take on it is that CoP, etc focused on the rune-types. Sure, wood lords might tote around a copper axe, but is Greenshoot the gardening elf going to?
Are elves roots internal? Do their stomach-like cavities contain roots? (I think so.) What about toes? Can elves dig in with fingers & toes to take a drink? (I think not.)
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