Hsunchen
David Cake says he loathes the Basmoli portrayed in Tales 14. I also disliked them, for the same reason -- by making them semi-humans, they were no longer Telmori, to me. Now, I could believe that some rare semi-lion Basmoli would be born (and find such an occurrence more likely than an actual lion being born, as Sandy stated in Codex 1), or else the occasional were-lion.
I think that almost all of the hsunchen have weres born to the tribes now and then, at least in their myths. It is a return-to-Godtime thing, where the men and animals were all the same. Thus, to the Telmori, the werewolf members are a return of the Original Wolf, who was both wolf and man, without distinction. And although all Cursed Telmori are werewolves, I think even the Pure Telmori (and the Changed Ones, who were cut from Dorastor by Ken and Greg for game development reasons) have werewolves on occasion. The Changed Ones are the spawn of Sartar's efforts to break the Telmori curse, efforts which were partially successful. If the Changed Ones do exist, they are the true form of the Telmori of Dragon Pass, not Cursed Telmori.
Basically, not all Changed Ones are forced to assume were-form on Wildday night, though this is a secret which they keep from ALL outsiders -- it is something not even the most Telmori-learned inhabitant of Dragon Pass would know, except members of the (now-dead) Royal House.
Elven Magic and Plants
I think the growing of special, semi-magical plants is normal for all Aldryami, including the ones who aren't "really" aldryami, like the voralans. Although I used Divine Magic as the means in The Book of Drastic Resolutions, Volume Chaos, I think that most elves use a form of magic different from Divine Magic or Spirit Magic. Some elf cults woudl exist, such as High King Elf and Babeester Gor, but most of the published Aldrya "cult" would actually be the normal state of aldryami, and would use the "Song" so much-discussed lately as the means of working this unique form of magic. This would also explain why, in RQ2, only some humans and other non-elves could join the "cult" of Aldrya -- only they had the capacity to join into the Song of Aldrya enough to hear "whispers" of the elf group-mind thing.
With all this said, each forest would probably have 20 or so special plants they could grow, some fairly common (like Aldryami Arrow bushes), some rarer or unique (such as Aldryami Copper Arrow bushes). Only one or two of the 20 special plants would be "magical" in human terms, IMO. Any aldryami could learn any of these special magics, of course, even from a different forest. But, most other forests would have no need of these special plants, as their own special plants would meet their needs. Rootless elves would not have access to these magics, or any other Aldrya-derived magics, and they would be the ones primarily encountered by humans. This is why most humans report cults as common among elves, when in fact I don't think this is the case.
Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com
- -----------------------------------------------The Book of Drastic Resolutions
Powered by hypermail