> 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.)
>From "Ethnic Eating: Politically Correct and Fun In The Kitchen", a
book of nonhuman recipes of various kind of food by the Lunar
nonanthropologist and talk show guest (urh..) Findus Snackus:
"Elven intestines are a strange matter. The Elven digestive system
is one large sack of strong but flexible fibrous matter. From all
sides grows a web of fine roots and tendrils. When an Elf eats, he
swallows, and down into this sack goes the food, which is already
pretty mulched - elven food, as seen further below, is all of the
mush-soup-porridge variety, as Elves do not have very strong teeth.
Within the sack is a virtual compost. The food slowly dissolves into
a brown sludge, from which the Elf derives its sustenance. Just like
real compost, it must be treated carefully. First, though it must be
kept moist, it also mustn't be allowed to become to wet, so Elves do
not drink as much as humans do, unless they have to make do with
really dry food (like Green Elves in winter, who lick frost off the
leaves and chew snow to keep moist inside). An Elf could never drink
in the way a human drinks at a feast, pouring wine or beer down his
throat, without vomiting it all up afterwards. It is also would be fairly
pointless, since alcohol does not affect them.
Second, the compost needs air, and for that purpose Elves swallow air
regularily, which gives the impression that they breathe, but only
every other minute or so. In reality, Elves "breathe" through their
skin and leafy hair, just like plants do. To allow the air to reach
the compost at the bottom of the stomach, Elves also eat sticks and
roots and similar fibrous matter, but only in small amounts since it
only slowly turns into humous.
Thirdly, the plant stuff needs animal matter to dissolve quick enough
- - Elves can survive on leaves and such, but they do not enjoy it - it
is like a man living on cabbage only. Instead, they speed
up the process by eating completely rotted cadavers or, more often,
feces. Elves are just as horrified by the thought of eating meat
which has not decomposed as human by the thought of eating feces. It
is told that the Yellow Elves of the far south do so, and is one
source of many derogative jokes about this faraway people. As a
matter of fact, if meat has not been allowed to rot, it will do so in
the Elven stomach sac, causing severe indigestion. Thus the Elven
loathing is justified by Nature. Large amount of feces and such is
not good for their digestion, but Elves love it for the taste and the
quicker decomposition it brings. Elves who eat to much animal matter
end up similarily to the fat senator who only eats fat and sugary
things: bloated and weak.
Brown Elves fill themselves up with good eating stuff before Winter
comes, and live off their compost while they hibernate. In Spring,
almost the first thing they do is clear out the dry remains of
their winter feed by first drinking a lot of clear water and then
throwing up. After that, they gorge themselves on the juicy sprouts
of spring.
Green Elves regularily, once every season or so, more often in Fire
Season, does the same thing.
It should be noted that Elves need sunlight as well, just as other plants.
They are not as dependent on heat, however. The compost in their
stomachs produces warmth which keeps the Elves nice and cosy, just
like any other compost.
It is well-known fact among both Elves and Trolls that an Elven stomach sac continues to be a very good environment for decomposition of vegetable matter. Elves sometimes uses the torn-out stomach sacs of the dead Elven enemies (because such exist) to prepare soft nice humous which is given to Elves who are sick or weak, since it is good food. Trolls who can keep from eating the whole prey at once often does the same, though they generally fill the Elven stomach with parts of the Elf itself, just adding some animal matter for the taste of it (like a Trollkin being too close at the moment).
It is an oft-talked about but seldom seen feat of Elven mystics and
shamans to be able turn their stomach inside out, so that it hangs
like a large bloated root from their mouth, and that stick that into
the ground, effectively rooting themselves for a period, during which
they are said to have many strange and primal visions and
experiences."
Paulo Guccione:
> Wooden-tipped spears are realistic, but not axes or swords. No wooden
> blade, no matter how hard the wood, could remain sharp.
... Of course, the elves can use magic to keep the wooden blade
> sharp, but then they should sacrifice POW to the blade, not to the tree
> that grows it.
Completely wrong, IMNHO. Sacrficing POW to the tree while growing to
change its makeup into something so untreeish as to be able to keep
an edge, as part of a gardening process, seems perfectly Elvish
(Elvis?) to me.
Never said it was COMMON, though.
> Erik Sieurin suggested that elves can make special rituals to keep their
> wooden objects alive. Wrong IMHO. Wood is _dead_, as dead as the part of
> your fingernails upu use to clip.
Wrong again, completely wrong. (It's not your day, Paolo (-: )
When I cut off a piece of wood, it does not die the way animal parts
die. It dies very slooowly... it is a gradual process. You can halt
that process by, say, putting the piece of wood in water. Unless the
part takes root (and some kinds of plant will do that if you just let
them lie on the ground), it will eventually die.
What I suggest is that elves have either a low-magic way, requiring a constant supply of magic points, or a rarer high-magic way, like a limited version of the Elf Bow/Blowgun thingy which requires POW sacrifice, or both, which results in a piece of wood remaining alive as if put in water or moist earth - you might have to do that regularily, and you might eventually do just that and let it grow back into a tree/bush/spinach plant/whatever. Heck, they can even use the low-magic variant to transport pieces of wood to plant somewhere else.
> Personally, I think there are different spirits that grant them for
> different tribes, and no tribe has them all, but all of them are present
> in a given forest, so all are accessible in case of need. For instance,
> Vronkali should have pine spirits teaching Enchant Pine, while Mreli
> know Oak spirits which grant Enchant Oak.
Exactly! Or even more specifically: Pine Elves can get acess to
Enchant Pine - perhaps other Vronkali as well, but it should be HARD.
> One good idea would be short descriptions of the spirit cults that give
> access to the rituals you suggested.
Goodness gracious. The things people ask of one another.
Armorbark:
> Of course the ritual is slower and maybe it
> includes rooting for at least one season.
One season per AP, or something like that. I suggest that all Elven
enchantments are as close to controlled growing of plants as
possible. Thus a Binding Enchantment consists of growing a plant
which will trap the spirit - sometimes (critical sucess on Enchant?)
such a plant will produce offspring which have the same ability.
> There is no need to introduce
> spirit cults for them because Aldrya provides battle magic spells for
> these enchantments, but would you be so kind as to describe the actual
> ritual, James?
_I_ think most Elven rituals would be incredibly boring to humans;
they take weeks or seasons to accomplish. You plant something and say
a few words, then you say some new words every time you return to it
water it, prune it etc. Now and then you wave your hand a little.
Some days you spend sitting and staring at the plant. This you do
for, as noticed, weeks and seasons.
Pam Carlsson (whose name implies her father was a carl - not a thane,
not a cottar. Never thought of that, fits well with the "Farming RPG"
image. ):
> Do not make the mistake of looking at a forest community as a
> harmonious bunch of happy plants and animals who all love each other. A
> forest consists of thousands of different species all competing for
> sunlight, water, and nutrients, each with its own set of strengths,
> doing its best to out-compete or eat the others. IF there is a balance,
> it is because none can dominate further.
It is stated explicitly (yes, I know, know I am play the
muech-loathed quoting game, sorry) in Gloranthan Bestiary that much
aspects of Gloranthan biology is different from the Earthly
equivalent, and one of the is that Elven Forests acts as one single
organism. Of course, the balance is kept by the Council of Trees, who
sees to it that Trees is the dominant lifeform and that Lesser Plants
and Animals shut their leaves and mouths and do as they're told.
Now, there are few real Elven Forests on Glorantha. There ARE far more Forests With Elves In, but that's something completely different. These forests act just like normal mundane RW forests, though the few Elves there is to their darn best to unite the forest creatures in defense. Sometimes they achieve some control over the matters of forest state, in which case we have an in-between phase of "part-Elven Forest". And sometimes one part of the forest will ally with an Elf, and another part with some other political force (like the Cranberries Sprites' Front "more moors, more moors!", the Lagomorph Totems, Party "and by the way, I think that the foxes ought to be made extinct" or the Oak Dryads' Conservatives "lets get rid of all those welfare bums, the animals"), which results in civil war. Since Aldryami war is more or less invisible to human eyes, this will only be noted by humans as a slowly changing ecological habitat ("there where much more foxes around when Grampa was young, wonder what happened?").
And for all those proponents of inhuman nonhumans, I have used mundane mortal politics as a metaphor (or is it a simile, never could tell the difference?).
Chris Lemens again on ZZ and Flamal:
> (Sorry, Erik, I asked this question when I first posted an outline of the
> SeedQuest.) I looked in CoP and it says only the ZZ killed him (even in the
> ZZ writeup). I think it is because ZZ was escaping with death-on-an-axe at
> the time. I suspect Flamal and others were pursuing.
Ah (blushes embarrased), well, I didn't really seriously follow the
Myth bit so much in the beginning. OK, I'll buy that, even if the "ZZ
droppings" theory was wonderful!
Delecti's Lore Trees:
Kudos to the idea! It is a very good one, I think.
"The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea, in a beautiful pea-green boat..."
>From "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear
Erik Sieurin
bv9521_at_utb.hb.se
Bodagatan 39, 2 tr
50742 Boras
Sweden
033/141731
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