<mock scholarly voice> "Yes" and "no" are Masks of "answer", which you would have known if you were properly illuminated. :-)
I haven't yet decided how much I like the idea of elves being the superego. It sort of fits with the song of Aldrya playing Jiminy Cricket to small wooden people. Barksism would obviously be the troll's vision of the effects of the song.
Stephen Martin comments that elves would not use spirit magic, including food song. I disagree. There are shamans of Aldrya. Someone suggested that these fine elves do something to fill the forest's need to control the weather on occassion. I think elven shamans is a great thing, since we know that elves spirits return to Aldrya and some will need help along the way. Elven shamans would be very concerned about the spiritual well-being of plant spirits, hence food song. I take it you would make food song into two-way elfsense. I think spells are needed to convince plants to be manipulated. The simple cases will be food song and the like. More complex cases will involve long rituals, as David Cake described.
Further, Stephen denies that the cult of Aldrya exists as a cult or that it has divine spells. Again I disagree. Aldrya is a bit more than a cult, since she is a ruler diety like Orlanth. In some ways, she is more of a pantheon. The divine magic would probably be more ritually inclined, but is is still adequately descibed by the divine spell rules. They are goddess-powered.
Now it may make sense that Aldrya is an ancestor cult, like Kyger Litor, Telmor, etc., but this does not seem to be what you are describing. If so, then more of their magic should be spirit magic, if anything. I would be much more amenable to this solution, since it also nicely dovetails with elves' excess MP. The song would, fo a fetch, be more like a path (homing signal? beacon light?) to Aldrya. If we were to do this, though, we would need to consider other cults that are based on ancestor worship in the same light. Is it really appropriate to recast Kyger Litor divine magic as spirit magic?
SM:>There is no need for a cult of Aldrya among SM:>elves, since they are each a part of Aldrya.
Nonesuch and Nonsense. Bah! Humbug! Phooey! No more true than that storm worshippers are part of Orlanth. Aldrya is the spirit of the forest. She mystically communicates with elves by the song. This does not create an identity on the mundane plane.
SM:>I do believe that the "Song" of the elves and their SM:>connection to Aldrya gives them access to a special SM:>type of magic dealing with nurturing and growing plants.
Yeah. Aldrya divine magic.
SM:>Now, these abilities can be represented as Divine SM:>spells, but this seems clumsy to me. Few if any would SM:>have a set duration, and few would have much of a SM:>range -- as far as you can throw the seed, that would be SM:>about it. The POW sacrifice seems OK to me, I guess, SM:>though I'd be happier with a different mechanic, though SM:>one which still costs the elf something.
The sorcery mechanics might fit better from a rules standpoint, but I think the crucial point is that the magic is goddess-powered, so is divine magic. I have never been happy with the skimpy state of the ritual rules, but there is plenty of room to make it up as you go along. In fact the sorcery rules always seemed to me very much like object oriented spirit magic rules. Hence, when I need to use a ritual to modify a spirit or divine magic spell, I look to the sorcery rules for some guidance. I agree with Stephen's clarification of David's role playing mechanics of what the elf does to perform the magic when seeds are involved. Other divine magic can be performed without plants, however.
SM:>I find it difficult to believe that a true elf cult is going to get SM:>Speak With Herd Beasts from Eiritha, or any equivalent SM:>herd deity, no matter where they are.
I agree heartily. This is a pet peeve of mine. I wrote to Alex Ferguson when he commented that elves should be mean, too:
Grow weeds in their slave plants.
Ambush their tree choppers.
Kill their plant eaters.
May their seeds starve in the dark.
[Now I'd change "starve" to "wither" and add a line about rooting up their stone forests.]
Any elf that feels this is not going to be happy about goats wandering through his forest eating what he has spent months of ritual gardening to prepare.
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