> woods with them. The Kitori might brag, that they live in a "haunted
> forest". The DakInk think we're crazy! We live with humans, we live right
> up on a Chaos wood, we let elves live in our forest, we don't even all of
> us live underground, We're Wood Trolls, not UZUZ.
Suggesting where troll ethnic jokes come from. "How many Kitori trolls
does it take to change a light bulb?" "One, but she needs a human to help
her." :) "What do you call a shiftless, untrustworthy, cheating Kitori
trader?" "Normal." :)
> Good point, maybe they're degenerates. How devo would they have to be in
> your opinion to live quietly above the Kitori minding the treetops? Or do
> you think it's just not at all possible?
I don't know; I was throwing it out for the Digest Elf Faction (DEF) to
contribute to. IMO, I think that elves that live outside an elf forest for
that length of time are somehow "unelfy" to other elves. Not quite right,
might be different somehow. But (since info on Elves is very limited) I'm
not sure if this is true or not.
One possibility might be that just as some fungus broke away from Mee Vorala, some plants may have broken away from Aldrya. I don't know what the trees of the TW are like, but if they _need_ Darkness (perhaps adapted to it over the Lesser and Great Darknesses), the Elves would be more likely to reach a compact with the trolls. Their worship of Aldrya may be different (just as the Rist/Hellwood elves worsh Big Ol' Chaotic Aldrya). Daldrya of the Troll Woods, Goddess of the (Troll Wood) Trees may simply not be a troll enemy. And since I play that elves' personalities, etc., are based on the kind of plant life they "came" from (e.g., I played a very bitter lemon elf, once), elves from the Darkness Trees of the Troll Woods may act very differently.
> >(And just a question: why in the world would the elves _stay_ in the Troll
> >Woods with all these nasty, horrid uz who want to eat you?
> RW humans live lots of places where nasty horrid things eat them. I don't
> know about the Rist elves, but life *will* live wherever it *can* live.
Yah, but usually elves stick around to their (incorrectly spelled)
Shannassy trees. If they don't have their big ol' tree/uplink to Aldrya,
I'm wondering why they wouldn't just up and leave. Perhaps they feel (like
Greenslave) that if they didn't stay, the trees would suffer, the trolls
wouldn't know how to take care of them, etc...?
If it's some strange Darkness Tree, of course, then they may have a (i.s.) Dshannassy tree/ link to Daldrya the trolls never cut down, because it's a _good_ tree, and they're really Delfs, not elfs.
> I really don't know how many elves are in the Troll woods; not
> enough to be a real threat to the 6000 humans/Uz of the Kitori tribe, but
> way too many to exterminate. 2000? YGMV.
2000 seems way too high if they're elfs, even if the Kitori tolerate them.
I'd think more like 200-500. If they're delfs, it might be different.
> Cool! IMG Kitori use dirt burrowing beetles to dig out their dens, the
> tasty paste idea should have numerous beetle related applications. Any more
> bug thoughts?
Hmm. Applicable for the Troll Woods? The Bee Tribe of DakInk (as noted in
an earlier post) tolerates VoF elves because the bees need flowers, the
flowers need bees. How about termites?
If there's a special breed of termites that can _only_ eat the trees of the Troll Woods (assuming they're a different type of tree), and the trees _need_ the termites (to enrich the soil, or whatever termites do in positive terms), _and_ the Kitori have a Gorakiki-Special Termite temple, that's a good motivator for cooperation. The Elves allow the trolls to tend to the termites, the trolls restrain the termites from eating every tree. The resulting giant termite mounds can be modified to live in. Since the Kitori are traders, perhaps the termites are tasty and other trolls buy them for eatin'. Some of their products (drool, excrement, chewed-up wood paste) may be magical (e.g., Royal Jelly and Grubfarm Super-Tasty Honey). What magical effect would Giant Termite Slobber (tm) have, though?
I've used rock-eating bugs of various types -- don't know if trolls would also use them in the Stone Woods, where rock fights back. Not much else good for a tree-based economy, though. Although another source of Kitori wealth might be stone insects -- capture the various stone bugs of the Stone Woods and ship 'em off to Gorakiki temples (what Gorakiki Beetle temple wouldn't like a stone beetle?). A neat critter until it dies, and then you've got a very, very realistic statue of the beetle in question -- a nifty place to stick a spirit, too.
> Im unclear as to the feasibility of corrupting dryads, or the meaning of
> corrupt in this context, make them sabotuers?
Um, more like convince them their interests lie more with me than the
elves. Or demand that neutrality thing -- the dyrads don't help the elves
_or_ the trolls. And they might be didyrads, natch.
> For my Kitori it's not worth exterminating a resource. As far as the
> Matriarchs, who are making up the schedule for most Trolls (except ZZ's)
> there are better things to do than exterminate a resource. Even if it
> presents a minor threat.
Are ZZites banned from Kitori lands? If a minority of trolls was
running around espousing my Elf Pogrom while most were espousing
co-existence, the first group wouldn't fit in real well. Especially since
ZZites are into challenging Karrg's Sons, attacking your neighbors and
giving Orlanthi boots to the head (not likely to go over well with the
local humans -- isn't Orlanth supposed to have married KL, or something?)
Sounds like a good reason to throw them out, or limit their numbers severely.
> Trolls, and are not all the trolls on Glorantha. RW I've heard people from
> the south of the US bragging about how they have aligators crawling around
> that could (maybe) eat you.
Yah, I'm from Alaska and we do the same things with the bears. Nothing
like a good mauling story to put the Fear of Bear into tourists. :)
But note that the bears aren't _really_ a threat. Don't know about alligators, but bears usually avoid people; they've been hunted extensively, so their numbers are low; and if I know a bear is nearby, I can bring overpowering force to bear (trolls are hard to kill, but a superheavy handgun, say a .454, or a heavy rifle will do the job.) The bear, having no opposable thumb, is at a disadvantage until it gets within about 8 feet or so (at which point it rips my limbs off).
If the bears or alligators had an even chance against weapon-toting humans, I doubt there'd be as many people there.
> I don't know what MGF is.
Oh. Maximum Game Fun. I doubt that the Troll Air Force (my own little pet
love, based on the _enormous_ number of bee riders available in Dakori
Inkarth. What do they do? Scouting, sure, but also air superiority and
ground attack!) would ever receive official approval. So what? It's fun!
Speaking of which, if there's conflict with the Shadow Plateau, giant bees would be a good thing. Since the SP trolls have access to several marshes, they'd have a nice crop of dragonflies. But since Kitori Humans have access to flying spells, the humans may simply provide the air cover.
> But maybe they gossip about it in Dakori Inkarth, those crazy Kitori!
Good grief, yes. Not only do the Kitori sleep with Humans (oh, sure they
_say_ they don't, but we all know they do), worship weird gods and
generally act untrustworthy, but they make friends with elves! Argh! No
right-thinking matriarch is gonna let her favorite son marry one of those
Kitori hussies!
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