Full marks to Keith for his ground-breaking steps towards Tone of Voice Markup language. Mind you, it does seem a bit lengthy, and one still wonders, why bother with the um-thing in the first place? But still, things could be worse, as for example to mild-mannered David Cake's:
> > I'm probably going to be putting a fair bit of effort into the
> >Kitori in the near future, with an aim towards publication somewhere.
I find this an astonishing comment to make. If you care to look somewhat further back in the List archives, you'll find David has made numerous contributions to discussions on the Kitori, dating back a lot longer than either your own interventions on the topic, or the campaign you argue from. To attempt to be so dismissive of his comments, apparently on the grounds that you think he hasn't pondered the matter as long, or as sagaciously as yourself, seems to me to be not merely incredibly discourteous, but amazingly arrogant.
"IMG" is all very well, but to take it to the lengths of self-contained argumentum ad authoritatum, cum fire-base for flamage of anyone with a contrary position is unjustified and uncalled for.
On the substance of the matter in question: I can see a case for some Aldryami presence in the woods, but I have to agree with the predominant sentiment that it's not likely to be a large-scale one, if it indeed exists at all. Some of the suggestions made on the topic, such as there being more elves than uzko in the Troll Woods, that the Kitori can't fell trees in their own back yard without the tacit agreement of the elves, and that the area's run by some sort of Pan-Earth Theocracy (to paraphrase only marginally in each case) I find not so much Mythically Resonant as distinctly tinny-sounding.
As amusing as James Frusetta's contributions on the subject have been (well, the first 25K, at least...) I don't entirely agree with his reasoning either, though. The situation hasn't been by any means static since the Dawn, so there hasn't necessarily been 1600 years of unrelenting mutual genocide between the Kitori and any remaining elves; before that nasty incident with Tarkalor, the tribe had much more territory available to it, and consequently there may have been much less population pressure on the Woods. (It's hard to say how likely this is without more knowledge of pre-1550 demographics.) I could foresee there being redoubts of elves from this period in the heart of the forest, and/or elves from Arstola fighting some sort of war by proxy in the area, as others have implied. (Witness the appropriately-named Mr. McGinness' taste-free Northern Ireland analogy -- it seems to be open (marching?) season on those...) Conversely, of course, one could make such arguments in favour of a (now) elfless wood, which hasn't (yet) been eradicated by the trolls, even if one thought that was otherwise inevitable.
Cheerlessly,
Alex.
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