ecology

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cyllene.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 22:07:12 -0800

        I'll try and avoid the Kitori specifics and concentrate on the general issues raised here. I think there are fairly profound ecological issues at stake here, so please comment even if the Kitori questions have exhausted your patience.

Daniel McCluskey
>1) The Forest is still standing after (at least) 1600 years of troll
>occupation. If there were no elves in the forest, I am convinced that
>the uz would have slowly destroyed it, and had to retreat to the
>mountains by now.

        Are trolls ecological monsters? I thought trolls were restricted to the wild areas largely because of competition from faster breeding humans - which would imply that trolls are much less of an ecological threat than humans, not greater.

        The only really ecologically destructive aspect of troll society appears to be the hordes of wild food trollkin. If the trolls aren't going out of their way to destroy the forest (and why would they if the forest contains no elves?), they are pretty benign, as unlike grain growing humans they have little incentive to clear land. So as long as trolls keep their trollkin under control, it should be fine.

>3) The trolls and Elves DO need each other. The trolls have no caves,
>and would be utterly exposed without the trees, and quickly driven away.
>The Elves, well, they wouldn't like to be without the trees either ;-).
>Both comunities would be destroyed if a Full-scale war broke out, and
>the rulers of both are fully aware of it.

        And this argument implies that forests die out if they do not have elves in them... is this really true? That forests can not exist without elves?

        I really do not think so. We have counter-examples (like the Spider Woods) of Aldryami less forests. And it would be a very profound change from the way the ecology works on earth if forests could not exist without elves!

        They were the two big questions I wanted people to think about - now back to Kitori specifics
>I'm not at all convinced that we can just assume that the "Troll Woods"
>isn't really the "Troll (ElfWood)s."

        There are two basic thrusts to the Troll(Elf) Woods argument. The first is that it is ecologically necessary, the second is that it is just barely plausible. The second half is a stretch (that all the trolls tolerate the elves through either ignorance of whatever) but is just plausible, if very unusual and at odds with a lot of common ideas about troll society. But it only makes any sense if you assume that it is ecologically neccessary - which I think is a VERY big assumption. If the elves are not obviously ecologically neccessary in the minds of the Kitori leaders - then there would be fighting, which presumably the elves would lose.

        What I hoped to make clear in this message, is that the ecological neccessity of elves in the forest is not at all established, and has profound implications for Glorantha if it is true.

        Cheers

                David


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #463


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