Are trolls ecological monsters?
IM(ntb)HO yes. Now, mind you, they are not nearly the monsters that humans are. I think that say, Jeff's lovely farmers would destroy the Troll Woods in a matter of seasons, whereas a tribe of trolls would take several generations to do it in. Trolls destroy more by accident than by design. Humans would go out, chop down ALL the trees, and then build a house. Uz would move in, throw a house together, have some kids, and wonder why the trees were dieing out over the years. Full grown trees will easily survive troll habitation, but saplings are in a world of hurt. Ham beetles, Pigs, and hungry Trollkin will quickly do in all of the ground-level vegitation, some of which is new trees. As the old trees Die, there are no saplings to replace them, and the forest is killed. In the spider woods, this is not an issue, as the spiders would encourage undergrowth by eating pests like insects and trollkin.
</stuff of interest to non-Kitoriphiles>
In the Specific case of the Kitori, I had to resort to Elves as a way to introduce New Trees to the forest, and sustain it. Without the Aldrayami presence, the woods would have slowly thinned in the areas of troll habitation, driving the Uz ever deeper into the forest, slowly doing it in.
There are (unfortunately ;-) several ways to mitigate this effect
without needing elves...
1) The Kitori Uz are somewhat nomadic. They create villages and
homesteads for around a generation and then move to a darker spot,
allowing the forest to regenerate where they were, and moving back in
three or so generations when it's good and dark again. This is Likely
to be the case anyhow, as surface trolls are well know for their lack of
urban planning.
2) There never used to be enough Trolls that actully lived IN the woods
to do much Damage. Untill Tarkalor, and those <Disgusted>lovely
(Y)Elmal(ions) <spit></Disgusted> conquered something like 80% of the
Kitori tribal holdings most Kitori lived elsewhere. Only in the last
(how many years? I'm terrible with dates) has there actually been enough
population in the woods proper to do them noticable harm.
The advantage (in my mind) to having elves, is that it permits a much larger population of Trolls to live sustainably in a much more Impressive forest. Without them, the woods ARE (at least in ~1600) being rapidly destroyed, though I must admit, it is possible (okay, likely) that they would have survived the first 1400 years relatively unharmed.
IMO The elves are only required if the Woods have been a major population center for the Kitori for more than a couple hundred years, or if you still want a real Forest by 1620. If there are no elves, deforestation is going to be (or be becomming) a big problem for the Kitori at around the time of the Hero Wars.
I personally like the elves, and am likely to keep them, regardless of the final consensus (when did those twits from Nochet get anything right anyhoo? heh?) 'cause how else am I ever going to get to run a campaign/scenario with an enlo, elf, duck, and maybe a self-aware nilmerg or something as PC's...
danm
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