> The trollkin/human Kingdom of Ignorance... hardly has equal rights
> for the trollkin as I understand it.
Then again, are they any more oppressed than any other minority (be they human or not) are likely to be in the Kralori Empire. Besides the general case -- that Kralori mandarins are always likely to be in charge, and the "rights" of everyone else derive from the justified fear the magistrates have that they may fail in the exercise of their Divine Mandate -- the trollkin are demonstrably inferior (in physique, intellect, moral character and spiritual potential) to Kralori Humans, however you care to measure these things. (If you can find a measurement that shows this to be false, be sure that it isn't used by the Kralori). So the benign paternalism of the Dragon Empire represents the best possible deal these subhuman, inferior beings could possibly expect to attain.
> In contrast with the five elements, the lunar element does not
> have a mundane physical manifestation other than the rather
> inaccessible moon.
In contrast with the three elements, the darkness element does not have a mundane physical element other than the wholly intangible "Darkness". To say nothing of so-called "Air" -- where is it, eh?
> I never said that the Pelorians perceive the elements as the
> _only_ basic principles of the universe, just that the elements
> as such are really hard to ignore.
While we obviously agree that the Pelorians can perceive manifestations of what *we* (lucky, God Learner educated us) know to be Elemental powers -- attacks by Sylphs, troll spells of Darkness, and the like -- it still doesn't follow that these manifestations are "Elemental" in a way the old-time Dara Happans would have to accept without qualification. You brush aside the Moon as "rather inaccessible" -- I can do just the same for the Air, or Darkness, or Chaos, or any other "element" of my choice. Their "Elementals" are so far out of the ordinary -- Does "Air" normally pick people up and fly off with them, eh? Do you know many people who've dropped dead of fright in a darkened room? Thought not! -- they are quite clearly *unnatural*, *unusual*, "demonic" manifestations, and *not* elementals in the sense we know and love.
I'm not saying "The God Learners were wrong" -- just that if they were *demonstrably* wrong at all times and places in Gloranthan history, there would be less fun in the world than there is today. If you can "except" Lunar elementals from the general rule, then I can do the same to any elemental of my choosing -- "That's not a proper element, it's some kind of unnatural creation from a remote, intangible, inaccessible source: A Thing Not Of This World. Which is why we hate it, fear it, have nothing to do with it, and want to destroy it if at all possible.
This fits for Sartarite Orlanthi against the Lunar "Element", but just as much for old-time Dara Happans against the "Storm" and "Darkness" -- which two elements occupy a decidedly hostile and intrusive position in their own cosmology (much like that other disputed element, "Chaos", in the Orlanthi cosmology).
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Nick
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