I think that's too limited -- IMO, if trolls do not actively worship KL, they'll devolve into something other than trolls. To be a troll, there's an active process of tracing lineage to KL. Trolls may not think of it in those terms (rather, that it's Bad Mojo to stop), certainly. This could be completely wrong: I sent it in as a question to "Greg Sez" a while back, but alas, no comments... But I do think there's feedback: I don't think it's theology, as much as magical-biologic. All supposition. Don't thrash it too much, please. :(
> >Heck, for that matter, how important do trolls think sexual activity is
> >to reproduction?
> Very important. The power to controll access to the females for sexual
> purposes is the basis of female domination over male trolls. It is also
> the source of friction between ZZ and Kaarg worshiping male trolls.
I'd say the basis of female domination is that trolls trace lineage and ancestry through the female line, and thus a mother has more control over children than her husbands (and with several, you may not even know who fathered who), and has claimed a better right to summon her mothers and grandmothers. Males either have to struggle to obtain the same abilities (since a male *can* become a priestess-shaman), or opt for male power roles (like a KS or DL). Putting-out is not how troll matriarchs gain power... :)
And do trolls *know* that X months after sex, out pops a kid, the product
of sexual activity? (Yes, a gestation period is given in Trollpak, but was
that because of its hooman authors?) It's my understanding that humans
took a while to figure this out (seriously undermining the power of
women in prehistoric society -- though I've read little anthropology, so I
may be misrepresenting this). If descent is traced through the mother, do
the trolls thus not know that fathers are involved, or do they just not
care? Is sex just Really Fun, and just part of these big rituals the
females
undertake to produce children?
I'm not sure if the enforced chastity period after birthing trollkin is evidence of #1 or #2: no sex because it leads to reproduction, or no sex to abstain from pleasure and thus purify yourself.
So I'm not sure if trolls have made the intellectual jump; also not sure which other cultures have/haven't, though I'd be interested to hear what people think about this. Do Sartarites know sex+9 months = kid? Is it even *true* for Glorantha, with its own biological rules -- if you don't enact the rituals, you can't possibly have children? Sex + ritual + 9 months?
> They know how powerfull they are within troll culture and they want to
> be more powerfull as individuals. The rest of troll culture seeems to
> flow directly from that. If a troll matriarch had a chance to make some
> of her male sons into daughters, capable of bearing her grandchildren, I
> think she'd grab it with both hands.
No, the problem shows up when you start turning her grandaughters into (semi-)worthless sons... Or when an ambitious male troll turns himself into a female, thus pissing off the female trolls hiearchy. And the new female/new male troll doesn't know the right rituals, etc., that they would have learned at coming-of-age. It's Confusing, it's Unnatural, and IMO trolls wouldn't deal well with it.
Not necessarily any worse than, say, Dara Happans would, however.
James Frusetta
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