Ash points out (or was it Sue? I can never tell...)
>Steve Lieb admits to being an Aldryamiphile [watch for splinters]
Never discount a liberal application of Murphy's Oil Soap.
>.... and comes
>up with some interesting ideas about the interchange of information on an
>empathic level between the Elves and their ecosystem.
Dropping into GL mode for a second, most of my thoughts about Elf traits
etc is from my admittedly weak attempt to discern a midpoint between
something that HAPPENS in the vegetable world, and what HAPPENS in the real
human world.
Frex, the eco-sense thing. I recall some research being done about how
plants conductivity changes when something happens to another nearby but
unconnected plant (in a sense it's reacting to the "pain" of the other
plant) - OK, this was all very early-80's stuff, and perhaps the research
was refuted the next day, but I don't care because it sounds cool! Thus
the ecosense. So to answer your discussion, I'd say the sense is
communicated in some undetectable way. Or through the inherent life force
in everything, if you MUST have a carrier wave or something. But I prefer
simply "undetectable".
:P
>This makes it fairly hard to roleplay.
Good! As you said - death to humans in elf suits!
An Elf fresh out of the woods
>wouldn't have a clue about human body language and would appear introverted
>and withdrawn.
He'd also be a)ruthless as mentioned elsewhere, b) frighteningly self
sacrificing for the group good (once he/she defines themselves as part of
the adventuring group - no easy task) and c) really, really patient, as you
point out.
ME: "For them individuals are important, but not as
>important as the system. In this they are a curious analogue to the mostali
>- - where the dwarves work for the World Machine, elves are the agents of
>fertility and growth. The mammalian life of Glorantha is treated as an
>integral part of the system, but similarly must be kept from throwng the
>system out of balance."
>
Ash:>I always think of Mostali as either Leornard Nimoy or Arthur C. Clarke:
>They only really exhibit curiosity and logic in their maintainence of the
>World Machine. On the other hand, I never get the impression that Elves are
>concerned with any sort of balance. They say "We were here first and all
>animal life depends on us (ultimately) to survive. So, animal life is a
>burden on the forest - If it puts a foot out of line, TWANG it with the
>bow."
>
I think we're saying the same thing. The "system" as I see the elves
seeing it, is the ecosystem. Animals have their niche, and damn well
better stay there.
Humans are simply more annoying than raccoons. Trolls are a whole 'nother
issue, as are dwarves. There's a racial hatred played out over centuries.
>Steve: "In the former vein, there is a great deal of competition between
>elves of different ecosystems, expecially adjacent ones. In some cases it
>is a guerilla campaign of expansion that has lasted centuries."
>
>The confrontation needn't be that overt to human eyes, but to
>the Green and Brown Elves it would look like the first day of the advance
>at Ypres (Gettysburg for those Americans that think WWI begain in 1917).
>
Exactly how I view it. Trolls are the stupid ephemeral ones that burn
stuff and chop stuff down. Of course, they don't notice that the trees
planted 150 years ago over their lame little caverns have just about torn
apart the rock strata, so that in only another 100 years or so their entire
cavern will be an eroded sinkhole and there's nothing they can do about it!
- -Steve (styopa_at_iname.com)
or at work (Steve_at_necadon.com)
http://surf.to/styopa
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