> I like elves a lot. Trouble is, they're too nice!
> An elf campaign would be in essence, everyone work in perfect
> harmony for the greater good -- with occassional interaction with
> entirely incomprehensibly individuated outsiders. How much fun is it
> role-playing super-ego, as compared to ego, or especially and obviously,
> to id...
I gave this problem a lot of work when I ran a campaign set in Erontree. While I'll agree that the standard of cooperation in an elf forest is higher than in a human country, if you think of the sub-speciation within the broad green/brown types, you can find many reasons for elves to disagree.
I sugggest that not every green elf is like every other green elf, any more than every evergreen is like every other evergreen. In fact, I extrapolated that green elves are better termed things like Redwood elves, White Pine Elves, Holly elves, etc.
Think of the preferred growing environment and growning speed of one evergreen species compared to another. For example:
White Pine, preferring the edge of forests, disturbed ground, scrub. It is
very fast growing.
versus, at the other extreme, Bristlecone Pine, preferring hard rocky, dry,
mountainous soil, extrememly slow growing, low trees (that are possibly the
oldest living organisms on earth at 5000+years)
Imagine, if you will, the peculiar interests of a White Pine Elf compared to those of a Bristlecone Elf. Or a Strangler Fig elf. Or a Black Walnut elf (black walnuts are creepy trees, excreting poisons to kill competing plant life.)
I could go on, but I'm sure everyone gets the idea. Why should we limit our extrapolation of sentient cultures to animists like the Praxians and the Hsunchen? The same sort of unique behaviors occur in the plant kingdom, just with less running.
When limbs twine over the Janube,
And pines grow behind every plow,
Then begins the new reign of the Goddess.
Who shall rejoice then
for the Lords of the Green Sky?
----WinterShoot, Flamal Shaman and pacifist prophet of Erontree
- --
Mike Dawson mdawson_at_mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/mdawson or www.evilmonopoly.com
Word for word, the best sentence in English literature:
"'Shut up.' he explained." --Raymond Chandler
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #818
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