CL:
>>1. Aldryami Unity in the Song is rather like the Unity described in the
>>Julian May books; i.e. it is not so all-encompassing that elves are
>>incapable of individual initiative.
PM:
>I think that most Elves purposely lose themselves in the Song as individual
>awareness is known to be caused by Oblivion. The Rootless are most
>affected by this to such an extent that they cannot hear the song. A few
>elves (including PCs) are exceptional in that they can hear the Song
>and initiate an action (instead of acting reactively).
I am fairly certain that this is directly contradicted in current HW publications and recent stuff on elves. I'll try to find citations. Elves would certainly desire to lose their individual identities in the Song, but are generally unable to do so. I think one of the reasons for their general weakness against non-elves since the first age is that they have been focused on individually attaining nirvana, to the point that they have not been heroquesting for powers to bash the foes.
CL:
>>2. Young elves are not even that Unified.
>Until they grow sex organs, they >can't hear the song.
PM:
>They can. They can't appreciate its finer nuances
>and so worship "loud" euphonies like Halamalao.
Again, I think this is contradicted by recent stuff. Again, I'll need to find citations to prove it.
CL:
>>These are the ones that often leave the forest.
PM:
>Often is way overstated IMO. Elves that are seen outside the forest are
young
>elves (or rootless) but they are a small minority of the young elves in the
forest.
>And even then most of them would move around in Halamalao's light and every
>night remain in the vicinity of a corpse of trees or a river.
Correct. I stated it the wrong way around. Elves that are found outside the forest are generally ones that do not hear the Song due to their youth. These are still a minority among all young elves. Think of the right half of a bell curve, with the x-axis representing distance they are willing to travel from the forest and the y-axis representing population of young elves. The vast bulk stay in the forest almost all the time. Some wander out for day trips. A few go for an extended travel or two, usually to another forest and back. Then the rare ones go for a walkabout until they hear the song. Then there are the unfortunates who never hear it.
Chris Lemens
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