Re: trolls & chaos

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_rubberducky.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:16:25 -0700


simon_hibbs2 <simon.hibbs_at_marconi.com> wrote:
>
> From the cult of Kyger Litor writeup in the lore library:
>
> "Islands of life clung precariously to their questionable
> existence through the War Against Chaos, and were often
> led by Trolls and their gods. Of those gods Kyger Litor
> was the most popular."
>
> I find it hard to believe that humans would write such nice
> things about troll if there wasn't some truth to it. As for
> trolls fighting chaos during history -

I don't think anyone's denying that trolls fought fiercely against Chaos in the Great Darkness. I think what some of us are saying, is--trolls fought fiercely against lots of people at lots of times. Chaos is one of them. Because (as CoP notes) humans joined with trolls in the fight against chaos, humans tend to give that particular troll fight higher importance than the trolls themselves, perhaps, do.

> "At the end of the Dawn Ages the trolls were the first to
> quit the Second Council which was performing a massive
> ritual to try to create a god. The trolls all claimed this
> was too close to chaos."
>
> So trolls would hapily co-operate with elves and dwarves in
> the Second Council, but left because it's activities were
> "too close to chaos".

The library writeup is adapted from "Cults of Prax", I believe. And some of us (James and me, mostly) are contending that that gives a human slant on things. My speculation is that the trolls could just as easily have broken with the Council because it was creating a *light* god.

(For all we know, it may be a translation problem! Recall how the word "krjalki" can mean "chaos monsters", but is also sometimes used for trolls. Perhaps the Uz have a word for "surface bastards", which they generally use for chaos, but also use for light/fire/death worshippers...)

> The trolls then went on to fight against Gbaji, who wounded
> Korasting and is responsible for the Curse of Kin.Now if I
> were a troll, I'd find that kind of hard to forget.

No question that the trolls hate Gbaji. But remember, there's one other god who screwed up trollish reproduction--Yelm Babykiller. What does Yelm have in common with Gbaji? They aren't both chaotic--but they *are* both light gods. Light-loving hoomanz might think, "Ah, fine upstanding trolls, clearly they hate Gbaji because he's chaotic." But that may not be what the trolls say.

Donald R. Oddy <donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> I think the only reason trolls might distinguish chaos from anything
> else is if they can't safely eat it. So if eating chaotic creatures
> risks making trolls chaotic then they will treat them differently
> otherwise it's all food.

"Everything is edible." (I still want that on a t-shirt!)

I think *fire* is the thing that's really hard to eat. (Though surely there are Uz secrets for doing even that...) Chaos is easy. Maybe eat a pebble along with it, if you're worried it's poisonous...

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