> But there's an exception built in: Participating in a troll-style
> funeral for a relative counts as fulfilling the requirement. My
> take--I'll work this out--is that this is the way the obligation was
> always fulfilled in pre-Curse of Kin days (and now among Hot
Trolls),
> and still the predominate way even in the 3d Age.
Presumably one role of the Kaarg's Son is as undertaker, and master of ceremonies at a Troll funeral. I think you're right, the radition probably orriginated at a time when trolls were so numerous and their relationships so well known that it was relatively trivial to fulfill the obligation, yet guaranteed that each Kaarg's Son did his duty on a regular basis.
> First off: What does "relative" mean in this context? I submit that
> "relative" means "anyone you can *trace your relation to*".
Since enlo aren't considered to be trolls, yet are considered to be kin obviously the rules are fairly relaxed in this regard, but there must be some traditional definitions.
> One last thought... This restriction makes things difficult for
> Uz-by-choice. If a hooman becomes a troll, and follows Kaarg, what
does
> he do? A newly-made troll is said to have "found ancestors in the
> darkness". Is this literally true, such that he can trace his
relation
> to other trolls (and fulfill the obligation)? Or does he actually
have
> to go back to his home town and kill a hooman relative every season?
> (...or dig up a corpse from the graveyard. Hoomans don't eat their
dead,
> and nothing in the rule says the dead relative has to be fresh...)
First of all, I doubt any but a fully changed ex-human could become a Kaarg's Son, in which case they're now part of the troll family. I'm sure ex-human kin would be fair game though. Hey - that's a nice plot twist. A strange monster is sneaking into the stead and eating children! If only old uncle Osric hadn't gone off to join the trolls - he'd have known what to do!
Simon Hibbs
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