> >> I think the main problem is that we don't know how the aldryami
> >> transmit their culture to the younger generations.
> > Elder Secrets.
... which is rather unsatisfying, as witnessed by people's general inability to properly understand the aldryami.
> I'll expand on this (briefly), for the benefit of those who came in
> after the main feature started:
> The RuneQuest 3 boxed supplement "Elder Secrets of Glorantha"
> included an "Elder Races" book, which had a "What My Elder Relative > Told Me" page for the trolls, dwarfs and elves. It's available on
> the Issaries, Inc. site at this URL:
> http://www.glorantha.com/library/dad/elf.html
Sure, I knew of this of course, but something like :
What makes an elf great?
To fulfill our destiny with Aldrya makes us great. We are born to learn, we wake and dance our lives, we sleep and know our Secrets, and we die to Be the secrets before we are born again.
... doesn't really tell us very much. Life, the Big Aldryami Secret, and Everything else elvish in ES is pretty much beyond the pale of usefulness IMO (what I've seen of Shannon's material seems much better, so I suppose we'll just have to wait for the aldryami book for the answer to our questions).
What we know from official sources basically boils down to :
Elves are humanoid plants, having a tripartite form of consciousness composed of their individuality, the Song of Aldrya (Forest Mind), and their personal relationship to magic/gods/spirits ; all this being insuffiently explored/revealed
Like other Gloranthan races, their Heroes defend their habitat, allies and lifestyle with what weapons and methods they possess (vegetable ones)
Other spot details and local descriptions, insufficient in number and scope to provide any sense of overall understanding of the aldryami
What details we do have tend to explore their vegetable nature, quite hard for us meat puppets to relate to, but not their psychology, intellect, and culture, which would be far easier for players to empathise with. So, I think that some form of tolkienesque (or para- or contra- tolkienesque) description of their "poetic" natures and the contents of their higher culture would be very desirable (at least to the extent that the descriptions of Uz and Mostali intellect have been published).
Very few people, I think, have any properly particularised understanding of the inter-relationships of aldryami vegetable nature, the Song (in both its poetic and shared awareness manifestations ; transcendental, oral, and written), and individual aldryami thought. I certainly don't. IMO we (the readers) still have no real idea how aldryami culture is transmitted nor what it contains, ES notwithstanding.
Julian Lord
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