> I entirely agree with Jeff, that the concept of "Medicine Bundle" would not be
>particularly meaningful to most trolls.
> They are naturally much closer to the spirit world (at least the dark parts of
>it) than humans are, and I envision
> their modes of communicating with spirits to be much more diverse and tailored
>to the particular spirit.
>
I was speaking in HQ rules-speak. Anything that can house the magic of a spirit in the mundane world is either a charm or a medicine bundle. But those things are different from "contacting" a spirit:
> Consequently, a troll shaman who specialized in dealing with praxian spirits
>would likely have a medicine bundle for that purpose
> - but it wouldn't be used for contacting his ancestors (that's what mom is for)
>or negotiating with Dehori - who he might contact
> through some other sort of fetish, special foods, a special song drum beat or
>any number of other methods, depending on what
> he knows of that particular spirit's preferences. He probably doesn't even NEED
>a medicine bundle to talk to praxian spirits...
> he just knows that they are more likely to respond positively if he uses one.
You don't use a charm or a medicine bundle to contact a spirit. They are houses, not phones. How you contact a spirit depends on your aminist tradition. Among Praxians, you usually use the giant dance to attract their attention. That works for the friendly spirits, but not all spirits. I would imagine that trolls likewise have traditional methods of contacting their friendly spirits, and other methods of contacting neutral and enemy spirits.
The key here is that, for any disembodied spirit to regularly manifest in the mundane world, it needs a home here. Natural spirits already have a home: a rock or a tree or whatever. They are embodied. Ghosts (one variety of disembodied spirits) lack a home and might try to possess you to get one. For small disembodied spirits that normally reside in the spirit world, animists negotiate to have them live in a charm. As the spirit gets larger, it needs a bigger, better house. The distant end of the spectrum, where the great spirits are, is the medicine bundle. This is not just a little charm you hang around your neck. It is usually composed of things that are valuable and magically significant in their own right. Just transporting it may be a challenge.
So it would be a very rare Praxian shaman who holds a medicine bundle. The medicine bundles of Eiritha and Waha are held at the Paps. Storm Bull is so broken that no one can assemble a medicine bundle for him as a whole, but each Part of the Bull has one. The Oakfed shamans at the battle of Moonbroth probably had one, but Oakfed's medicine bundle burns up every time you use it. The Praxians are so magically impoverished that their great spirits generally have only one medicine bundle anywhere in the world. I assume that's not the case for other cultures.
Applying this to trolls, I would assume that, when Nysalor wounded Korastang (or Kyger Litor, depending on the story), some part of the medicine bundle broke. That part is so rare that even replacing the physical part would be nearly impossible. Beyond that (and much more importantly), someone has to replace it in the way that fixes it, as opposed to merely breaking it further (which is what I believed happened when the trollkin curse got worse). That way obviously requires immense heroquesting. If they questers succeed, the end result is a medicine bundle that allows worshipers to access Korastang's full fertility powers. If she has multiple medicine bundles (which I assume would be the case), then they would need to teach others the way to repair their medicine bundles as well. Once the questers trod the ways once, others might be able to follow through low-risk ritual (or not, as MGF requires).
Note that the first step in any of this might be to gain enough trust of the ruling Uzuz of your area to have access to the most powerful magic item she controls. As you point out, that is as unlikely to happen as any of the things that must follow.
Chris Lemens
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