What does this say about Trolls?

[Nozbat]

Trolls and lead... Lead and Trolls... and then Romans. What did they ever do for us?

They may be in for trouble... or maybe this is the source of the Trollkin curse?  

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/06/roman-empires-use-of-lead-lowered-iq-levels-across-europe-study-finds

[Ali the Helering]

Or, given what we know of their biology, would it be a significant boon?

[Joerg]

An effect rather recently re-created by the use of leaded fuel.

[simonh]

On 1/7/2025 at 11:13 AM, Ali the Helering said:

Or, given what we know of their biology, would it be a significant boon?

They blood probably uses lead instead of iron. In Glorantha lead exposure makes humans more troll-like.

Edited Sunday at 03:49 PM by simonh

[g33k]

4 hours ago, simonh said:

They blood probably uses lead instead of iron. In Glorantha lead exposure makes humans more troll-like.

Amusingly, lead oxide PbO is also red, so Trollish blood will look the same.

(there's another form of PbO that's yellow, but it only forms at very-high temperatures)

[Nozbat]

29 minutes ago, g33k said:

(there's another form of PbO that's yellow, but it only forms at very-high temperatures)

So if Trolls were hot-blooded .. they’d bleed yellow?
 

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Nozbat said:

So if Trolls were hot-blooded .. they’d bleed yellow?
...

Earthly chemistry:  For PbO to be yellow, the temperature at formation needs to be almost 500C/1000F.
Once formed, both the red & yellow are stable at room temperature.

I conclude that -- in Glorantha -- it's not about being hot-blooded, but having really really hot sex.
And given the way trolls & heat interact, this is the stuff of a major Uz heroquest.

[Joerg]

What a real world blood dye needs is a complex that can reversibly exchange a ligand for either a molecule of oxygene or carbon dioxide. (What makes carbon monoxide so deadly is that it combines irreversibly with the complex in the dye, making it useless for the transport of both oxygene and carbon dioxide.)

Gloranthan blood and other fantasy blood doesn't quite conform with our biochemistry understanding of hemoglobine, blood cells, etc. When it comes to blood drunk by vampires or other such draining entities, we enter the realms of Star Trek mysticism or Stargate Atlantis life force, a quality that includes an otherworldly/extradimensional/"quantum" property of life and/or magic. Possibly midichloreans (mis-spelled mitochondria, I assume), those little organisms we host in our cells that consume the oxygen and the fuel and transform it into ATP-bound energy that can power cellular processes. Oh well, maybe vampires just extract ATP from the blood?

(Gloranthan) Trolls are mostly colorblind, but they can discern the redness of material as different from grayness. That seems to indicate that they are able to identify blood by sight - possibly a cursed gift by Yelm, who entered Hell bleeding out fire.

Trolls breathe air, at least since they arrived on the surface world. So do most insects, even aquatic larvae of mosquitoes, dragonflies or water beetles. Surface folk entering the Underworld are (by definition) dead, but may carry their (magical) breath with them, and continue to use that. Down in the Underworld, the trolls might have been satisfied with consuming their food with the rotting qualities of Darkness (a process remarkably similar to anaerobic processes reducing sulfates to sulfides). No idea whether they inhale or ingest that darkness to process the remaining energies of their food and making them usable for their (demonic) bodies. And if your genre doesn't accept Darkness as an element, then maybe the Ether, or some other pseudo-scientific concept like life force or aura.

I see no need at all to hypothesize about lead in the hemoglobin equivalent of Gloranthan trolls. Lead is in their bones, not in their blood.