Jump to content

Questions about elves


Brootse

Recommended Posts

Elves can swell up and ripen, I suppose. Rather than getting fat, they might get sweet, storing sugar (or starch). They might even get over-ripe and alcoholic.

If you are an uz, the sticks are edible (and fairly nourishing), too, and simply add to the texture. If you aren't an uz, what business do you have nibbling on elves?

Edited by Joerg
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Elves can swell up and ripen, I suppose. Rather than getting fat, they might get sweet, storing sugar (or starch). They might even get over-ripe and alcoholic.

If you are an uz, the sticks are edible (and fairly nourishing), too, and simply add to the texture. If you aren't an uz, what business do you have nibbling on elves?

Good ideas! And I used a wrong word, I meant splinters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Brootse said:

Good ideas! And I used a wrong word, I meant splinters.

Splinters simply mean you didn't chew well enough. And let's be honest, a species that cracks rock with its dentistry is in all likelihood fairly used to sharp and pointed stuff going down their gullet.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All kind of Chaos like to eat Elves.

Strictly, according to the rules, Elves are vegetarian cannibals, so Elves like to eat Elves. Personally, I treat that as Elves eat plants and are plants themselves, but you never know.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, soltakss said:

All kind of Chaos like to eat Elves.

Strictly, according to the rules, Elves are vegetarian cannibals, so Elves like to eat Elves. Personally, I treat that as Elves eat plants and are plants themselves, but you never know.

When Elf forests go to war with each other, do they mulch and devour the enemy? That's rather unsettling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, womble said:

In the real world, plants use chemical weapons to stake their territorial claims, upon occasion...

The oak and pine trees in my part of New England use their dropped leaves and needles to acidify and cover the ground killing off grasses and shrubs.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, soltakss said:

All kind of Chaos like to eat Elves.  Strictly, according to the rules, Elves are vegetarian cannibals, so Elves like to eat Elves. Personally, I treat that as Elves eat plants and are plants themselves, but you never know.

No, it specifically says that elves are vegetarian cannibals.  If that meant just eating plants, well that would be a silly use of the term, as flesh people eating flesh animals doesn't make anyone a cannibal.  Clearly elves must eat other elves.  We know that elves fight wars with each other over the borders of various types of trees within forests, so it seems a reasonable extension to suppose that they eat the fallen, much like trees derive nutrients from fallen leaves.  The big question is whether elves are also coprophages, because they do have that "grin".

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Yeah, that would seem to fit in with thier world view. When dead an elf is considered "mulch" and is used to support and strengthen the Adlryami in another way. 

In Babylon 5, the Soul Hunters were an Order of aliens that captured and preserved the souls of the great as they died, but one member of the Order just couldn't wait that long and hastened the deaths.

Some rogue Aldryami might do exactly that, hasten the deaths of Aldryami, so they can turn them into mulch and eat them, or just skip the mulchy bit. 

And, Darius, yes, mulchy is a word now.

  • Like 3

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

Some rogue Aldryami might do exactly that, hasten the deaths of Aldryami, so they can turn them into mulch and eat them, or just skip the mulchy bit. 

Maybe, I guess it would depend on if "elf" is considered a delicacy or not. Do Aldayrmi sprints reincarnate into new elves or do they join with Aldrya?

Also, is there anything special to Adalyrmi nutritionally, that might actually be required for good elf health? Maybe they are a source of some nutrient that normal elves get naturally from the deceased, but that rogues are cut off from, save by extreme measures. 

 

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was this thread in another forum on this site that partially went into how one could make elves (or rather, a human Aldrya-worshipper) "weird" without them becoming entirely incomprehensible. I made the below comment as a bit of a ramble/thinking-out-loud about how a plant-person might hold quite different values regarding life, the preservation of it and so forth, partially informed by their RW-ish biology, but also by specifically Gloranthan myths about plants.

I mention it, because it's also relevant to the whole "cannibal"-thing. I would argue, personally, that the Aldryami of a forest are far more "mentally collectivist" than the humans of a clan or city or have you, and that this comes with consequences in the sense of more acting "for the good of the forest", as opposed to holding individual ambitions (although I wouldn't discount the latter entirely, because individual interests/perspectives clashing is still a really good way to create stories).

The dead do not need their bodies. The living do. The Forest does. They will be mulched. The superfluous Aldryami-seeds which were planted when things were looking better, but which are now possibly a burden on the nutrient-cycle will be mulched in an act of vegetative infanticide, because this is for the best of the Forest. A rivaling Forest, and its ecosystem, will be mulched, conquered, transformed, etc., whether by violence or by vegetative invasion, or spirit fusion or what have you. The method doesn't really matter - what matters is protecting or expanding the Forest. Spirits will find new bodies, or join with Aldrya, the cycle goes on, as is natural. The Forest, which is essentially both Mother, Ancestor, Deity and City all in one, endures. Humans like to pinpoint specific individual elves or trees as the "kings" or "elders" or "hearts" of the forest, but this is a gross simplification, and possibly one that the elves deliberately create. Ultimately, there is the Forest.

Just my speculative perspective. I know not all of this matches a hundred percent with published lore, but I'm going out on a limb with some possible Elf-perspectives on this.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

, but I'm going out on a limb with some possible Elf-perspectives on this.

LOL! THat wasn't an intentional pun, was it?

More seriously, I think it might come down to being consumed as mulch keeps an elf part of the community and part of the food chain and life cycle. Unlike human cultures, who mostly find cannibalism abhorrent, in no small part because it minimizes out individuality and feelings of superiority over "lesser" animals, with elves it could be that "mulching" and consumption reinforces that they are part of the plant life, and brings them closer to Aldyra.

 

It's an logical, internally consistent, but alien mindset, so it has potential.

  • Like 1

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/20/2019 at 7:53 AM, soltakss said:

And, Darius, yes, mulchy is a word now.

An Aldryami culinary term no doubt, dscribing the crunchier forms of humus.  I suspect that Aldryami would eat both humus and hummus if they were on the menu.

Edited by Darius West
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...