From: Frank Rafaelsen (rafael@nvg.unit.no)
Date: Wed 13 Nov 1996 - 16:14:35 EET
> Peter Metcalfe answered Richard Crawley:
>
> Me>>They do not go raving mad once a week, they turn into magical wolves.
> >>Wolves are still pretty smart despite being bestial. And although
>
> >I have to question this. I don't have the sources in front of me but I'm
> >pretty sure the phrase ravening beasts (or something like it) is used
> >somewhere in the Dorastor LoD description description of the Telmori.
>
> Even if this is true, it changes nothing. Most people think of
> RW wolves as ravening beasts, but they are still pretty smart. I'm
> questioning the belief that because they are cursed to be beastial
> once a week, they should be easily fooled with by-the-book human
> tricks (ie every wilday, leave a bitch in heat tied up in the camp,
> and then wait in ambush for the randy Telmori). If they were that
> stupid, then they would have been all dead by now.
I don't think other cultures are aware of the fact that telmori lose their
intellect every wildday. Combat is about the only interraction possible
with telmori in wolf form, and being charged by a horde of howling telmori
isn't that different from attacks of other fanatical foes (Berserkers for
instance) On the basis of this I think it's possible that the difference
is lost on other cultures. The reason they haven't been exterminated yet
is the fact that they travell in small groups(I belive tainted ones are
incapable of operating in groups larger than 5 - 10 individuals; the
normal size of a wolfpack) attack only isolated farms and have exceptional
senses and mobility.(the perfect guerillia warriors if you like)
Their reputation works to their advantage too: You got to be crazy to go
after the telmori into telmori terrain. Who would want to go into a dense,
dark forest hunting a prey that can hear and smell you over large
distances.
> >My interpretation of this has always been that, on Wildday, the Cursed
> >Ones become not just beasts but wild, savage beasts driven to acts
> >of violence and slaughter like the traditional werewolf of legend. _This_
> >is what results from Arkat's revelation of the chaos at the heart of Gbaji/
> >Nysalor's gift.
>
> Well it was actually Talor who cursed the wolves. I do think that the
> Telmori are worse than real wolves in that they do not fear men in the
> way that RW and non-telmori wolves do. They know what humans are like
> as they have some within their packs. Thus they are not afraid to
> hunt humans down for food. This flaw would extend to the Pure Ones as
> well as the Wild Ones IMO.
>
But why hunt the most dangerous prey if you don't have to? I still belive
the pure ones have displaced the other tribes from the best huntinggrounds
in telmoria. The best areas would be the more "virgin areas" away from
settled humans. Forcing the tainted ones to find alternative foodsources.
This does make the humans an tempting target. And since the telmory lose
their "common sense" every wildday. This is exactly what they do.
All IMHO of course.
And your right, it was Talor, and not Arkat who did it. But it wasn't a
curse. What he did was only make the chaotic origins of Nysalor's gift
apparent.
Now over to something completely different: Time.
I've tried to follow the time argument, and it hasn't been easy. But
anyway I'm going to present my view of why the orlanthi view the godtime
as timeless. I beg your forgiveness if this is old stuff.
Orlanthi say the godtime was timeless because they had no reliable way of
measuring it. Day and night would come at random intervalls, and winter
would strike when Valind happened to invade. The view here is: Is there
time if you can't measure it. And I think the simplistic orlanthi
concluded that time did not exist.
Somebody said that aging and dying wasn'tconnected to time.
I agree totally. I see age in the godtime as the resultof wisdom, not the
opposite. Youth is caused by innocence, not the other way around.
Only my two clacks though.
Frank Rafaelsen
rafael@nvg.unit.no
"Si fallor, sum"
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