Final Quest #14

According to the official site (http://elfquest.com/woodelves/) "They are elves, descendants of the original Firstcomers. (This is, after all, still Elfquest, not Ent-quest or Dryad-quest or Heap-quest or Swamp-Thing-quest.)"

manga wrote:

Except the Fung-ky Ones have been hearing the Palace Call. It's an interesting idea that they're not elves, but I'm not sure it pans out.

That's kinda what I meant... Wendy might have been all Don't call them 'Tree Elves', call the 'Fungus Animungus' sneakily trying to trick us into thinking that maybe they aren't elves... because she's evil! It was even confirmed during the Halfway Mark Podcast.

You know, I don't mind the squiggly lines on the fung-guys. I think it makes it look more stylized and artsy, my problem lies more with how I can't tell where their arms and legs are.

They are gone. Rotten. Fallen off.

Of course.

When they first appeared in FQ, I also assumed they were Tree Elves. But reading the quote about fungus, I recall Elfmom drew a trio of pictures showing fairy maidens representing flora. fauna and fungus (mycota.) The "fairy ring" is the marginal manifestation of an underground fungus, so maybe all the fun-guys are connected. I hope their spores don't cause allergic reactions.

As a Troll, I can't restrain myself from editorializing. (Editors and Trolls are, after all, practically the same species.) Queen Oddbit, not the most profound among us, made that famous remark about living underground like sensible people. Maybe some Elves finally took her advice? And I do find them more attractive than those pale pink Wolfriders.

As far as the myth of tree people, I agree Tolkien's Ents and Lewis' dryads are hardly original. Tree spirits go back to ancient Greece, maybe Native American folklore as well. I believe they are the origin of the "knock on wood" superstition. In Mark 8:24, a man who regains his sight describes people who look like walking trees. Those who write fiction should accept that a writer's palette consists of the same colors used by humanity for thousands of years.

Well, Fungi are something in between plant and animal-- so it kind of makes sense.

Startear wrote:

You know, I don't mind the squiggly lines on the fung-guys. I think it makes it look more stylized and artsy, my problem lies more with how I can't tell where their arms and legs are.

Maybe that's intentional.
If you can't tell where there arms and legs are, you can't see them.
If you can't see their arms and legs, you don't know they have arms and legs.
If you don't know they have arms and legs, you most likely won't realise they're... well... (more or less) human shaped.

yeah- I don't mind the arms and legs things either

I think it's pretty neat that the design of these elves has moved in a non-tree direction. Very fresh. We've seen before that when really powerful self-shapers take on a new form, they sometimes alter their own consciousness as well as their appearance. Timmain lost herself in the wolf form for thousands of years. If this community of elves took on the form of fungus or lichen, and if they are powerful telepaths as well as shapeshifters (which seems possible, why not?) they may have a a relatively undifferentiated group consciousness or plant/fungal consciousness. Their lack of physical distinctiveness may reflect this. Perhaps that's also why the palace's call is a "nuisance"--it's too foreign to their normal brainpattern.

Wisp wrote:

If this community of elves took on the form of fungus or lichen, and if they are powerful telepaths as well as shapeshifters (which seems possible, why not?) they may have a a relatively undifferentiated group consciousness or plant/fungal consciousness.

Something in the podcast is leading me to your idea: Wendy says " We used to think that Cutter greatest fear were heights..." then she implies that we're going to meet is new biggest fear when we meet those Fung-guys. But he's already terrified, and as I read it he's afraid of loosing his sense of self. So, if this is the fear Wendy is talking about (it may not be), I can see how it would lead to them having a different sense of self. I'm going for a hive mind, a collective self, but that's because it's one of my biggest fears. I don't know what else it could be. Soulless mushrooms?

Had this and some more thoughts dropped on the previous page:

Embala wrote:

Years ago I've learned the largest living organism on Earth is the Oregon honey mushroom ...

... and now Wendy Pini tells us: Call them Fungus Amungus!

What if ... a group of Firstcomes managed to hide from the WoTMs by becoming an integral part of this world? Can it be that they had magic users who discovered a mushroom organism underground and found a way to merge with it? Try to imagine ...

The elfin spirits live within this spreading organism, both hiding and thriving. These aliens would not have a problem to share a body - a hive mind is familiar to them anyway.

After 20 millennia they would not be interested in the Palace too much. The WoTMs is literally their home soil. And it functions similar as the Palace and/or the spirit sphere.
They are not able to travel to the Palace because their "body" is part of Abode's nature.
There is no need to do so because there are no immediate life threatening dangers. Fire, flood, change in environment and climate would not be able to kill the whole organism easily. In case the "elves" kept some specific magic to grant necessary adeptions this mycelium can live forever.

It would even fit with WP's remark that we might not see those new elves at all. You can walk over them and wouldn't notice!

So who are the FungGuys we've seen?

Then and now the fungus sprouts fruit bodies - visible mushrooms. Maybe they are individual spirits who "visit" the world above for whatever reason (possible reproduction included?). The fungus infects young trees, influences their growth to develope elfin shapes (because that's how they remember/envision themselves) and the spirits temporarily live as such a tree-fungus organism (first encounter).

As it is the nature of a fungus to consume its host the tree structure will die and rot more or less soon while the spirits still control the fungus part - the TreeZombies (state on the #14 cover).

When the tree structure is completely devoured the spirits simply return in the mycelium.


What do you think? Is there a possibility it could work similar like this?

I love the emotion in the cover picture and think it's a beautiful expression of compassion.  I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be Cutter who finds more elves; after all, he is still the main character. And after all, it wasn't he who found the Wavedancers; that was Sunstream!

I didn't even notice the fungus-elf's breasts until everyone started criticizing them; I only registered that she was female.  It makes sense, though, that since she has them, these are not "tree" elves-- they must be mamalian, suckling their young just like other elves do.  

I can understand the irritation at what Wendy Pini said.  "Hey, these aren't Tolkienesque tree elves, folks," would have been fine.  But "stop calling them that right now!" sounds-- well, parental.  Adult fans are not likely to appreciate being treated like naughty children. This includes me.  Maybe she has been taking this "Elf Mom" role a little too seriously?

But I like the idea of these elves, and love the picture of this one caring for the devastated Cutter.  My only real problem remains with the reason why he's so devastated.  I cannot like this shared-soul business, and having more time to get used to the idea hasn't helped me accept it any better.

Maybe we're not really supposed to like it.
Maybe we're supposed to feel the way Cutter does about it.


One thing I've been wondering about lately is where those Fungy-guys are located.
When they were first shown in issue 8 it wasn't actually clear if they were above-ground.
After Cutter ran away the Wolfriders speculated if he'd gone to the old troll tunnels.
Richard, in the Halfway Mark podcast said they'd make an all-black issue
Are they underground?

@Wordgazer's comment - I think having appendages that look like breasts doesn't necessarily imply the creatures are mammalian. Just because they have them doesn't mean they are functional. It may just be a genetic remnant like a vestigial tail. Or if they are shape-shifters it may just be decorative, or be thier self-image. Or, if they are kind, it may be the form they have taken knowing it is familiar to Cutter. (And the female does look sympathetic. I can't decide if the guy in front is expressing surprise or dismay, or about to take a bite out of Cutter.)

But this did get me thinking. It seems like it wouldn't be too hard for Timmain to take the form of a wolf or a bird, because the basic anatomy is the same (lungs, stomach, heart) so I could imagine that the change was mostly in appearance. But to turn into a mushroom, or a tree, assuming that it was more than just camoflage, seems like it would require such a change on the cellular level, it's hard for me to imagine.

Although, thinking about it more, maybe it would be easier to make all her cells suddenly turn rigid and woody than it would be to suddenly grow hair or feathers. Hmmm.

We did see her as a tree, though. I'm tempted to speculate that when Timmain transformed into a tree, she accidently transfered some genetic material that evolved into the mossy elves. Except that would violate the rule they made that Timmorn was a one-time only species crossbreed (ignoring the existance of Two-Edge), and the fact that under no circumstances is anyone supposed to have interpretations of any EQ story that is not the one that the Pini's intended.

Fungus is very similar to animal life-- sort of a midway thing between a plant and an animal. They could just have fungus growing all over them and maybe they melded with it.

It doesn't bother me, btw, that Cutter is the or who discovers a new tribe of elves again. That's fine by me. What bothered me, story wise, was that there was all this build up over the course of several story arcs about how Sunstream was training his whole adult life to be the "link"-- then, in what is presented as a climactic moment, he finally assumes this role and contacts every elf on the planet-- and finds four individuals... one of whom is dead, two of whom we never meet becUse they are in wrap stuff, and the other who we already know. Meanwhile, Cutter wanders blindly into the woods and apparently falls on a whole new tribe. Like... really? What was the point of Sinstream?

Lunakat wrote:

Fungus is very similar to animal life-- sort of a midway thing between a plant and an animal. They could just have fungus growing all over them and maybe they melded with it.

Aaaaaaaand that's my nightmare for tonight.

Redhead Ember wrote:

Maybe we're not really supposed to like it.
Maybe we're supposed to feel the way Cutter does about it.

They did a pretty good job, then.

Redhead Ember wrote:

One thing I've been wondering about lately is where those Fungy-guys are located.
When they were first shown in issue 8 it wasn't actually clear if they were above-ground.
After Cutter ran away the Wolfriders speculated if he'd gone to the old troll tunnels.
Richard, in the Halfway Mark podcast said they'd make an all-black issue
Are they underground?

I'm looking forward to an all black issue.

Lunakat wrote:

It doesn't bother me, btw, that Cutter is the or who discovers a new tribe of elves again. That's fine by me. What bothered me, story wise, was that there was all this build up over the course of several story arcs about how Sunstream was training his whole adult life to be the "link"-- then, in what is presented as a climactic moment, he finally assumes this role and contacts every elf on the planet-- and finds four individuals... one of whom is dead, two of whom we never meet becUse they are in wrap stuff, and the other who we already know. Meanwhile, Cutter wanders blindly into the woods and apparently falls on a whole new tribe. Like... really? What was the point of Sinstream?

I don't get the part about Sunstream, either. It feels to me like the story bounces this way and that, and they just can't decide where to go with it.
I would have liked for it to be Sunstreams moment. As long as it doesn't involve him transforming into that ugly fish shape again.

Sifra wrote:

Redhead Ember wrote:

Maybe we're not really supposed to like it.
Maybe we're supposed to feel the way Cutter does about it.

They did a pretty good job, then.

Heehee, indeed.


Also, all this talk of mushrooms is making me crave spring and summer so I can get a big ol' bag of chanterelles and sauté them in butter, with a little fresh thyme....

Zadzi wrote:

Also, all this talk of mushrooms is making me crave spring and summer so I can get a big ol' bag of chanterelles and sauté them in butter, with a little fresh thyme....

Nooo you'll scare the poor fung guys off!
Now I have a picture in my head of Cutter who doesn't realise he's found a new elf tribe and tries to make soup out of them...

Sifra wrote:

Zadzi wrote:

Also, all this talk of mushrooms is making me crave spring and summer so I can get a big ol' bag of chanterelles and sauté them in butter, with a little fresh thyme....

Nooo you'll scare the poor fung guys off!
Now I have a picture in my head of Cutter who doesn't realise he's found a new elf tribe and tries to make soup out of them...

I would pay to see that lol. Maybe Tier can join him and tell him what kind of additional seasonings to use (I remember Tier giving Tyleet pointers of how to make soup during Wildhunt).

I was working on it as you wrote that post, Zadzi. I added Teir immediatly.

Sifra wrote:

I was working on it as you wrote that post, Zadzi. I added Teir immediatly.

OMG
Ok, where do I send payment ? You just made my night, Sifra!

I'm glad to be appreciated.