Fungusamungus ... (now the Rootless Ones)

Aelia wrote:

What I find an interesting feature of all these tribes, don't know if they intended it that way, is how the magic gifts of each tribe seems to suit their environments. Does magic adapt to the environment? The Wavedancers for example have an unheard of amount of healers and selfshapers. 4, if i counted correctly. Really handy with all that adapting to living underwater. They are also the only ones with "coralshapers". The wolfriders only have a healer now and then and tree shapers.
Would a gift die out if it's not useful?

YES and NO - I think it does adept and for the same reason it will not die out.

I understand it this way, Aelia:

1. All elves have a spark of magic - and it can come to life under the right circumstances or in the right combination (Recognition).

2. All the formes of magic are connected - there is merging and/or developement. Basically all of it is about reorganizing ...

3. Self-shaping, flesh-shaping, healing - reorganizing the cells of a living being. Your own or of another person ... tho I think that healing requires an additional talent. Like an excellent surgeon is not necessarily a good doctor.
Coralshaping is related to flesh-shaping/healing ... corals are living beings, too. And some additional rockshaping talent can be helpful.
Treeshapers shape and heal living flora instead of fauna - another reorganization of cells.
Rockshapers reorganize the mineral structure of stones,
gliders and watershapers influence the currents and winds  - and lightshapers or fireshapers reorganize pure energies.

4. If all those shaping abilities are related to each other and if they show up depending on circumstances they'll "adept" to the special needs of the tribes for sure. All tribes (Go-Backs aside) have/had healers. A treeshaper in Blue Mountain would be even more useless than a healer - but they had need of rockshapers and gliding abilities. Given their way of living a treeshaper is much more appropriate than a rockshaper for the Wolfriders. And so on ...

5. The inherent magic ripes and develops within individuals, due to talent, time, need and special triggers. Or it is recombined and strengthened (or weakened) by Recognition.
Fireshaping in the forests - extremely dangerous. No Fireshapers anymore.
If Ember's tribe would have developed into Plainsrunners I bet treeshaping would have (almost) vanished in favor of another, more needed talent.
And a special talent will return when circumstances of life require it.

6. Because magical skills can adept they will never die out - just change.

For reference, I collected all scenes of magic. First time seen. Distinct.
Rather varied, but indeed mainly connected to natural environments and effetcs.

Oddly enough, the very first scene is... a WOLF sending TO an elf.

I've just reread this thread with all the fuss about the naming of these non-tree-fungusamungus-elves. Isn't it kinda ironical that of all possible names they ended up with "Rootless Ones"?

Seriously - from all the known and hinted tribes these guys are the most Rooted Ones. They are literally part of the Abodian soil! They probably adepted as far as possible to their new home and it felt quite natural that they decided to stay.

Embala wrote:

I've just reread this thread with all the fuss about the naming of these non-tree-fungusamungus-elves. Isn't it kinda ironical that of all possible names they ended up with "Rootless Ones"?

At first hearing, I absolutely agree. When I first read their naming, I thought that they very well seem to have 'roots' because they resemble trees almost completely, except for their elfin features and...well...unfnished limbs. ^^

Embala wrote:

Seriously - from all the known and hinted tribes these guys are the most Rooted Ones. They are literally part of the Abodian soil! They probably adepted as far as possible to their new home and it felt quite natural that they decided to stay.

I agree. It seems like an oxymoron really. However, after I gave it some thought I have a few theories how it could be meant:

#1) Wendy compared them to fungi. Fungi do not have roots. They have a 'rootlike structure called mycelium.

Roots are primarily applicable to the plant kingdom. Mushrooms, which are part of the fungi kingdom, grow out of mycelium. Furthermore, they do not produce chlorophyll, which some plants use to turn sunlight into energy. Fungi instead get nutrients from the live or dead tissues of plants and animals, most from decaying matter.'.

...so maybe just a hint in the naming that they are not trees but fungi?



2) 'Rootless' could also refer to origin, meaning 'having no family origins or connections, or having no feeling of belonging to a particular place'.

So my thought is, maybe they have lost their sense of family or belonging because their consciousness changed. They may remember Savah but they are not approachable like other elves. They would not held a conversation and say: 'Okay, this is my mom, this is my brother, my cousin etc..'. They became part of the world (and its flora and fauna - the very soil, how you described)  and maybe don't care about social life and such....but care only about getting nutrients from dead tissues (think how they approached Cutter the first time    ).

It seemed to me they were more than just unfriendly...they seem to have lost the capability to socialise at all, hence being 'rootless' and totally disconnected from their heritage and origin. Being indifferent to the Palace's call.

You've put serious thoughts into this with interesting results. Your point of view may redeem this name a bit in my eyes, Fairyring.

The origin of the "Rootless Ones" is much easier to explain, tho.
Decades ago Savah told about the origin of the Sunfolk ... guess it was in the first prose novel. She and her people originally were forest dwellers and wanderers, calling themselves the "Rootless Ones" - because they had no real home. By peril and bad luck their numbers dwindled - and the last 5 of them crossed the desert and founded Sorrows End: Hassbet, her cousin(?) Maalvi, her young daughter Savah, Savah's recognized lifemate Yurek and an unrelated little boy, Dreen.

At least that was what Savah thought ... before she rediscovered some of her former tribemates as these "fungi elves".

Thank you, Embala! Riddle solved.   I have always liked Savah back when she was the Mother of Memory instead of Leetha who kinda looks too young for this role...can't get used to it...

Lovely memories! The Sunfolk engraved this story into their walls and Savah explained her origin to the sun-burnt and puzzled wolfriders. One of my favourite early issues.



I wonder if the Rootless Ones would still call themselves like this today...or whether they even care about a name to call their kind...and also if it would't be better to grow a leaf bra.

SOMEBODY DRAW A LEAF BRA! PLEASE!

Righhht!

nope, not me, I have no problems with bare tits.

*grins*
Oh - I don't mind the boobs at all and a bra of whatever kind would feel even more unnatural than Timmain's "sticky" tresses to me ... - but:

Given the androgynous original look of the Coneheads ...
and the Funguys' dislike of the "pesky four-limbed shape" ...
and their obvious non-individual hive-mind existence ...
my true question is: why do their shapes show gender specific forms at all?

It makes them more individual than they are supposed to be.
Or - are they not as much a hive mind as they want to make us believe?

The Pando - can this be the home of the Funguys ... pardon, Rootless Ones? ^^

... though my best bet is still on this place in Utah

Embala wrote:

*grins*
Oh - I don't mind the boobs at all and a bra of whatever kind would feel even more unnatural than Timmain's "sticky" tresses to me ... - but:

Given the androgynous original look of the Coneheads ...
and the Funguys' dislike of the "pesky four-limbed shape" ...
and their obvious non-individual hive-mind existence ...
my true question is: why do their shapes show gender specific forms at all?

It makes them more individual than they are supposed to be.
Or - are they not as much a hive mind as they want to make us believe?

I can't speak to 'chosen form' characteristics, but some species of trees and other plants and things have a sort of gender. Chiefly of note to my yard, we have some wild, volunteer locus trees (seems like only volunteer trees seem to grow here, we have had so many store bought trees die), and some are thorny and some arent, anf I am led to believe these are gender traits. Supposedly the asparagus that grows wild here also has seed bearing and pollen bearing genders as well, but Im not sure of that.

Anyway, thats RL, the books can have whatever abilities, preferred forms, or limitations they wish, regardless of "sense", but as to individuality among trees... hmm... "Rootless Ones" eh? Theres a tree system in the eastern U.S. that is one massive system of roots with tgousands of trees growing from it. Each tree looks different, but are technically part of the same root system. It would be interesting if these "Rootless Ones came from such a community of trees, but were the "misfits" that broke off from the rest, heard the call, etc, and are from the same organism, but have since individualized?

(Sorry if the spelling is bad, turned off the spell checker as it went rogue on me)

*points to my link above* You're talking about the Pando, Hammer! ^^

I don't know why I didn't think of this earier, but don't we Trolls eat fungi?

Want to come up with a new recipe, Trollbabe? XD

Yes, indeed!

One of the basics of gourmet food preparation is an understanding of the factors that go into the farming and ranching of ingredients. The qualities of a basic food begin with the breed of plant or animal, the climate and soil in which it is raised, the feed, fertilizer, water and medicine that go into it, how it is raised, harvested and then processed, and even which parts of the plant or animal are incorporated into a recipe.

Wine grapes grown on different layers of sediment on the same hillside have different qualities, as do bison and domestic cattle raised in the same region. Even non-foodies know a haunch from a brisket.

The same is true of fungus. We Trolls have developed an astounding variety of cultivated fungus. We are also connoisseurs and stewards of wild fungi, in all of its magnificent colors, flavors and textures.

It would take several volumes to cover this topic. Like humans, we employ fungus as a raw ingredient, as a flavoring agent, and as a culture in cheesemaking.

To address one specific topic, Trolls in all of our local food-crafting guilds agree upon one thing: Avoid meat from predators, as well as from omnivores whose diet has not been closely monitored. This is why we don't prepare bear and wild boar meat on a commercial level.

That ghastly practice of Northern Trolls eating Go-Backs, and Go-Backs eating Northern Trolls, would have eventually led to both populations being devastated by some sort of food-borne microbe, perhaps Mad Elf Disease.

For this reason, we are forever lecturing food service initiates to avoid anything that has fed upon Elvin flesh. This includes wild fungus grown upon corpses and graves (assuming Elves in one's community even go to the trouble of laying their dead to rest... hand a Wolfrider a shovel and he will use it to hunt aardvarks.} Any evidence that the Rootless Ones have fed upon their own kind would mark them as unfit for slaughter.

Currently, Troll research scientists are monitoring the Rootless Ones to see which specimens might be suitable for slaughter or domestic cultivation. The general attitude of Troll consumers is one of skepticism.

Even if approved for consumption, it would take a considerable marketing effort to put fungus-folk products on cavern shelves.

A post of its best like in the good ol' times!

I might point out an additional issue with commercial marketing: availability. Part of the marketing research on rare things involves how different a product is. If a product is so very similar to a very common product thats more available and cheaper to boot, it will fail to be considered for development, but if its uniqueness is overshadowed by some quality to make up for its scarceness, it will commericalized regardless. This parallels human food sources: beef is more efficient to cultivate than deer or elk, and is uzed the same way, and tastes the same if raised the same, so while the concept of wild deer may be appealing, it is nearly impossible to capitalize on it more than overcharging on "must haves" for hunting (the elves have become convinced they NEED Troll steel to hunt and process their kills, even though they were doing so before they met us)

But in the case of Saffron, the lack of large, abundant quantities makes little difference. The flower's flavor is so sought after that it demands prohibitive prices that are still paid regardless.

If the research finds that some minute thing can be harvested on a reoccuring basis, perhaps Fungusoid Dandruff or Sunburn Peelings are sought after by some target group, then affer a drastic source-obscuration renaming and agressive marketing campaign, such things may even be ...er... responsibly... sourced elfainly... fungainly?

Time will tell. Perhaps one day you too will be paying 22 gold a gram for Fun(g) Flakes baking seasoning or a rebranded variant of the Barber Shop Quintet's Floor Sweepings once we convince the treefolk that the Bonsai Trim is always in fashion. Based, of course, on the outcome of the findings.

I really need to get a copy of whag tbey havd found so far... many normal trees bear much more fruit is they are pruned regularly, and I have to wonder, have they ended up with a fruit salad, or a fruit cake?

LOL!!!

BTW I saw an episode of America's Test Kitchen today, about -you guessed it - fungus!

In particular, the chef cautioned that fresh raw mushrooms are sponge-like.
They absorb huge quantities of oil, and should be partly cooked in the microwave before sautéing in oil.

It made me wonder if living fungus folk are just as absorbant.

What happens if they go swimming?

Thats why they are so secretive. To hide their weaknesses. They once (as Tumblefolk, with white, tuffy hair) blew into town near the bay and met the Wavedancers (the earlier ones, that no one has since heard of or remwmber in the canon). Like most other meetings between tribes, there was a Recognition and the resultant offspring had a Soul Name that sounded something like Funge Blob. After a war over a particular geometry of wardrobe, these sea folk were wiped out by the Tumblefolk, who considered them anemones.. (it was also found during this time that sea water absorbtion was quite bad: while salt water has a preservative effect well below the surface of the sea, it caused drift rot at the surface near in the tide pools that Funge urged them to stay. Soggyness was also detramental to their ability to be around others, as the stench of rotting seaweed and dead mussels tended to be a bit repulsive if they ventured ashore.)

The Tumblefolk grew wild after that, one season, and in the heat traded their white, tuffy hair for spindly, round, thorny bodies and continued on wherever the wind took them, until the rolled across the desert (briefly seen by Rayak, but they were benieth his notice). One did end up falling in a tar pit tor a moment and absorbed a large quantity before being rescued, which, later, resulted briefly in worship and adoration of a branch of the Gotara Tribe before the hopes for positive human-elf relations went up in smoke... and flames... hot, hot flames...

The remaining Tumblefolk continued their aimless, windblown journey acrossed the desert until they reached a bordering rainforest, whereupon they assumed head toppings in the shape of umbrella shaped domes. Thus began the Fung Times leading up to what we now know...

XD