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The first story of Zōēā, a young wild elf undergoing her rite of passage as a veldami (green-witch) in the Velnēs, the vast rain forest and jungle in which her tribe lives.
This is my first complete vore story but not my last. I do not expect commentary, constructive or otherwise—I lurked on this site for years before mustering the courage to post—but it would be welcome.
Update—12/05/2017: A few changes were made to the story to correct a typo and a continuity error, to rewrite some clunky dialog, and to add a minor enchantment to the Tiendrāsa shrine stone.
Update—03/25/2019: A couple of minor errors were corrected.
Posted by FaceInCrowd42 7 years ago Report
I've found Sturgeon's Law to be more obviously present on the Writing section of this site than most other places on the internet I frequent. You know, "90% of everything is crud?"
You sir, are DECISIVELY in the other 10% with this. I'm not sure I've ever read a better written snake vore story.
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
Actually, I'm familiar enough with Sturgeon's Law to know that what people call Sturgeon's Law is actually not. Yes, Theodore Sturgeon said it, but some other statement is actually his Law, so the more famous statement is referred to by purists as Sturgeon's Commentary or something. But I make the same mistake, too.
I also have a corollary to Sturgeon's Not-Actually-His-Law: From crud can grow flowers. When someone reads the crud and decides, "I can do better", then goes out and proves it, then crud has served a purpose. So this makes me a bit less judgmental.
Just a bit.
Thanks for the comment. There are about a dozen stories in this line planned, half of which are done except for checking for continuity errors (and the inevitable other typos and glitches). Two are half-written, two have only a working title and a paragraph of synopsis, another one is done but it is further in the timeline so it won't be released until I'm sure some detail in unfinished previous stories won't conflict.
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Posted by FaceInCrowd42 7 years ago Report
I was just going by TV Tropes. >_<
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
Odd. I thought I was, too. No worries, though. Anyway, I hope to be posting more of Zōēā's adventures when I'm satisfied that I've done as much as I can on them to defeat the Law of Cybernetic Etymology ("There's always another bug").
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Posted by FaceInCrowd42 7 years ago Report
By which I meant the trope was LISTED as Sturgeon's Law. ^^;
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Posted by TETRO 7 years ago Report
That was quite a beautiful story. Not to mention, your writing flows very well. The whole thing had a nice sentimental feeling to it and even the "dirty" stuff was handled in a very natural way.
I'm also a fan of scenarios where pred gets annoyed that their prey isn't dying/digesting fast enough.
Thank you for working up the courage and posting this. This sort of quality gives me something to aim for in my own work.
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
Thanks. Some of my better stories come from characters I have played in RPGs, since I invest a lot of time in developing them. That never means that these stories are about any of the adventures that those characters have in games. I take the character concept and drop it into a setting over which I have complete control—which is never an RPG, even if I am the game master. (That's not how RPGs are supposed to work.)
I best leave it at that before you start screaming, "TMI! TMI!" You can wander through my growing blog here if you want to smell my brain farts. :P
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Posted by illirium 7 years ago Report
It's a great and well-written story! I especially like the way you've clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the world-building, but at the same time kept the story from feeling weighed down by it, or from seeming overly serious. It's an awesome balance to strike. :P I also enjoyed the way you wrote the slightly annoyed, but not actually cruel, pred. As for constructive criticism -- it's a tiny moment, but the mention of Zōēā's father's "visit to the nearby villages" feels a bit clunky, and doesn't seem like it really adds much (there's also a slight typo -- an extra "a" -- in that same spot); it's a minor thing, but kind of pulled me out of the story for an instant; a sort of "as you know, your father, the King..." bit. The only other thing that gave me pause was what I felt to be a slight inconsistency to how sexuality is portrayed in the elf society; you mention that they do nothing to suppress their teen's sexuality, and it generally feels like a very open culture on that front; yet Zōēā seems to spend quite a bit of time justifying her arousal to herself, like she's trying a little too hard not to feel ashamed; and it's pointedly mentioned at the end that she wouldn't mention it to her mother. This just feels a tiny bit inconsistent to me. But these are both minor issues; on the whole the entire story is very smoothly written, and is quite enjoyable to read as a result. Everything flows really nicely. I am a happy and grateful reader. Thank you for pointing me this way! :)
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
Error noted and the errant "a" has been terminated with extreme prejudice in the master file, and it has been replaced here. Thanks.
The reason Zōēā's father got mentioned was so that it wouldn't seem like he was getting completely left out of the most important event in her life until that time. Still, what she underwent is something between veldami; Gelorn would not be initiated into the mystery. But yeah, the sentence is clunky. I'll see what I can do about it.
Zōēā's reticence about her experience is partly explained in the text of the story, but if you think about it, she probably isn't going to open up about it just then. After all, I doubt that any veldami is going to tell her daughter about "the birds and the bees (and the snakes)" by saying something like, "Now, daughter mine, when you are being devoured by a snake, you might find yourself becoming sexually excited…" It's not the sort of thing that one runs and tells one's mother right away, even one as open-minded as Yessanth.
Also, I felt that going into a deep discussion between the two of them on that aspect of Zōēā's experience would tend to hinder the progress of the story and become repetitive. It's worth noting that by story 3, "Homecoming", this reticence has been overcome; it is not a secret between them any longer, and the text of that story suggests this.
Your points have merit, though, and I thank you for the comment.
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Posted by illirium 7 years ago Report
Thank you! :D I am happy my points were found to be more constructive than annoying. :) I will be sure to continue reading through the series so that I can find out what trouble Zōēā gets into... Next time! On! "Tales of a Visceral Voyager!"
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
As noted in the updated description of this story, I have made certain edits to reflect your comment and to correct a more annoying error I discovered while working on that, as well as rewriting some ambiguous dialog. Thanks again.
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Posted by sweetladyamy 7 years ago Report
I will admit, that this took me for a sexy ride...had a hard time not trying to read this and get off simultaneously.
But there's a lot of familiarity with the story setting, not unlike a lot of the lore/journals I've read about elven culture back home...
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
You…resisted trying to get off? Blast! You made your Will save! :P
Seriously, though, as stated in the afterword, there should be some familiarity, as the Shāhūnā (People of the Boa Snake) are basically Dungeons and Dragons® (version 3.5) wild elves, and simple extrapolation of how a very long-lived but primitive culture with access to working magic might develop.
Anyway, thanks for the comment, and I hope you enjoy the rest of Zōēā’s stories—the other five here and numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and at least 12, if I can ever get #7 finished.
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Posted by sweetladyamy 7 years ago Report
Admittedly, I've not had the privilege of playing D&D.
That said, I will eventually read the rest of the series (I have it bookmarked).
Well, let us just say that I waited until after I read the whole thing...
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 7 years ago Report
Naturally, a knowledge of D&D isn't requires to enjoy the stories. I use it as a framework for Āen because Āen started as a D&D setting I made over the past few years and was readily available, and D&D has always been very vore- and kink-friendly anyway; it only needed a few extra spells to round things out. The inspiration for Zōēā is a D&D character I am still playing in a (non-vore) D&D game.
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Posted by sweetladyamy 7 years ago Report
I meant, after I read the whole thing to get off...lolz
But yeah, I get that part; I've just never had the privilege of being able to play the game, is all I was inferring, so I don't know some of the terms and such. That doesn't deter from the story, mind you...
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Posted by Philosoraptor 6 years ago Report
Great quality writing with a lot of detailed description concerning the fascinating topic of oral vore and digestion. One thing that struck me as unrealistic on the purely biological aspects ( won't even touch the reformation magic)was stating the considerable amount of fecal matter produced by the snake from consuming the elf girl. Having kept all manner of reptiles for many years and familiar with the amazing efficiency of their digestive systems; I would say the waste produced by a snake from consuming a single 150 pound person would scarcely fill a two gallon bucket and would be very runny because there would not be the binding agent of fur which would keep the stool solid and bulky. All of the bones would probably have been completely dissolved and the only identifiable remains strewn through the soft muck would be hair; nails and the enamel caps of teeth. I am glad though we do not see the usual and absurd 'selective digestion' here as in over 90 percent of the vore art and stories wherein all of the bones are digested except for a skull with mandible still somehow neatly attached! Though it is impossible for me to take the reformation stuff seriously; it was easy enough to ignore that part and enjoy it as a stand alone story with a final conclusion. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 6 years ago Report
Sorry for the late reply.
I am fully aware of the disparity between the amount of fecal matter produced in the story compared to what actually emerges from reptiles. While I have never raised any, I have researched the beasties more than casually. But vore has never been about science, but fantasy, which is why I opted for a fantasy setting to tell my stories.
What happened was not actual digestion and reformation; it was the triggering and later termination of contingent defensive magic. The kwurdāin spell was designed, basically, to absorb the damage done by the chemical (or, in the case of some predators, thermal) and kinetic action of a predator's stomach, and when it could do so no longer, trigger a second phase, a defensive transmutation that simulated digestion. Obviously the biological energy needed to digest almost a hundred pounds of elf girl down to chyme in seconds would have cause an exothermic reaction that would have boiled Ameldēān from the inside out.
This spell also ensures that the predator's gastrointestinal tract cannot extract so much that the swallowed creature doesn't have enough left to reconstitute, but since it does the primary stage of "digestion" for the predator, it is still a net gain for it; a snake spends perhaps a third of the energy it gains from its prey just digesting it.
This means that there is much more to excrete, of course, but the spell helps there, too: it ensures a regular (if rather large) single bowel movement, since the spell would be a failure if the recipient was not disposed of all at once instead of several piles scattered over the landscape at different times: reconstitution from dismissing the spell (or it expiring naturally) would kill the recipient. Likewise, the spell prevents diarrhea or constipation that might otherwise degrade the performance of the spell.
Once out, the spell recipient can dismiss the spell, resume her normal form, and escape. She'll be ravenously hungry and weakened by what was taken from her body, but alive. Most who use this spell make sure to have access to restorative magic to use afterward.
Certainly, the spell is not perfect—but then, what is? But for its specialized purpose, it gets the job done.
I am nothing if not detail-oriented.
I certainly agree with you about "bones in scat". Even the human digestive system can deal with bones. Those it can't generally become very painful and possibly fatal bowel blockages. No bones in scat, please.
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Posted by NightRoller 5 years ago Report
Wonderful story so far as far as I've read; I have one small note though, as I've done significant research about how constrictor snakes consume their prey:
They don't "unhinge" or "dislocate" their jaws to do it. Dislocation would certainly be painful, but what happens when a snake eats is just that its muscles and ligaments stretch to accommodate the meal, and allows the snake's mouth to stretch and widen, instead of the (albeit common) incorrect notion that something comes undone while a snake uses its mouth in the process of consumption.
Not a jab at you, just trying to make the fact known to others, so that the misconception can hopefully diminish.
Like I said though, definitely an excellent composition!
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 5 years ago Report
You are correct, sir; I have done similar research and should have known not to write it that way. I have slightly reworded the offending line to remove "unhinge" to fix this and replaced the story file here. Thanks for spotting that.
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Posted by NightRoller 5 years ago Report
Wow, thanks for being a part of the solution and being so understanding! Also, it's cool that you have done such research as well.
I look forward to your future stories (and I ought to read some more of your older ones)!
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 5 years ago Report
"Food Chained" was the first of the Tales of the Visceral Voyager series; the other stories in this folder are all sequels listed in chronological order. The seventh has been stuck for some months now. An eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh are all planned; the tenth is written but I'm not posting it until I know that the prior unwritten stories will not change it.
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Posted by IddlerItaler 1 year ago Report
You wrote a very colourful, descriptive narration that covered every base, from the protagonist's measurements to the Chekhov's Gun torque to the local economy to what animals Zōēā chances upon during her trek through the jungle. The linguistic notes and the cultural background of Zōēā's tribe made me feel like I was diving into an anthropological piece.
And then came Doomjaws, and the story seamlessly transitioned into something deeply erotic, while still maintaining a near-scientific thoroughness in the description of the eating process. I was afraid one would end up jeopardizing the other, but I was pleasantly proven wrong.
"Gradually, the snake’s remaining coil slid away, leaving her head resting on the snake’s abdomen. She could hear its stomach gurgle as it prepared for her arrival. "
I found this a beautiful touch to the vore scene. The serpent ended up doing the equivalent of putting a prey's head to your belly.
Also, scat in stomach? Veeery spicy. It was foreshadowed with the mention of her feasting for three days and never pooping, but unlike the magical torque I did NOT see that coming... Then again, considering how anatomically accurate this story was striving to be? Well played I say.
Coprophagia is a limit of mine and normally I'd find pooping in stomachs also gross, but I enjoy other forms of scatplay and Zōēā pooping herself ended up being a net gain to the arousal.
"Zōēā considered this. Yessanth was not a cruel mother, but the veldami were servants of the Velnēs, and the Velnēs often seemed cruel, although never deliberately so. Deliberate cruelty was something that thinking beings did to others. Minds that could express knowledge and compassion and empathy could also imagine their opposites and act out the worst evils—and convince themselves that those evils were for the greater good. A veldami must not make such lies to herself."
A thought-provoking passage. But as majestic as Veldami philosophy feels, I want to poke at it. Nature IS indeed cruel, and one has to wonder just how important dolphins torturing pufferfish or zombie cockroaches are to the Wīţhluth. In service of their vision of what the jungle is and needs, the Veldami druids are yet vulnerable to self-deceit and rationalization, and may find themselves one day like those paladins clad in metal armour who would raise a hammer in front of a goblin baby.
In conclusion I love how sexually liberated the Veldami are, and getting to experience vore without dying is a nice plus, but other parts make me grateful for the comfort and values of modern society. ;)
"but that resurrection was the province of gods and servants of gods, not servants of nature."
Was "province" meant to be "providence" here?
The banter between Yessanth and Doomjaws was a treat, as was the reveal that the latter was putting up a bit of an act for the sake of the ritual. I had imagined the snake as a he for the whole scene though, not that I mind. Are the tags intentionally ambiguous in this regard, only saying "snake/f" rather than also f/f?
Your homebrew kwurdāin spell seems interesting and well-thought. Nice one. ;)
"Readers may be disappointed that I didn’t depict Yessanth being eaten in detail, but the story (and it is but the first) is mainly about Zōēā. Also, it doesn’t do to repeat the details of digestion too often: one runs out of descriptions, and it wears out the novelty. "
I found the conversation between the two old companions, seguing into Yessanth asking to be eaten, to be a fantastic way to end the story. No disappointment on my part over the fade to black. At the same time, I do not think a second vore scene would have made the chapter worse by any means: when people love what you've made, they will be cheering for an encore, and the repetitiveness will be a feature, not a bug.
In this regard, Yessanth's line "No doubt the veldami that created the spell did that deliberately. It is a very elvish thing to do; in our long lives we try many odd pleasures." contrasts deeply with Zōēā's contemplation and her words of pure, unadulterated passion for her predation. Like one elf sees vore as a novelty to enjoy every now and then, the other wants to live and breathe it.
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 1 year ago Report
I must admit that I never expected a such long comment on a story I posted five years ago and figured had been buried in the morass of churning content that is Eka’s. So thanks for that. Perhaps it will inspire me to finally finish the backlog of vore stories for the Tales of the Visceral Voyager and a few other stories of Āen. It would be a long time coming; I don’t think I’ve posted a new story in at least two years.
A few things to note here:Now for a few comments on the commentary:
• In this first story, Zōēā is an initiate druid, and most of her wisdom is related rather than experienced. It may not be correct, despite her actual age. Characters in stories can be wrong.
• Druids of the Velnēs do not often see the oceans and therefore are less likely to be acquainted with the behavior of dolphins. Still, they are not alone in seemingly cruel behavior; other mammals, such as cats, can behave in ways to us that would seem needlessly cruel, but don’t understand the concept of cruelty, so despite this, it is still not intentional cruelty, which was the point there.
• Druids have the advantage of gaining access to the speak with animals spell, even as initiates, so they can ask an animal why it behaves in a certain way. It rather gives them a leg up on scientists studying animal behavior. I suspect that the animal doesn’t conceive that what it is doing is appears bad to most humans, and would answer, “Why not?”
One of the definitions of “province” is “an area of special knowledge, interest, or responsibility”. It is this definition which is the context for the use of that word, especially with regards to responsibility. “Providence” means “ god or nature as providing protective or spiritual care”. “Province” is more correct in this instance.Is is actually coprophagia for a creature swallowed whole to have a bowel movement? I would think that happens pretty regularly with snakes, considering how much the prey is squeezed before and during swallowing. No matter; it was a bit of comedy relief and a somewhat blatant foreshadowing of Zōēā’s impending fate.
This is actually characteristic of most elf societies on Āen, even ones far less Neolithic than the wild elf tribes of the Velnēs. This attitude is discussed in the third story of Tales of a Visceral Voyager, “Homecoming”:
Sometimes, if the kiss was good enough, the couple would leave the game and find a hammock to share more than just kisses. No one thought anything of it: the adolescence of elves lasted decades—not years as it did for humans. Trying to suppress the sexuality of these younger elves until adulthood would have been terribly cruel. Also, post-pubescent female elves only ovulated about once a year, so even without easily available contraceptive magic, pregnancy was rare. No elven society in memory had ever tried to oppress the sexual appetites of their juveniles. Only consent was strictly enforced. All children were planned and considered an adult elf’s highest responsibility. Beyond that, elf parents tolerated sexual behavior of their near-adult youngsters that would have shocked human parents of almost any society.
Again, thank you for your comment. It’s nice to see that one’s work has not completely dropped from sight.
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Posted by IddlerItaler 1 year ago Report
I read your reply in the forum thread "How do you make light in the pred's stomach?" and it piqued my interest; it was well-written, insightful on anatomy but not realism-elitist. So I checked your profile and gave your first story a go.
Thanks for the lore notes, naturally as an in-universe philosophy it doesn't have to reflect your beliefs nor be painted as in the right.
Makes me wonder still... Would the druids themselves call their worst actions "non-deliberate cruelty" or "seeming cruelty"? What if a veldami turned into a tiger and mauled someone, or they allowed a lost traveler to perish in such a way? I figure that if I continue reading the story, I will find out.
At the same time, that would likely blur the line between sapient and non-sapient by a considerable margin. I'm thinking of a book I read with an elf protagonist who has powers that let him empathize with animals and access their memories; one of his maxims is "Don't eat something that has thoughts" and is vegetarian because of that - though more willing to tolerate some creatures being eaten, like fish, and accepting of hunting when his friends have nothing else to eat.
I see, in my language provvidenza means "the constant action of god exercised over the created world.", and some English dictionaries seemingly accept a definition centered on the acts or care provided.
That's certainly a better reputation to have than "pointy-eared snob". I'm not a big fan of species-wide cultures and attitudes though. Let me explain: the idea that most elven societies would be sexually liberated is certainly appealing and apt for a setting where we want to see fun Adult adventures, but ascribing it solely to the elves' longer lifespans and availability of contracceptives verges too much on determinism for me.
Here's what I most liked about the worldbuilding, besides the waste-form spell - you painted the Shāhūnā as this unique, colourful culture who has to cope with its deadly-yet-beautiful jungle. Giving Zōēā's tribe a name rather than just saying "Here's our girl, she lives in the Wood/Wild Elves Tribe" further helped cement them as their own people, worlds apart from default elves.
Woah.
Though I found Yessanth's remark later dialed back on that, a little: "No doubt the veldami that created the spell did that deliberately. It is a very elvish thing to do; in our long lives we try many odd pleasures." Here "we" presumably refers to the entirety of elvenkind, or maybe her fellow surviving green-witches, but it would fail to describe most elves she's met, as even those raised under her care were not guaranteed the luxury of long-livedness.
The discourse on sexual freedom and abundance of magic also diluted somewhat the direness that was painted before, but I found that a valid compromise - even in a thick deadly jungle, you gotta have some rays of light to lift you up.
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Posted by IvesBentonEaton 1 year ago Report
“Provvidenza”, eh? So your native language is Italian? Your English is excellent, and I say that as a native speaker of English, and a somewhat nit-picking one at that. Your second language—that is, if it is your second language, since I don't know how much of a polyglot you are—is better than many whose first (and only) language is English.
The magic system was lifted entirely from D&D, and some of the elven sub-races were as well, with significant differences. For example, dark elves, or drow, have a highly-regimented, somewhat militaristic culture. They do not, as in standard D&D, typically worship gods of spiders or oozes. (I never understood how a long-lived, graceful folk could stoop to worshipping things so much uglier than they.) Also, to them, “drow” is a racial slur and using that term in front of one is a good way to end up with a cut throat. Yes, they are usually (but not monolithically) lawful evil, but this is because they are very much into racial purity—so much so that half-elves live in fear of their lives.
But I digress. Wild elves had very little detail in their original source, and since I intended “Food Chained” to be the first in a series of stories with Zōēā as the protagonist and the prey, I had to flesh out her own people somewhat; she wasn’t to be just “cardboard prey”.
I also had to have a method for her to survive because (1) while resurrecting a completely digested body is possible in a setting with D&D magic, it is also high level and very expensive magic, and it would strain verisimilitude to give her access to this magic every story, and (2) it allows the prey to experience the entire process of digestion instead of dying in the stomach, usually of suffocation. And if one is going to make a spell to meet these conditions, why not make it pleasurable for the spell recipient? After all, the original kwurdāin spell is a personal range spell, so it can only be cast on the actual spellcaster, although it can be enchanted into a magic item to protect its wearer, as seen in the story. It’s a 4th-level spell so Zōēā wasn’t able to cast it herself until about her fourth story, “The Dragon”.
Later, a wizard learned of the magic and developed an arcane version of the spell, Harnes’ compassionate stomach, with certain significant differences.
But that’s another (unfinished) story.
Eventually, she gives the torque of safe passage that Yessanth gave her to her own daughter, Elsaya, decades later.
Now, regarding your statement:
That’s certainly a better reputation to have than "pointy-eared snob". I'm not a big fan of species-wide cultures and attitudes though. Let me explain: the idea that most elven societies would be sexually liberated is certainly appealing and apt for a setting where we want to see fun Adult adventures, but ascribing it solely to the elves’ longer lifespans and availability of contracceptives verges too much on determinism for me.
Almost all societies develop in manners consistent with the environment in which they develop. Humans developed sexual conventions to deal with the reality of their sexes and sex, even if some of those conventions are unjust and most become outmoded with time. In D&D, elves become physically mature at the same time as humans but aren’t considered fully adult until they reach a century in age. I thought, Really? They are sexually mature at, say, fourteen to sixteen, but not “adult” until 100? Humans have enough trouble repressing the sex drive of other humans during an adolescence just few years long. How in blazes would that be done with elves who have an adolescence of several decades? It can’t be—and, being magically inclined beings with access to cantrip-level birth control spells, it was decided that it wasn’t necessary. To try would just frustrate everyone. So elves establish rules around consent that are ironclad and make the prophylactic magic widely available to let the “youngsters” get it out of their systems.
As for the uniformity of this attitude, given the difficulty of communication in a pre-industrial techology level…well, I encountered this in other ways when working with D&D. One glaring example: in D&D, all druids everywhere know a secret language shared only by them. The language is so secret that a druid who teaches it to a non-druid is no literally longer a druid. (Wow, dudes. How do you deal with someone who uses a tongues spell to speak it?)
But how can that be? Druids can be found in every clime from the frozen north to the hottest deserts and jungles. How could they possibly develop a common language? Magical communication over any real distance is not easy for magic users; the most common form is the sending spell, which is limited to a 25-word message and reply. Druids also have fewer spells for instant transportation compared to, say, wizards.
Then I ran across the druid spell forest voice in the Complete Champion. This 3rd-level spell is lower level than sending and lasts minutes per level rather than one round. As such, it can communicate much better and at a lower level. It requires a Medium (human-sized) or larger plant or tree at each end of the same kind at each end through which the spell works. (I envision a hardy, fast-growing, fruit-bearing plant that is used for this spell most of the time, so that one druid can say to another, “I heard it through the grapevine.”) There’s also another spell, forest eyes, which allows images to be sent in a similar manner. Holographic communications, anyone?
With such spells, it would be possible for druids to communicate with druids almost anywhere, and this would allow—or even require—the development of a common language all druids would know. Moreover, by making it a secret language, it provides a form of signals intelligence, at least against mundane eavesdropping.
This is so incredibly useful that when it was discovered by non-druids, the Ordo ars Magica (Order of Magical Arts, that continent-spanning wizard’s guild) encouraged druids to establish groves near their Order Halls to take advantage of this network, paying druids to handle message traffic for them. This works to the druids’ advantage because while druid magic is cheap, druid magic items are just as expensive as everyone else’s. Also, and perhaps more importantly, it gives the druids leverage: “Don’t cut down that forest or we cut you off from the grid.” A lot of economic traffic goes over the grid now, so that would be a serious threat. (The Order uses their Ban as a similar threat against governments who don’t play nice with them.)
All of this led to my corollary to Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”), which is: “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.” There are a lot of D&D spells that can do things way outside their original intent, and I’m very good and finding and using those things. My stories, therefore, reflect this, as I envision that some characters in the setting are at least as clever as I try to be.
How’s that for a digression? To steer it back to the original subject: elves, being closer to nature, certainly number many druids among their ranks and would make use of that “grapevine”. Any wide-spanning communications network leads to a certain amount of homogenity. Also, similar problems tend to engender similar solutions as less successful solutions are dropped in favor of more successful ones. (Socially, this takes time, but elves have time to burn.) They could try to suppress the sexuality of the younger elves for decades—an effort doomed to failure—or they could learn to live with it and mitigate the worst of it. In general, elven societies chose the latter. What choice did they have, really?
Now look what you made me do. I’ve gone and wall-of-texted again. I’m cutting it off here.
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Posted by IddlerItaler 1 year ago Report
Welp, that's a curveball to my assertion. I was figuring that Yessanth had occasional contact with other subtypes of elves beyond the Velnes but I certainly did not imagine that she had access to an Āen-wide communication network.
Thanks for the praise; I've grown up with the internet so I learned English language while using various sites, and in school the English teacher was tendentially happy with me. A classic case of technology favouring globalization.
And now the druids get to both touch grass AND be on the internet... elves co-opting this magic-technology to establish* a degree of pan-elven identity across the globe makes for a cool explanation for why there's a global elven language in Āen, or a druidic one, even admitting that the end result is still not my cup of tea.
(*or maintain? In case elves first achieved language and then spread out across Āen.)
Environment and biology are factors in how every society develops but I would consider them just a piece of the puzzle. One believes there are rails, and the next moment a new spell comes in - or a new application is discovered for an old one - and it shatters the preconceived notions and logical-sounding assumptions to shape things into an almost-infinite variety of ways, like you've elegantly demonstrated with the "forest voice" spell, or with Zōēā's surprise at the way her predation played out.
Elves in D&D and most fantasy are either cripplingly infertile, bereft of sexual desire for anyone except their life-long marriage partner (Tolkien), or both. But neither of those attributes are particularly thrilling in a story focused on elves - the first can feel like a copout answer meant to limit their species and let the quick-breeding folks take over, the second means the supremacy of a romantic ideal over any eroticism - so kudos for shaking up that foundation.
There are a variety of factors that led to the suppression of sex in the majority of human societies we know - it's a thorny issue lacking a one-size-fits-all answer and I shouldn't demand an author to dive into it completely. I could attempt to imagine how an elven society would fare if it channeled their magic into repressing libido with the same zeal that Āen's society of dark elves represses interracial fracking... but that's neither here nor there.
I'd wager there's a spider-loving druid somewhere who has an explanation for that. Why not ask them? I've heard contacting them is dirt-cheap. Ok, ok, I'll stop the puns... ;)
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