EQ Readthrough: Issue 4, Wolfsong

[elf]

Issue 4: Wolfsong
Questions for this issue:

• How often do you think they hold a howl and exchange stories?
• Could they have used a different method to take out Madcoil?
• What new insights do you think Leetah had about the wolfriders?

Main OQR post with prompt questions
Note: These aren't mandatory questions; they're meta prompts. If you don't care for any of them, or want to tangent from them to some other topic, that's fine too.

(Side Note: Sorry sorry sorry. The week got busy for me. Apparently, I should set up some kind of auto-reminder email or something like that. I will post the next readthrough post on Monday, not tomorrow, to give this one a bit of time.)

Comments

[elf]

       

Hmm. My icon choices say this hasn't been a week spent in my Happy Place.

Occasionally, I consider researching the pic of the wolfriders just before they find Madcoil, and trying to identify every elf on the page. (Pg 14, if that helps.) I believe the one holding Skywise's hand has been ID'd as Foxfur, but I've no idea who's talking with One-Eye. (And is that One-Eye's father? Wasn't he given a name in one of the books?) Dunno who's talking with Nightfall and Clearbrook, but I suppose it could be Rainsong even though she's not wearing anything I've ever seen Rainsong in. She is wearing the same style hat as Rain, and that seems to be common theme in families. There's also a young elf talking with Redlance, who could maybe-kinda be Dart (except I expect that's Moonshade holding baby Dart in the shadow of the tree).

If the unknown woman is Rainsong, and the kid is not Dart, then Madcoil killed at least seven of the tribe; more, if there are other elves not shown here. (And there are. Woodlock and Newsong for sure, even if Wing hasn't been born yet.) Seven, including the chief, is a lot to lose from a tribe of about 23.

Hmmm. How would it have been different, if, say, Joyleaf survived and Bearclaw died? I don't get the impression that she would be (or want to be) chief. Would Cutter have still taken over? How did the previous chiefs deal with taking charge of their own parents?

::ponder ponder::

Oh, and um... I want Leetah's dress. Only in teal, or purple. I also want to know WTF it's made out of. The clothing styles in Sorrow's End are a fascinating mix of pseudo-Apache and Medievalesque Fantasy, which look lovely until you try to figure out where they come from and how they wound up developing those styles together.

[anke]

That's definitely Rainsong talking to Nightfall and Clearbrook. She's wearing her usual hat, and she's pregnant with Newstar. The one talking to Redlance is her lifemate Woodlock (compare with the panel in the first issue where the troll is closing the door to the tunnels. Not only same hair, but same waistcoat-thingy, same necklace...)

The guy with the red hood is called Longbranch, and the woman One-Eye is talking to is Brownberry. If I remember correctly, Longbranch is One-Eye's brother, and Longbranch and Brownberry are the parents of Nightfall.

And, yeah, Foxfur with Skywise.

If you want to see more of the tribe before Madcoil's attack, you could read Wolfrider. :)

[eldriwolf]

---Both Chiefs! I got the Impression that they were very much
'alpha pair'. That Joyleaf was co-chief with Bearclaw.

Could just be me projecting wolf-lore onto the tribe though....

[mab_browne]

I saw Joyleaf as fulfilling a similar function for Bearclaw as Skywise does for Cutter - sort of a reality check, only more so. :-)

[elf]

Co-chief, yes... but I don't think she'd've been chief on her own. She might've led the tribe through the rest of Madcoil's attack, but I doubt she'd've kept the job afterwards.

[eldriwolf]

Oh, Probably not---they were Partners/lifemates...

I suspect elves, for whatever reason, do not 'rebond' as often as wolves. even Bearclaw looked like he was not planning on running the tribe alone for very long...


*Sometimes* an alpha wolf who has lost a partner takes a new mate, often they just 'step down' and a new pair takes over... *Very* rarely do they try and lead the pack alone....

[blnchflr]

I'm not an icon maker, but EQ really incites one to make them, don't they?!

Oh, and um... I want Leetah's dress.
I was just thinking that! Except I was also thinking I needed to look more like her to be able to pull it off :oD

[mab_browne]

I recall some discussion earlier about how the female Wolfriders weren't so active, and I believe that it was Wendy Pini referencing this particular event, which must have been tremendously traumatic, even allowing for the Wolfrider's resiliency. The Wolfriders fully understand the way that reproduction works and if you read the extended editions, before he died Rain was experimenting with trying to 'force' children outside of recognition. Plus I imagine that WaRP were still working out some of the finer nuances of the elfin society as they got into their stride.

[ciaan]

In the issue of, is it Hidden Years? that tells the story of Skywise's birth, his mother was captured by humans when she was pregnant and the tribe barely got the baby back. During that story Bearclaw says that he will never again allow his females to fight against humans. So they hunt and fight other things, as we see with Madcoil and the zwoots and so on, but they don't go against humans, such as when they rescue Redlance. Also, that means that when they raid the Sun Village, they are treating them as humans. Of course, that story was published ages after the original quest, so it may not have been what WaRP were thinking in 1979, but still.

[blnchflr]

The best thing about this issue was seeing that the Wolfriders have had women chiefs - 5 out of the 10, right? That's awesome :o)

Oh, and I like that Leetah is "many times" Cutter's elder!

(I still haven't worked out how lifespans work in EQ - I understand the Woldriders don't get as old as elves can/the Sunfolk seem to achieve at least now and then?)

[elf]

The EQ Role-Playing Game talked about ages. During the original quest, Cutter is about 50 years old--and Leetah is over 600. Wolfriders don't start getting facial hair until they're over 500.

The Blue Mountain crowd are about 10,000 years old. Eeeeep. No wonder they've got ennui and weird mental problems.

[blnchflr]

And they breed so slowly, still - no wonder they protect the womenfolk!