Osterlings

David Duffy · 08 Dec 2005, 10:50 · from 2005-December.txt.gz

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From: David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 20:50:58 +1000 (EST)
Subject: (urth) Osterlings
In-Reply-To: <a06230906bfbcc3cb8b95@[69.85.166.162]>
References: <a06230906bfbcc3cb8b95@[69.85.166.162]>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0512082034430.26939 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>

On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Dan Rabin wrote:

> All the discussion of ingestion of blood reminds me that nobody is
> mentioning the Osterlings, who seem to have an inhumu-like motivation
> for their raids.  Would anybody care to speculate as to how the
> dietary habits of the Osterlings figure into the grand scheme?
>
>    -- Dan Rabin

Probably for the same reason as historical anthropophagy, to get
spiritual/magical power.  Traditionally, you want to eat the bravest of
your enemies, IIRC.  Coming back to the Aelf, they are magical and perform
magic which humans don't, so even though they are lower, consuming their
blood presumably has practical advantages.  Ordinary wizards need the aid
of "lower" elementals to do work, as Able does in the first half of the
story.  In _Castleview_ and here, Faery is conflated with death, so the
Aelf want blood to become alive.

David Duffy.

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