Trouble in Paradise
Those are the basic facts of life in Geltvelt, and it would appear to be, as you have doubtless remarked, a most admirable and idyllic civil society. One can hardly imagine a more ideal civilization than this, with the wonderful Trolls collecting their trolltolls and enjoying the luxurious lives that their eminence requires, while the Elves stay modestly out of sight contentedly producing all the Manna that the Trolls need through the diligent application of their shveice. Unfortunately things are not quite that simple. The difficulty arose because of the Bad Elves. These evil creatures, always anxious to destroy what is good and create chaos out of harmony, do their wicked work by spreading discontent among the Elves.
The Trolls, beneficent creatures that they are, are generally very kind and tolerant toward their Elves, even to excess. They often like to say “I have absolutely nothing in the world against an Elf, in his place.” But when the Elves become uppitty the Trolls are simply forced, much against their natures, to resort to harsh measures. However, because of their kind-heartedness (and of course the fact that the Elves vastly outnumber them) the Trolls prefer to avoid violence and brutality and rely instead on subtler methods of keeping the Elves in line. To this end they have evolved a truly amazing and wonderful system to keep the Elves contentedly in their place with only the minimum number of public executions and floggings. It is a wonderful lesson in maintaining public order, one that could profitably be emulated by less fortunate societies. To understand this magnificent if somewhat complex system it would be helpful to know just a little about Geltvelt history.
