"Seen the ELephant"

[JeffBag]

In my Romani campaign, Cotta has a trait that says "Seen the Elephant", but the description describes his experience in having taken part in over 25 battles. Actually, he has also seen Indian elephants after getting kicked out of Ambrakia by the Epierotes.

Therefore, I am wondering if this is a bug, or wherether "seen the elephant" is merely a metaphor for being battle grizzled.

Also, the mercenary Frameharjoz have the Harkabo-z skin rather than the purple shirted and cloaked Frameharjoz as seen on the unit card. Those frameharjoz were hired near the town north of Patavium, across the Alps

[CountArach]

It is meant that he is Grizzled. i don't know where it came from, but I had an Epirote guy with the same thing, and he never used Elephants (Too expensive).

[Orb]

Yes, my Armenians have frequently acquired this trait through continued battles against huge hosts of Greeks, Seleucids and Ptolemies. It's a metaphor, and I like it.

[Comrade Alexeo]

As I recall from Centennial by James Michener, when settlers were moving across the American West, there was a eventually a point where some would turn back. Those who did were described as "having seen the elephant."

According to the "tradition," those who truly lacked the heart to go west would suddenly and randomly see the "image" of an elephant - in a rock formation, or in the clouds - where no one else did and then decide that is was an omen, that they should go back.

It certainly seems possible to me that the expression "seen the elephant" marked the time when some decided to go forward and some decided to go back, as seems to be the case here (he "saw the elephant" but kept on going), and in the American West it was misinterpreted as only applying to those who turned back.

[Southern Hunter]

I always thought of it as an American Civil War expression, and largely, it is. This page explores some possible origins

http://wesclark.com/jw/elephant.html

Do you get the trait after first combat, or after many, or after much travel?

It is an odd expression for an ancient game, unless it actually does refer to seeing elephants...which would be a genuinely handy thing to have done, should one ever have to fight them again.

[Reverend Joe]

From the above page:

It is likely, however, that the expression dates from well before this time. In the 3rd Century B.C., Alexander the Great's Macedonian warriors defeated the elephant- mounted army of King Porus in the Indus valley. Surely these men brought memories of the strange beasts back to their hearthsides to thrill and excite their families. Considering the remarkable distance traveled by this army and its exotic exploits, it may be that "seeing the elephant" became synonymous with journeys and experiences in strange and far-off places.

Seems the most plausible origin to me.