trolls and animal sacrifice

This one coccured to me recently when Jimar killed a snake infront of Jhaga ( a Hethiss worshipper) at the Keel and Jhaga, ICly, took it rather badly.

How do the trolls deal with the fact that they now tend to sacrifice animals to the Loa rather than sentient beings when the primal Loa are represented by animals themselves?

Would they all be happy to sacrifice any animal that isn't related to their own chosen Loa?

How offended should a devotee of Shirvalla be about having to kill tigers in the early quests in Sen'jin?

you get the idea so...your thoughts?

I think it's much up to the the individuals interpretion of eir religion. Troll religion being something that takes the form of a rather personal bond to the gods, I think it can differ greatly.

But my personal view would be that while a god or goddess chooses to show themselves in the form of an animal, or as a troll with animal features, that doesn't mean they actually -are- the animal. The animal is a symbol for the traits that the loa possess or encourages, and the symbolic animal is to make it easier to understand for us mortals. They are gods, after all, and could very well show themselves in whatever form they choose to, but the symbol makes them easier to deal with.

I agree with Ryleen: the gods are only represented in the form of their chosen animal, but aren't the animals themselves. Although I can pretty much imagine the gods having a part of their spirit in their chosen animal, like in totemic religions.

Mentioning totemic religions: they usually worship animals that are hunted regularly. When, for example, a Native American hunter killed a bear, he apologized the Bear Spirit for causing him pain, and thanked him for lending him his fur and meat. I think this is the way you can deal with the Sen'jin tiger quest, as you are hunting them for their fur, to make blankets, as far as I remember.

Also, I think trolls did sacrifice animals before, when humanoid sacrifice was still accepted. Maybe they even sacrificed their chosen animals to the Primal Loa!

It is also interesting to see what kind of animals are worshipped by the trolls.

Serpents are arguably the most sacred animals: four of the Loa - Hethiss, Sseratus, Ula-tek and Dambala - are represented in snake form.
Also, two gods - Quetz'lun and Hakkar - take the form of a snake-like flying creature, a wind serpent. Note that Ula-tek and Hakkar both hold a dominant role in the forest and jungle troll pantheon, respectively; and that Dambala is not a primal god, but one of the Shadow Hunter loa - the only one of those that takes an animal form.
Other flying creatures include Akil'zon the Eagle, Hir'eek the Bat and Jan'alai the Dragonhawk - the last one is especially similar to wind serpents, being a winged, footless animal.
Among mammals, big cats are the most popular forms for the Loa - Shirvallah, Bethekk, Kimbul, Halazzi and Har'koa all take the form of the local felines - tigers, panthers, lynxes and snow leopards. Strangely enough, both Shirvallah and Kimbul are tiger gods - perhaps they are the same god under a different name (the same is suggested about Hethiss and Ula-tek).
Bears are also worshipped - Nalorakk by the forest trolls, and Rhunok by the ice trolls. Jungle trolls don't have an ursine deity, as no bears live in the jungle.
Only the ice trolls worship the large herbivores - Mam'toth the Mammoth and Akali the Rhinoceros - most likely because of the lack of such creatures in the Amani and Gurubashi territories (although the RPG mentions elephants living in the Eastern Kingdoms).
Finally, Shadra the Spider is unique among the Loa in having the form of a giant arthropod. However, she is the only god worshipped by both the jungle and the forest trolls under the same name.
Strangely enough, there are no Loa mentioned in the lore that take the form of raptors, wolves or gorillas, although these beasts all live in areas populated by trolls, and are powerful enough to represent primal strength.