Dan'l asks:
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are there any human-scale cacogens on Urth who are not Hierish?
and later says:
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Heh. The question was bait and I got switched! I guess I was trying to see if, for example, anyone >would suggest the alzabo as a cacogen: certainly, a case can be made.
Maybe, since it is alien and has a personality(s), though stolen. Do we want to stretch the cacogen definition to include the salamander? The slug? The avern? These are somewhat lacking in personality. And since cacogen is defined as a social class, we expect its members to be persons.
Anyway cacogens are hated on Urth (hm, why? lol) and stay out of sight. But Tzadkiel's ship is a more pluralisitc, multi-race society and might be a better place to search them out.
Then Dan'l asks:
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What human-scale "therians" can you point to?
Jeff Wilson answers:
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The various human-animal hybrids serving the autarch, from the mastiff men in the coach full of >gold, to the anpiels, and perhaps even the ape-men in the mine at Saltus.
We can add Thecla's cat nurses, the jiber bear man and others to this list. But I don't think it is on the mark. A therian is a shamanistic, shapeshifting person associated with a certain animal. These creatures seem permanently fixed in their human/animal form. Say, what Commonwealth cult of biotechnologists could be mass-producing these genetic hybrids?
Are the megatherians (i.e. Abaia, Erebus et al.) human or alien? I think there is evidence pointing both ways. The undines are in human form and so if they are the daughters of Abaia it suggests he has a human origin. Therefore, if undines are kilotherians and Baldanders is a dekatherian then perhaps they all originate on urth.
Some evidence for their alien origin exists in a string of oddly related facts:
1. Jonas tells the story of a woman who throws a handful of black beans, brought from the stars, into the ocean, which grow into monsters. 2. beans are seeds 3. Agilus calls the avern seed a stone. 4. We hear, over and over before the avern duel, the name Cadroe of the 17 stones. 5. There are 17 megatherians. (More evidence for alien origin below)
But Dan'l wants to know about human-sized therians. I submit The Cumaean, Father Inire and Hethor as shapeshifters associated with a certain animal- snake, monkey and (maybe) slug respectively. Are they hieros? The text says yes to the Cumaean. I'll say Father Inire is a probable yes and Hethor rates a formerly yes.
The shape shifting and the short, old, twisted appearance of all three combined with the fact that sometimes their eyes are revealed to be shining leads me to think they originate from Sainte Anne. There is a strong shamanistic component to the magic of the abos/shadow children. Moreover this is only one of a number of connections to 5th Head I see in BotNS.
-bsharp