Subject: (urth) Mora, Fave, and Mucor: the dream team

From: Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:24:25 +0000

In RttW, Silk has a dream about driving in a carriage with Scylla, Mora, and
Fava. Abruptly, Fava turns into a painted doll with Chenille's dagger
between its ribs. Right after that Mora turns into Hyacinth. After this
dream, Silk says that he knows who the doll in Hide's dream was (RttW 5, p.
94 TOR).

Who was the doll? The key is in NtLS, because Chenille stabbed Orpine with
her "burning cat-tail" dagger when Orpine was possessed by Mucor. I believe
that the doll in both dreams is Mucor.

I believe Mucor was involved in all the Fava/Mora posessions. It looks like
a living being is required as a conductor to allow a dead person's spirit to
astral-project or enter dreams. For example, Silk said that if Oreb died the
astral projection of Scylla would disappear. Mucor was the conductor for
Fava. Other examples are Mora/Hyacinth and Silk/Horn.

Here is my reconstruction:

1) After Fava died from exposure during the astral projection to Green, her
ghost was found by Mucor (who was astral projecting to check up on
Silk/Horn).

2) With Mucor's help, Fava entered the dreams of her friend Mora.

3) From Mucor, Fava and Mora learned how to possess people. From Fava, Mucor
learned to disguise her skelatal astral form as a painted doll (inhumi are
often described as looking this way).

4) The three located Silk and Hide on the road and engaged Hide in a dream
of "Hide"-and-seek.(RttW 1).

5) In Aanvagen's house, Silk had the dream of Scylla, Mora, Fava, the doll
Mucor, and Hyacinth.

6) Oreb was absent at the time, so the dream Scylla was probably Aanvagen.
She must have been possessed before she left the Whorl, since there are no
working windows or glasses on Blue. Her husband wanted to talk to Horn when
she was absent, claiming she was unintelligent, but actually she seemed to
be the brains of the couple. He was probably afraid of her and sought escape
in overeating. Aanvagen used the word "for" more frequently than other Dorp
characters. ("'For not you say", RttW 7, p. 154). Silk feels sorry for
Beroep (RttW 17, p. 339).

7) During the stagecoach dream, Mora and Fava pestered Horn with questions
about Vadsig, like her hair color and where the kitchen was. They left his
dream to find Vadsig. When they did, they left behind Mucor and Hyacinth.
Mora probably brought the ghost of Hyacinth along for the ride to see Silk
one last time.

8) At the preliminary hearing Mora and Fava possessed Vadsig. They had her
say something in non-Dorp syntax and they allowed her to escape her gag
twice. (RttW 7).

9) After the hearing Horn questioned Vadsig and confirmed the possession.
They giggled when he says something about Mucor, because Mucor was there
too. (RttW 9).

10) Vadsig probably gained something from these possessions. Early on, she
was illiterate (RttW 5, pp. 99-100). Later, Hoof expected that she would be
able to fix up his writing (RttW 17, p. 370). Mora's literacy and Fava's
storytelling skill seem to have rubbed off on her. Probably she is the one
responsible for the great literary style of the third-person passages in
RttW, since they seem beyond the capacity of Hoof, Hide, and Daisy.

11) Vadsig may also have gained leadership skills from Mora and Fava. Horn
credits her with organizing the women of the Dorp rebellion (RttW 11, p.
222).

12) Ghosts seem to be people who have not yet fully realized they are dead
(RttW 1, p. 16). They had to open Scylla's coffin and let her see her bones
before she could let go. Horn seems to be in the same condition as he haunts
Silk's body. I believe the presence of the Mother reinforced Seawrack's
singing (unheard by Hoof). One phrase of her song was "...the corpse I say
you are." The message finally gets through to Horn and he lets go.

13) One more unexplained astral projection is Auk in Dorp. We saw Auk as a
slave on Green (IGJ 13, p. 193 TOR). He was captured by Sinew's village
along with Chenille (IGJ 24, p. 366). Horn no doubt persuaded the village to
set them free, and Auk applied his Pas-given tech skills to finish repairing
the lander. Auk and Chenille returned to Blue. Auk probably picked up basic
astral projection by watching Horn on Green, since he can figure out how
anything he sees works. Using that, he and Chenille followed Horn to Dorp.
Chenille got drunk and was attacked by the hungry Jahlee. Auk, angry over
this, tried to talk to "Patera" but was rebuffed. (RttW 7, p. 153).  His
skills were probably not up to the level to let him keep trying.

14) I don't think the presence of an inhumi, or even a proto-inhumi staff is
necessary for astral projection. Horn did it before he had one (from the pit
to Nettle), and Auk seems to have done it alone. Neighborly help may have
been involved.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20080801/f974b7b3/attachment.htm>