Subject: (urth) Mucor and devils

From: Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:08:28 +0000

First, a very happy feast of St Catherine to you all!

OK, here are the first of the puzzles I have come up with in my
reading of _Long Sun_. First, what exactly are Mucor's powers? She
says she can 'send forth her spirit', which makes it sound as if her
body stays put while her spirit goes around possessing people (or, on
a couple of occasions, just appearing). But when Silk enters her room,
he cannot find her, until she materialises later, which suggests her
body travels as well.

Next, what are devils? The 'devils' about which Pike warned Silk are
clearly inhumi. But as I understand it, inhumi were not present on the
Whorl from the start, so what are the devils mentioned in the
Chrasmologic writings? Of course, they may not really be anything -
just figures of myth which the compilers of the Writings thought it
would be nice to include. (Does anyone know if the passage Silk reads
during the exorcism has a definite source?) On the other hand, there's
a reference at one point to devils getting into Mainframe, which
suggests something more specific.

---

From: Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie>
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:22:14 +0000

From: "Andrew Mason" <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>

> First, a very happy feast of St Catherine to you all!

And to you too!

> he cannot find her, until she materialises later, which suggests her

Good question... her powers do not appear to be completely consistent.  At 
other times she definitely left her body behind when possessing people, e.g. 
getting information about the Fliers.  Her apparent invisibility in her room 
seems anomalous.  When she sends out her spirit, she seems to be either 
flying around freely, or possessing people or animals, or occasionally 
popping up inside a mirror - it is hard to see what she would do with a body 
on such occasions.

> suggests something more specific.

I interpret them as fallen spirits of some sort.  I don't think they 
necessarily refer to any specific kind of being.

- Gerry Quinn

---

From: Jane Delawney <jane_delawney at sky.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:36:09 +0000

Monkeying with the message header for the customary gmail related 
reason, sorry about that.

>> First, a very happy feast of St Catherine to you all!
And to all listers everywhere on the feast of our Patroness. :)

>> reading of _Long Sun_. First, what exactly are Mucor's powers?
(snippage)
>
> Good question... her powers do not appear to be completely 
> consistent.  At other times she definitely left her body behind when 
> possessing people, e.g. getting information about the Fliers.  Her 
> apparent invisibility in her room seems anomalous.  When she sends out 
> her spirit, she seems to be either flying around freely, or possessing 
> people or animals, or occasionally popping up inside a mirror - it is 
> hard to see what she would do with a body on such occasions.
I note that on their first acquaintance Mucor convinces Pr. Silk that 
*her window (ie. physical window to her room) has to be open* in order 
for her to send forth her 'spirit'. Silk is convinced of this at the 
time. The parallel between Mucor's physically open window and the 'gods' 
' Sacred Windows only becomes apparent some time later.
>> Whorl from the start
Not clear to me. We do not get any details about the exposure of Pr. 
Quetzal as an inhumu until some time within BOTSS when Silk/Horn gets to 
remember details of the combat under Viron. We learn relatively early in 
BOTLS that there is definitely something ... odd shall we say ... about 
Quetzal, but it's not spelled out for a good long while.

And I don't recall any specific information regarding when Quetzal (and 
any others of his kind) may have infiltrated the Whorl. When BOTLS 
begins, Quetzal has been the man in charge for quite a few years.

>
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