Mucor and the devils

I don't see the need for being parsimonious and embracing ambiguity here. I think the clues are pointing to a specific answer- there were Inhumi on the Whorl from the beginning, meaning there were Inhumi on Urth. Such vampiric creatures are, of course, not on the forestage of the story in BotNS but I think there are hints of them in some sections related to Dorcas and Jolenta. There is a hint of mystery in the discussion of blood bats (including that we see their results but we never quite see them). And there is the vampiric Jahi in Dr. Talos' play. Moreover, the similarities between Inhumi and the Shadow Children from 5HoC suggest to me that these sort of creatures were on Wolfe's mind before and after writing BotNS and thus by inference, during. I certainly agree with Gerry that they may be seen as "fallen spirits". Without this in place I find no purpose for Severian and his flushing of Urth. The Bible implies that the Flood here on Earth was necessary because fallen angels/demons had come down and mated with human women, creating a giant race of Nephilim and all manner of wickedness among humans. Dr. Talos' play contains allusions to all this. I have found this view reinforced by some incidents in the Long Sun series. When inhumi are brought to Urth and convert to true human form, they show some interest in finding out what it is like to eat our sort of food. But mostly they have an intense desire to copulate with people as much as possible. (to the point that a human-inhumi war is instigated when one is denied the opportunity to copulate). The theme of extremely large size as a pre-requisite to (false) godhood is found throughout the Sun series.

From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com> T>>Andrew Mason: Next, what are devils? The 'devils' about which Pike warned Silk are

I don't see any reason at all to suppose this.

Vampires are a staple of mythology, and there are multiple types. I suspect the number of large-scale sf/fantasy works that contain some kind of vampire is probably greater than the number that do not. There is even a real creature on Earth, the vampire bat. On Urth, the alzabo has vampiric aspects, and it is not related to the inhumi. The inhumi come from Green, at hot jungle planet, and would be uncomfortable on Urth. And they would have been discovered at some time. And how would they have gotten there? Really, this seems to me a bizarre stretch! Devils are not vampires. They don't suck blood. They may I suppose disguise themselves as people, but they are more commonly known for possession - which is also Mucor's best-known trick.

What similarites? The Shadow Children are humans! And they don't suck blood or take the shapes of others. The aborigines take on human shape, but they don't suck blood. There is one curious resemblance between the peoples of 5HoC and BotSS that I have noticed. In both cases, the two species working together (Shadow Children and aborigines in 5HoC, and humans and inhumi in BotSS) gain psychic powers that neither has separately, although the actual powers gained differ greatly between the two cases.

Come now - even if the flooding of Urth is essential rather than a regrettable side effect of curing the Sun, Urth has monsters and wickedness enough without the need to import inhumi!

I don't what you're saying about large size - the inhumi are smaller than humans. Coming back to Mucor, I was struck last night by an anomaly (fortunately, I was not injured). Mucor sends out her spirit and possesses bodies, usually but not always human. But she calls Quetzal "the man who isn't there", My first impression was that she could see (and supersede) spirits. But inhumi have human-appearing spirits! Why do they not look normal to Mucor? Perhaps she sees bodies rather than spirits, and Quetzal lacks a human body. But she still notices him. So Mucor must be able somehow to see body and spirit at once when on her travels. - Gerry Quinn

Well, in Wolfe's novels vampires are very, very common. Soldier of Sidon, The Wizard Knight, and Long/Short Sun. Significantly, Typhonians were a kind of vampire (see Montegue Summers), and they are signified by red hair (Rose, Chenille who dyes it red, and Silk whose beard is reddish blonde).

Exactly. In Quetzal's case, she sees the man (spirit), but no human body. The Man is not there. Only the animal is there. ᚹ

There's a continuum - plenty of fearsome spirits accept blood when offered and some seek it out.

The Shadow Children are fairly bitey. We don't know what is involved with abo shape changing, if any, because IIRC there are no accounts of it being witnessed. "Shape-shifed abos" could just as easily be people suffering impaired motor skills from brain lesions inflicted on them by something in the Shadow Children's saliva.