Subject: (urth) Urth Digest, Vol 78, Issue 46

From: Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 21:43:21 +0000

James Wynn wrote:

> I don't think it is likely Silk would ever have lived his life as a
> humble augur. Assuming Silk is the one Tussah was thinking of when he
> said "my son shall be Calde after me", he new that his abilities would
> carry him to the top wherever he was placed.

Was Tussah expecting to die just when he did? If not, perhaps he
intended to do more to bring Silk to power. Still, perhaps he would
have become prolocutor. Quetzal shows you can do that without a
specific background.

But the Outsider is important. Silk suddenly comes to prominence
immediately after his enlightenment, and while it may be that Quetzal,
and the Trivigauntis, are giving pushes to this movement, it's
happening before they could have become involved; people are standing
round listening, and kneeilng in the street for a blessing, while he
is talking to Blood right at the beginnng.

> It is unlikely that Silk was originally the only one with gifts of his
> sort. However, he might have been the last. Or there might be others in
> plain sight. They would undoubtably be persons in positions of
> leadership--leadership gained without certification or struggle.

Yes. I've sometimes wondered if Siyuf is one.

. It's implied that the embryos were granted disparate abilities,
> but it is hard to imagine that anyone would have thought only one with
> Silk's would be necessary.

Well, I agree, but that's because I think that while Silk is special,
he isn't super-special - he's not (intended to be) a figure of
Whorlwide significance. I would think he is there to provide a leader
for Viron (or the Vironese colony), and there would be similar people
in other cities. Those who think Silk always had a special destiny,
either as vehicle or as heir, would see things differently

 By the the time of the evacuation, the human
> embryos had all been lost. Perhaps, they were all located beneath Viron
> because it was the Cargo most like the Commonwealth.

I think that if there were one store of embryos for the entire Whorl,
one would expect it to be at Mainframe. I also think it's significant
that the embryos were on the lander; this suggests they were meant to
be used after the landing 9as the animal embryos were), to provide
people with special ability in the second generation, which may be
when the real hardships of colony life are likely to kick in.

>> ---------------
And some he
> ? ?sent as frozen embryos, the products of carefully controlled matings
> ? ?in his workshops."
> ? ?RttW, Chap 6
>
> For those who say Silk was a test tube baby and not a clone, here is
> your confirmation.

Thanks! And also (unless 'matings' is taken very literally) not an
embryo produced the normal way and then harvested - at least, not the
child of people who were lovers in ordinary life.