# Tartaros Rex *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 16 Feb 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Alice Turner *16 Feb 1997, 14:43* Gosh, we're all getting so nostalgic and philosophical. I'll bite. I started with Oz myself at a young age, moved on to Kipling (another Wolfe fave). SF: C. Smith and Vance (Vance seems to be universal here). Never cared much for Niven and the hard-boys, but then I'm a gril. Interesting though---in nearly any mini-survey of this kind someone will wax nostalgic about the Heinlein juveniles, and nobody has here. Does that mean that the Wolfe pack had a somewhat different juvenile taste from the majority? Hurray for us! But back to the squabbling that I consider the essence of this group. > So based on the Pas no-show theophany, as well as the sudden and > increasing powers of Tartaros toward the end, you divine that the > rightful and dutiful son has ascended the throne of the Whorl? (Pas > in Saturn-like retirement?) Good job! I like it. Thank you, my dear mantis. Let me recap. The first Pas viewing is reported by Q as a sight of Pas's "ghost." Auk hears "ghost" at the second theophany (Incus takes Pas at face value, but he would, wouldn't he?). I'm using "puppet" as a stronger synonym. At the presumable third Pas theophany, there is no lightshow at all as the Jerboa "piece of Pas" is transferrred to Auk--via Tartaros alone, I'm convinced. At the fourth, comely Kypris waggles Pas as Miss Piggy might a temporarily unmanned Kermit. I wouldn't say that Pas is exactly Saturn-like, nor do I think Tartaros is dutiful--instead, he seems, like Q to be on the side of the humans and thus a traitor to his kind. But, yes, I do think he is in sole charge of Mainframe at the end, with kooky Kypris as a sort of ally. (Sort of, because she probably would feel safer with Big Daddy--she's probably about as loyal to Tartaros as Hy is to Silk.) One more explanation: I'm of the opinion that the Whorl is a supply ship, that the Cargo, which consists of the dregs of Urth society, was sold to the inhumi by Pas/Typhon as a food supply. Q was in effect a "shepherd," but over time he turned into something of a Good Shepherd, against his own nature. I don't expect everyone to agree however (continued butting up against mantis has made me philosophical). -alga- Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com ---