Reply: Item #8204225 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#
Vizcacha (!wow!),
I agree with you re: psychic fragments contaminating gods and mortals alike. This is one vector I can see that allows lovey-dovey Kypris to get the ninja training we expect from Sphigx--they fought at some time in the past, like girls do sometimes (link to Hyacinth and Chenille), and Kypris learned the same tricks that Scylla has, for instance. All leading back (imho) to Severian's discussion with Ultan about holograms; and the way that Tzadkiel can fragment and recombine.
Since Pas was the only one of the human monsters to take a god name, he evolved towards becoming like that god. The others evolved along their monster names.
Re: alga's technicians turning off the theophanies. While I agree with your sentiment about there being some kind of physical (physics related) relationship between human sacrifice and theophanies, alga has a very strong case here. Quetzal says,
"Before Kypris manifested here on Scylsday, the Windows of our city
had been empty for decades. I can't take credit for that, it wasn't
my doing. But I've done everything in my power to prevent theophanies. It hasn't been much, but I've done what I could. I proscribed human sacrifice, and got it made law, for one thing. I admit I'm proud of that" (III, ch. 4, 147).
So alga appears to be correct-- a non-Quetzal agency did something that stopped the gods from coming around. But Quetzal also seems to say that human sacrifice is one of the factors that will awaken the sleeping gods, or contribute to theophanies.
Thus both sides are correct, yet the mystery remains: who put the
gods to sleep? (Gee, maybe it had to do with the switch to card currency? Hadn't thought of that before. The Lemuroid conspirators?)
Jerboa sacrificed a child? I'll have to look into that!
=mantis=
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