Subject: (whorl) About the secret of the inhumi, again (RTTW spoilers)

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 14:52:57 +0000

In an earlier post, I pointed out this (in somewhat different words): 

In _Return to the Whorl_, Jahlee tells Nettle a secret about the inhumi,
which, because of the structure of the story, we are led to believe is
*the* secret which has been sketched out in the first two volumes. The only
detail new to her revelation is that it is the children of the inhumi who
gain intelligence from the blood rather than the predators themselves. 

A. Am I correct that this detail was not present in any of the earlier open
discussions of the secret? 

B. If I am correct, it seems to me that this detail is supposed to be a
major revelation about the nature of the secret, and key to understanding
how the humans on Blue and Green could fight the inhumi. But I keep failing
to see how this detail transforms what we knew into "a weapon too big to
wield". 

What am I missing?

Any responses welcome. 
-- 
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 09:49:17 +0000

> discussions of the secret?

I believe so.  I don't recall it, in any case (though iirc a couple of
passages can be seen in retrospect to hint at it); nor do I recall any of
our discussions of the secret mentioning it.

> to see how this detail transforms what we knew into "a weapon too big to

Whatever you're missing, I am too.  The only thing I can think of is that
perhaps it would be enough to keep inhumi about to spawn from drinking human
blood, rather than all inhumi; but I don't see how this knowledge could be
used in practice.

> Any responses welcome.

I'm afraid mine wasn't too helpful.

--Adam

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 21:59:08 +0000

> to see how this detail transforms what we knew into "a weapon too big to

Since my first response, one potentiality has occurred to me.  Assuming that
there are not enough humans on Green to maintain the population of
intelligent inhumi, the Secret implies that to have intelligent offspring,
most female inhumi must first go to Blue, and then return to Green to spawn.
So if it were somehow possible to prevent inhumi returning to Green, the
population of intelligent inhumi would be set on a declining course.  But I
don't see how this would be possible, any more than stopping the inhumi from
coming to Blue.

--Adam

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 09:07:02 +0000

on 4/24/01 8:29 AM, Spectacled Bear at spectacled.bear at pobox.com wrote:

> Have a look around August 2000 in the archives.
> Adam, you drew attention there to the Neighbour who takes Horn to the
> sewer saying that the Neighbours wanted to wake humans up, not to their
> danger but to their safety. Horn only understands this after Krait tells
> him the Secret, though it doesn't appear that the Neighbour is talking
> about that directly, but about some other implication of the sewer. No
> idea what, though.

I actually think I know this now (it just came to me).  There were thousands
of human corpses in the sewer, all drained of blood.  In combination with
the Secret, this indicates the tremendous amount of human blood the inhumi
need.  If the supply on Blue is cut off, they will have to consume their
slaves at a greater rate than they can reproduce or be replaced.

The fact that the inhumi do have a temporary "cushion" on Green indicates
that it's not necessary to provide 100% protection on Blue, just to reduce
the supply greatly.  So my earlier concerns about the impossibility of
protecting everyone are less applicable, though even providing 90%
protection would still be a major task.

--Adam