Subject: (whorl) The Secret: a new theory

From: Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 10:50:06 +0000

Following recent discussions of the Secret of the
Inhumi, including reactions to my own theorisings, I’d
like to propose a new and more comprehensive
hypothesis as to what the Secret really is, and how,
as many people have reasonably questioned, knowledge
of it can be used as an offensive weapon against the
inhumi.

The resolution to the problem, I now argue, is another
much-questioned feature of TBSS’s plot: astral travel.
Why can Horn travel astrally when in the company of an
inhumu? Surely because the Neighbors bestowed a
strictly passive astral travel capability on the
inhumi (we know that when the Neighbors left Blue for
parts unknown, they took inhumi with them; so the
inhumi must be able to travel astrally WHEN WITH
Neighbors; Horn has the Neighbors’ favour, shares some
of their power, and so can travel astrally when the
inhumi component of the partnership is available.) So:
if the humans of Blue behave benevolently towards each
other, they will retain the Neighbors’ favour; when
they have inhumi captive, they will thus be able to
travel at will to Green; they now know how and where
the inhumi breed; and so they will be able to
annihilate the following generations of inhumi in the
cradle. That is how the Secret can be used immediately
and aggressively, as Horn demonstrated in attacking
the City of the Inhumi in IGJ; safeguarding the poor
and helpless from the inhumi is also important, but is
a secondary and defensive weapon.

If we accept this, the presence of astral travel in
TBSS acquires justification; and a further point comes
to mind: an explanation of why the Gaonese bury the
inhumi instead of killing them outright. Practically,
the Gaonese are worshippers of Echidna, the reptilian
Goddess who carries snakes in her hands; the inhumi
are snakelike; therefore, just as the Gaonese have a
taboo against killing cattle, they cannot kill inhumi,
only imprison them. However, Wolfe is making another
point here, one very instructive as to how the Secret
should be used: humans should keep captive inhumi
alive, for use as astral travel guides…

--Nick Gevers.

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 10:17:50 +0000

At 11:50 AM 4/20/2001 +0100, Nick G. wrote:

>much-questioned feature of TBSS's plot: astral travel.
>inhumi ...

         If this attractive theory be correct, it seems to me that it 
should connect to the question of how the inhumi travel from Green to Blue. 
Since they can't tolerate cold, we know that the inhumi don't fly from 
Green to Blue. But perhaps they employ this astral travel ability to do so. 
Of course, it would be a different kind of use of the ability, since they 
don't leave their bodies behind. At the same time, astral travellers seem 
to have some kind of physical body with them, even though their ur-body is 
asleep back home. Astral travel with inhumi lies between full teleportation 
on the one hand and mere spirit-travel on the other. I think that's a clew. 
I think the inhumi are capable of teleportation.
         "We get our intelligence from you." Hmmm. Try this out: 
Animal-inhumi are just tools for astral travel. But when an inhumi gets 
Neighbor or human blood, then both of the necessary factors are present 
INSIDE him/her: inhumi astral ability + human intelligence. In that case, 
Smart-inhumi do not need another human to travel astrally, and perhaps the 
super-close connection of human blood and inhumi genes enables the 
Smart-inhumi to teleport, not just travel astrally. (That is, a mixture of 
human blood and inhumi genes is stronger then a human holding hands with an 
inhumu/a.)
         It seems you cannot go anywhere that nobody in the group has ever 
been to. But if only one smart-inhumu/a makes the trip, then others can 
make the trip with him/her, and that will expand until millions are making 
the trip.
         Since this hypothetical ability is linked to conjunction, it would 
seem that they can teleport between Green and Blue when the two are close 
to each other. It appears that distance plays a part in the ability of 
Smart-inhumi to teleport -- an SF aspect of this seemingly fantasy element.
         Travelling greater distances would not be possible by 
teleportation, but only by astral travel. Also, travelling with a human 
must be astral and not teleportation, since the human lacks the inhumi 
ability. That is, when you add a teleporting inhumi with a wholly 
non-teleporting human, you get something in between.
         If I'm right, then the precise ability of the inhumi is not astral 
travel but teleportation. The Neighbors gave Animal-inhumi the ability to 
teleport, but no ability to use it. Standing with a Neighbor, who cannot 
teleport, the inhumi can enable astral travel but not full teleportation. 
It enables the Neighbor to "phone home" or phone anywhere else he has ever 
been. Aha! But inhumi are vampires and when one generation of Animal-inhumi 
get some Neighbor blood, the next generation turns out to be Smart-inhumi. 
Smart-inhumi can use their ability to teleport. One S-I can get with 
another S-I and go wherever that second S-I has ever been, and not just by 
astral travel: the two can teleport there.
         Well, one speculation calls for another. So, Gevers, does this 
advance your theory, or it is poppycock?

JBJordan

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From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 13:32:55 +0000

>much-questioned feature of TBSS’s plot: astral travel.

An interesting theory, all in all, but with potentially fatal problems: 

Krait tells The Secret to Horn, and the narrator refers to The Secret in
_Blue_. But the narrator does not discover that he can astrally travel
until partway through the frame events of _Green_, and is surprised by it,
which implies that he was not told about it by Krait and thus it is not
part of The Secret. 

Also, the astral travel surprises even the inhumi who participate in it,
which makes it even more unlikely that Krait told Horn about it. 

-- 
   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games 
   kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190

---

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 13:01:06 +0000

> a secondary and defensive weapon.

Against this theory:

1) There is no evidence that any humans can travel astrally except in Horn's
presence.

2) There is no evidence that the Neighbors will grant humans the power of
astral travel if they love one another.

3) Both Fava nor Juganu talk freely about where the inhumi breed.  If this
knowledge could be used to annhiliate the inhumi, it's not likely they would
do this.

4) Horn said that the Secret could (if it were feasible) be used to reduce
the inhumi to vermin, not to wipe them out altogether.

5) The idea of astrally travelling to Green and killing the inhumi children
has no real connection with Krait's secret (which, as a later post of yours
makes clear, you accept is the real Secret).  Even without Krait's secret,
it would be clear that killing all the inhumi children would wipe out the
inhumi, and the Secret doesn't tell the humans how to do this.

6) Horn says that the Neighbors knew the Secret, but could not use it.  If
the Neighbors, who were physically on Green, couldn't kill all the inhumi
children, it's doubtful that humans could.

> inhumi instead of killing them outright.

I had thought that the Gaonese believed that by burying inhumi alive, they
were killing them outright.  But I don't have OBW with me.

--Adam