# Sacrifice Mechanics *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 09 May 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. --- ### Joel Priddy *09 May 1997, 14:00* Here's another a idea that I'm throwing out to you without bothering to check the text (I really need to buy copies of the books if I'm going to keep this up, huh?): there's been some discussion as to what happens on a "mechanical" level during a sacrifice that gets the gods attention. If I recall correctly, even when the gods aren't sending theophanies, the augurs are able to make predictions from the entrails of the victims, and these can be packed with very specific detail. I think it's at the funeral where Silk basically reads the plotline of the book from a pile of guts. Is there any way this could be accounted for in a "mechanical" sense? Maybe if the gods are exerting tremndous active control on the genetic structure of the Whorl's animal population, and then hypnotizing people to purchase the animal with the right message in it, but if they had that much control, the book would never have happened. So here's the thought... The Gods of Mainframe are real gods. Wolfe has stated his theory that the pagan gods were real, just not worthy of worship. Perhaps this is an illustration of that. I admit, I hope some one shoots this down quickly and succinctly. I'd much rather keep the gods on a technological scale where we can at least discuss them. If they've attained a supernatural quality (as a result of worship and sacrifice?) then they become just too unkown. But is there a way to account for both the hunger for sacrifices and the accuracy of augury? Hrm... I suppose a real theophany did follow the above mentioned sacrifice, so who knows what sorts of mental activity was being broadcast in that instance. Are there other instances of very specifically accurate divinations? JOEL ---