{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/481",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 481,
    "subject": "Talus, Urus and Bufes",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-13T15:15:53+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-13T15:15:53+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0008-0652@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Brownes3",
        "address": "brownes3 at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-13T15:15:53+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Talus, Urus and Bufes",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I've been re-reading Calde. It's amazing how much that was obscure and blew\npast me on the first reading is clear now that I've read Exodus. For example,\nI and came to the scene where Urus and his fellow pit-mates attack Auk and\nChenille. Now I can answer my own question  :) as to why Mint considered Urus\npure evil:  Urus is a cannibal. (\"Then you kill 'em right off and eat 'em\nwhile they're still fat?\" \"Not all the time.... We wouldn't of et you [Auk],\nsee?\"\n\nAs to the \"gods\", which Hammerstone says is \"dog spelled backwards, because\nthey aren't really dogs\", Urus calls them \"bufes\". Then Auk says, \"He called\n'em bufes, but a bufe's a watchdog, and Hammerstones right. These ain't real\ndogs at all.\"\n\nBut to Urus, the bufes are watchdogs because they prevent him from escaping\nthe tunnels.\n\nWhen describing the perils of the tunnels, Urus says, \"There's big machines,\nsometimes, too. Some's tall asses, only not all.\"\n\nI think the distinction Urus makes is that if the guard robot is a tank like\nBlood's or the one Chenille gets with the bazooka, then its properly called a\ntalus. If it doesn't have treads IMO, then it isn't a true talus. It guards\nthe tunnels, the same as the talus, but the act of guarding isn't enough to\nwarrant the name tall ass.\n\nA question regarding the other inhumi in the Whorl:\n\nIn Wolfe's interview in the archives he says there are other inhumi in the\nWhorl. The reaction of the others in this newgroup was that they couldn't find\na reference to them. Is it possible that the snakes that appear on Maytera\nMarble as she attacks Musk and that Silk (who's often mistaken) attributes to\nEchidna, were really friends of Quetzal? He reveals himself to be the old man\nat the end of the scene. Quetzal also knew the old woman was possessed by\nMucor. \n\nI can read the snakes appearance either way:  a \"real\" manifestation of\nEchidna's kine, as called for my Marble, or Quetzal's pals. \n\nIn favor of the inhumi reading:\n\nEchidna ended her theophany when Mint and company went to attack the\nAlambreara. Why did she come back? Marble didn't entreat Echidna until after\nshe looked like she was possessed. \n\nThe snakes only struck Villus, the little boy. Inhumi seem to prefer children.\n\nSilk describes the \"entrance\" of the snakes thusly:\n\n\"To Silk, [again the unreliable Silk] ... those screams seemed the creakings\nof the wings of death, of the black wings of High Hierax as he flapped down\nthe Whorl from Mainframe.\"\n\nSounds like the entrance of vampire bats, too.\n\nPerhaps Quetzal and Mucor were playing one-upmanship:\n\nMucor possess Marble (who Wolfe __twice__ describes as very bio-looking now\nthat she's scavenged old Rose parts) and starts the attack on Musk.\n\nQuetzal, who Mucor might have tried to possess him and then realized he wasn't\nthere (as she says in Exodus) then ups the stakes and calls in his buddies,\nperhpas to take over Marble.\n\nThe inhumi spot Villus and deicde to snack.\n\nMucor is confused by Marble's sight \"what are these numbers?\" and jumps to the\nold woman and attacks Silk with the needler Villus dropped.\n\nQuetzal knocks the needler out of Mucor's hand and introduces himself.\n\nThus the whole attack had nothing to do with Echidna.\n\nOn the other hand, the scene reads smoothly if its Echnida at the controls.\nBut knowing Wolfe, wouldn't the inhumi reading be just like him?\n\nAny thoughts?"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}