Fifth Head of Cerberus: Shadowchildren vs. Abos

b sharp · 15 Apr 2008, 11:45 · from 2008-April.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:45:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) Fifth Head of Cerberus: Shadowchildren vs. Abos
Message-ID: <BAY103-W17417411D78D34D19730D8D7EB0 at phx.gbl>

>My understanding was that the shadow children were the original inhabitants,
able to shapeshift but lacking a humanoid model until the humans arrived and
colonized the planet.  Once that happened, the shadow children mimicked the
colonizers (becoming known to them as "abos" along the way) sometimes so
successfully that they might forget their true nature.<

That's how I see it too. Humans came to the planets in several waves. The first ship crashed and the few survivors became the template for some shadow children to become human-like abos. Later waves brought civilized humans but they were subject to replacement by abos, who despite losing their memory of being shadow children, retained their shape changing ability, perhaps as an unconscious reflex.  It might be that all the natives of both planets are abos who have replaced the real humans. Marsch was a true human from earth (not a particularly nice one) but was soon replaced by an abo.

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