GUTs and so on

Lee Berman · 25 Aug 2010, 03:37 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:37:49 -0400
Subject: (urth) GUTs and so on
Message-ID: <SNT123-W48D354C583F0959ED54898CF840 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: *I* think the Neighbors *are* at least some of the trees, so there 
>ya are. And the Rajan did refer to the trees as "sleepy" which is what 
>you'd expect from dream-travelers. IIRC someone claimed the Rajan's 
>staff made from a vine  was an inhumi and that the Rajan talked to it.

Sleepy trees? Hm, sounds a bit like a nod to Ents.

Anyway, I don't find this theory overly fantastic at all. To me it makes sense 
both metaphorically and scientifically. Trees are multi-limbed creatures. Vines 
are parasitic to them.

I think we are given evidence that all these lupine shape-shifting creatures, 
Shadow Children, Inhumi and Hierogrammates had their origins in very simple, 
almost formless organisms. They gained their eventual shape and intelligence
by successive imitation of other, progressively more advanced creatures. Perhaps 
Neigbhors and Inhumi started out as simple trees and vines.

I think the Shadow Children of St. Croix got their first taste of humanity and
intelligence and shape with a single crash landing. This allowed them to turn 
into abos. Later, with colonization, they just hit the jackpot with regard to
people to imitate. 

Perhaps something similar happened on Green during Urth's First Empire exploring 
out in space. What impact would the presence of human beings have arriving on a
planet of shapeshifting trees and parasitic vines? (keeping in mind that humans
parasitize each other). 

Not sure how Blue might fit into that. Inhumi can't fly through space. But could 
tree seeds or vine spores make the trip, somehow? Black beans?

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