Inhumi and devils

Andrew Mason · 30 Nov 2010, 18:52 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com (Andrew Mason)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:52:27 +0000
Subject: (urth) Inhumi and devils
Message-ID: <AANLkTim2Q0DowES5HWWTbC-23DQTh-0okQnRZ+e1LoSz at mail.gmail.com>

James Wynn wrote:
>
> A daemon, note the spelling, is merely a disembodied spirit. Inhumi
> contain the spirits of others, living and dead. Mucor, at times, meets
> this criteria. Also, an important theme is in the book is that if a
> demon imitates a god, he becomes, in some sense, a god. Quetzal becomes
> a holy man, sacrificing his life for his flock. Horn becomes Silk.
> Inhumi become, in a metaphysical sense, Horn's son and Silk's sister.

OK, so there's a thematic similarity between inhumi and devils, which
makes it appropriate that Pike called them that. But if I am reading
you rightly, the inhumi as Pike knows them - creatures which fly in
through windows and suck blood - don't possess people; rather they are
themselves in a sense possessed by the spirits of others whom they
have absorbed. (Bear in mind I haven't read _Short Sun_ yet, so don't
know the details.)  I still think it's unlikely the chrasmologic
writers has inhumi in mind.

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