Summary of the case for Silk as Typhon's clone

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 19 Jan 2011, 18:52 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:52:15 -0800
Subject: (urth) Summary of the case for Silk as Typhon's clone
Message-ID: <AANLkTimA7nKmy1Mif9sM5+y0CsPA5hGyOV_JuQ-PkSU1 at mail.gmail.com>

Suppose that Silk were Pas's son of the body, or even his clone. Would
people point at him and say, "There goes Pas"?

Not necessarily.

If this were the case then Silk would look -- modulo
environmental/developmental differences -- like young Typhon, to be
sure.

But does Pas look like young Typhon? I question this. We know that at
least _some_ of the other gods of Mainframe present as god-forms,
either idealized versions of themselves or otherwise different. Why
would Pas be different? I suspect that Pas-in-Mainframe does _not_
look enough like Typhon for a much-younger version of himself to
attract that much notice.

This leaves two special cases: Mamelta and Rigoglio.

Rigoglio we can dismiss; the Silk (body) he sees is missing an eye and
otherwise scarred by time and sorrow.

Which leaves Mamelta -- whose memories may have been tampered with,
and who has been possessed by Mucor. Is it that unreasonable to
suppose that she wouldn't recognize a much-younger version of the
Monarch?

I believe then that there is no serious bar to Silk being Pas's son,
or even his clone. But that's not the same as positive evidence.

Why then would I believe that Silk is Typhon's clone?

Typhon is psychically adept in some way. And he isn't willing to have
his consciousness downloaded into another (such as Piaton), though the
technology is clearly available to him.

I suggest that it isn't just (though Typhon seems to say so) that
people are "accustomed" to obeying that particular face; it is that
Typhon has psychic ability to make people follow him. He was unwilling
to give this up, so he had to preserve his brain -- and a brain
transplant was too risky for a number of reasons. So he sought to
immortalize himself by having his head put onto Piaton's body.

But also he sought to be the Father-God of the _Whorl_; and I suggest
that he was not going to give that authority up when the _Whorl_
reached its destination. He intended to lead the Cargo to its new
home, and to do so required a body. What body would Typhon want?

Why, one with the psychic ability to make people follow him. He may be
a god, but he isn't giving up any advantage. That body would be a
clone of the one he left behind.

Now, who has an uncanny ability to make people follow him? Why, Silk...

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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