Inhumi (RTTWspoilers)

Robert Borski · 14 Feb 2001, 13:16 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Inhumi (RTTWspoilers)
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 13:16:35
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0229 at digest.urth.net>
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Fernando Gouvea having written:

<About the secret of the inhumi: can we trust the text here? Since Silk/Horn
is writing a "public" document, might he have put down a bowdlerized
version of the secret so as to make the point that it was revealed to
Nettle without thereby revealing it to us?>

I'm sort of with Fernando here. Because I still don't believe the inhumi fly
between planets during conjunctions, and that it's this well-kept secret
that's somehow involved with neutralizing or eradicating the inhumi on Blue.

Yes, we have Jahlee talking about testing her youthful wings and endurance
for the Crossing. But in the same passage, when Horn asks her, "Before you
came the first time?" author Wolfe very cryptically has Horn note, "She did
not answer."  Jahlee would also have us believe that those inhumi lacking
endurance burn up when they hit Blue's atmosphere. "That little scratch of
fire, and you're gone forever." Right. And thunder is Pas breaking wind.
(Are we also to believe that Blue's skies are marred by these "little
scratches of fire" only during times of conjunction?)

Jahlee further notes that she trained "for years, and there were days when I
couldn't even get up high above the clouds. There are strong winds at this
level, and the air is thin." In space, however, there is no air, thin or
otherwise--so why should that make a difference?

How also do we explain the death of Fava, who freezes to death in the snow,
and Jahlee who almost does so? If the equitorial, reptile-like inhumi can
withstand the froric depths of space, why can't they tolerate the colder
climes of "frigid, hostile Blue," as Jahlee calls it?

Answer: because they don't fly between worlds, any more than they flew to
the Whorl. In the latter case we learn that the Neighbors sent them for
purposes of reconnaissance. It seems likely that whatever technology was
involved there--and if the inhumi have supped on the Neighbors, one would
think they would have access to their technosecrets--is still being used by
the inhumi of Horn's time, if not from the very beginning.

Robert Borski

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