(urth) Typhon & the Whorl (was Prior Race On Blue And Green)

Dan autarch at vippn.com
Tue Dec 18 09:51:47 PST 2007


At 05:20 PM 12/17/2007, gwern wrote:
>On 2007.12.17 13:12:39 -0600, Dan <autarch at vippn.com> scribbled 4.9K 
>characters:
>
> > I agree that Typhon would never do anything out of altruism. I'm not sure
> > what you mean by "a world he already solidly ruled."  Typhon was abandoned
> > and besieged and was awaiting the arrival of the Conciliator to free him of
> > Piaton's stubborn hold on his involuntary functions (which he did and he
> > did, lol). Remember during his brief discussion with Severian, Typhon is
> > absolutely arrogant. This and personal survival are his twin drives for
> > injecting a copy of himself into the Whorl project and hijacking it. Being
> > STL, no one saw it's utility in escaping the global cooling "disaster" that
> > had befallen the Earth. I don't think it was built from the ground up (or
> > shiprock in) as a personal vessel for Typhon's digital self and its
> > amusement. The time frame is too long and his position too tenuous for him
> > to oversee it's completion. Typhon simply copied himself into the mainframe
> > and created it's religion or inserted himself in it as it's Godhead and his
> > treacherous family as pantheon of lesser gods.
> >
> >   Whatever the original design, I think Typhon wanted the Whorl to return
> > to Earth after things calmed down after a few centuries to "recolonize"
> > using technical experts released from suspended animation to start fixing
> > things, millions of peons that worshipped him as a god to provide the labor
> > and armies of chems to reestablish order. Then they could either revive the
> > original Typhon or if he was lost Pas could download into a suitable body
> > and reestablish his empire and glory.
> >
> > Evidently something went wrong with his plan when he was deposed by his
> > children and the inhumani hijacked the ship and redirected it to 
> Green/Blue.
> >
> >   Dan
>
>Perhaps I missed something (I've not read Long or Short sun as thoroughly 
>as I should have), but why are you assuming the Whorl was launched during 
>the latter days of Typhon's empire? An advanced, complex, long-term, and 
>hence extremely expensive interstellar generation-spaceship is not the 
>sort of project you launch when everything is decaying around you. It's 
>the sort of hubristic project launched just before or during one's prime.
>
>--
>gwern

Three things: the fact that his mountain monument depicts Typhon with one 
head ("home" and his seat of power built during his prime) while two headed 
Pas depicts Typhon as he appears after the life extension transplant. I'd 
say most rulers are only concerned with their legacy toward the end of 
their reign. Wanting to extend his life shows that's exactly where Typhon 
was at. If the Whorl was built or started at the height of his power, I'm 
sure he would have scanned himself and downloaded into Mainframe 
immediately in case he was assassinated which would subvert the whole point 
of the project. Thus he would have been mono-headed.

The solar/global cooling disaster ushered in Typhon's decline by severing 
him from his interstellar empire when his appointees absconded with his FTL 
ships (but since his doctors came from other worlds, we know he was grafted 
before this). Due to this the STL colony ship was his only way out but 
without the Conciliator there to heal him there was really no point in him 
going anywhere. So he opted instead just to send a digital copy of himself. 
The way Typhon recounts the events it seems his decline was rapid (within a 
few years). This may have been a large enough window to start and complete 
such a project, but I think it was already complete or nearing completion. 
Typhon may have had little or no interest in it at all until his decline. 
That's why I think he hijacked the Whorl when it was nearing completion or 
perhaps after it was already enroute.

The Pas cult always seemed forcibly kludged over the two distinct cultures 
we see in BotLS. It was the instigator of a great deal of death, 
destruction, chaos and waste amongst the cargo and caused a great deal of 
damage to the ship itself due to the pantheon's digital familial 
infighting. Hardly things you'd want on a generational colony ship. This 
indicates to me that this pantheon wasn't part of the Whorls original 
design and smacks of Typhon's influence after the fact.

Dan






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