(urth) A second dream team: Mucor, Oreb, and Pike

James Wynn crushtv at gmail.com
Wed Sep 17 13:32:07 PDT 2008


Dave,

I'm coming very late to this, but no one ever responded to your original post.

I find it interesting that you specifically noted the additional understanding to be gained from tBotSS regarding Pike's ghost yet failed to note another fairly obvious explaination which I suggest you consider: that the Pike's ghost was the Raja (aka Silkhorn) in spirit-travel.

Reasons for believing this:

  1.. The appearance of a second Oreb with a healed wing which faded away as he flew off.
  -
  2.. The ghost interacts with Pike's callotte which drops to the floor after he fades. This is behavior very unlike a gothic ghost, but comports well with the physics of a spirit-traveling person.
  -
  3.. Yes, this would mean that a spirit-traveller would have to be able to travel in time as well. But there are many reasons to be convinced that this is so. The grandmother (in In Green's Jungles IIRC) ends her story with a description of the Raja and Oreb standing by a grave. The easiest explanation of this is that the Raja heard the grandmother's story and was prompted to go back in Time and do it. And in RttW, when Horn's sons describe when they left home, it is clear that there is something seriously wrong with the timeline.
  -
  4.. Wolfe says it was a "real ghost". Well, the Raja during spirit travel IS a real ghost (meeting the Raja's definition of one): He is a disembodied spirit of a person who has died.
Reasons people don't like this:

I think the main one that bugs people is that it means that Silk mistook himself 20 years later for Pike. I don't have a problem with this at all. It works just fine with me.  But considering the insufficiency of all the other explanations, and that this is the only one that causes the event to be part of the general narrative, rather than a bizarre "one off". I think readers are compelled to accept that Pike's ghost was the Raja and to grapple with Silk's misapprehension however they will.

J

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dave Tallman 
  To: urth at lists.urth.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 12:35 PM
  Subject: (urth) A second dream team: Mucor, Oreb, and Pike


  With what we know about the inhumi, Mucor, and astral projection from the BotSS, we can revisit the sequence leading to the appearance of Pike's ghost in LotLS.
  [..]
  5) What caused the creaking of the bed? Why did Patera Pike's ghost appear?

  Wolfe said in an question-and-answer session (http://www.ansible.co.uk/cc/cc77.html) that the apparition was not machine-made. That eliminates the Hierodule-created-aquastor theory and the Mainframe-generated-ghost theory, in spite of the shimmering disappearance. He also said it was not Quetzal. Inhumi don't seem to be able to impersonate other people (only make themselves look human) so I think any other inhumi is also out. Silk astral-projecting through time would also not look enough like Pike to be mistaken for him by Silk, who knew the man well. The most likely case is a real ghost.

  There are two possible explanations for the ghost. The simplest is that the presence of Mucor stirred up Pike's ghost. He appeared in his bedroom first, then went to check to see if Silk was all right (moving through the closed door). He found his calotte there and put it on. With the solid cap on, he had to open the door to get out. When he saw that Silk was all right, he smiled, waved, and vanished. There is a real connection between the calotte and Mucor, since Silk wore it on the raid on Blood's house and therefore in the presence of Mucor.

  The second explanation is more complicated but I like it better. I think Quetzal was there that night, wanting to attack Silk. Sphigxday night was the night after Teasel was bitten. Quetzal could have returned for more blood and found the names of Silk and Pike written outside the window. Quetzal said that he "went wide" when he saw Silk's name on the fifth floor of a building. Silk had to climb four flights of stairs to get to Teasel's room.

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