(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 75, Issue 24

[James Wynn]

> Andrew Mason -
> I had thought Wolfe had said in an interview that the inhumi were late
> arrivals on the Whorl. Having checked it, I think that strictly
> speaking he only said that Quetzal was, which I suppose allows other
> inhumi to have been around earlier. (But does not _Short Sun_ contain
> an explanation of how they got on to the Whorl?)

It would be very fitting indeed for inhumi or Neighbors to have had a 
hand in Typhon's decision to launch the Whorl.
http://urth.org/whorlmap/midas.htm
(There are a lot of arguable associations between Typhon to Midas and 
the inhumi to Dionysus in the Long/Short cycle. )

Since the Rajan can travel through Time --and since the Rajan can choose 
to go back in Time and insert himself into the grandmother's story 
because he recognized himself in it-- it is quite possible for the 
Neighbors to reach Urth through dream travel at a Time before the 
Whorl's launch and influence Typhon to launch it.

I say, this is all POSSIBLE -- not stated in the story-- although it 
could be seen as implied thematically.

> But I agree with Gerry Quinn that what we are told of devils doesn't
> really fit inhumi very closely. I would think one of two things more
> likely. Perhaps devils are just figures of myth (as far as the
> compliers knew, at least), mentioned in some of the historic texts
> used to make up the Chrasmologic writings. Or perhaps they are people
> like Mucor.

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.

u+16b9