(urth) Shadow Children and Inhumi

[James Wynn]

> Lee Berman-
> Yeah, on first reading of 5HoC I assumed Veil's hypothesis was a bit of silly sophistry.
> But then evidence of Dr Marsch's replacement by VRT forced me to reconsider- maybe Veil is correct
> and everyone on the two planets is an abo.

For a while, I maintained a place-holding hypothesis that the only pure 
humans left on Blue (besides very recent arrivals) were the Maitre and 
Number Five. But VRT-as-Marsch has Sandwalker dream a dream that N5 
shares. Which implies the clones and VRT are twins in some way. So, I 
don't know.

Like I said, nothing is clear about the Shadow Children's origins, even 
to them. The leader says "We came either recently or a long, long time 
ago. " Obviously, it they were natives that replaced the colonists 
--precisely replaced them--both would be true.

> But what is the original form of the abos?

IIRC the Shadow Child says their original form was "long". So, I believe 
their original form was those "huge worms, luminous but of the livid 
color of a dead man's lips". Presumably, the amazing imitative ability 
of the creatures was like the ability of the inhumi to be ensouled--an 
coincidental feature.

I think the little Shadow Children mimicked the colonists and replaced 
them, forgot about it, and then through their chronic use of their 
special leaves began to change physically.

u+16b9