(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 78, Issue 38

[Andrew Mason]

Antonio Pedro Marquez wrote:

> I also don't like the idea of multiple Silks or Silk-like figures. For one
> thing, Horn travels a lot through Blue and always has to explain why Silk is
> important to him, and nobody says 'yeah, we had someone like that also'. Of
> course, that lack of mention could be down to Silk/Horn. But like with the
> Silk-as-clone theory, it's not only that nobody mentions it, it's that
> nobody behaves accordingly.

Well,  for one thing, although Silk has been bred to be special, his
specialness is not wholly due to his breeding, but also to the
Outsider. Without his intervention Silk might have lived out his life
as a humble augur - perhaps gaining a reputation as a specially gifted
augur, but no more  For another, we know that the store of embryos
below Viron has been raided and all the embryos gone; perhaps in other
cities that isn't so. On the other hand, perhaps in some cities they
went much earlier.

I agree with Lee that, if Silk is the only person on the Whorl with
gifts of this sort, this implies that Viron is special and was seen by
Pas as such. But I find this improbable; I think it has _become_
special because of Quetzal, who did not allow the news of Pas's death
to get through, and so made it a safe place for the Plan to be
reactivated in due course. So I would contrapose, and say that there
were probably multiple embryos of this lind.
>