From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Typhon's vanity and Pas's Two Heads
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 13:48:32 -0600

Joe wrote:
[snip]
>>I look to Scylla for support here, and for the
purposes of the gods in Mainframe really is.  Scylla is portrayed as
having many arms -- Why, when obviously she didn't on Urth.  So, why?<<
[snip]

Typhon's first-born child, Cilinia, didn't have many arms, true. But there
is some connection between her and the Mother on Blue. At any rate, she was
a girl who had been scanned when she was near the age of puberty (WHORL,
347). The kids were all presumably scanned at about the same time so, as the
eldest of seven, she must have been about the age of 12, which means that
the youngest couldn't have been much more than about 6 years old, even if
they were stair-step children. (This rapid-fire reproduction may have
something to do with Echidna's aversion to things sexual on the _Whorl_.) It
puts a different perspective on reading the LS books when you realize seven
of the nine gods in Mainframe were just scans of little kids, doesn't it?
This is getting away from my point, but someone asked recently about when
Typhon's children were scanned.

[snip]
>>I think this
gets us to who exactly Pas and Family are and why they are there --
IMHO, they are not Typhon and family fleeing Urth.  Typhon and family
live on on Urth -- he tells Sev he didn't have time to board one of the
ships leaving Urth.  Pas and family are just digital selves of Thyphon
and family put there to keep the Whorlizens from killing themselves
until they reach Blue -- that was Typhon's plan (the Plan of Pas) in
setting up the physical settings of the cities and how many soldiers
each got, etc., and the gods are there (in Typhon/Pas' mind, at least)
merely to oversee and make sure nothing goes awry, much like the Fliers.<<
[snip]

Yes, this does get back to my repeated, but unanswered, question: Why did
Typhon decide to build and launch the _Whorl_ in the first place? I have
suggested it was just a sop to his monumental ego, for reasons given in an
earlier post. Does anyone have a better answer?

-Roy


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