From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) About the secret of the inhumi, again (RTTW spoilers)
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 09:49:17 

on 4/19/01 1:52 PM, Kevin J. Maroney at kmaroney@ungames.com wrote:

> In _Return to the Whorl_, Jahlee tells Nettle a secret about the inhumi,
> which, because of the structure of the story, we are led to believe is
> *the* secret which has been sketched out in the first two volumes. The only
> detail new to her revelation is that it is the children of the inhumi who
> gain intelligence from the blood rather than the predators themselves.
> 
> A. Am I correct that this detail was not present in any of the earlier open
> discussions of the secret?

I believe so.  I don't recall it, in any case (though iirc a couple of
passages can be seen in retrospect to hint at it); nor do I recall any of
our discussions of the secret mentioning it.

> B. If I am correct, it seems to me that this detail is supposed to be a
> major revelation about the nature of the secret, and key to understanding
> how the humans on Blue and Green could fight the inhumi. But I keep failing
> to see how this detail transforms what we knew into "a weapon too big to
> wield". 
> 
> What am I missing?

Whatever you're missing, I am too.  The only thing I can think of is that
perhaps it would be enough to keep inhumi about to spawn from drinking human
blood, rather than all inhumi; but I don't see how this knowledge could be
used in practice.

> Any responses welcome.

I'm afraid mine wasn't too helpful.

--Adam


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