Vlad the elder=Time Prophet
There’s some real interesting speculations in the various posts above–I decided to add some thoughts, but they’re kind of a selective mish mash partially off the subject with no overall point except to confuse myself and others. [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
It’s fun to read your disagreements on the fine points of insect lore.
Also, I know the various quotes below are from different people, but I’m too lazy to sort them out.
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quote:
Kai may have absorbed all of His Divine Shadow’s memories into his brain, but he couldn’t access them all at will. In [i]The Giga Shadow[/i] a machine was necessary for him to remember something the Hirschfield Divine Shadow did, and that was the brain he crushed. And, even though he said in [i]Walpurgis Night[/i] that a memory he absorbed told him about Earth and the super-assassin, he didn’t recognize Earth immediately despite the fact that one of the people he had the memories of must’ve travelled there or known of it.
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I think that when you consider Kai’s reaction to anything dealing with the insects, if anything in either of the Divine Shadows whose brains he crushed was aware of the insects, he would have been aware of it very quickly.
I put down the use of the protoblood projector in Gigashadow to the fact that Kai hadn’t had much practice yet in sorting through all the memories–and the fact that the information he was looking for wasn’t a clear memory–the Divine Shadow didn’t know much about protoblood either.
As the series has gone on Kai seems to be able to access memories as the information becomes relevant to the situation. Which makes sense when you consider there is no other way to process the amount of information that the thousands of memories contain. It’s also a clever and convenient plot device–maybe not quite on the level of “you didn’t ask” but close! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Also, he didn’t actually say that the memories told him about Earth, but that they told him of a deeper darkness than his own(paraphrase)–which would be the Divine Executioner. From HDS’ memories he knew Vlad had been set loose to hunt him, but until he ran into Dr. Longbore, he would have had no reason to think that Vlad made it to the Dark Universe. I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think Kai or any of his memories recognized Earth, in LBP I think he just said it was in the darkest part of the dark zone [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] (bad enough)
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quote[quote]My impression of the scene was that there was only one brain. It was crushed by Kai, then later picked up by Yottsky. The Insect Essence in 2.1 says as much: “Kai crushed the brain of my last human host…” True, when Yottsky picks up the brain, it doesn’t really look that damaged, but I’m convinced the beans intended it to be the same brain. [/quote][/b]
I agree it’s supposed to be the same brain. Forgive me for not having the exact quote, but my impression was that the essence hid from Kai because it wasn’t sure Kai would do its bidding, but another host like Yottskry would–carry the essence to the Gigashadow and fully animate it. And just in case (a bug with a plan!!), it hid a small segment of itself in Kai. It really doesn’t pay to look at this part too closely since very little of it makes sense. [img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] From the scene in IWHS where the essence is transferred from a dying HDS to the not fully cleansed brain of the last HDS we can assume that the transfer of the essence has to be made from a living being to a living being (the same assumption is made in Mantrid). So how the heck does the essence manage to survive for any length of time in a dead assassin? I won’t even mention Yottskry and just say that maybe his body is still warm. And if it thinks that when it’s whole it can’t control Kai in Gigashadow, how can a small piece of it control him in Mantrid? Personally, I was enjoying myself and just decided to go with the flow. [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]
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quote[quote]Thus, a pure Divine Shadow (the brain is cleansed, there is only Insect Essence) remembers the Insect Wars (“an Insect… curious.”), while a possessed mind (Yottskry, Kai) does not, and a Predecessor (no Insect Essence remaining) also does not.[/quote][/b]
I still think that *no* HDS has knowledge of the insect essence within him. When he says “an Insect…curious” I assumed that the insect wars and the weapons used in those wars truly had faded into memory. If the insect part in him were conscious it would surely recognize any remnants of the insect wars. I figure the insect essence is the Id of the HDSs.
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quote[quote]It would seem from 2.1 that Mantrid indeed DID learn that protoblood comes from Insects, and seems to know quite a bit about the Insects. Of course, we also know Mantrid was regarded by HDS as a very dangerous man, and locked away. Perhaps this knowledge of Insects was precisely why. Probably the only reason he wasn’t cleansed, was that HDS still had use for Mantrid’s brilliance.[/quote][/b]
That makes a lot of sense. The insect subconscious in HDS recognized the danger in Mantrid’s study of the insects–and of couse this wasn’t common knowledge since Mantrid was unlikely to share his discoveries with the other bio viziers.
elmey