The Only Way 2015-02-06

[Wyvern]

Mayahuel brought them that tech, didn't she?

Mayahuel provided them the golemizing tech, yes, and also the Calendar Machine tech IIRC.

I'm not clear as to whether the specific tech which was used to create the Chimera was entirely Mayahuel's, or whether some of it was developed by the Lanthians as an extension of her work.

Calendar machine, yes (http://wapsisquare.wikia.com/wiki/Calendar_Machine). You're right that there may be innovations in the Chimera that Mayahuel didn't invent; we haven't seen the details of what the Lanthian priests got up to between Mayahuel leaving and Brandi and Bud, um, arriving.

[Anime Rick]

Mayahuel brought them that tech, didn't she?

Mayahuel provided them the golemizing tech, yes, and also the Calendar Machine tech IIRC.

I'm not clear as to whether the specific tech which was used to create the Chimera was entirely Mayahuel's, or whether some of it was developed by the Lanthians as an extension of her work.

Mayahuel invented golems on her own. She experimented with rats and weasels first:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/littlecaretaker/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/goingclay/

Before having the priests turn her into a golem so they'd have the ultimate weapon (actually, so she could walk off with the Calender machine):
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/nocontrol/

Which, unfortunately, left the priests with the knowledge of how to make golems. They only made two changes to the formula when they made the Chimera; they burned two* girls alive and mixed their ashes together, and they horrifically raped and tortured them first to break their will and make them obedient servants:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/golemsandnasties/

*The priests started the process on Bud and Brandy, and threw Jin in last minute when she was caught. Which was a bad idea, as we know:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/areyoulost-2/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/neitheroneofushast/

[Catawampus]

Hence, it looks as if the Library's download from her "de-personalized" the Ethetians' memories, but didn't erase the factual knowledge Atsli had gained.

That's basically my take on it. Similar to the difference between having your collection of movies stored on a shelf where you can access them whenever you want to, and you being tied to a chair with your eyelids taped open and every one of your movies being played simultaneously on monitors in front of you while the audio to each is blared into your ears. I figure that the Library somehow “catalogued” the memories and “filed” them away into Atsali's mind, as opposed to them just randomly flying around in her brain and colliding with things.

Yanno, at some point Atsali is going to have to say, "Would you please STOP THAT?"

Or at least, “Wait until we're someplace more private and safe!”

No -to ascribing Machiavellian cunning to Nadette.

Remember that along with all else, Atsali and her friends are a gaggle of hormone-addled kids in their mid-teens. With all that that entails (whether the tails are fluffy, feathered, or other).

But no, we've seen Bud's bottom... Hell, both Bud AND Shelly's

And Katherine's, and Kevin's, and Tepoz's, and Monica's, and Euryale's. . .there's been a fair number of people running around sans pants in this story, really. Even just including the characters who typically do wear pants.

Nadette's claim that the Etheitians were a "civilization that never wrote anything down" is interesting, though. Aren't Glyphs written into the bodies of golems? Phix said reading Glyph was not the same as being a Glyph Reader. Can the Library not copy Glyph remotely?

The Etheitians apparently used a written language different from the glyphs. Acording to Katherine's estimate, it might also be an older language than glyph. I get the feeling that glyphs are more akin to a programming language, which would be developed long after everyday language. So reading glyphs might relate to reading Etheitian in the same way that reading the programming on your computer relates to the language you typically write in. Assuming that you're not a complete geek who writes everything in C++ or whatever.

Um. I've lost track - are the Etheitians and the Lanthians the same? Because i think the glyphs are Lanthian.

The whole thing isn't entirely clear yet, but it seems that Lanthis was the parent civilisation. When it went kablooie, the Lakhenatens (including the people who were given extended lifespans by the calendar machine) were left to continue the civilisation somewhere under the ocean. Some of the Lakhenatens decided to try to regain control of things on land again and went to the Americas and to India and China. Presumably it is the ones who went to the Americas who became the Etheitians, and their civilisation ended abruptly due to Brandy and the Nu Gui. The ones who went to Asia tried to lord it over the locals, but had to eventually give in to local demands and presumably merged with the local societies. The Lakhenatens may still be going strong under the ocean, though.

[Warrl]

Assuming that you're not a complete geek who writes everything in C++ or whatever.

COBOL would be much better for fiction.

And for philosophy and politics, I'd recommend Lisp or APL. They would make it easier to totally confuse everyone while saying absolutely nothing.

[Dave]

Ugh. Just realized what price Atsali may have to pay, to keep the promise she just made.

What if (as others have suggested) the mysterious signal comes from, or is signalling about, an additional crystal storage system... intact, with Ethetians still in stasis, and not corrupted by the Nu Gui? There could be survivors awaiting rescue... still sane (or as sane as the golem-obsessed Ethetians were), and some of whom may know/remember the golem/chimera tech.

The tech Atsali has sworn to keep buried, at any cost.

Could she be about to face a decision about "pulling the plug"? Deliberately and consciously committing something akin to genocide, to protect the world from a world-destroying technology? Not necessarily the same thing as accidentally being in the dump-path for the insane Ethetians at Mapimi.

Given that choice... hell, I'd rather go back to programming in COBOL.