Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
If the Bastard’s Hell isn’t a place, but the process of a soul being stripped of all personal information and being boiled down into pure chaos, and demons are said to have escaped from the Bastard’s Hell, does that mean that demons come from the souls taken in the death miracle that find a host before dissolving into nothingness? If that’s the case, perhaps Quadrenes have some justification against the Bastard?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No.
The demons are a controlled leakage from the Bastard's hell, or hand, to balance the life in the world between the cold death of ice (stasis) and the hot death of fire (chaos.) Too much of either is bad.
The underpinnings of this theology _really_ are not based upon that of our Earth historical religions, and trying to draw 1:1 parallels between them will frequently go awry. (Though given the wild variety of human-devised religions through history, I am willing to be better advised.)
All information being lost, the source of one blob of chaos is not distinguishable from any other blob of chaos -- soul-plasma as it were, or quark soup. Entirely interchangeable.
Ta, L.
No.
The demons are a controlled leakage from the Bastard's hell, or hand, to balance the life in the world between the cold death of ice (stasis) and the hot death of fire (chaos.) Too much of either is bad.
The underpinnings of this theology _really_ are not based upon that of our Earth historical religions, and trying to draw 1:1 parallels between them will frequently go awry. (Though given the wild variety of human-devised religions through history, I am willing to be better advised.)
All information being lost, the source of one blob of chaos is not distinguishable from any other blob of chaos -- soul-plasma as it were, or quark soup. Entirely interchangeable.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Srjanssen
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Working my way through my second read of the "Hallowed Hunt" and find myself frequently rereading passages. Your explorations of religious and magical themes are unique. Were there any particular factors that turned your imagination in that direction, or have those themes always lurked in the background? By the way, have you run into the novels of Charles A Williams?
Gwendolyn Patton
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I noted a similarity between Barrayar and the Alta colony in Michael McCollum's Antares series -- a colony cut off from the rest of human space when a stellar event shifted their wormhole jump connection. He had evidence of alien invasion when the wormhole reopened, where you had Cetagandans after the Time of Isolation. Had you ever read that series?
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