In SM Stirling's A Taint In The Blood, the population of a small town knowingly serves the Shadowspawn and I expect that there are other such communities. Thousands of people? More? But this remains a small number when compared with the world population. It is still a secret although there are places where it is known and discussed openly.
Each of the Shadowspawn controls the perceptions and volitions of surrounding human beings by applying amazing psychic powers. If these secret rulers were just ordinary homo sapiens, then their organization would of necessity be much larger - too large to be kept secret?
Fiction is a good way to test alternative ideas, including conspiracy theories.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have a few suggestions to make. One being that while the Shadowspawn ruled the world, they did not run it. That is, they were not interested in the hard work of MANAGING the world, of going to meetings, reading and annotating reports, formulating policies, and making day to day practical decisions.
Another point to consider is how DEPENDENT the Shadowspawn were on their "renfields," human agents and collaborators in the human gov'ts whose job it was to make sure the Shadowspawn remained unknown and fended off investigations which might have led to their exposure. These renfields also managed many of the practical details of their masters lives.
Yes, there were renfield communities like Rancho Sangre Sagrado, but they were kept off the grid and out of any records and databases not controlled by the Shadowspawn. And their inhabitants were "conditioned" not to reveal anything to outsiders not serving the Shadowspawn. Whether Option 1 or 2 of Operartion Trimback was used, the plan was for these renfield towns becoming a prime source for the administrative cadres which would be needed once the Shadowspawn openly declared themselves masters of the world.
I agree, this kind of conspiracy simply would not work with ordinary Homo sapiens. Too many would be likely to blab, oppose the conspiracy (for whatever reasons), or simply spill the beans by mistake.
And I agree with your last sentence here.
Sean
The crucial power is telepathy. If someone can have no secrets from you, "trust" becomes a completely different phenomenon.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Good point, I should have mentioned how the Shadowspawn's ability to read a person's mind after a week or so was a crucial ability. But, this can be thwarted if ordinary humans can get their minds shielded, either by a decent Shadowspawn like Adrian Breze or the Boase/Duquesne mind blanking effect. If millions of people start wearing or carrying the devices causing this effect, then all of a sudden ordinary people have a much greater ability to resist the Shadowspawn.
I know you seemed to have thought SHADOWS OF FALLING NIGHT satisfactorily ended the series, but it had some tantalizing loose ends. Such as what did the monstrous Adrienne Breze do after escaping Tbilisi? Did her brother Adrian seized her home base of Rancho Sangre Sagrado to deny her its resources? What happened when the devices causing the Boase Effect came into wide use? And many other questions, such as how did Ellen "take" to being in Tokairin Michiko's body?
Sean
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