[HoE] Lost Colony: A Theory

[Kirt Dankmyer <loki@triadntr.net>]

This post has some spoilers for the Devil's Tower Trilogy and contains
info from the Marshall's section of several Hell on Earth books...

















Everyone worried about spoilers gone? Good.

Okay, Jason (the Baron Samedi) and I were discussing the Devil's Tower
trilogy last night and we came up with a theory that ties it into Hell
on Earth and Lost Colony. Jason (or anyone else) is welcome to correct
me if I've got any details wrong here, but I think the basic theory is
quite sound.

Okay, one of Jason's gripes about the Devil's Tower trilogy involves the
ending. In it, the Stone from the Hell on Earth is performing a ritual
using the Heart of Darkness to turn the Devil's Tower into a Deadland.
This, incidentally, kills all the Crossbreeds there, which is supposed
to be a bad thing, which is odd, considering they're the remnants of
evil alien overseers who used to exploit humanity. Stone's ritual is
supposed to be vital to the creation of Hell on Earth, yet it isn't
mentioned in the Hell on Earth stuff. 

Perhaps it's because it actually relates to Lost Colony.

What is the Heart of Darkness? It's a ghost-rock diamond. As soon as the
Explorer's Society gets it, Hellstromme buys it, and both Stone and
Grimme want it as well. 

Why would three Servitors of the Reckoners want this thing so badly?
It's just ultra-hardened ghost rock, right? The Reckoners should be
able to create such a thing if they want to, right?

Perhaps not. The origin of the Heart of Darkness is in the aliens that
created the Crossbreeds of the Devil's Tower Trilogy. It seems these
aliens were sort of pulling a _Chariot of the Gods_, subjugating
humanity, posing as their gods. They didn't interact with humans
directly, but created the Crossbreeds -- who aren't really alien-human
crossbreeds, but a genetically engineered servitor race that uses both
alien and human DNA -- to serve as humanity's overseers. Most of the
alien technology is powered by ghost rock diamonds, including their
ships. The aliens sacrifice thousands of humans and harvest their souls
to create ghost-rock diamonds. Note that it requires *human* souls --
not alien or Crossbreed souls -- to create ghost rock diamonds.
(Crossbreeds *do* have souls -- there's that Harrowed Crossbreed
kicking around at the end of the Devil's Tower Trilogy.)

By the 19th Century, the aliens are long gone, and the Crossbreeds, who
were left in charge, have screwed up, having been beaten back by
humanity.  Part of the reason is their magic stopped working when the
Old Ones put the Reckoners -- and magic -- in a bottle, as it were, so
only a fragment of their old technology was left working. 

It is also notable that Hellstromme, when he encounters the Crossbreed
technology that Kang is using, *can't understand it*. We're talking
Hellstromme, the first Mad Scientist, with a direct brain-connection to
the Reckoners. To me, this implies that the Reckoners can't understand
the alien technology, that they can do some magic the Reckoners can't.
It is also notable that the hole in the Hunting Grounds in the Devil's
Tower that Stone uses to go back through time wasn't created by the
Reckoners -- it was left there by the aliens.  This would explain why
they could only do that trick once -- they normally can't use the stuff
the aliens created. 

There are other signs the Reckoners fear the aliens. The Pyramids are
supposed to be beacons to the aliens, and when some people tried to
make a pyramid in Lost Angels, they "disappeared." I doubt the
Reckoners wanted their old enemies summoned to Earth just yet, while
they're still too weak to deal with them.

Okay, now, let's take a step back to Hell on Earth. To Faraway,
specifically.  According to various Marshal's sections of Hell on Earth,
the Reckoners used to be able to exert their influence there -- that's
how ghost rock got there -- but they don't bother anymore. Faraway's
current problems are something else entirely. In fact, also has been
stated the Tunnel no longer connects to Earth, but it is still open on
the Faraway end, and that something else entirely is coming through it. 

Let's take a look at the skinnies, now. When they were first
encountered, the humans almost thought they were another species entirely.
They were thinner than normal anouks, and more "wizened".

The Crossbreeds that used to rule over the humans on earth are shorter
than normal humans, and quite wrinkly. It's not a big jump from
wrinkly to "wizened", or from short to... skinny. The DNA is
different, after all, and the skinnies seemed designed to rely more on
syker powers than technology. What if skinnies are the anouk equivalent of the
Crossbreeds? That would explain the fanaticism that the anouks show
toward them. After all, on Earth, during the heyday of the Crossbreeds,
humans were willinging sacrificed to the "gods".

Could it be the aliens -- the same aliens that used to rule the earth --
used to rule Faraway as well? And now they're back? Perhaps what the
Reckoners are doing in Hell on Earth is harvesting the fear they'll need
to have the energy to fight the aliens once they return to Earth, since
the aliens seem to be even more magically powerful than the Reckoners
themselves, in they can do things with the Hunting Grounds and human
souls the Reckoners can't. And right now, the Lost Colony is getting a
firsthand peek at an enemy that even the Reckoners fear, an enemy that
has a slightly different use for human souls... With humans stuck in the
middle. 

Which leads to another thing... I was thinking about this after Jason
and I parted ways. One unanswered question in the whole Deadlands story
is why the Devil's Tower is so important to the Reckoners. The other big
mystery at the moment, the one that's supposed to be revealed in Lost
Colony: What has Hellstromme been up to since he had his change of
heart? 

At this point, there's strong reason to believe he's somehow tied in
with the "eggheads" of the Devil's Tower Trilogy, the team of scientists
who sent Jackie Wells back to the Weird West to stop Stone from creating
Hell on Earth. One thing Jackie Wells implies in the Devil's Tower
Trilogy is that it's vitally important the Heart of Darkness get back to
Hell on Earth to be studied by the eggheads. 

Why should that be important? I think that Hellstromme is either on
Faraway or in the Devil's Tower, studying the alien tech that defied him
when he was a Servitor. He may not be as amazing as he once was, but he
also no longer has the mental blocks the Reckoners have. Because in that
technology, in that level of power that is feared by even the Reckoners,
there may be something that humanity can harness to defeat the Reckoners
AND the aliens... And ghost-rock diamonds, i.e. the Heart of Darkness,
is the key to unlocking that technology. That's why it needs to end up
back in the hands of the eggheads...
 
Well, what do y'all think? Plausible? Insane? It was pretty late at
night when we came up with it. Aliens verses the Four Horsemen, with
humanity in the middle. Anyone from Pinnacle care to comment? ;)
	-Loki