Abel's Heritage Theories

[Tapewolf]

That would explain why his mother was totally gaga.

But I thought Devin's mom killed them...   Plus, that was probably in a different town...

He might have forced her to do it.  Or made her believe she had.  And it was most likely the same town that Abel lived in as a kid.  This theory is derived from the one in which Abel's 'Cubi father was also Devin's father and he left because his Being wife (i.e. Devin's mother) seemed incapable for having a Creature son for some reason.  So he had one by May (either because he is Cid or because he pretended to be Cid for a one-night-stand)

[Homicidal_Kitten]

Theory #8: An Incubus tricked May.
The last one, and just F.Y.I. i never inteded this one to be the end-all answer, it just makes the most sense. Cid is out on one of his many long adventures. May is asleep, dreaming about him. An Incubus chances by, enters May's mind, and finds about Cid. Incubus takes Cid's form and has a nice night with May, probably making her think she is still asleep. Cid finally returns, and neither of them know the difference, even when May turns out pregnant, because genreally, couples don't lead sexually inert marriges. And with Cid constantly being gone, they probably do it as often as they can (Until Able was born, and Cid gave up adventuring). Backing up a bit, hell, the Incubus doesnt even need for Cid to be on an adventure, Cid could just be gone in town for just one night and the incubus could pull it off. And there isn't the "hide the mark" problem, because the Incubus would only have to try to hide it for one night, not for months or years on end. Easily doable.
Verdict: Yes, I would have to say this is probably the only answer.

Yes, Homicidal-Kitten, this theory has been suggested. And zealously supported.


Dammit i double posted again. Shoot.

Thats What I meant "I agree with the last one" just a little different with the, maybe she was was aware she was cheating, but she didn't know it was with a cubi?
NUmber 8 was the last one right? o.o;

[techmaster-glitch]

Thats What I meant "I agree with the last one" just a little different with the, maybe she was was aware she was cheating, but she didn't know it was with a cubi?

Ah. I missed that. My apologies, Homicidal.

Yes, i suppose that is possible.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

(Sorry if someone posted something like this already. n.n;)

I sorta agree with the last one, what is May Slept with a Cubi.
Say Sid was gone for one night, or even for months, and she did sleep with a cubi?
Who said it had to change into Sid? I mean she could of slept with him willingly, whether its the cubi charm, or whether she even knew if he was cubi or not.
It seems a bit shallow(okay, Really shallow), but it explain why the village thought she was a wh*re. >.>;

Did that make a any sense? n.n;

Yes, but May doesn't think or know she slept with anyone but Cid.  Given May beating of Poor Sally, the headmaster at Abel's school.  Yet, the townsfolk, or those who gossip had either 1) Did the math and Cid was away Nine months before Abel was born.

or
            2)  Seeing that Abel has wings and that Cid and May are "Beings", some people think the worst.  So, May had to have slept with a Creature somewhere, when Cid was away.  (This is the most likely scenario, given Cid having to explain to May about how high Magic can taint an Adventurer and his/her offspring.)

PBH

[Tezkat]

Possible, but his reaction to being forced to become Merlitz was rather acute.  It wasn't disdain, which is what I'd expect from vanity, it was more like fury.  See 695, 696 (I recorded several takes of Merbel throwing them out - in some of them he was almost crying.  That's just my reading though.)

Ultimately he only did it because the alternative was leaving Dan alone with a dragon who'd been sent to kill him (in Abel's PoV).

He could just have been pissed off about "losing" to the Dragon. Or being forced to do something he didn't want to do.

They've got some kind of medical establishment, see Devin's memories.  It might be more of an Ultima 7 hospital (i.e. a wooden shack with beds in it) but there y'go.

Funny... maybe it was just the warm sepia tones and 19th century fashions, but that felt homier to me. Doctors making house calls, live-in nurse looking after a sick wife... Devin's family certainly looked like they could afford such care.

Theory #4: Cid was cursed with a non-random, structured spell specifically designed to make him have a Cubi child.
This one just bothers me. If any spell could even do that, why would he not tell May about it, as to prepare her for what her own son is going to be?
Verdict: Probably impossible.

If he knew in the first place, would he tell them? How do you tell some one that kind of thing?

Would he have made the connection? It was mentioned somewhere that creatures can turn somebody to another species with magic.

I don't think we can discount anything as impossible, unlikely given the story structure and our knowledge of it, but not impossible.

Plus were talking about (fictional) magic, here for crying out loud, how can we know its limits?

We don't know anything about the mechanism for magical corruption of the old family jewels. It could be the type of thing in which magical "radiation" causes random mutations which affect the offspring of Adventurers and others who work closely with magical effects. Creating a Cubi by accident would be virtually impossible.

What if, however, the corrupting magical energies were tied to a specific Creature? What if a Succubus left a piece of her aura behind after an encounter with Cid, allowing him to continue her line by proxy when he had a child? Obviously, this scenario can't be common--otherwise we'd have little Cubi running around whenever Cubi victims survived--but it's not inconceivable, nor entirely without precedent. It doesn't even have to be a deliberate enchantment; it could be a rare side effect of Cubi powers.

We do know that Cubification of Beings is possible. The non-canon version involves evil doctors with large needles, but Amber has been silent on how the official version might work. There may even be multiple paths to Cubification.

You're missing the point Tezkat. Seriously, how would you feel if someone used their natural shapshifting to impersonate your dad in order to @#!& around with your mom? No matter what abilities I gain from that, I would still hate ANYONE who uses a natural ability like that. And I most definatly would not want to do that myself, either. Just like Abel, that is where I would set my standards.

I'm afraid that that would depend entirely on how much I liked my first dad.


How would you react if, say, you found out that your real father is actually some rich movie star? Your mom was kinda drunk the night you were conceived and doesn't remember much about it. Since she was happily married soon after with a baby on the way, she never questioned that her fiancé/husband might not be the father. Nonetheless, genetic testing proves paternity beyond a doubt, and you always knew you were way more handsome than your dad.

"How dare this gorgeous millionaire take advantage of my mom while she was not in full control of her faculties! All men are rapists! I hate men!"   

or

"Hot damn! My dad's a movie star! And he wants me in his next film!"

Anger, denial, etc. are all valid and perfectly understandable reactions, but the healthiest long term solution is to accept what happened and move on.

Yeah.  I don't have occasion to study much on corporations.  They're in the Uncanny Valley--too close to humans for comfort, so I tend not to seek out information on them.

Ya know... this must be the first time I've encountered someone who avoids corporations because they're too human.

Yes.  But on the flipside, if I sent my perfectly normal 'Cubi son to SAIA when his headwings came in, and when he came back he was afraid of shapeshifting I would have a few very nasty words to say to Fa'Lina, e.g. "What have you done to my son, you crazy old hag?"

"You banned my son from the library? What kind of educational institution are you running, you crazy old hag?"

Which ultimately reinforces my point that if SAIA traumatised Abel (or any other student) about shapeshifting, it would be in their interests to fix it ASAP.  Whereas I think we agree that if Abel (or any other student) went into SAIA with a hangup about shapeshifting they wouldn't be quite so adamant about curing it at any cost, particularly if, as you say, it's some kind of religious belief.

I think the opposite scenario would be more likely. Young Cubi who, like Dan, were not raised among Creatures must show up at SAIA all the time--with all sorts of hangups. There would be a support network in place to help them work through their prejudices against Creatures/Cubi/magic/shapeshifting/(insert hangup here) and adapt to life in SAIA. That might even apply to religious beliefs. If sufficiently maladaptive, they might be treated like a cult indoctrination in need of deprogramming rather than healthy spirituality. If kids grow headwings after being raised to believe that Cubi are abominations against the gods, it's unlikely that SAIA will be all that sympathetic to their religion.

On the other hand, if the incident that put him off impersonation occurred later in his education, after he'd passed all his shapeshifting classes and could already toss lightning bolts at will, they'd be more likely to decide that he's a big boy and leave him alone rather than press the issue. The goth thing happened shortly after Abel entered SAIA, and the wording of Fa'Lina's reaction suggests that she was willing to humour the phases he was going through up to a point even then. There's a good three centuries in between during which his beliefs could have evolved.

And we still don't know what happened in that library... 


Evidence from the comic supports this theory. Abel is a very technically skilled shapeshifter. He performed an effortless sex change--a feat which, by his own admission, represents the culmination of years of training in multiple aspects of shapechanging. He pulled off a perfect Merlitz, with no reference, after meeting him only once. (Remember that Merlitz left immediately after Abel moved to Lost Lake.) That indicates years spent honing his impersonation skills, not someone who had a viceral opposition to practicing them.

[Tapewolf]

Funny... maybe it was just the warm sepia tones and 19th century fashions, but that felt homier to me. Doctors making house calls, live-in nurse looking after a sick wife... Devin's family certainly looked like they could afford such care.

Could be.  I hadn't thought of that.

"You banned my son from the library? What kind of educational institution are you running, you crazy old hag?"

True.  'Course, Abel probably doesn't have a parent to get mad at Fa'Lina, since unless either of his parents were 'Cubi, they're centuries dead by the present day.  If he's a cuckoo, which seems likely, he may or may not know who his biological father was.  If Cid doesn't hunt them down and kill them when he finds out what's happened.

I think the opposite scenario would be more likely. Young Cubi who, like Dan, were not raised among Creatures must show up at SAIA all the time--with all sorts of hangups. There would be a support network in place to help them work through their prejudices against Creatures/Cubi/magic/shapeshifting/(insert hangup here) and adapt to life in SAIA.

I agree that they'll have a support network - after all, Fa'Lina is, in her own freaky way, trying to do that with Dan now.  My argument is that Abel was too far gone when he arrived for them to be able to do much about it - as I say, it might be that getting him to perform cosmetic alterations was as much as they could get him to open up.

On the other hand, if the incident that put him off impersonation occurred later in his education, after he'd passed all his shapeshifting classes and could already toss lightning bolts at will, they'd be more likely to decide that he's a big boy and leave him alone rather than press the issue.

This is true to some degree, but there are many situations which can screw up adults pretty good as well.  War, accidents, murder etc.  Indeed, what Abel's just seen has done him a power of no good - when he comes across Kria in the present timeline we'll find out if there are any lingering mental scars.

Since we don't know what caused it, we can't really tell, but personally I believe it was because his real dad was a monster in disguise.

And we still don't know what happened in that library... 

I don't think we will.

Evidence from the comic supports this theory. Abel is a very technically skilled shapeshifter.  He performed an effortless sex change -- a feat which, by his own admission, represents the culmination of years of training in multiple aspects of shapechanging.

Yes - but it didn't involve changing his base form.  It isn't that he can't - it's that he won't.  Becoming Merlitz didn't really require anything non-cosmetic since they're both feline, and if he's happy enough to change hair colour, fur is probably not going to be much different.  If he had been required to turn himself into a feral poodle like Aary did, that would be a true measure of his skill.

(Back to your theory, I wonder if Abel got done for turning himself into Fa'Lina?)

He pulled off a perfect Merlitz, with no reference, after meeting him only once.

I'm not yet convinced.  Merlitz was wearing clothes when they met, but until the gang turn up, he's naked to the waist.  That he's half-naked when he chucks Mab, Wildy and Pyro out the door suggests they may have been helping him fine-tune.
And they could easily have given him a selection of photographs - copies of the ones they sent to the reporters, for example.  The reporters knew what he had to look like - if they'd just said he was a male feline, Abel could have done the whole gig in base form sans wings.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

We do know that Cubification of Beings is possible. The non-canon version involves evil doctors with large needles, but Amber has been silent on how the official version might work. There may even be multiple paths to Cubification.

We do? I know Tapewolf has written about it, but, so far as I can recall, Amber herself has been silent on the subject.

That's not to say it -can't- happen - just that we have zero information, one way or another, other than Tapewolf's poking in the dark - and he's as much as admitted that that's what he's doing, and it makes a good story, and he really hopes he doesn't have to re-write that whole segment because it worked so well...

(Back to your theory, I wonder if Abel got done for turning himself into Fa'Lina?)

... or a Librarian. And got done for it when the -real- Librarian got jiggy with him... and discovered the next morning?


Yeah, ok, I'm evil. :-)

[Tapewolf]

We do know that Cubification of Beings is possible. The non-canon version involves evil doctors with large needles, but Amber has been silent on how the official version might work. There may even be multiple paths to Cubification.

We do? I know Tapewolf has written about it, but, so far as I can recall, Amber herself has been silent on the subject.
Tapewolf's poking in the dark - and he's as much as admitted that that's what he's doing, and it makes a good story, and he really hopes he doesn't have to re-write that whole segment because it worked so well...

Nope - I am treading on fairly solid ground there, or I wouldn't have written that bit that way.  The original idea was direct soul-transfer with a 'cubi and having Ashley shapeshift into his original form - until I came across Amber's tantalising notes in the 'cubification thread. 

Voila:  http://nice.llearch.net/dmfa_forum1871.htm#ref326

...note that I was deliberately vague on how it works 

I added that to the wiki a few days before publishing, although perhaps it could do with an entire (if short) article rather than a footnote in the 'Cubi trivia section.

[Zedd]

Okays my theory is....All statements and theorys are false before this one

[GabrielsThoughts]

It is quite obvious that  Dan is Abel's biological father, I have as much evidence to prove this theory as anyone else does.

[superluser]

But I thought Devin's mom killed them...   Plus, that was probably in a different town...

No, that was the same town.  Remember?  Abel was going back to the funeral of a friend whom he grew up with?  Devin and Abel were childhood antagonists?

As for Devin's mom killing them--if Snidely Whiplash ties a young woman up on the tracks, and she gets run over, who has killed her?  Technically, it was the train, but we'd all say it was Snidely.

Likewise, if Devin's mom knew `cubi who was in the business of baby farming, and she delivered her other kids into their care, she could probably call herself a murderer.

inconceivable

Bravo, sir!  I bow down to your punning abilities.

There would be a support network in place to help them work through their prejudices against Creatures/Cubi/magic/shapeshifting/(insert hangup here) and adapt to life in SAIA. That might even apply to religious beliefs. If sufficiently maladaptive, they might be treated like a cult indoctrination in need of deprogramming rather than healthy spirituality.

I was referring more to the `cubi clans that revolve around peace.  If there are peaceful `cubi, it doesn't seem that unlikely that there are `cubi who don't shift base forms.

He performed an effortless sex change--a feat which, by his own admission, represents the culmination of years of training in multiple aspects of shapechanging. He pulled off a perfect Merlitz, with no reference, after meeting him only once.

No--he gave himself tits.  That's something different entirely.  The sex change for Danlexsi might have been extremely difficult.  He also pulled off a Merlitz to people who hadn't seen him in a long time, thought that he was slightly batty, and were preoccupied with Dan's magic.  Anyways, that's not impersonation, that's acting.

It is quite obvious that  Dan is Abel's biological father, I have as much evidence to prove this theory as anyone else does.

Ooh!  This is a fun one!  The dragons wipe out Dan's clan, leaving just him.  Pyro lends Dan his time machine, and Dan avails himself of his latent homosexual urges when he sees a woman who looks just like Abel.  Abel gets born with a birthmark on his back, screwing up the clan marking.

[GabrielsThoughts]

If I recall correctly while Abel managed to fool people Merl  hadn't been seen in 5 years...or months depending on the time table you have to admit Merlbel had the worst hair cut I have ever seen. If I had a haircut that bad my friends would probably avoid looking at me directly and would be making snippy  comments behind my back.

[kaskar]

If I recall correctly while Abel managed to fool people Merl  hadn't been seen in 5 years...or months depending on the time table you have to admit Merlbel had the worst hair cut I have ever seen. If I had a haircut that bad my friends would probably avoid looking at me directly and would be making snippy  comments behind my back.

         Also , they had mind shields on, that they didn't need, 'cause they were so thick. As Abel did at the start , what Merl does do instinctivly . No minding needed . Just a damned good sucker punch and the ability to keep himself under control . ( Remember when he was told that they were looking for cubi in the area and Abel stays quoting the lines in 'Dune' 'fear is the little death, etc ... )

[Aurawyn]

I had a thought on the whole "Devin's mom killed her other children" comments...

Perhaps when she said she killed them she meant some kind of self abortion.. as apposed to letting them be born then killing them? Someone would have been bound to notice that the Lady Mernstar is having children who keep disappearing shortly after birth

Here is my theory..

Perhaps Devin's mother knew he was an Incubus. She knew somehow knew that he was trying to spawn a cubi baby, and she caused/gave herself abortions because she loved him, and knew that if she had a baby and it was not an incubus he would leave. Eventually, she slipped up and let herself get too pregnant, and could not abort the baby, and thus we get Devin.

This is also extending to a thought that perhaps the birth of a cubi baby from a Being/Creature union is an all or nothing thing... Each couple will either have cubi babies, or they wont, there isn't any hit or miss. Otherwise.. Why just up and leave? He could have always just tried again..))

[Aridas]

What I want to know is WHY abel's story has to be about everyone being a cubi... some of the spec i've seen is pretty unrealistic, given the purpose of these pieces of stories... any more realistic point of why the plot went along as it is seems to get completely lost in an overly elaborate and convoluted speculation...

[devilsislegrl]

But I thought Devin's mom killed them...   Plus, that was probably in a different town...

No, that was the same town.  Remember?  Abel was going back to the funeral of a friend whom he grew up with?  Devin and Abel were childhood antagonists?

They were childhood antagonists AFTER Devin started living with his aunt and uncle.  He was jealous of Abel, who had loving parents, while he was a 'burden' to his aunt & uncle.  Abel knew nothing about Devin's mother.

It is quite obvious that  Dan is Abel's biological father, I have as much evidence to prove this theory as anyone else does.

huh?! 

[Tapewolf]

But I thought Devin's mom killed them...   Plus, that was probably in a different town...

No, that was the same town.  Remember?  Abel was going back to the funeral of a friend whom he grew up with?  Devin and Abel were childhood antagonists?

We don't actually know that 100% - it's probably the case, but when I did my reply I realised that Devin may have been born elsewhere.
It's possible that he only moved to Abel's town when he was transferred to his uncle and aunt's care.

It is quite obvious that  Dan is Abel's biological father, I have as much evidence to prove this theory as anyone else does.

huh?! 

He's just being facetious

[devilsislegrl]

oh. *smack head* 


**EDIT**

Edit note: There will be a slight delay. Lets just say there was an attack on my drawing paper by the tea forces and I am currently having to redraw. Abel's Story should still go up on Saturday...it just might be a few hours later than I'd normally prefer. At worst, I'll have it up alongside Monday's comic. Sorry for the inconvenience.

nooooo!!!  Damn you to the seven hells tea forces!


ok, breathe...u can survive this...

[kaskar]

      Is this a point where we have to read tea leaves to find our answers still ? damn that teacup ! Did she do this just to torture us into further discussion ? I await ...