Owlish wrote:Welcome to the Forums, please select your favorite Virtual Beverage from the wide selection available here and join in the discussions!
Regarding your points, the PICAs can change their appearances to a limited extent (altho the performances of Merlin as Zhapyth Slaytyr did seem to stretch things a bit for me, but that's within RFC's scope, not mine), but they can only revise things like build and height to a limited extent. In my opinion, it's very questionable that the PICAs could assume a convincing image of another specific person good enough to fool someone who had met the target person, even in passing. Keeping in mind that meeting one of the Vicars (one of God's select) would be a memorable event to any Safeholder, such a subterfuge would seem very unlikely to me. Also, it's a reasonable question if the PICAs could deactivate a defense system before it set off the defensive 'bells and whistles' to alert the Temple defenses - Merlin has obviously decided not to try. But it would be a very good trick if they could pull it off!
There are a few people that have met both Merlin and one of his 'troop', but at least one of them (Madam Pahrsahn/Phonda/Rychtair, a lady of many faces herself!) has 'made' Merlin/Ahbraim, so the disguises are not foolproof (and Aivah is far from a fool).
In all fairness, though, didn't Zhevons have a rather more intimate encounter with Madam Parsahn? That makes it more likely that she would recognize the difference. And she's a spy already, so her antennae are up. It doesn't surprise me that she figured it out.
On the other hand, an enrobed 'vicar' wandering around in the temple would be far less likely to be revealed. What needs to happen is to capture a high ranking priest and assume his identity.
I acknowledge the counter points made by the replies, and I appreciate them, but most of them are based on assumptions and I'm curious as to why the subject hasn't even been broached. I understand Merlin is probably too tall, but Nimue isn't, and changing from male to female or vice versa has already been demonstrated to not be a problem.
I disagree that facial features can only be changed to a 'certain extent.' Clearly the roles played by Merlin look dramatically different from each other, from Zhevons to the assassin in LAMA.
Furthermore, even if Merlin couldn't perfectly match the facial features of a captured priest, there is such a thing as makeup. Are you telling me they couldn't manufacture a really good mask in the cave?
There is no evidence that absolutely precludes the possibility of inserting a PICA into the temple EXCEPT his nature being detected, and even that isn't clear. If I were Merlin, I'd be working on a way to mask my abilities. The spy stuff is merely a difficulty, not an impossibility.
Ultimately it comes down to whether or not RFC decides to address the issue. It's his series. I'm just saying that it hasn't been definitively put to bed yet.
