Question on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer

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Band2
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Question on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer

Post by Band2 »

I have a question for the authors of the Graben Island entry on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer.

A Colin Graben Jr. is mentioned as an uncle of Josiah Graben. However later it is stated that Colin had only 1 son, Horst, who is the "father" of Josiah.

I thought of a couple of possible explanations but wanted to know what the original intent was.

Possibility 1, Colin Jr. is an alias.

We know that Josiah Graben is really Colin Graben masquerading as his own grandson.
Could Colin Jr. have been another older Graben family member masquerading as a younger family member? So Colin Jr. never existed and was just an alias for another family member.

Possibility 2, Colin Jr. is a great uncle or other relative

The other possibility is that uncle has a broader definition than I am giving it. Instead of uncle only being the brothers of your father, uncle includes cousins, and other relatives of your father. But in that case, Colin would have to have a relative also named Colin, who had a son named Colin Jr.
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Re: Question on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

OK, I finally had a chance to go back and look at this. Without Rotipher's confirmation, I can't be sure, but it looks like a mistake. Whether the mistake is the author's, editor's, or a deliberate in-character mistake on the part of Colin/Josiah, is probably impossible to sort of for sure. But were I to try to make it make sense, I would do so thusly:

Remember that at the only point that Colin Jr. is mentioned, "Josiah" (actually Colin) is trying to explain to Viktor why his grandfather "Colin" (actually Ezekiel) called Josiah "Colin" by mistake (seemingly calling his grandson by his own name). So he said that "Colin Jr." was an uncle who died, for whom "Colin Sr." sometimes mistakes Josiah. Rather than an elaborate alias, I'm guessing this was something Colin came up with on the fly to explain away Ezekiel's slip-up. By placing "Colin Jr." as one of the dead from the fire, he is trying to avoid Vik probing any deeper into this non-existent uncle.

I don't buy your possibility #1 because if someone was posing as Colin Jr. on a long-term basis, he should have been mentioned when mentioning Horst being an only son, I'd think. ("his only son, except for Colin Jr., who is really ___" or somesuch).

I don't buy possibility #2 for the same reason you said. Jr. implies a Sr, and having not 2, but 3 Colin's running around (and not in a direct line, 1 father/son combo and 1 other) in the same family seems improbable, and again, something that would be mentioned elsewhere.

The fact that Colin Jr. appears only here makes me think "Josiah" made him up right there, just to brush off this foreign visitor from possibly questioning their charade any further.
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Re: Question on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer

Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

It was, indeed, Colin's off-the-cuff explanation for why the elderly Ezekiel got his name wrong. There never was a "Colin Jr.".

OOC, it's a demonstration of how "Josiah"'s ruses aren't always 100% airtight - Colin is very shrewd and good at improvising, but he's not a genius - and also that he's constantly having to step in and shore up his family's facade of normality, because he's basically surrounded by pre-programmed clods who can't concoct excuses for themselves. Yet another reason why he really, really wants to ditch his position and run.
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Re: Question on the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer

Post by Band2 »

Thanks Rotipher and Gonzoron. That is much better than my explanation. So Colin Jr. did not exist, so I do not need to add him to my NPC list.
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