Keeping with the theme of failing to notice everything important, it took me quite a few years to finally realize that the elusive and obscure Madame Petrovsky from Mahogany Hall is another historical character.
Of course, less noticable than Huffam because her name is mashed up, but eventually the game will mentions her full name as Helena Petrovsky… which a google search will helpfully redirect you to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
Her stuff includes a spin on the Great Chain.
The book she sold in game, the Secret Dogma, is equivalent of the Secret Doctrines in real life.
Leaving the thinking to the smart people! (Just in case someone actually noticed this much earlier, but I did several searches and saw no one talking about it)
Think I recall it’s been mentioned as a minor note in more general threads about RL identities amongst the NPCs, but not to this degree of detail. I didn’t realise she had perspectives related to the Great Chain. I’ll definitely look into that part of her work!
Thanks for bringing it up :)
There is actually a link between Blatavsky and the Theosophicals and American baseball… the apocryphal "inventor" of the game was for many years the President of the Theosophicals in the U.S., and one of the most important figures in playing, sports equipment marketing, and team/league organization in the 19th century was a devout member of the sect. I won’t bore you with all the details, but they cooked up a myth of the invention of the game to emphasize American exceptionalism and its separation from the old European religions and philosophies. Crackpot stuff, but that’s theosophists for you.
– Mal
Theosophist Andrei Bely’s Petersburg is one of my favorite novels. His characters transcend into authors and create more characters, as the living city of Petersburg interferes with their revolutionary plot. The city is probably not a space crab, however.