On Sun, Oct 11, 2026 at 11:44 AM dbernat <xxxxxx@gol.com> wrote:
> Quoting from the article:
>
> In his 1951 short story Temple Trouble, Piper spends a great length of
> time describing the way that time and dimension traveling beings calling
> themselves the Paratime Police use a fabricated religion to allow
> privatized corporations to mine uranium and other commodities right
> under the noses of the low-tech societies they have converted.
>
> So could Styphon be a fabricated religion that Paratimers are discarding
> in favor of Kalvan?

You're suggesting that Styphon was a religion invented and promoted by
Paratimers, and Verkan Vall and the Paratime Police didn't figure that
out?

No, not possible.  As part of their observation of Kalvan's influence
on his one timeline, the Paratime research team(s) monitor several
adjacent timelines as "controls".  If Styphon was created by
Paratimers, then the religion would have existed only on the timeline
where they created it.  The House of Styphon pretty clearly exists on
numerous adjacent timelines.

There is more evidence, if needed.  The stories tell of Kalvan's new
friends coming to understand why the House of Styphon is so keen to
gather the resources of sulfur and saltpeter; activities they
previously found inexplicable.  If the House of Styphon was just a
cover for out-time trading, and the gunpowder they sell was actually
produced on other timelines, then there would be no need for the House
of Styphon to go to such great lengths to harvest those resources in
such large quantities.

---------------------
Down Styphon!
—David Sooby