Posted 26 January 2007 - 06:26 AM
I have a pretty wild theory on why Chzo replaced the Prince.
It's still a little sketchy, so don't bash me if something isn't right. Rather correct me.
Chzo captured Cabadath because was a real delicacy for him. I mean, being a hulking mountain of flesh and a well known god of pain, it probably doesn't happen very often, that a human steps right into his domain. Especially not from the realm of technology. So he used the opportunity and locked him right into a tree, to make his pain last really, really long. I think the whole liche thing was more of a side-effect than really wished by Chzo. Afterall, Chzo still is just some kind of animal, even if very, very powerful. But then the tree got cut down. This must've been a whole lot of pain for Cabadath, too, so yummy for Chzo. This contiuned, with his tree being used for all kind of stuff. The Unicorn, the hapsichord, the crate, and finally the idol. Each time Chzo could feed on Cabadath's pain. Additionally, on every 28th July, the only time he actually could, he let Cabadath out to slay the users of the wood in a most painful matter. More yummy for Chzo.
Also, we could see, that Cabadath was kind of "playing" with his prey. He didn't just walk in, killed them and walked out again. For the lumberjack, it took the stone of the child to actually make him stop. In the Unicorn, he first set the inn-keeper on fire, and lured Somerset down before killing him off. Then he tricked Frehorn into killing his lover Wilbur, while playing on the Hapsichord (pain of Soul, special yummy for Chzo). On the ship, it took the "interference" of Mbouta before Cabadath actually stopped slashing around in the corpse (maybe he even was still alive) of the captain.
So each of them was killed in a really painful manner. But the day he was kind of hold back by Chzo before killing Frehorn (seeing that Cabadath still had some kind of free will, he surely would've killed Frehorn, too, if Chzo let him), Cabadath realized something wasn't right and started plotting for himself. Then, in the hotel, Cabadath wasn't just influenced by Chzo anymore. Also John DeFoe was now nagging on him. He even tried to kill Trilby for the first time (when he was in Siobhan's room), probably trying to protect John (afteall, being trapped in a part of his wood, he kind of became child to him, just like Cabadath became to Chzo, in a really, really twisted way). Then, when he had crossed over in the realm of technology he finally could think clear again, since Chzos influence was weakened through the absence of magick. He realized, that the whole religion Chzo created could only be a hoax and now set his own plans into motion.
Chzo on the other hand, knew, that with the tree basically reduced to shavings, he wouldn't get as much pain out of Cabadath as he used to. And as we can see on the way he killed the Trilbies (short and effective) he didn't deliever Chzo anymore pain that way either. Since Chzo isn't really bond to the conception of time, he of course knew the outcome of this from the beginning. Just Cabadath didn't. So as the Cult slowly build up around the ruins of DeFoe Manor, Cabadath still helped the cult (he just used the Cult at that moment, just as much as Chzo did), since he still only wanted the best for his "child". But as soon as he realized they we're using Trilby's blood for clones (I'm pretty sure being imprisoned like 99% of the time and only let out once every year, Cabadath wasn't that much of an expert on technology. He probably just assumed they needed his blood for a ritual.) he started acting against the cult. And at this moment the cult left the facility and only left the cast of 6 Days. You know the rest. He tried to kill the Trilbies, so John DeFoe could spread. With John DeFoe being a part of him, the places where he spreaded were going to be his own personal lair. So far he always was imprisoned by Chzo. Now he had the chance to get his own Kingdom, without the influence of Chzo. But Chzo was clearly acting against the plans of destiny (I think Somerset became just as much a prince as Cabadath, only that Somerset became the prince of destiny and Cabadath the prince of pain, I believe "Destiny" is just as much an entitiy as Chzo is), so the caretake interfered and made the whole place go boom. At this instance, the bridge was there and Chzo got all he wanted. He got Cabadath back, he got Dacabe and he got Trilby as bonus.
After that he took all the powers he granted Cabadath (who doesn't say anything, but you still can see that he's pretty pissed, imo) and gives them to Dacabe. That moment, when Cabadath points at Dacabe, you can almost hear him saying "Are you kiddin me?" and then he gets slain of by Dacabe. Dacabe being his new "eternal" source of pain.
So, that's my take on the story. I know I left out a whole lot, and pretty much left out the significance of Trilby in the whole thing, but as I said, it's still pretty sketchy. Feel free to correct me.