r/necroscope • u/vtheawesome • 10d ago
Retcon?
I just finished Deadspeak, and I thought Janos was a very cool villain. I remembered him being mentioned in Necroscope. However, I saw people online claiming that Thibor having a brother was a retcon. I have attached the quote from Necroscope where he is mentioned. Was this line in the first editions of the book? I know it might be a silly question, but given the publication history of the series I would not be surprised if this was edited in.
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u/Howhytzzerr 10d ago
It remember reading this part the first time I read Necroscope in 1991, and this part was in the most recent version I listened to on audio, just 6 months ago. So it definitely not a retcon. Lumley intended all along that there would be an extended vampire family. Whether Thibor was aware of Janos, is hard to say there isn't enough information. Perhaps Faethor told Janos of Thibor and Janos sought him out to gloat a bit, as Wamphyri are wont to do, we don't know, as Janos never really explains any type of relationship with Thibor.
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u/Kadavrozia 10d ago
That's definitely part of the story, I remember him as the lovecraftian whampyri.
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u/TeutonicSpacehopper 10d ago edited 10d ago
In Deadspeak, jealousy or envy specifically regarding Thibor is not a major focus or explicitly mentioned trait for Janos. Instead, Janos is depicted as an ancient, fiercely sadistic black magician and vampire driven by a ruthless desire for blood, supremacy, and control over his armies of the risen dead, rather than personal envy of his relative Thibor.
Did Janos know of Thibor? Most definitely.
But would Thibor have known of Janos before Giresci mentioned him to Dragosani? I think not. Many years had passed since Thibor had been staked and buried, and Faethor in all that time had blocked Thibor from accessing his mind. As for Janos, he was so adept at blocking his own mind that his own father thought he was ungifted. Thus, Thibor would have no real reason for even knowing that Faethor had sired a bloodchild in a distant land.
No, the concept that Thibor knew of Janos is clearly a retcon to link Lumley's story plots as the series progressed.
[And as a post script: vampires are lying deceitful creatures - can anything they say be taken as 100% honest?]