Mom didn't have any concept of being related to the priests of Egypt who back at that time were called the Sons of Maat, or really process that she had chosen them to father her children even without informing them that any such thing was taking place because she was encountering them though their shared genetic ability to speak to people who were not present.
In Toonook's mother's childhood it was the practice that orphans would be taken to the place of pick up where they would be raised to do tedious jobs designed by the Alphas in the industrial cities. Its not really clear why they insisted on making these jobs so tedious though it probably is and no one has taken the time to look. And it was an accumulation of not bothering to bother with much more pressing things to do that brought down many kinds of things.
Anyway, any males with the ability to focus on things beyond the immediate were being culled, and Mom screwed that up, and it didn't take too long for people to figure out something was happening, but no one at that time who could speak to people about things that they had never said was going to put any information about that kind of stuff into words, especially because absolutely no one was going to thank them for that.
(they've shifted the computers to the area near the bathroom and the silent reading room and the magazines, by the windows and the light is a lot brighter here, and the security desk is right here too, though the security guy is kinda sketchy)
In Shut Eye I heard mention of Sara e Kali, Mom thought of all religion as absolute BS, but didn't have words for her own beliefs, eventually saw that there was power in group participation in things, but only in theory, it wasn't something she could really cope with herself. As for who Sara was individually I don't know if I've ever heard that or not, I kinda have, Gypsy John had been badly used in his life, his sense of family loyalty and tradition had been abused in being told to marry Aurora who is a Traveler, he outlived his family somewhat as a result though, and if he was being drawn into outsider traditions he might as well sing a death chant to me.
I've talked to both Tibetans and Gypsies and I remember the conversations with the Gypsies in a much more normal part of my brain than I remember my conversations with Tibetans. That has weight on my scale.
So I've heard from Gypsies about the need to seem to have some kind of space filler in the religion niche, and defunct seems to be the best option, though these things can be like seeds that actually germinate at some point and then you have to totally rethink things again.
And like the blue mark, just breeding from wholly sighted ancestors doesn't maintain the sight. But traditions evolve around having the sight especially among outsiders that people pass through or live near that continue to have some immediate benefit that overcomes whatever structures are in place to shut outsiders out of any benefit from any of the opportunities generated by any group.
(I get kinda gurgly after drinking kombucha that's had about half a week of secondary brewing and almost an oyster's worth of scoby on the top, I treat it the same anyway)
I was also told that they have a ton of recipes that interfere with people's brains and memories in a physical sense, and they've been made over campfires and in the backs of vans for a long time.
And they are not a monolithic group.
