In Neal Stephenson’s "Fall; Or, Dodge In Hell", which Meatspace characters are identified with which Bitspace characters?

Question

Spoilers for Fall; Or, Dodge In Hell.

The book follows the creation of a digital afterlife to which people are uploaded after their death, over many decades of real time (and millennia of digital time). Most of the characters from the book (and at least a couple from Cryptonomicon) eventually die and end up in Bitspace. But which Bitspace characters correspond with which meatspace characters?

Some are obvious. Egdod is Richard “Dodge” Forthrast. Spring is Verna. Mab is Maeve. Pluto is Pluto. El is Elmo “El” Shepherd. Sophia/Daisy/Primula is Sophia.

I don’t think any of the Ephrata Eleven are named, but one is identified as a walking mountain. The Most-Favored Nation Nine include Verna (see above), but also Randy Waterhouse and Amy Shaftoe. And presumably six other people, possibly including other Cryptonomicon characters, since some of them are Randy’s business associates. They are presumably part of the Pantheon, but who is whom?

Answer 1

John Cantrell, Tom Howard and Pekka "The Finn who Got Blown Up" are wearing cryonic instruction bracelets in Crytonomicon, so if they died early they're probably among the Eleven and if they survived until later they may be in the Pantheon instead. There doesn't seem to be much to go on to map them to their Bitworld identities, though.

Answer 2

I'd say Freewander's personality and form suit Amy Shaftoe, but I haven't found anything that hints more closely than just their similarities.

Same goes for Thingor being Randy Waterhouse, especially when it comes to his creation of locks around the lightning bolt storage room and then learning a lot about hacking through security measures by inferring how they were bypassed.

Pluto (Pluto), Verna (Spring), Dodge (Egdod), Elmo (El), C Plus (Corvus), Sophia (Sophia), Maeve (Mab), and Bombasticus (Pan) are all spelled out in meatspace conversations.

• If I recall, Pluto is specifically called-out as the agent who's been improving the Landform since the death of the meatspace Pluto.
• "Verna" means "spring," and when the whole REAP objection is brought up by Z-A lawyers, they specifically say that Dodge and Verna were the parents of the new processes.
• Dodge's identity is, of course, brought up in dozens of places.
• Same with Elmo.
• "Corvus" only appears after we read about C Plus getting ready to die and be a bird in the afterlife, and "Corvus" (translation: "raven/crow/jackdaw") was the name C Plus used in his Roman re-enactment hobby.
• Sophia has the same name.
• Mab is identified as Maeve by Corvus and Zula when talking about the entity that follows Adam & Eve around (specifically, I think they say they're almost certain it's Maeve rather than 100% sure).
• Lastly, Bombasticus says she's planning to transition to the afterlife right before Pan shows up in the story, and her music is particularly pleasing to Egdod (so I guess that's more of a strong hint than a totally certain indication).

When I first encountered Speaksall, I thought he might be Avi Halaby (Randy's Epiphyte business partner), who was a stellar communicator. But I can't recall Cryptonomicon saying anything about Avi being a polyglot.

Ward does sort of fit the style of Doug Shaftoe, but are we ever told if he was uploaded? I don't think he died explicitly in any previous book, but I don't think he's mentioned at all in this one.

At first, I thought Knotweave would turn out to be Maeve (what with the whole textiles/weaving angle), but that was clearly wrong. For some reason, I get the feeling we're supposed to guess who Warm Wings is, but I haven't the foggiest.

As for the others, I got nothing.

What about Captain and Honey?

Answer 3

Ward could be Doug Shaftoe, based on Ward's job and Shaftoe's background. Also, he's just a little older than Dodge (born around 1942, while Dodge is early postwar) so he'd probably be in the prime age range to have died not too long after Dodge did, and his connection to the Waterhouse-Shaftoe Foundation means he'd probably be preserved and scanned after death.

Answer 4

Egdod - Richard “Dodge” Forthrast

El - Elmo “El” Shepherd

Daisy/Sophia/Primula - Sophia Forthrast

Corvus - Corvallis “C Plus” Kawasaki

Mab - Maeve Braden

Freewander

Greyhame

Knotweave

Longregard

Paneuphonium - Gerta “Pompitus Bombasticus” Stock

Pluto - Pluto

Speaksall

Spring - Verna Braden

Thingor

Ward

Warm Wings

Answer 5

The only Verna ('Spring' in Bitspace) I could find in the book is Maeve Braden's sister, who died of cancer. Maeve was Richard's (Dodge's) love. So, them showing Spring as Verna, in the communication network diagram in that "business meeting" scene, is a bit weird for me. It makes sense, Verna was a programmer and Maeve wasn't, but c'mon Neal, the sister? Like, I get he's trying to recreate the weird incestuous nature of ancient mythological "God" families and the weird stuff that eventually happens when you're immortal but... I mean, maybe in my grandmother's era that sort of thing was okay within their culture, just not in my generation. So yeah, didn't like that craving the sister's partner bit! hahaha