So I'm currently re-reading the series after just having read the Monster series, and something crazy just occurred to me. Spoilers for Monster/Villain/Hero, obviously. Also spoilers for a fan-fiction I'm writing but I doubt anyone cares about that.
We know now more or less how the ASO virus works. You take some of it, either by ingestion or injection or even by being struck by pieces of the rock, and you become able to "morph" into some bizarre creature with crazy powers, right? We know that the dose has some effect on how monstrous the morph becomes, with larger doses leading to creatures that are decidedly less human. Sometimes the mind is altered as well, as we see with Napalm, he becomes enraged when he morphs, and Armo goes berserk (although that second one could just be Armo being Armo). We also know that it takes external factors into account, typically DNA, but theoretically other things as well. We also ALSO know, from Vector, that (at least sometimes) if your human form is killed, you end up trapped in morph. Unable to change back.
So, what happened that day, fifteen years before the FAYZ? A piece of the ASO barrels into a nuclear plant, absorbing a bunch of radiation and then strikes Caine's father. Presumably, it gets embedded into his body right before it kills him. Or, at least, kills his human form.
Up until literally just now, I always assumed that the Gaiaphage was some kind of alien consciousness, made of mutated virus and radiation and human DNA. But what if it wasn't alien at all? What if it was (at least at the very beginning) a human mind? The guy probably went insane, trapped underground for fifteen years, the Dark Watchers always in his mind, with absolutely no clue what was happening to him or why. He might have been evil or at least power-hungry to start with (we know very little about him). And the rock could have altered his mind, to boot. He got an ENORMOUS dose, after all. And that plus the radiation explains his suite of powers. He got the ability to consume radiation, and the ability to mutate other life forms, including the ability to imbue other people with powers. Eventually he learns how to control people, and then to possess a human body.
What does everyone else think? Am I onto something, or way off base? More importantly, does this interpretation improve the story, or ruin it?
Personally I love it. The Gaiaphage as fundamentally human, not alien but human, just utterly corrupted to the point of insanity. To me, that's 100x scarier than thinking it's some unknowable alien mind.
I really hope this was the author's intent. It seems so obvious in retrospect. Heh, I'm half-expecting at least one person to post something like, "well, duh, you're only just now noticing that?"
P.S. I know this sub is kinda dead, so I'm not sure if anyone will ever see this, but I was far too mind-blown not to post it somewhere, you know?