It seems that the three Vadeli castes could be interpreted as being connected to different aspects of a fallen and degraded world - I believe someone put it as, imitating the dying God and the dying world, by becoming shit, blood and corpses (paraphrasing wildly, of course, but it's very evocative).
I think it can be argued that they also represent three different stages of degradation of humanity, which might jive nicely with the return of the Red and Blue Vadeli and the beginning of the Hero Wars.
To wit, Brown Vadeli represent humanity surrounded by excrement - the degradation of everyday life, especially in stereotypical low-sanitation pre-modern cities. This is unfortunate, but normal, and stands for all the petty injustices and corruption and banal evil of everyday life.
Red Vadeli represent humanity bathed in blood. This is simple enough - the horrors of war, an extraordinary evil, but at the same time not that unheard of. And, as we all know, wars are already starting all over the world. Not that it had anything to do with their return directly, as they are not yet more intense than, say, some of the wars in earlier Wanes of the Lunar Empire. Yet may be the operative word here.
Blue Vadeli, however, represent some particularly unique and exceptional evil - humanity surrounded by corpses, when there are so many dead that people cannot even bury them properly. This may well come from a particularly horrific war (the Kingdom of War doesn't seem that good at burying its victims decently...), but also makes me think of plague and famine. I imagine there is plenty of that to come later in the Hero Wars.
I wonder if the ritual to bring back Blue Vadeli might have that as a ritual requirement, inspiring the Vadeli to engineer famines and plagues. Of course they might want to do that anyway. Alternatively, if Blue Vadeli come back, that may well be something they would do as a matter of professional interest and religious devotion.
While we are on the topic, I can't help but wonder whether Brown Vadeli smell terribly all the time. That'd put a bit of a damper on their polite and civil act...
Yours,
Daniel Pavlovich Adamov
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