{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1034", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1034, "subject": "Aquastor!!!", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1998-08-01T21:10:17+00:00", "last": "1998-08-02T14:57:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-08-01T21:10:17+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Aquastor!!!", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nI think that I have found the name aquastor. While reading about\ngolems, I saw that aquastor is the mystical name for a created being,\nsuch as a golem or homunculus.\n\nOne legend about the golem is that God told a Jew to sculpt a man out\nof the clay of the River Jordan. On this was placed a tablet\ninscribed with the name of god (remember the Hierodules' lecture on\nsouls being like carved words?). The golem was then a healer; a slave\nof the Jews. Any Jew who looked on it was healed. This resembles\nSeverian so much, I can't help but think it's related.\n\nSupposedly, the concentration and power of a trained mind is required\nfor an aquastor's creation and maintenance. Also, the creator is\nresponsible for the actions of the aquastors it creates.\n\nPerhaps part of Severian's special relationship with the people from\nYesod is that they made an eidolon of him when he died, and are\nresponsible for him. Why would they resurrect some anonymous Urth\nboy? Because they knew him in his future, which is their past. It's\nall cyclic, you see.\n\nIn the BNS, if there is any difference between the terms eidolon and\naquastor, it seems to be that the eidolon is created from the memories\nof the person being recreated. Aquastors come from the memories of\nother people. The mind from which the memories for the aquastor would\nnot be able to tell that they were not the real people, since they\nwould never act in a way that the originator wouldn't believe them to\ndo, even if the real person would have done something different from\nthat. An eidolon would be exactly like the original, since it is\ncreated from the original's memories. Actually, the eidolon would\nonly be a perfect copy if the original had all the memories of its\nlife. A being with imperfect memory would have experienced things and\nhave memories hidden (or unavailable) to its current memories, and\nwould probably actually be slightly different from the original,\nthough not in significant ways, since only remembered memories would\nprobably have affected the original anyway.\n\nMay I propose a theory? Severian resurrects people; that is apparent.\n But, what do these renati do? They do one of two things. They\nappear normal to Severian if he knew them, or they have almost no\nmemories if he didn't. When Severian resurrects the uhlan, he acts\nlike Sev. thinks an uhlan should act, and remembers what Sev. saw\nhappen to him. When Sev. resurrects the soldier, he has no memory,\nbut acts in a way like Jonas, whom Sev. was reminded of when\nresurrecting him. He knows only what Sev. knew about him: that he was\na soldier, and that he had a love. He even completely adopts the name\nSev. decided to use for him. The man animated by the necromancer was\nunknown to him, too, and has no memories except hatred for the\nnecromancer, whom Sev. already knew had \"raised\" him. There seems to\nbe no reason for these people to have no memories, other than what\nSev. knows about them. This theory, if true, solves many problems and\nquestions using only information provided in the books.\n\nWhen Sev. resurrects Thecla in his mind he had eaten part of her and\nthe alzabo, so he had all of her memories when giving her life\n(recreating her soul in him). We can't even be sure exactly what the\nprocess of autarchization is like to someone with imperfect memory and\nwithout revitalizing power.\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1998-08-02T14:57:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Aquastor!!!", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "prion,\n\nCould we have a text citation for that \"aquastor\" tidbit? Author,\ntitle, publisher, date of publication, page number of item.\n\nThanks in advance!\n\n=mantis=" } ] } ] }