{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1466",
    "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": 1466,
    "subject": "The Domnicellae",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-04-01T01:18:53+00:00",
    "last": "1999-04-01T15:38:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0121@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-01T01:18:53+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Domnicellae",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "From SWIMMING WITH THE UNDINES, Excerpt #5:\n\nWho is the Domnicellae, the high priestess of the Pelerines that Severian\nmeets only once, the encounter taking place in the tent cathedral after he\nand Agia have crashed into and destroyed the altar of the Claw? Her name is\nnever given (usually with Wolfe a sign we're meant to figure it out), and\nwhen Severian later convalesces in the lazaret of the Pelerines, she's\nconspicuously absent--simply \"away, as Mannea, mistress of the postulants,\ntells us, with no reason given for her nonpresence. Does author Wolfe\nprovide us with any clues as to who she may really be?\n\nI believe he does and suggest she's Thecla's childhood friend, Domnina,\nwhose tale we first hear from Sev in the Jungle Garden. For starters\nthere's her name, which can be extracted from the letters of Domnicellae;\nas I argue elsewhere Wolfe uses this device a number of times in the Book\nof the New Sun, where names are either nested inside larger names or\nderived via near anagrams from the parent word [1]. In addition, the witchy\npriestess has the stature of an exultant, the class we know Domnina belongs\nto. And as for her being absent from the field hospital of the Pelerines,\nthis is Wolfe cheating a bit; Severian, having incorporated Thecla's\nmemories via the alzabo, would no doubt recognize her old childhood friend,\nand so Wolfe very conveniently has her missing. Finally, we have young\nDomnina's experience with the numinous, a fish of light caught in the\nmirrors of Father Inire--about as potent a Christian symbol as you could\nhope for [2], but also calling to mind Severian's eventual turn as the\npiscine Sleeper, the Oannes-like god of Ushas. The encounter apparently\ndisturbs young Domnina quite a bit [3] and doubtless leads her to revaluate\nher situation, nudging her toward a life spent among the Pelerines, and\neventually culminating in her rise to the rank of Domnicellae. \n\n[1] Zak from Tzadkiel is one obvious example of this. Another slightly less\nso is Camoena from Cumaean. \n\n[2] Ichthys, of course--the Greek word for fish--is an acronym for Iesous\nChristos Theou Hyos Soter--Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. And early\nChristians often used the fish as a secret sign to identify themselves.\n\n[3] Or so it seems from Sev's description of Domnina after the fact: \"She\nfound herself in another world, and even when she returned to Thecla she\nwasn't quite sure she had found her way back to her real point of origin.\"\n(SHADOW, Chapt. XXI)\n\nRobert Borski"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0126@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-01T15:38:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Domnicellae",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0024-0121@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Borski,\n\nI was under the impression that the Lady of the Tent is away because\nif she saw Severian she would say, \"You again!\"  Because didn't she\nsee him after the destruction of the altar?  If so, then he has also\nseen her, and there will be a shock of recognition even without Thecla\nrecognizing another old friend in the tent (as she recognizes the\nwounded guy).\n\n=Michael="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}