{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1571",
    "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": 1571,
    "subject": "Chrism",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-04-23T00:50:38+00:00",
    "last": "1999-04-23T00:50:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0026-0018@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Rabin",
        "address": "danrabin at a.crl.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-23T00:50:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Chrism",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I just noticed this one:\n\n1. When Severian is initiated into the Order of Seekers for Truth and\nPenitence, he is anointed on his forehead with blood, the chrism of the\nOrder.\n\n2. When, in the Second House,  the old Autarch shows Severian the book that\nshows \"the way to the Garden\", blood vessels in Severian's forehead burst.\n\"The sight has marked you,\" comments the old Autarch.\n\nI don't think this implies that Tzadkiel and Master Palaemon are one and\nthe same :-), but a lot of things *do* come together in the latter scene:\n\nA. Severian's sworn loyalties--to the Order (betrayed), to Vodalus\n(ultimate betrayed, but shown in *this very scene* to be compatible with\nloyalty to the Autarch), to the Autarch (sworn spontaneously as a result of\nthe vision), and of course, to the higher beings who have just anointed\nhim.  In typical Severian fashion, he misunderstands what has happend, and\nswears fealty to the Autarch instead.\n\nB. The Autarchial succession--the old Autarch was informed that Severian\nwas next while Severian was with the Thecla khaibit (as revealed in\n_Citadel_).  Now Severian shows up again as the expected messenger from\nVodalus, carrying a message impressed on an implement that has the same\nshape as the forebrain-extraction tool.  Then, before the old Autarch's\neyes, the beings from the book anoint Severian.  After a brief release of\ntension when he realizes that he has invested Severian's search for the\ngarden with too weighty a meaning, he drops a hint about the manner of\nsuccession (later he admits that he was seeking to postpone his time).\nWhereupon Thecla's memories identify the Autarch and Father Inire enters to\nguide Severian to the Green Room.\n\nNow Severian knows that he serves both sides in the civil war, as does the\nAutarch.  He seems to miss the import of his new anointment.  Within a\ncouple of chapters he will be acting in \"Eschatology and Genesis\".\n\nI have toyed with the idea that perhaps Severian is anointing himself, thus\nmaking the future Autarch self-anointed as well as self-ruler, but this\ndoesn't seem to fit Severian's general attitude of reverence toward the\ndivine.\n\nOh, the craft!\n\n  -- Dan Rabin"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}