{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1682",
    "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": 1682,
    "subject": "The Power Behind the Phoenix Throne I",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-06-12T17:29:22+00:00",
    "last": "1999-06-12T17:29:22+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0087@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mitchell A. Bailey",
        "address": "mab at lindau.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-06-12T17:29:22+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Power Behind the Phoenix Throne I",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Of everything which has been said thus far about Father Inire, it\nstrikes me that the most germaine point  has thus far been missed.\n\nFather Inire is not merely an incidental, eccentric appurtenance to the\nAutarchy. I have come to believe that Inire had a mission to define and\nshape the very nature of Autarchy, which he did. The Commonwealth as a\nstate is practically identical with the millenia-long stewardship of\nInire. I think that an important key to understanding Inire is an\nunderstanding of the nature and purpose of the Autarchy, his special\ncharge.\n\nHis name, per Lexicon Urthus, means “to enter” or “to begin” and is\nrelated to a term for the commencement of a reign. The Autarchy began\nand effectively ended with Inire. Did the Monarch Typhon engage the\nservices of Inire? Somehow I doubt it seriously, although I believe\nthere is one instance in which Inire might conceivably have  influenced\nTyphon. Who was the first Autarch to take on Inire as vizier? Why, the\nfirst Autarch, Ymar! Who was the last true Autarch? Severian! Who was\nthe last Autarch to have been served by Inire? Severian, evidently.\nValeria apparently lost the services of Inire, and - therefore? - was\nperceived to have lacked the credentials of a true Autarch.\n\nInire is credited with “many marvels”: his specula, the Autarch’s House\nAbsolute and its Second house, the Botanic Gardens, all of which have\npeculiar spatial and temporal properties. There are some other “marvels”\nI think we can also attribute to Inire: certain facilities in the\nCitadel such as the Atrium of Time, and the implied hyperspatial\nconnection between the Citadel and the distant House Absolute which\nallows such as Rundesind to walk back and forth as if they were adjacent\nhallways. Then there is the presence of the Cumaean (for whom, it is\nsaid, the Botanic Gardens were built) and her kind, and by extension the\nsisterhood of witches. These again seem to have power over time and\ndistance. Many of Inire’s “marvels” seems to be characterized by the\nmanipulation or transcendance of time and/or space.\n\nAnother related province of Inire’s was the preservation of (and/or\naccess to) the past. The Curators Guild seem to be Inire’s agency. It is\npopulated with special operatives such as Rundesind who take orders from\nInire and have the run of the House Absolute and the Citadel. Note that\nthe Curators are also the custodians of the Botanic Gardens and the\nLibrary. They wear Inire’s color, gray. Typhon is generally identified\nas that ruler credited in legend with establishing the archive which\nbecame the Library; I have to wonder if Inire didn’t somehow contrive to\ninspire that idea.\n\nI don’t think I am out of line to suggest that it was probably Inire who\nintroduced what is perhaps the defining characteristic of Autarchy: that\npractice of transference of memories, via the autarchial pharmacon and\neating of the living forebrain of the predecessor, in an unbroken\nsuccession by each incumbent. It seems clear that the monarchs prior to\nYmar had no such rite for continuity. \n\nIt would appear that Inire expended much time, effort, and energy to\nensure that this chain of Autarchs was never broken in all the centuries\nof the office, while the incumbent retained the necessary freedom and\nopportunity to act and to take risks. One need look no further than the\nepisode wherein Severian and the dying Autarch were captured by the\nAscians and the Vodalarii to see how precarious this succession could\nbe. This continuity and accumulation of diverse wisdom and experience\nmight well be the key to the Autarchy’s purpose and Severian’s eventual\nsuccess in bringing the New Sun. \n\nOnce in BNS we get to see actual words of Inire addressed to the\nAutarch, which might offer a clue regarding Inire’s motivations and\nallegiance. First he calls the Autarch by several titles denoting\nidentity with solar deity. It seems to be axiomatic that the New Sun is\nexpected to emerge from the Autarchy and nowhere else. Father Inire\nexpresses his reverence to his Autarch not as his superior or as head of\nstate, but as the New Sun to come, no less. \n\nHe goes on to lament that his “cousins” help only reluctantly and do not\nseem to regard Urth, still less the Commonwealth and its Autarch, as\nworthy of special consideration. It was Inire’s job to plead on behalf\nof Urth to seemingly indifferent ears until the Epitome was prepared."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}