{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1683",
    "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": 1683,
    "subject": "The Power Behind the Phoenix Throne II",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-06-12T17:42:32+00:00",
    "last": "1999-06-12T17:42:32+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0088@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mitchell A. Bailey",
        "address": "mab at lindau.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-06-12T17:42:32+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Power Behind the Phoenix Throne II",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Inire probably arrived at about the same time as, or shortly after, the\nsun started to gutter. Inire seems to have openly appeared on Urth at\nabout the same time, no coincidence, as Ymar rose to power.  Inire no\ndoubt recognized Ymar as the Conciliator’s chosen one and put all his\ntemporal thaumaturgy at Ymar’s disposal from the start. It would seem\nthat the higher powers who chastise the Urth by crippling the Sun at the\nsame time provide a hope and plan for redemption through the mission of\nInire.\n\nOne thousand years later, Severian, the Epitome, departs for his\nappointment, leaving Inire as regent. However, Inire, his work already\ndone, soon dies or departs to the stars whence he came. Since Valeria\ndid not have the opportunity to consume Severian’s memories, she could\nnot become truly an Autarch. Severian, by becoming the New Sun, has\nalready fulfilled the higher purpose of the Autarchy, so she would\nactually be superfluous as Autarch.\n\nThe Autarch has been cultivated by Father Inire not merely as a ruler\nbut as the Epitome from whom will spring the New Sun and the blessings\nof the Hieros’ forgiveness. As Severian announced at his examination,\nthe Autarchs represent and take responsibility for all the peoples of\nUrth. I will speculate that this is the purpose for the memory-transfer\ncustom. Quotes Malrubius-aquastor, “In you all the divergent tendencies\nof our race _may_  have achieved synthesis” (emphasis mine. Thanks, Tony\nEllis!). This, I presume, is the reason for the title Epitome claimed by\nSeverian at his examination in UNS. Perhaps that abstract-sounding goal\nis accomplished in the concrete sense by producing a person in whom a\nbroad representative spectrum of past lives and experience are present. \n\n(As has been exhaustively discussed before by Mantis, Tony Ellis, Peter\nStephenson, and others, and others, an eidetic memory such as Severian’s\ncould have been a necessary property for that individual finally sent to\nplead\nfor Urth, for whatever reason. I like Tony’s suggestion that Sev’s\nmemory gives him more allies to fight for him, a trial by ordeal as it\nwere. I do think Peter’s idea of Severian as Everyman come closest to\nthe explaination I’m using, but that’s a side issue here. My point is,\nInire’s mission seems to have been to guide and cultivate (but not\ncontrol!) this process of shaping the Epitome..)\n\nThe best comparison which comes to my mind is from Tolkien. Inire could\nbe compared to Gandalf, sent by the Valar to guide the free peoples of\nMiddle-Earth through crisis. Like Gandalf, Inire seems to be a messenger\nfor celestial powers, is preternaturally long-lived, possesses knowledge\nbeyond the grasp of even the wisest, travels extensively into difficulty\nand danger, and wears grey when not disguised. Inire’s misty\ndifficult-to-see grey robe furthermore suggests the Elvish camouflage\nfeatured in LOTR and Silmarillion. Like Gandalf, Inire departs after his\ntask is done. I truly wonder if Mr. Wolfe didn’t have Gandalf in mind,\njust a little.\n\nJust as Gandalf inspired and coordinated resistance to Sauron, Father\nInire guides the Autarchs toward that point where they could be\nreconciled, on behalf of all the peoples of Urth, with the Hieros,\nending “the epic penance of mankind”. Then Urth could join, harmoniously\nthis time, in the greater society of the peoples of the universes and as\na bonus vanquish the “megatherian” enemies of mankind and escape the icy\nfate of a prematurely dying sun. \n\nIt is easy to see an emissary of the Hierogrammates on a mission here,\ntaking a very personal interest in the fate of the peoples of Urth.\n\nOn the other hand, by establishing the Autarchy and the House Absolute,\nInire engineers himself a venue  for indulging, with impunity and to his\nheart’s content, his penchant for underaged exultant girls."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}