{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1703",
    "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": 1703,
    "subject": "Specula Speculations: Where Hethor Hides His Mirrors",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-07-03T14:00:22+00:00",
    "last": "1999-07-03T14:00:22+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0124@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mitchell A. Bailey",
        "address": "mab at lindau.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-07-03T14:00:22+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Specula Speculations: Where Hethor Hides His Mirrors",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "While I haven't fathomed where Hethor came from, nor his real name (and\nif it's Kim Lee Soong, why is he never described as resembling a\nXanthoderm, as Agilus and Agia were?), but I don't think it's any great\nmystery how and where he came by his mirrors or how he transports them,\nonce one reads the fourth chapter of UNS. There it is explained that the\n\"apports\" are teleported randomly and spontaneously by the action of the\nmolecule-thin specula-sails of the Ship. It is not much of a stretch to\nsuppose that any reasonably intelligent and motivated sailor might\nobtain some spare \"sailcloth\" and teach him/her/itself its use in\ndeliberately summoning critters.\n\nIt is practically stated that Hethor came out of the deeps of the \"Age\nof Myth\" as a career astronaut on forgotten space flights probably on\nships very like the towers of the Citadel. It is reasonable to suppose\nthat at some point he found himself on The Ship of Tzadkiel, one of the\ncountless crew members drawn from all of space and time.\n\nThere was some speculation, I can't seem to find it in the archives now,\nthat the \"little man with dirty gray hair like Hethor's\" who translated\nfor the leader of the jibers who kidnapped Severian in UNS, actually was\nan earlier avatar of Hethor himself. I can't rule that in or out but I\ndo think that passage signals something important about Hethor: he not\nonly was at some time in his subjective life present on The Ship, but he\nwas a jiber!\n\nIf you accept that Hethor could have been a jiber, most likely in my\nopinion after having served a sailor and getting into trouble, then his \nstate of mental health and his experimentation with mirror thaumaturgy\nseems to fit right into the picture. Let's see, he got the brig for\nstealing sailcloth and apporting dangerous creatures so he joined the\njibers and continued his experimentation; or, he was written up for\nsomething more mundane and learned about sailcloth after he joined the\njibers...\n\nHis mental state probably ties in with a possible explanation for the\napparent fact that such catoptrimancy is not in more widespread\npractice: it is exceedingly hazardous and only someone deranged would\ndare attempt it on a trial-and-error basis, even if perhaps Hethor had a\ncompetent mentor. The deadly creatures such as notules and corrosive\nslugs and salamanders one deals with is just the start of it; one could\naccidently apport oneself somewhere unpleasant or summon wild\nUrthshattering energies such as stellar cores or black-hole\ngravitational fields or hunks of antimatter or even more exotic things.\nIt is apparent that the Ship is not merely a lightsail propelled craft,\nbut actually uses the exotic properties of its mirror sails to in effect\nteleport itself FTL.\n\nAnyway, it would appear friend Hethor somehow escaped the Ship with a\nquantity of specula-sail folded into a compact bundle like a \"Space\nBlanket\" and some knowlege of how to exploit its properties.\n\nPerhaps he learned to access the Corridors of Time, as has been hinted.\nHe could have returned to his own age for awhile and served on a human\nship again, perhaps at which point his love-doll was stolen. I thought\nPeter's suggestion that he murdered his  shipmates for this deed\nintriguing, especially the reasoning behind it. Who knows, maybe he got\nhold of some alzabo before eating his dead friends? Then, he escapes to \nNessus and meets Agia.\n\nIt seems nearly obvious that Hethor's \"mirror\" is specula-sailcloth\nstolen from the Ship. As such it would pose no conventional problems in\ntransport or concealment. He might merely need to find privacy and\nperhaps a jerry-rigged temporary framework of whatever was handy (such\nas trees, the wall of a closet, etc) to support his mirror.\n\n(but unconventional problems: would folded sailcloth not tend to\nspontaneously operate in Hethor's pocket? That could be\nuncomfortable...)\n\nA better question: once Hethor summons these beasties, how does he\ncommand them and motivate them to obey him? Are the notules and\nsalamander intelligent enough to comprehend \"if you don't do this for\nme, you'll never see your home again?\"\n\nP.S. Hethor apparently is a square dance leader or talk-radio\nafficianado  as well as sailor and catoptrimancer; Father Inire referred\nto him as a \"caller\".<g>"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}