Subject: (urth) Triskele

From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 01:25:21 +0000

Ron Hale-Evans wrote:

>>Speaking of which, does anyone agree with my assessment that (a) Triskele
was already dead, and is an aquastor from the moment Sev touches him and he
opens his eyes, and that (b) it is likely that it is the aquastor Malrubius
who is caring for Triskele on his forays away from Sev?<<

Yes, Triskele was already dead, but he wasn't an aquastor after Sev touched
him. An aquastor is rather like a solidified hologram, created and
maintained by machinery which has a limited range. Its mental properties are
derived from machinery scanning some entity for memories to supply its
personality. Aquastors are only created by folks from Yesod. When Sev
reanimates someone he is doing something else. They are truly alive and are
then independent of him for continued existence. This ability to bring back
the dead is apparently something the Hieros cannot do themselves. When Sev
died on the ship and was brought back by Tzadkiel, it was as an aquastor.
Sev then took on a life independent of the animating machinery. Sev's
ability to bring back the dead is what causes Famulimus and Barbatus to fall
down before him and kiss the ground at his feet in the tomb of Apu-Punchau.
After recounting to Sev how Tzad had brought him back to life as an eidolon,
Sev complained:

        "Why couldn't Tzadkiel have called me back as I called back Zama?
Healed me as I healed Herena? Why did I have to die?"
        I have never been more startled than I was by what happened next:
Famulimus knelt and kissed the floor before me.
        Barbatus said, "What makes you think Tzadkiel wields such power?
Famulimus and Ossipago and I are nothing before him, but we're not _his_
slaves; and great though he is, he's not the head of his race and its
savior." (V, L)

It can be argued, and someone probably will, that Sev's power comes from the
Increate, but it was at Sev's feet that the Hierodules prostrated themselves
upon hearing from his own mouth that he could do something that the High and
Mighty of Yesod couldn't. I hesitate to parse the religious implications of
that act.

Roy

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:32:39 +0000

>Mighty of Yesod couldn't. I hesitate to parse the religious implications of

I'll give it a shot.  Nutria's suggestion about Sev's ho-hum career as
Conciliator being remembered because it reminded humanity of an earlier and
considerably more significant Conciliator seems relevant here--I've argued
before that Severian's "non-tech" miracles that the hieros are impressed by
are possible because Sev. is, in some weird way, like Silk, an apostolic
figure--not in the original sense of being a witness to the resurrection, but
something like that.  The Increate/Outsider is granting this power, and the
New Testament letters are full of statements that post-Penecost, the apostles
will be able to do things and know things that even the angels don't dream of.
(much less angelic seeming aliens from another universe who may or may not be
supposed to actually be angels.)

Oh, BTW, William -- how about Vodalus = Sir Roderick Spode?

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce