# The failure of the Autarch and the Second Chance of Severian

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 24 Jan 1998*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/300>

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### CRCulver
*24 Jan 1998, 16:49*

Vizcacha said:

> In his far future, someone decided that if only he had been a little better,
> had lived a life that prepared him better for the test, he might have
> succeeded. So, they came back and gave him that life, and he did."<

     Yes, Tzadkiel gave Severian the circumstances to become autarch by
unmanning the previous Autarch. That's why I wince when I hear people use the
word "punishment." The Autarch's castration wasn't a punishment for his
failure to bring the New Sun back to Urth, it was merely a device to insure
Severian, who *could* bring the NS, would get his day.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
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"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path"
-Brendan Perry

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