I think we're missing something here. Tzadkiel wasn't a simple spaceship. It crossed the gap between universes, between Briah and Yesod.
Whorl never left Briah, as I understand it. It simply traversed normal space between stars. If it had been capable of hyperspace, it no doubt not have been a generational starship.
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From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Date: 2003/08/14 Thu AM 01:11:51 EDT
To: urth at urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) Two Ships
On Wednesday, August 13, 2003, at 08:42 AM, James Jordan wrote:
I don't think your Whorl = OneShip hypothesis can stand close inspection, as Crush has pointed out. Thematically, however, there may be something Wolfe intended. The One Ship is related symbolically to the Church: seven sided, existing throughout all of time, moving between the heavens and the Briah-world. The Church-as-Ship is just WAY too common historically for us not to consider it, and Wolfe certainly positions the One Ship in such a way as to point to Church-symbolism.
But that brings up Typhon's ship as a counterfeit, of course, housing false pastiche religions that he established as a way to control the people inside of it. Given that this is indeed the case, Wolfe may have loaded Whorl with "counterfeit equivalents" to the features of the One Ship, for thematic reasons. This might be worth exploring, building on the parallels you have mooted.
Don agrees. He finds this a most likely scenario, the Whorl as a corruption of Tzadkiel's ship. Or perhaps a lesser imitation since he is suspicious of the "holiness" of the Hiero's.
On Wednesday, August 13, 2003, at 08:04 AM, James Wynn wrote:
The only way I can think to salvage this theory is to say that Severian's ship was first the Whorl, retrofitted over time to eventually become Severian's ship. In that case, the time-line problems disappear and all the problems in technology can be explained by the passage of time. This is a less elegant solution than you were looking for since it doesn't explain "the cargo". But IMO it resolves some nasty snarls.
Don doesn't think this is likely. However, Silk did leave for the Whorl at the end of RttW and it went on it's merry way to who knows where. Maybe it went to Yesod. If Silk is Typhon redeemed then this makes an interesting circle. Hmmm.
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