Sun Cycle questions
The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 17 Dec 2007
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4958

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Roy C. Lackey — 17 Dec 2007, 21:54

Michael Dale wrote:
[snip]

> > How long between Typhon's rule and the coming of the New Sun?  The Whorl
> > has lasted for 300 years, but Marble impies at one point that it could have
> > been 3,000 (saying that she always is misplacing a digit).  However the
> > Soldiers reimply that the World is designed to last 300 years and that is is
> > after its design age.<<

The most accepted figure for the time period between Typhon and Severian is
about 1,000 years. The _Whorl_ had been in flight for 300+ years (another 30
or 40 so, but I forget the correct number).

> > However I still say that Blue and Green are in a different system and are
> > not Earth and Lune (or Venus).<<

That is the prevailing wisdom, and in an interview with Jim Jordan (aka
Nutria) Wolfe appears to say as much.

> > It would be neat if whatever technology that created the powersource for
> > creating and running the Whorl is what actually caused the Black hole in the
> > sun.  I always thought that Typhon was taking energy is large amounts from
> > the Sun as a power source.<<

I made such a proposal myself, four years ago.

http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0309/4071.txt.shtml

> > On a side note:
> > A question I have always wondered is why Typhon didn't equip the Whorl is
> > FTL (Faster than Light) technology.<<

Sidestepping the question of human FTL ships in Briah, but relevant in this
context. It is generally accepted that the _Whorl_ was traveling at some
percentage of light speed, such that, with deceleration, the ship took about
300 years, ship time, to reach the Blue-Green system. Then a few decades
passed. While the ship was traveling at relativistic speed, about a thousand
years went by on Urth. That allowed Silkhorn, by way of astral travel to
Urth, to meet young Severian.

-Roy

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