{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5633",
    "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": 5633,
    "subject": "Megatherians",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2010-06-14T15:32:48+00:00",
    "last": "2010-06-14T15:32:48+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<SNT123-W54344D6997B485526698BDCFDC0@phx.gbl>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Lee Berman",
        "address": "severiansola at hotmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-06-14T15:32:48+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Megatherians",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Although the Ascians come from the North and Erebus is based in \nAntarctica, they are actually the minions of Erebus.\nTheir name means \"casting no shadow\". They cast no shadow NOT because \nthey are from the Equator (which they are not, or at least not \nentirely), but because they are from Erebus, whose name comes from the \nGreek elemental Titan who was \"The Darkness of the Underworld\"."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": " \nMy intent was to suggest the Wall of Nessus was needed to defend from \nenemies on all sides. I take the story of tall pale warriors riding in a \nship with a deep voice coming from below the river as a sign of collaboration\nbetween Erebus and Abaia. As he gets the most mention I guess I tend to think\nof Abaia as the big boss of the 17 megatherians and was shorthanding with \nregard to his leadership of the Ascians.\n \nI don't associate the term \"Ascians\" specifically with Erebus, despite his \nmythological namesake. It is actually a real archaic term given by Europeans\nto people living near the equator and  we learn it is falsely given to the \nenemies of The Commonwealth who are really from the equivalent of N. America. \n \nMy impression is that the Ascians are somewhat equally enslaved by a collaboration\nof the megatherians, hence their loyalty to the Group of Seventeen. (surely allegory;\neven a Byzantine government is seen as superior to the mind-numbing sameness of communism).\n \nMount Erebus in Antarctica does suggest a home space for Erebus. Most feel Abaia\nlives in the ocean, but since the mythological Abaia was specifically a fresh-water\nmagic eel, I must think his primary residence is Lake Diuturna. Juturna's name and\napperances and the island people's belief in Oannes would seem to support this idea.\n \nI think Wolfe making his monster names a combination of Melanesian (Abaia), \nGreek (Erebus), S. American (Jurupari), Norse (kraken) Persian (Jahi), Borgean \n(peryton) and Judeo-Christian fallen angel (Arioch) is highly significant. \t\t \t   \t\t  "
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}