# (no subject) *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 14 Jan 2011* > 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. --- ### Andrew Mason *14 Jan 2011, 21:47* > Lee Berman wrote: > I have wondered more than once in these annals about the lack of pregnancy in Valeria. If it were just Valeria, one could just say that Valeria was unable to have children. (Silk had no children in twenty years with Hyacinth, although he - or his body - produced at least two children in Gaon shortly after her death.) However, it isn't just Valeria. He had no children with the other woman he lived with over a long period of time, 'the tall woman', Apu-Punchau's wife/partner. (I take it she was that, since when he moved into the shaman's house, she moved with him.) At least I assume he didn't; with Valeria the lack of children is specifically mentioned; with the tall woman we have to assume that if there were any he would mention them, though as this is Severian you can never tell. You might just suppose Severian is unable to have children - but he refers near the end of UOTNS to 'my descendants'. The possibility that he had a child with Dorcas seems to be offered and then torn away from us. (When he sees her near the end of COTA she has a basket, and there are repeated references to babies in baskets. But when, a few chapters later, we find out how long he has been away, it becomes clear that if she has a child it can't possibly have been born yet.) I think there is a considerable amount of evidence that he may have had a child with Burgundofara - from whom he and a large part of the population of the Commonwealth are no doubt descended. --- ### Jeff Wilson *16 Jan 2011, 18:43 · in reply to Andrew Mason* > On 1/14/2011 3:47 PM, Andrew Mason wrote: > Lee Berman wrote: >> I have wondered more than once in these annals about the lack of pregnancy in Valeria. > If it were just Valeria, one could just say that Valeria was unable to > have children. She does come from a dwindling family, but given the technology demonstrably available, the only real reason Sev + Valeria don't have children is that one or more of Sev, Valeria, or Inire exercised a veto. ``` Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana < http://www.tamut.edu/CIL > ``` ---