# enemies list

*The Urth list — 3 messages, 2 voices, 17 May 1998*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/631>

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### Alice Turner
*17 May 1998, 12:26*

And another thing I've never quite understood. Why do the Autarch, and after
him Severian, with the complicity of Father Inire, continue to subversively
encourage the rebels, taking care to set up Agia after Vodalus's death? This
movement doesn't seem to be particularly large, but it does a lot of damage
and it requires attention that might be better put to fighting the Ascians.

-alga-

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### m.driussi
*17 May 1998, 17:21 · follows Alice Turner*

alga,

I've always taken the covert support by the Phoenix Throne of
Vodalus/Agia as a "1984-ish" trick--Big Brother (gov't) controls
the Brotherhood (anti-gov't underground).  With a dash of
Machiavelli, since the Commonwealth really is at war with Ascia
(rather than the seeming puppetshow wars of 1984--the Brotherhood
would appear to be a domestic affair rather than an international
terrorist cell); Vodalus is working both sides to gain the throne for
himself; Agia just likes to play Xena.

I was going to write that if Vodalus knew with certainty that he was
being supported by the autarch himself rather than a shadowy faction
within the House Absolute, he would break the link.  But I'm not so
sure . . . Vodalus might be another patsy, another candidate for the
throne being cultivated by the autarch, in the same way that
Baldanders is being cultivated for the throne by O, B, & F.  (For
example, Thecla was not arrested by the autarch's order, but by some
faction apparently a bit more concerned with stopping Vodalus.)

An espionage game of "toying with the devil you know" rather than
letting unknown alien agents run around in the countryside.

=mantis=

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### Alice Turner
*17 May 1998, 22:03 · follows m.driussi*

> I've always taken the covert support by the Phoenix Throne of
> Vodalus/Agia as a "1984-ish" trick--Big Brother (gov't) controls
> the Brotherhood (anti-gov't underground).

> Vodalus might be another patsy, another candidate for the
> throne being cultivated by the autarch, in the same way that
> Baldanders is being cultivated for the throne by O, B, & F.  (For
> example, Thecla was not arrested by the autarch's order, but by some
> faction apparently a bit more concerned with stopping Vodalus.)

That is a depressing thought. Vodalus is ersatz to the bone, as symbolized
by the false coin. His only redeeming feature is a certain courtliness
toward Thea--but look how he betrays his "servant" (the Autarch) in the
crunch. The "1984" analogy is a good one (that's hard to follow too!), but I
must say that together with the E, A & S (and Baldanders too) role under the
New Sun, the Vodalus connection seems to me among the less than tightly
hammered together links of the series.

-alga-

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