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1) I haven't seen the map in Plan[e]t Engineering, but I've read the discussion in the archive and accepted that the Commonwealth was South America, and thought I had a fairly good grasp of the topography. But then I came across this sentence in Citadel, ch. V: "I did have the impression (though I could not be sure it was correct) that it [Ascia] was a single land mass, and not a chain of islands like our south..." Where does this fit in with what else we know about the Commonwealth's geography? Of course, maybe Severian just means that the south contains a chain of islands; but that's not what he says.
Maybe this refers to the shape of the commonwealth after the flood, in sort of a prescient glimpse?
"I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, | paul + | + elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I | --|-- have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die." | + | +
-- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy | pduggan at world.std.com