{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/965",
    "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": 965,
    "subject": "\"The Autarch's Face\"",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-07-11T13:42:46+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-11T21:27:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0016-0058@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Charles Dye",
        "address": "raster at highfiber.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-11T13:42:46+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) \"The Autarch's Face\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "So saith m.driussi at genie.com (mantis) :"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "This detail sparks other associations: for the current inquiry we\nwill assume that the coins have Valeria's face.  However, the\nmysterious coin of TBOTNS, which had a womanly face on it from a\nmodel never really identified, a coin given by Vodalus to Severian,\nturned out to be a fake coin.  Who was the model?  (People seem to\nassume that it is the old Autarch, unmanned and androgynous.\nPersonally I think it is more likely to be Tzadkiel.)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Another mystery:  How can Vodalus not recognize the Autarch whom\nhe hates and wants to destroy?  Especially if his profile is in\ncirculation on the coinage?  The old Autarch (oh, call him\n\"Appian,\" I like the Claudian connection) is supposed to have\nacted as one of Vodalus's servants.  Sounds like a recipe for\nassassination to me!\n\nPutting someone else on the coins helps, but not much.  Surely\nthe court would notice, and Vodalus is not some farmer from\nPodunk.  He'd hear rumors, right?  Thea was *at* the court!\n\"The face on the chrisos doesn't look much like the Autarch.\nHe's chubbier, and he has thinner hair and no wings ....\"\n\nraster at highfiber.com"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0016-0060@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-11T21:27:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) \"The Autarch's Face\"",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0016-0058@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "raster,\n\nRight, Appian is playing so many roles he rivals Kokkor Hekkus of THE\nKILLING MACHINE!  Thea would certainly recognize Appian--after all,\nThecla-in-Severian does--so does he therefore always meet Vodalus\nalone, in dark rooms?\n\nThis leads to the thread that \"Vodalus is really Appian's\nselected heir (or one of them), as opposed to Baldanders (self-made\nman) and Severian (selected by someone else).\"  Vodalus does seem to\nbe \"in on\" a game of some sort; even though at the same time he seems\nnaive and flashy.\n\nThere is a bit of trouble in offering the Phoenix Throne to an\nexultant, however.\n\nBack to the coin, I think having Tzadkiel's face on it would be like\nhaving a Liberty dime, that is, a coin with Liberty depicted on it as\na lofty goal or guiding principle.  Let alone a momento of the Trial.\nAnd a way to avoid being recognized by any citizen with a coin.\n\nTangent alert: hey, what do you think--maybe \"Empires of Foliage and\nFlower\" is actually set in what we know of as the Commonwealth!  The\nYellow Empire could be the Greco-Roman \"Northwest Area\" we all know\nand love so well; the Green Empire might be the Persian zone I keep\nenvisioning as being to the east beyond the mountains (homeland of\npeople with names like Abdiesus).  The Yellow Empire uses gold coins\n(like the Commonwealth); the Yellow Emperor travels incognito because\nof security reasons.  So \"Xanth\" would be House Absolute or the city\nof the Monarch, and \"Vert\" would be a Persianesque city like\nCtesiphon or Vathek.  Then the war is over and the empires united, so\nthat Persian troops could fight alongside the Europeanish city\nlegions at Orithyia.\n\nJust a thought.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}