Appian's Proxy?

Roy C. Lackey · 21 Aug 2006, 05:42 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:42:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) Appian's Proxy?
Message-ID: <005b01c6c4e4$a509ac60$2c3ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Rex Lycanthrosaurus wrote:
>When Severian goes to Yesod, he designates his wife Valeria to be his
>proxy, and she is even given the title of Autarchia.

Not so. He left Inire in charge. (URTH, 239, chapter XXXIV, 3rd paragraph)

>all, the autarch who is Severian's predecessor (and whose name never
>actually appears in either tBotNS or its sequel) also undertakes the
>same journey. But who is it that rules in his absence?

I assume that it was also Inire.

>And do we have
>any sense how long the former honey-steward is absent from Urth? Or at
>what stage in his own reign he leaves? Severian waits a decade before he
>journeys out and does not return for forty years. But surely his
>predecessor is not gone for a similar amount of time.

He need not have been gone any significant amount of time at all, what with
time travel involved, and apparently wasn't. He evidently went to Yesod
shortly before Severian was born. See CITADEL, chapter XXIV, about three
pages in. Sev was gone from Urth for forty years only because the
Hierogrammates deliberately returned him to Typhon's era to establish the
Conciliator legend. That, and the fact that Sev wasn't very adept at using
the Corridors of Time.

-Roy

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