book of the new sun questions

Bruce Hayles · 03 Apr 2007, 13:11 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: brucehayles at gmail.com (Bruce Hayles)
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 01:11:29 -1200
Subject: (urth) book of the new sun questions
Message-ID: <8476d0320704030611g468b4339u39839c57bc526a3b at mail.gmail.com>

Urth will only receive a new sun if its epitome is found worthy. Is it
necessary that the epitome of Urth is always an autarch (and a
thousand man in a single body), or could Typhon (if he was willing)
act as an epitome? Was the autarchy created by hierodules to produce a
line of autarchs to be tried in Yesod, and also hold the Commonwealth
stagnant while they were produced? (The last autarch has the
conviction that humanity will return the stars as a divinity or not at
all)

The coming of the New Sun results in the destruction of most of the
Urth, but brings new resources and the New Sun, and a fresh start for
humanity. Is the idea behind this that the epitome (if judged worthy)
is proof that human kind can produce something worthwhile, and so
should get a chance at reconstruction? Why will Urth, now with its new
sun, progress any differently than it did with the  old sun? Is it any
more likely that humanity will go to the stars as a divinity now, as
opposed to going to the stars and conquering worlds (like it did
before)? Since all culture and technology was lost, and humanity is
starting over again, I do not see how it is any more likely. Is it
just another roll of the die then?

If the hierodules are behind the autarchy, why do they still do things
like support Baldanders expressly so he can grow fat with knowledge
and die, dispersing his knowledge to others? How could Baldanders
death possibly affect the line of autarchs? Additionally, since the
last autarch's conviction is that the Commonwealth stagnant while the
line of autarch's march on and face trial at Yesod, why would any
effort be wasted on spreading knowledge? The idea behind the
hierodules sharing knowledge is that it somehow improves those they
share it with, or others indirectly. Ultimately, the hope is to
produce from humanity something close to divinity. If the hierodules
are still working for that with the old sun, what does that mean?

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