Inire and House Absolute

Roy C. Lackey · 07 Jul 2008, 22:31 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:31:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) Inire and House Absolute
Message-ID: <001c01c8e081$34f789a0$3ad14a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Inire is specifically credited for the construction of the Second House and
the camouflage landscaping above the House Absolute. The Old Autarch said:

"Oh, no. All these things..." He paused. "And a hundred more like them, make
up what we call the Second House. They are the work of Father Inire, who was
called by the first Autarch to create a secret palace within the walls of
the House Absolute. You or I, my son, would no doubt have built a mere suite
of concealed rooms. He contrived that the hidden house should be everywhere
coextensive with the public one." (CLAW, XX)

Since the Old Autarch knew that Ymar was the first autarch, the quote
suggests that the House Absolute itself antedated the autarchy. Comments
made by Nicarete about the Antechamber suggest the same. So who built the
House Absolute, and when?

Cyriaca's tale suggests that Typhon was the ruler responsible for the
building of the Curtain Wall around the Citadel. That wall was a scaled-down
version of the great Wall of Nessus, and was made of the same unsmeltable
metal. Did the same ruler cause both walls to be built? The Citadel
antedated the autarchy but was linked to the House Absolute by the
space-warping properties of the passages in the Second House.

I know of nothing in the Urth Cycle to suggest that Inire was involved with
Typhon, and the above quote suggests that Inire was summoned to Urth. How
was Inire "called by" Ymar? Called from where? How would Ymar even know of
him?

-Roy

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