Abaia and the undines

David Stockhoff · 05 Dec 2008, 23:12 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:12:31 -0500
Subject: (urth) Abaia and the undines
In-Reply-To: <mailman.1.1228514982.31733.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.1.1228514982.31733.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <4939B55F.8020801 at verizon.net>

I don't recall reading anything about the origin of Abaia and the 
undines. Does anyone "know" or care to guess? IIRC, Baldanders seems to 
think they evolved for a watery future, which may be true.

A related question is why they are necessarily or assumed to be evil. 
I've been moving away from a perverted-Christ interpretation (though 
that aspect can never be dismissed) since that discussion began (for 
example, I see no reason to assume that the Hierogrammates/Hierodules 
really work for the Increate at all, or do his bidding, or that the 
Increate caused the Flood any more than God causes the deaths of puppies).

The only straw I have to clutch at is that they are basically water 
elementals. In the Seven Worlds cosmology, things are just the way they 
are, as in folklore. So, for example, don't trust the wood fairies, but 
run from the water fairies, and stay away from giants, etc. Just as 
fairies have their own plans that don't really involve us (see John 
Crowley's Little, Big), the Hieros do what they do without much interest 
in human morality, and the undines even  less so.

Several months ago, there was a discussion about what the New Sun would 
do to the undines. Clearly they are alive and well on Ushas, whether 
Abais himself survived or not. But they would have vanished utterly in 
Master Ash's timeline except for the small ones who could escape (like 
Idas).

So why would they oppose Severian at all? Or was it rather the 
Commonwealth they opposed, perhaps as the heirs of Typhon and the first 
empire? You'd think thet'd want the New Sun to come and bring the Clean 
Slate with lots of water on the side.

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