Abaia and the undines

Dave Tallman · 09 Dec 2008, 21:17 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:17:20 -0700
Subject: (urth) Abaia and the undines
In-Reply-To: <493ED04C.7060202 at verizon.net>
References: <493ED04C.7060202 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <493EE060.6080708 at gmail.com>

David Stockhoff wrote:
> My assumption has always been that the undines, Abaia, Baldanders, and Idas were all the same race but different ages, and Abaia is merely an ancient, huge, undersea humanoid. Which is the same as saying he is Poseidon and the undines are his nymphs---but with a rational explanation.
>   
Abaia can't be all that ancient. In SotL, Typhon wakes up and tells 
Severian that he detects the monsters for the first time. They are new 
to Typhon, though he must have possessed mental powers sufficient to 
sense them before his "death," if they were there and powerful enough at 
that time.

If we connect the "black bean" story with Abaia and company, we also 
know that they arrived during a rule that was more harsh than the 
autarchs, and that the woman who introduced them was torn to pieces for 
attempting to use them to seize power.

One possible story, tying in with things we learn later in the BotSS:
1) Cilinia, Typhon's daughter, was involved in plotting with the monster 
Syclla.
2) She died a few years after being scanned for the Whorl.
3) She was power-hungry, since her personality also plotted against Pas 
on the Whorl.
4) Thus, she could be the woman who used the black beans -- embryo 
Megatherians drawn from space by interstellar travel or by specula.
5) She was probably executed by Typhon for this crime.
6) In the early stages the minds of the monsters might not be strong 
enough to detect by Typhon's mental powers.
7) They would need a power source to thrive and grow, and the image 
connection between "black beans" in the sea and a black hole in the Sun 
is hard to ignore. They probably didn't just grow by eating fish -- one 
of them is under the ice at the South Pole, after all.
8) Something caused the people controlling Typhon's rockets to abandon 
the planet. Typhon called it a "disaster," and mere slow cooling of the 
Sun wouldn't be enough.
9) Undines were probably people recruited and corrupted by Abaia, just 
as Juturna tried to recruit and corrupt Severian. They were given the 
power to breath underwater and grow without limit.

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