Abaia and the undines

David Stockhoff · 11 Dec 2008, 18:19 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:19:41 -0500
Subject: (urth) Abaia and the undines
In-Reply-To: <mailman.41017.1229015788.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.41017.1229015788.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
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I also don't recall any evidence that the black hole had anything to do with any punishment. The suns inhabited by humans are cut off from one another, and the Commonwealth is frozen so that no change can come before it is judged. As long as the Ascians are fended off, it can't fall, nor will it progress. 

That's punishment enough---a kind of purgatory. Eventually, the purgatory will become a cold hell if a new sun is not brought.

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:54:46 -0700
From: "Dave Tallman" <davetallman at msn.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Abaia and the undines
To: urth at lists.urth.net
Message-ID:
	<1bf4dd40812101454g55a6d7cbo5f449221b8d74017 at mail.gmail.com>
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John Watkins wrote:

This seems dead-on to me, except that I can't quite square the black
beans with Apheta's claim that the Hieropeople were behind the black
hole in the sun (or, in my pet Wild Theory, the off-hand comment that
the black panther in Soldier of Sidon is "the thing that eats the
stars.")

Maybe the Hieropeople gave Cilinia the Megatherian embryos?

Apheta's words don't read like a direct confession to planting the black
hole to me: "You know that we have condemned the peoples of Urth, and why.
They now feel that they have earned our forgiveness, and the chance to
resume the places they held of old --"

The condemnation sounds like something administrative, because is it tied to
"the chance to resume the places they held of old." It may be that the
peoples of Urth were condemned because of something an Urth person did (i.e.
ruin their sun). I believe Urth was quarantined from human-led space travel
-- that was the main punishment (this ties in well with the "resume the
places" line). In this view, the help with Urth's Sun problem was a
side-issue, only allowed after forgiveness was obtained.
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