traveling north

David Stockhoff · 08 Jun 2010, 01:11 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:11:22 -0400
Subject: (urth) traveling north
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Has anyone suggested that the Wall was built to keep people in? Of course you still have the overkill problem.

But there are any number of reasons why a ruler might keep the main strength of his armies near home, especially when assaults might come from land, air, or sea as well as from within. 

I've wondered about a dome too. But would a space invader really land within the walls when the city still has functioning energy weapons that could destroy the incoming fleet? I'd land some distance away---less far than Ascia---assemble my forces, and then move on the city's defenses. This wall would forestall that. And since it's unsmeltable, presumably it would resist energy weapons.

A large wall also puts its troops well away from the city proper.

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Message: 4
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:06:20 -0500
From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) traveling north
Message-ID: <4C0D513C.1090705 at gmail.com>
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On 6/7/2010 1:23 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:

> > Obviously the Wall doesn't stop aerial assault, the Ascians could have 
> > used some flyers that were subsequently destroyed by the Commonwealth 
> > forces. 
>   

Is that really obvious? The thickness of the wall suggests that it's 
purpose is not merely a physical barrier against ground-based assaults. 
Otherwise, if an invading force  over-topped it, the wall would become a 
high-ground from which to launch a more successful assaults on the rest 
of the territory.

The wall might be constructed *primarily* to prevent aerial and 
space-based assaults through some sort of protective dome (which is 
unnecessary in Severian's time). The Ascians might have been far more 
technologically advanced in Typhon's time. Anyway, protecting a city 
with a "mere" wall in Typhon's time strikes me as a bizarre anachronism.

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