Wall of Nessus

Roy C. Lackey · 10 Jun 2010, 08:45 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:45:34 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
References: <000901cb080c$a24bd6a0$3dd14a0c@rclackey>
	<AANLkTimNF_7phiZuvwCMYZObOBCVpmbPVbROd7kc1Hq4 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <006601cb0879$4ddd39c0$59cc4a0c@rclackey>

Andrew quoted and wrote:
> > Regardless of why hybrids were used in the Wall rather than humans, the
> > point is that rulers (plural), before the autarchy, stationed defenders
in
> > the Wall. Typhon was the last ruler before the first autarch, Ymar, and
> > those two were contemporaries. So, if Jonas is to be believed, the Wall
was
> > there before Typhon. That section of text also strongly suggests that
the
> > purpose of the Wall was to resist the mountain-sized monsters in the
> > oceans.
> >
> >
> But isn't that contradicted a little later in the same scene? IIRC, Sev
> points out the walls aren't going to be much use against creatures the
size
> of Abaia, and Jonas agrees, indicating that the walls are actually for
> defense against Abaia et al's human followers.

Jonas said: "You were correct when you said Erebus and Abaia are as great as
mountains, and I admit that I was surprised you knew it. Most people lack
the imagination to conceive of anything so large, and think them no bigger
than houses or ships. Their actual size is so great that while they remain
on this world they can never leave the water - their own weight would crush
them. You mustn't think of them battering at the Wall with their fists, or
tossing boulders about. But by their thoughts they enlist servants, and they
fling them against all rules that rival their own."

I don't know if the sea monsters grew bigger over the years, as Baldanders
did, so that they weren't so large when the Wall was first built that it
would be useless against them, or if the Wall was effective only against
man-sized foes under their control. Either way, the point I wanted to make
is that Jonas's statements seem to indicate that the Wall was built before
Typhon's time, and its purpose was to thwart the sea monsters' ambitions.

> > That latter detail may be somewhat at odds with Cyriaca's story, and
after
> > Typhon was revived on the mountain he speaks as if the monsters in the
> > oceans were news to him ("There are powers in the seas now who would
rule."
> > [SWORD, chap. XXVI] ), but that's the way it goes.
> >
> That "... in the seas *now* ..." is an annoying little itch. Of course, in
> UOTNS and the susbequent cycle volumes, Abaia etc infest the seas in
> Typhon's day.

Yeah, annoying, and Cyriaca's story about the founding of the library,
together with what that doctor who looked Sev over after he got zapped by
that big gun had to say ("This coast is quake prone, as the old records
indicate clearly enough--praise to our monarch, by the way, for having them
brought here--" [URTH, 259] ), suggest that Typhon was the ruler who caused
the curtain wall to be built around the collected writings, and the curtain
wall is made of the same material as the Wall.

-Roy

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