Appearances of Inire

Roy C. Lackey · 30 Jun 2010, 04:32 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:32:52 -0500
Subject: (urth) Appearances of Inire
References: <SNT123-W896FBC5C32F4238BC96E9CFCB0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <002f01cb180d$52a0c320$0cd24a0c@rclackey>

Lee Berman quoted and wrote:
> >Why limit Inire to male characters? If he can be a fraking robot
(Ossipago)
> >and monkey his way up Agia's family tree (which, according to some, makes
> >him related to Severian), and be both dead characters (Boatman,
Maxellindis'
> >uncle) and living ones, a change of gender is no obstacle.
>
> In UotNS we are rather explicitly shown that Tzadkiel can change size,
shape
> gender and plurality, so I agree with Roy's statement.

Huh. And I thought I might have been too sarcastic.

> If there is a female
> version of Father Inire, the most likely candidate is Cumaean. One is
Father,
> the other is The Mother. We hear them paired as alike but they are never
quite
> together. Inire has his monkey essence, the Cumaean has her snake essence.
I
> don't know if they are supposed to be borne of the same original entity or
not
> but they could be.

The Cumaean was a Hierodule, so Inire had told Sev (URTH, 357). Famulimus
and Barbatus nodded agreement when he said that in the tomb.

> Given the Tzadkiel model, there is no reason there can't be multiple
versions
> of the same being running around manipulating Severian's life and travels.
We
> are told that not even Tzadkiel can resurrect a dead person. So, I
suspect,
> neither can Father Inire (or the Cumaean, by herself). Perhaps it wasn't a
> coincidence the boatman just happened to be there on the lake when
Severian
> showed up. How else could he restore his long dead wife?
>
> Tzadkiel is an angel (who never comes to Urth). What is Inire?

Tzadkiel is a Hierogrammate. The Hierogrammates created the Hierodules to
serve them. Hierodules are short-lived, according to Baldanders, living only
about as long as a dog. That statement is indirectly confirmed by Barbatus
when he said that "We've known you half our lives now, Severian, . . ."
(URTH, 356) They had known and advised Sev for the ten years he had been
autarch before leaving for Yesod.

In the first paragraph of chapter XXXVIII in CITADEL, Sev wrote: ". . . old
Father Inire, alive so long beyond the span of his short-lived kind . . ."

It is never directly stated in the Urth Cycle that Inire is a Hierodule, but
when you put these clues together, the implication is that Inire was a
Hierodule, regardless of how he may have lived so much longer than he should
have.

Hierodules do not have the power and abilities of a Hierogrammate

-Roy

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