do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

James Wynn · 17 May 2011, 20:11 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 15:11:56 -0500
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
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>> James:
>> Lee thinks they are working in concert and others wonder how a flood
>> would get rid of them.
>> Analogizing with the inhumi in 'The Book of the Short Sun' and the Storm
>> King in 'An Evil Guest', I suspect that getting rid of the Megatherians
>> is irrelevant to the plan for the Rise of the Heiros. They are plagues
>> of opportunity. They prey on our moral weakness. Not our physical or
>> technological weaknesses.
>
> Lee:
> We only have a handful of Hiero-types to consider- B, F and O, Malrubius,
> Tzadkiel and Apheta. I don't recall any of them mentioning the Megatherians
> (I'd want to double check Malrubius' words though). Considering the similar level of
> playing field of these major players, the omission seems almost conspicuous
> to me. The closest I can think of is extra-terrestrial (and perhaps non-human origin)
> Typhon mentioning that he will enslave the powers in the sea.
>
> Despite the words of the Caloyer of Saltus (as Lane mentions) it *is* puzzling
> as to why a Flood would eliminate ocean-bound monstrosities.

The caloyer says in _Claw_ in his prayer to the Increate :

"You, the hero who will destroy the black worm that devours the sun; you for
whom the sky parts as a curtain; you whose breath shall wither vast Erebus,
Abaia, and Scylla who wallow beneath the wave; you that equally live in the
shell of the smallest seed in the farthest forest, the seed that hath rolled
into the dark where no man sees."

Although it is reasonable to associate "the hero" with Severian, it is 
hard to imagine that he lives in the "smallest seed in the farthest 
forest." He's talking about the Increate there. Why should the caloyer 
not be talking about the Increate as the one whose "breath" will destroy 
the megatherians? (I doubt they invoke this prayer anywhere but the 
Commonwealth.) Anyway, I think there are plenty of hints that Erebus 
(whose name means "The Darkness of Tartaros") has been long dead already 
and if he remains as a power, it is only his ghost or memory.

If the second part DOES refer to Severian, then the reference to 
"breath" seems to refer to his teachings (such as they are) and the 
enlightenment they will bring to mankind.

It is true that the human servants of Abaia are against the 
Concilliator, but Jolenta is one of his wives and aids him. I think it 
is More likely that Abaia:

-- Sees the Heirogrammates as competing powers

-- Uses the threat of the New Sun as a way to gain and control human 
agents rather than that he is worried about the flood he will bring.

-- Wants to gain the Conciliator/New Sun as a follower

I posit that the megatherians are "powers" on Urth, just as Typhon was, 
but no more than that. Without followers they are no more significant to 
human history than a school of blue whales.

J

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