Agia's Weapons

David Stockhoff · 20 Dec 2011, 21:06 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:06:39 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agia's Weapons
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W36AA50A442F1B1070B526ECFA40 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W36AA50A442F1B1070B526ECFA40 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4EF0F8DF.3010408 at verizon.net>

On 12/20/2011 3:32 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> David Stockhoff: I may have a problem with the use of "bequeath," however. It was once
>> common to give away all your possessions upon joining an order. Wouldn't she have done
>> this at that time, rather than when she left the Pelerines? The misericorde would then
>> be unexplained, since at that time it was not yet in her possession. But perhaps she
>> went back after to sell her habit and accoutrements.
>
> My timeline would be more like this: young Cyriaca is a Pelerine. She is expelled because
> she gets pregnant with twins whom she raises in Nessus, supporting herself with a used
> clothing store. Some of her old Pelerine stuff (like the misericorde) is put up for sale.
> Later on she meets and marries a dashing armiger from Thrax and leaves the store to her
> teenaged kids and leaves them to fend for themselves. The one thing she does keep is her
> scarlet habit, which Severian finds her dressed in at the masquerade party (ridotto) in
> Thrax.


Thus echoing Catherine, which is a plus. OK.
>
>> If Inire wanted Valeria dead, she'd be dead, I would think. But the death of both Autarchs
>> would have been difficult to plan!
> Yeah. It's hard to understand all the motivations. But my best guess would be that Inire
> generally set up Agia (like vodalus) to be an enemy of the Autarchy just as he (and the 17)
> sets up the Ascians to be an enemy against the Commonwealth. That is the eternal manipulation
> (like Palpatine in Star Wars, heh). Create two armies and pit them against each other
> and control everyone in the resulting mayhem.

But then he'd not want Agia to succeed, right? And her being dead in the 
secret corridor complicates this further.
>
>> Yes, interesting. But was Agia not rather in control of Hethor?
>
> The eternal question, even with slave and master. Who is controlling whom? If Hethor is Inire
> we can see the parallel of attraction to young women (paracoita also). But I think the powers
> who orchestrate Severian's adventures know he cannot be killed, thus they are using Agia (and
> Agilus) over and over with the assassination attempts. In my view, they seek to have his power.
> (which jibes with the quote Daniel recently provided)

OK. Inire seems to be the parasite in the nest, then. But why would he 
want Valeria dead at all?

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