Urth Net
Meeting Father Inire
Robert Borski writes:
4 quoted lines
As with the oft-mentioned Fechin, we never actually meet
Inire. He's always offstage or discussed in anecdotal fashion by others who've met him (Thecla, Odilio, Hildegrin).
Then again, given the importance of masks in New Sun...
From Citadel, ch. 28 "On the March":
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For guides our column had three savages: a pair of young men who might have been brothers or even twins, and a much older one, twisted, I thought, by deformites as well as age, who perpetually wore a grotesque mask. Though the first two were younger and the third much older, all three of them recalled to me the naked man I had once seen in the Jungle Garden. They were as naked as he and had the same dark, metallic-looking skina and straight hair. [...] ....and one night when my guards were chattering among themselves and I sat crouched over our little fire, I saw the old guide (his bent figure and the impression of an immense head conferred by his mask were unmistakable) approach this palanquin [holding the Old Autarch (DR)] and slip beneath it. Some time passed before he scuttled away. This old man was said to be an
uturuncu, a shaman capable of assuming the form of a tiger.
The bent figure meets descriptions of Father Inire elsewhere. Father Inire is a Hierodule; Hierodules wear masks. Father Inire is in the habit of conferring with the Autarch.
In Citadel, ch. 35 "Father Inire's Letter", Rudesind mentions that his master (Father Inire) "went away north", but is hesitant to dwell on the point. In Severian's reply, he says, "We even know that your master was with us in the jungles of the north, where he tried until it was too late to rescue my predecessor". Inire's letter itself alludes to recent events with Agia and Vodalus that imply that he was nearby.
So, Robert is wrong: we do actually meet Father Inire in the main narrative, and Robert is right, masks have to do with the matter.
Too bad we don't get to see him do the tiger trick, though...
-- Dan Rabin