Urth Net
Legion of unmanned Autarchs?
↰ answers CRCulver
· by quotation
Alice Turner states, in urth.v0006.n020.1:
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Besides, it wasn't the one Autarch, it was the whole string of them.
Christopher R. Culver concurs:
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Yep, we specifically learn that Ymar and the Autarch's predecessor were also unmanned, as well as the other autarchs in between. What about Typhon?
Could we have citations, please?
I'll accept the statement as concerns Ymar and Severian's predecessor, on the strength of the passage in Citadel, XXXI:
"If you fail, your manhood will be taken from you, so that you cannot
bequeath the Phoenix Throne to your descendants. Your predecessor also
accepted the challenge." [aquastor Malrubius dixit]
"And failed. That is clear from what you said." [quoth Severian]
"Yes. Still, he was braver than many who are called heroes, the first
to go in many reigns. Ymar, of whom you may have heard, was the last before
him."
Since we learn in Urth that Ymar was the first Autarch (as opposed to Monarch), this passage would seem to deny that castration was usual for Autarchs.
I am unable to find another citation I seek: a passage in which Severian notes how many of his predecessors met their violent ends by foolish exposure to danger.
Christopher also asks,
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BTW, someone in Citadel refers to the Autarch as "Legion," because he is many (Biblical reference, Luke 32, I think). Is this his real name? If not, what is?
It was one of the woman-cats in Citadel, XXIV.
There's another passage (again, I've misplaced it) in which the application of the term is explained. It's certainly not his real name. Michael Andre-Driussi assigns him the name Appian based on a mention of a recent Autarch by that name in the short story "The Cat", but I don't recall the evidence being conclusive that Severian's predecessor reigned at the time of the events there recounted.
-- Dan Rabin