Abaia

for some reason, Bruinian's comment:

reminded me of a new fact I encountered recently. That Abaia is the name for a mythological giant eel has been mentioned numerous times in the past. But I'd never before heard that part of his myth is that he causes floods. Seems like the concensus has been that he is the enemy of the New Sun but this bit makes me wonder. We even have the child undine, Idas, trying to kill Severian to halt the New Sun from coming but...is it all part of a set piece to bring a flood, using deliberately unsuccessful attempts to impede Severian? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaia -bsharp

Abaia causes flooding; he is a magical eel. But that doesn't mean Wolfe's Abaia causes flooding. It only means that he is associated with flooding. However, you would think a water-dwelling monster would be a member of the pro-flooding party, so you have a point---he should support Severian's mission. OTOH, if Abaia wants to enslave humanity AND drive it back to its star-empire peak, then he may not want the entire planet swept clean and all civilization and technology destroyed. Even if he retains his own technology, he's back to square 1 on the humanity-enslavement project. Maybe decadent technologists are more likely to get on board than people who barely know how to grow crops. Lovecraft apparently thought differently, but see the novella Silhouette for a possible Wolfean perspective. OTOH yet again, maybe it's a matter of whether the balance of power between angels and monsters is knocked sideways. Abaia would lose the Ascians, but the Commonwealth would lose itself. Who will resist Abaia in Ushas?