(urth) Severian's family tree

[b sharp]

Roy, thanks for the good feedback.  I had considered all but one of your 
objections previously and I'll try to address each of them.

>At the root of this family tree is the transformation of an old man into an 
>old woman. I can see no >textual justification for such a change of gender.

Well, not the root, but more a side branch.  Considering the old person in 
Casdoe's house as female is based on two things. One is Severian's general 
unreliability as a narrator.  Others in the past have documented his 
numerous mistakes in identification so I won't list them here.  I think this 
is an example of Severian misperception in part because this old person 
talks about Fechin the way a woman might, admiring, attracted, forgiving of 
imperfections and even major faults.  The other misperception clue is Gene 
Wolfe's descriptive writing in this section.  The other people in Casdoe's 
house never show any acknowledgement that the old person exists.  The 
exception is one brief inaudible comment to him/her made by Casdoe. If not 
for that I was willing to consider this old person as an eidolon/aquastor- 
visible only to Severian- it is that extreme.  So I take that refusal of  
other characters acknowledging this character as a puzzle clue.  Doing that 
removes the use of identifying pronouns for the old person and it just 
seems...weird (to me).  A Wolfe pointer saying "here, look here for a 
clue!".

Next regarding the Castellan:
>Appian told Severian, just before they boarded the doomed flier, that there 
>were none among >the exultants he could trust. An exultant would not have 
>occupied such a position.

Well, yes and no.  The Autarch cannot trust the exultants, which is why he 
keeps their daughters hostage in ceremonial concubinage.  So he has some 
measure of trust and control over them in this manner.  Obviously the 
exulants hold positions of power in the Commonwealth.  I would think the 
Castellan of the Citadel would be powerful enough for the Autarch to want 
his daugher(s?) to serve in the capacity of concubine.  Moreover in the Claw 
appendix on Commonwealth social classes, the Armiger section says,

>"The armigers seem much like the exultants, though on a lesser scale.  
>Their name indicates a >fighting class, but they do not appear to have 
>monopolized the major fighting roles in the army"

The Castellan's height is not given, so I submit the possibility he is an 
exultant.

I base my assessment of the Castellan as stepfather to Severian based on 
this memory of Severian's:

>"I played again with pebbles in the courtyard beside the fallen curtain 
>wall, as Thecla dodged the >hooves of my father's mounted guard".

I take this to mean that Severian and Thecla shared a childhood in the 
Citadel.  Only the Castellan would have a mounted guard there, I think.  If 
Severian and Thecla are family related, as other clues suggest, I decided 
they must share a mother and perhaps a father/step father.  I admit I'm not 
happy with such convolutions but when you are making a family tree, you have 
to fill in the empty spaces with your best guess. Perhaps others can explain 
these clues in a better way.

I still wonder about Severian seeing that face of the woman in the grave in 
Ultan's face.  Ultan is another exultant, though he has obscured eyes as do 
certain other suspicious characters in the book.

Roy notes:
>Little Inire absolutely was *not*an exultant; he is specified to be a 
>cacogen.

True but I consider many cacogens to be capable of shape shifting.  
Tzadkiel's example makes me think that shapeshifting may not be a matter of 
an individual rearranging his face and body into different shapes.  We never 
see the various incarnations of Zak actually transform from one shape/size 
to another.  We do see a portion of giant Tzadkiel break off to become a 
human sized version.  Perhaps each incarnation of Zak is formed in this way- 
  a new piece of Tzadkiel broken off to become a new shape.  The same thing 
could be happening on Urth with Megatherians (remembering that "therian" 
means shapeshifter).  Multiple versions of the same greater being might be 
appearing, here, there....everywhere, in different sizes and appearances.

I agree most with Roy's objection to Valeria's place in the family tree. I 
appreciate him reminding me about some things:

>Valeria is specified in the appendix to be an armiger, which means that her 
>family were armigers. >They were poor, so poor that they drank the same 
>cheap tea that the torturers gave to their >prisoners, and their towers 
>were in ruins. At her first meeting with Sev she said that her family >had 
>"given many castellans to the Citadel, but the last had died generations 
>ago".

I agree that Valeria is of armiger status and so is Catherine, based on her 
height as Severian describes it.  But the description above  doesn't jibe 
with Catherine as her mother nor especially with the Castellan as her 
father.  So I am forced (thanks to Roy ;-) ) to go with Plan B for Valeria.  
That she is not a family member of Severian's.  So regarding the celibate 
marriage hypothesis, Plan B says Severian can only become sexually 
interested in a family member.

Which would mean Pia is a family member...and Severian does compare her to 
Dorcas.  And Daria should be a family member...she has red hair...a possible 
clue?  Burgundofora also a family member?...no clues there that I can see.  
Apheta....I don't even want to try with that "insect" :)).  Well, pretty 
weak but that's why it was Plan B.  Perhaps others will have better luck 
with certain portions of the family tree.

-bsharp