(urth) Abaia and the undines

[Son of Witz]

>Apheta's words don't read like a direct confession to planting the black
>hole to me: "You know that we have condemned the peoples of Urth, and why.
>They now feel that they have earned our forgiveness, and the chance to
>resume the places they held of old --"
>
>The condemnation sounds like something administrative, because is it tied to
>"the chance to resume the places they held of old." It may be that the
>peoples of Urth were condemned because of something an Urth person did (i.e.
>ruin their sun). I believe Urth was quarantined from human-led space travel
>-- that was the main punishment (this ties in well with the "resume the
>places" line). In this view, the help with Urth's Sun problem was a
>side-issue, only allowed after forgiveness was obtained.
>

I too have a hard time buying any of the explanations of where the text clues us into any astroengineering.

along that line of reasoning, the Old Autarch's dialogue could possibly add some support.  From the "Autarch of the Commonwealth chapter in Citadel:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"You were right to hate me, Severian. I stand? as you will stand? 
for so much that is wrong." 

"Why?" I asked. "Why?" I was on my knees beside him. 
"Because all else is worse. Until the New Sun comes, we have but a 
choice of evils. All have been tried, and all have failed. Goods in 
common, the rule of the people? everything. You wish for 
progress? The Ascians have it. They are deafened by it, crazed by 
the death of Nature till they are ready to accept Erebus and the rest 
as gods. We hold humankind stationary? in barbarism. The 
Autarch protects the people from the exultants, and the exultants? 
shelter them from the Autarch. The religious comfort them. We 
have closed the roads to paralyze the social order?" 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

We know the Hierodules are behind the Autarchy.  When the Autarch says "we" he probably means the Hierarchs and the state.  So, it could be that the condemnation is that they were held in barbarism.  That they were 'condemned' to a lesser evil than that of Erebus's brand of evil.

Also, Severian says in Urth XII
"I felt my consciousness falling in upon itself as the matter does in the heart of a star" 

the combination of these two bits of text may support the final potential explanation that the Lexicon Urthus gives for why a black hole might be in the heart of the sun.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"Finally there is a theory of how there might already be a black hole in the heart of our star...Among the many possibilities presented by Pournelle, one seems especially germane: "there's a black hole of around 1% of the Sun's mass dead center in our star, and the Sun shines because matter falling into the hole gives off energy; there's no fusion in there at all"
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Now, I don't know much about this stuff and had never heard that theory.  Given that it's not common knowledge (as far as I know) its' interesting that Severian, of limited education, would just sort of understand this as a common explanation of what goes on in the heart of a star.  This makes me think that Wolfe is probably buying into this theory, at least as far as BoTNS is concerned. Which, would, it seems make the black hole a natural event, just as entropy of the universe is a natural event.