(urth) bsharp's Inire theory

[Roy C. Lackey]

Dave Tallman wrote:
>The business of the Hierodules constructing ships under the command of the
>Hierogrammates contrasts with what Father Inire says of his own ship
>problems in his letter in Citadel XXXV. He says: "You will perhaps consider
>the ship I summoned to aid my master, the autarch of his day, inadequate --
>as for that matter do I -- yet it was the best I could obtain, and I was
>hard-pressed to get it. I myself have been forced to travel south
otherwise,
>and much more slowly; the time may come soon when my cousins are ready to
>side not just with humankind but with *us* -- but for the present they
>persist in viewing Urth as somewhat less significant than many of the
>colonized worlds..."
>
>I take "the ship I summoned" to be the birdlike aliens who attempt to
rescue
>the Autarch and Sev from the Ascians at the end of Citadel XXV. They fail,
>and the two are carried off by Agia and Hethor instead.

The *ship* Inire summoned was the Hierodule ship that carried Malrubius and
Triskele, and eventually carried Sev from the jungle to the ocean. Inire had
no way of knowing that the Old Autarch's flier had been shot down. The Old
Autarch had sent out a message after the crash to Vodalus, and the message
was received. Vodalus sent the pteriopes under the command of Agia and
Hethor. They rescued the autarch and Sev from the Ascian evzones. Agia to
Sev: "and in the end you will come into my hands again, as you did when our
pteriopes took you from the evzones." (CITADEL, XXX)

Inire was the jungle shaman who was trying to help the Old Autarch. When
Agia and the Green Man arrived at the tent, they didn't know the Old Autarch
was dead inside, and they worked together only after they arrived. Agia was
already at the jungle camp and the Green Man got there by way of the
Corridors, as did the Hierodule ship. As the Green Man said, "However, you
ought to know that I was not alone: There are others questing there -- I
shall send two of them to you." (ibid.) This was more than a week after the
flier was shot down.

> It seems these alien
>"cousins" don't have the Hierogrammate point-of-view about the importance
of
>Urth. If Inire were a Hierogrammate (or even a high-ranking Hierodule) then
>he should be able to do better than this. He could be lying, but making
>lying excuses doesn't seem like a good way to win the confidence of the new
>autarch.
>
>Still, Inire is of a "short-lived race" (Citadel XXXVIII), and the B,F,O
>Hierodules are said to live "a score of years, like dogs" (Sword XXXIII).
>There has to be a connection. Probably both are creations of the
>Hierogrammates from the same original life-forms. Their shorter lifespans
>may have made it easier to accelerate their evolution. Multiple types of
>Hierodules seem to have been made, with different roles.

Immediately before reading the letter, Sev spoke to Rudesind of Inire: "We
know your master is what the people call a cacogen, and that for whatever
reason, he is one of those few who have chosen to cast their lots entirely
with humanity, remaining on Urth as a human being. The Cumaean is another
such, though perhaps you did not know that."

Fuel for the fire. Obviously, Inire is an alien of some sort, not a human
being. But he is capable of taking on the form of one.

-Roy