(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[Roy C. Lackey]

Just a follow-up on what I said before.

There is no doubt that the black hole came to be in the sun during Typhon's
era. At issue is whether he or the Hierogrammates was directly to blame for
it. I've addressed the Hierogrammate side, somewhat. There is no direct
evidence in the Urth Cycle to pin it on Typhon, but that doesn't mean he
didn't cause it. Still, Apheta's statement gives pause:

"You know that we have condemned the peoples of
Urth, and why. They now feel they have earned our
forgiveness, and the chance to resume the places they held
of old--" (URTH, XVI, 112-13)

What does she mean by "condemned"? If Typhon did cause the black hole,
whether accidentally or purposefully, then the Ragnarok-future can be laid
at his feet and a rational defense of the Urth-to-Ushas catastrophic
transition can be made, even if I don't agree with it. But she said "we"
"condemned". Naughty Typhon might have supplied the "why" of it, but it was
the Hierogrammates and their minions, the "we", who did the condemning of
Urth's peoples.

Had Typhon been directly responsible for the black hole, she might have said
something like, "You Urth people screwed up and now you are suffering for
it, and it's only going to get worse for you as time goes on. But because we
are such nice guys we are going to give you a chance to fix your sun. The
fix will be quite painful, but we offer you the opportunity. All you have to
do is jump through a few hoops for us. Take it or leave it." But she said
something very different.

The only way to negate the condemnation was for a representative of Urth's
peoples to "earn" the "forgiveness" of the Hierogrammates. By "earn" she
meant the Epitome's sham trial/examination. The "forgiveness" came in the
form of the awarding of a white hole to cancel out the black hole in Urth's
sun.

That leaves no choice but to absolve Typhon of responsibility for the black
hole and place it squarely on the Hierogrammates, with or without the
Increate's blessing.

The question then becomes: *Why* did the Hierogrammates condemn Urth's
peoples during Typhon's era?

-Roy