(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[Roy C. Lackey]

Andrew wrote:
>[Digression: I still think that the wounding of the sun might in
>fact have happened back in Apu Panchu's day. It takes millions of
>years for photons to travel form the core of the sun to the
>surface. Wound the core, and perhaps the effects will only be
>apparent on the timescales required for this. For the story, I
>think this would be pretty neat thematically: eg the
>Hierogrammate's plans unfolding over practically *all* of human
>history. But anyway ...]

Against this are Typhon's comments about his astronomers being wrong in
their predictions about the rate of change in the sun's output. Contrary to
their predictions, it had declined by a small but detectable amount in just
a "few years", followed by crop failures, famine and riots. So Typhon had
*some* reason to be keeping an eye on the sun even before effects of the
change became apparent. The change seems to have happened on his watch.

>Why did the Hierogrammates want this conclusion? As b_sharp says,
>the whole story about co-evolution is kind of squidgy. Why do the
>Hierogrammates care about recreating the Hieros? They don't need
>them to recreate the Hierogrammates, obviously!

It doesn't make much sense to me, either. There is that bit about some small
improvement being made with each cycle of the universes, but I don't know
what the end result is supposed to be, unless it is some form of Nearer My
God to Thee -- either to become powerful enough to challenge God, or to
*become* God. Sort of along the lines of what Silk(?) said about someone who
is playing a role becoming that which he pretends to be. Ala Quetzal.

>Evidently, the Hierogrammates followed after the Hieros in the
>latters' quest "higher and higher". I think this brought them to
>Yesod, only to find the Hieros had already departed for some higher
>sphere. Now they want to recreate a race of Hieros, but this time
>under their control. When the new Hieros find the way beyond Yesod,
>the Hierogrammates will be riding with them.

Wolfe cleverly makes Apheta say that of the *works* of the Hieros, only the
Hierogrammates remain. What does that really say about the Hieros? Did they
die off when their universe collapsed or did they escape like the
Hierogrammates? If they are not on Yesod, where are they if they still
exist? If they are on some higher plane than Yesod, shouldn't they be even
more powerful than their "creations", be in a position to thwart unwanted
followers?

Note how that bit about the Hieros fashioning the Hierogrammates to be their
"companions" sounds a lot like the popular perception of God and the angels.
Or the Seven Worlds cosmology in TWK, and how some have suggested that its
Most High God is the Demiurge.

-Roy