(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[Dave Tallman]

Andrew wrote:
> BTW, did anybody ever make anything more of Juturna's line:
>
> "Catch Catodon ... Cast out his conation."
>
> It atually looks a bit like a cryptic crossword clue, but that 
> doesn't help me much. It's easy enough to gloss it, but why Catodon 
> (sperm whale?), why express herself in this way etc.
>   
The phrase is in parallel to "He's tried to tame you instead," so I take 
it as a poetic expansion of the same concept. Abaia wants to rule 
humanity, and cast out their contation (human will), making them like 
the Ascians.  The phrase may be worded this way to refer to Hobbes' 
Leviathan. Hobbes argued for an absolute monarchy to prevent anarchy. 
Abaia may be thinking along similar lines. Leviathan is the untameable 
sea monster from Job 41, which has sometimes been identified with the 
sperm whale.

> Also: what were she and Baldanders doing in Valeria's audience 
> chamber anyway? Even if you can think of reasons why they might 
> want to warn her, what good would such a warning do?
>   
Juturna was probably offering the undine's gift of water-breathing in 
exchange for loyalty to Abaia. If the autarch was under Abaia's control 
he would achieve a partial victory. He could claim legitimate rule over 
the survivors of the Commonwealth.

Baldanders said "What I am about to say is not important. But I will say 
it in order that you will listen to what is important afterward." He was 
interrupted by the arrival of Juturna and then the sea, so he never got 
to his main point. I suspect he wanted something from the House 
Absolute, and my guess is the Book of Mirrors. "Many will seek to flee 
by that road if the pelagic argosy sights land," the old autarch said. 
Valeria lacked the memories of the autarchs, so Baldanders might have 
been offering to show her how to use the Book to escape in order to 
obtain it for his own study and use.