(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[Dave Tallman]

<mailto:urth%40lists.urth.net?Subject=Re%3A%20%28urth%29%20What%27s%20So%20Great%20About%20Ushas%3F&In-Reply-To=%3C4858906F.1060708%40io.com%3E>Jeff 
Wilson wrote:
> **The enormous Blue Whale's voice is louder than a jet engine and can be 
> heard through water over distances of hundreds of miles, perhaps 
> thousands in the absence of motorized ships, and this was documented and 
> popularized signifigantly before the publication of BOTNS. The presence 
> of Abaia's voice doesn't require the presence of Abaia.
>   
That's a clever work-around, but I don't think so. The steersman said 
that the women's voices were "not loud but big." The description implies 
a conversation (Citadel XXXVII): "They would say 'so-and-so-and-so.' 
Then... the deeper voice'd say 'go-and-do-that-and-this-and-that.' I 
heard the women's voices three times and the other voice twice."

In Urth XLIII, Juturna speaks of Abaia's intentions in the present 
tense, without any hint that he has died or is about to. She says "Abaia 
would make of us a great people," not "Abaia would have made of us a 
great people."

Do you know of anything in the text that suggests Abaia is such a size 
that he couldn't come up the river? The claim of the undines to be his 
brides and sweethearts in Shadow XV also suggests they are 
size-compatible. The legendary Abaia was an enormous magical eel that 
lived in a lake, so that doesn't imply an immobile size either.