(urth) Tzadkiel/Melek Taus

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "Jeff Wilson" <jwilson at io.com>
>   From: Mr Thalassocrat
>
>>   But on my side of the argument I have Ash's words about the majority of
>> the population having been evacuated before the ice death, in his
>> future. Whatever the benefits of Ushas, why did almost everybody have to
>> die in Sev's time line? And probably more to the point: why didn't Sev
>> at least try to make this happen - knowing as he did that it was
>> possible?
>
> I think it is more like, they let it happen as late as they possibly could
> without endangering the success of the New Sun. This meant a dying urth
> about to disappear under its final ice age with a population in the
> millions rather than billions, so that the minimum loss of life would be
> necessary for the coming of Ushas.

I think the coming of the New Sun is only a relatively short time after 
Severian left; a matter of several decades.  His (ex)wife is still alive.

Ash's time, when the glaciers are finally closing in, is - if I recall 
correctly - some four thousand years in the future.

- Gerry Quinn