(urth) Resurrections

[John Watkins]

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> Lee,
>
> Aren't we supposed to get the vibe that "the power was in Severian all the
> time, he just didn't know it?"
>
> Meaning pharmacon or not, claw or not, he had these powers. I thought that
> was demonstrated with Triskele in a very clear way. Severian does strive at
> length to attribute powers to the claw, but that is a bit of a loophole that
> suggests it was Severian, not any other talisman/affectation, that beholds
> the power.
>
> So the question would be, where do HIS powers come from? Is it part of him
> being a 2nd iteration of himself? The first having gained access to the
> corridors of time, gone back to become Conciliator, and the Severian we
> follow being a product of prior Severian achievements?
>
>

My understanding.

Severian's superpowers come from the White Fountain.  In Yesod, another
universe entirely, the Autarch Severian is deemed worthy of linkage with the
Fountain.  The Fountain, which was always already linked with Severian in
Yesod time, enters Briah sufficiently early so that its light reaches Urth
at or around the time of Apu Punchau.  The Autarch Severian, on the other
hand, is returned to Briah during Typhon's time.

Severian always has some measure of superpowers when he is within the
"broadcast range" of the influence of the Fountain, which coincides with the
light of the Fountain.

Thus young Severian, who has not yet become the Autarch in his personal
timeline, has superpowers--the light is hitting him, and with it whatever
influence gives him personal powers.  He is limited in using those powers
because he doesn't know about them.

Late in Citadel, the superpowered Severian cuts himself on a thorn.  His
blood transmits some measure of his power to the thorn.  He keeps it as a
memorial of the Claw, a similar-looking thorn he once carried.

After travelling to Yesod and being bound to the Fountain in his personal
timeline, he becomes aware of his powers and is far more adept with them,
even to the degree that his is more apt to use them unconsciously.

Super Severian gives someone his bled-on thorn in Typhon's era.  It is a
treasured relic that becomes the Claw.  Later on in Briah's timeline, but
earlier in Sev's personal timeline, he acquires the Claw, only powerful
because of its linkage to the Sev who exists in Sev's future and Briah's
past.  Because the Claw has some measure of power on its own, and because
Sev has superpowers, it acts as a channel or focus for his powers--he
doesn't know he has powers but he believes it does.  So he sometimes tries
to use its powers, which is really him using his powers and incidentally
making the Claw glow, but he's not quite sure of how it works.


> ...ryan
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