(urth) traveling north

[Mr Thalassocrat]

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:

>
>
> The Curtain Wall around the Citadel didn't need to be as big or
> sophisticated as the City Wall. The purpose of the Curtain Wall (according
> to Cyriaca's tale) was to safeguard the writings that became Ultan's
> Library. Her tale also implies that the City Wall and the curtain wall date
> from the same period. That is, "Their spoil was gathered into a great heap
> in the city of Nessus, which was then newly built, to be burned." She goes
> on to say that the cache of books was enclosed by a curtain wall when the
> ruler changed his mind about burning the books. That ruler had planned to
> retire behind the curtain wall if his dreams of a "new empire" (as distinct
> from the "first empire") should fail (SWORD, chap. VI ).
>
> The implication, of course, is that Typhon was that ruler, though he died
> alone on his mountain. So, yes, if Cyriaca is to be believed, the walls are
> the same age.
>

Don't you think "newly built" here may not be not reliable? From the point
of view of a future fable, events in the past can easily be seen as
happening in the same "long ago", even if separated by many years. I
certainly get the sense from Short Sun that Nessus was an established city
at the time of Typhon - unless we are to think of Roger as a recent
immigrant to the place. Typhon himself calls the place Nessus in BotNS, but
we are told elsewhere (can't remember where) that it had an earlier name.

But whatever, has anybody ever come up with a good story about why he or
somebody else built such an extensive wall, enclosing so much undeveloped
land? Even for a megalomaniac ....
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