(urth) traveling north

[Jeff Wilson]

On 6/7/2010 12:55 PM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Andrew quoted and wrote:
>>  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.
>
> Oh yes, Nessus was well established in Typhon's time. The spaceport on
> Citadel Hill was known as the "old port" even when he was still alive (URTH,
> 251). (Which in turn implies a new spaceport somewhere, but we are never
> told where.)

"old port" could also mean there have been no landings at all in some time.

>> 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 ....
>
> No good story that I know of. Since both walls were made of the same
> unsmeltable metal, they had to have been constructed when the technology was
> still available, and we know for sure that the curtain wall was there when
> Typhon was alive. Technology declined after Typhon, but not right away. (The
> early autarchs could still carve mountains.)

I believe that unsmeltables date from a much earlier time, similar to 
that from which the artifacts at Saltus come, otherwise there's be no 
need to start the mine. The wouldn't stop Ymar from using the existing 
constructobots to carve himself into a mountain, as they remain slightly 
animated even in Severian's time.

> Mantis theorized that the invasion "occurred early in the Age of the
> Autarch" (LU2, 253). Could be. If so, the Wall may have been built early in
> the autarchy to prevent such an invasion happening again. Still, it seems
> like overkill. In any event, the Wall has to date back at least that far.

Obviously the Wall doesn't stop aerial assault, the Ascians could have 
used some flyers that were subsequently destroyed by the Commonwealth 
forces.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >