(urth) Wall of Nessus

[James Wynn]

>>> ...after Typhon was revived on the mountain he speaks as if the monsters in the
>>> oceans were news to him ("There are powers in the seas now who would rule. [SWORD, chap. XXVI] ), but that's the way it goes.
>>>        
>> I believe Typhon is doing some Yoda-speak here. He is saying there are
>> powers in the sea that NOW CONSIDER THEMSELVES RULERS and he'll sort
>> them out tout de suite.
>>      
> Probably so.[snip] Anyone who could build the_Whorl_  and manufacture
> hundreds of thousands of chem soldiers would have little trouble with
> sea monsters; and the Ascians, if they were even around in Typhon's era,
> would have been less than fleas to him.
>    
>> Anyway, we know that the monster Scylla at least was around at the time
>> of the Whorl's launch, because Typhon's daughter conspired with it
>> against her father.
>>      
> Yeah, but that may have involved a little retrofitting.
>    

I guess what I'm saying is that I think Typhon's statement only 
emphatically implies that Typhon is able to know telepathically (through 
some self-maintaining mechanisms) that the monsters have established 
themselves as lords on Earth and that he considers them pretenders to 
their thrones.

His statement doesn't _really_ imply that the sea monsters were not 
around during his time. His conversation with Severian does not suggest 
that they were not around even before Typhon (or arriving around the 
same time) as treacherous and incursive forces. As always, they required 
willing Earth-born allies and servants in order to be genuine powers, 
and those servants were much more exposed to the Autarch's wrath than 
the monsters were themselves (ala Typhon's daughter). Even in AEG, the 
governments are not directly ruled by the Storm King in the way that the 
Ascian government seems to be directed by Erebus. It's tricky business 
to rule the land when you can't leave the water.

When the Autarch was strong and Earth technology was advanced they would 
not have been able to establish their power beyond their physical reach, 
so Typhon did not need to extend his own power to their remote locations 
in order to wipe them out utterly (which even Typhon might not have been 
able to do).

Yes, I realize that it is not a big deal either way.

J.