(urth) Is Agia a Robot?

[Roy C. Lackey]

I have found that facts seldom get in the way of fancied theories, but here
are a few.

Male chems (soldiers like Hammerstone) are taller, heavier than fem chems,
and 5.25 times stronger. (That number comes from Marble, CALDE, chap. 8,
p-284.) Silk said that she was too heavy for him to lift (ibid., chap. 4,
p-131).

Chems don't eat or drink. Severian pushed Agia into a chair when she had a
belly full of wine (SHADOW, chap. XXV). He also slapped her down, "My hand
caught her just below the ear and she went sprawling, . .  . " (ibid., chap.
XXVII). He easily overpowered her outside the mine of the man-apes and
lifted her off her feet by her hair (CLAW, chap. VII). There is no way for
Agia to be a chem. Agilus's execution speaks for itself, as others have
pointed out.

Jonas was not a chem. Sev picked him up in the Antechamber: "I carried him
back (finding him astonishingly light) and when I . . ." (CLAW, chap. XVI).
Silk and Sev were both young, strong lads.

Inire interrogated Agia and put her in command of Vodalus's rebels (CITADEL,
chap. XXXV). I think that he, as a hierodule, could tell a doll from a robot
from a human woman. A woman is what he called her in his letter.

-Roy