(urth) Short Sun blog

[Roy C. Lackey]

Jeff Wilson wroted and quote:
> >> I just posted a quote from URTH that seems to say that there were
> >> Autarchs before Typhon, and in SWORD Typhon answers to the title of
> >> Autarch without correction or comment to Severian.
> >
> > Dave is right about Typhon not being an autarch. Typhon was the last
> > monarch, Ymar the first autarch.
>
> Then whose memories lie behind Ymar's?

Don't know. But the Age of Myth is older even than the Age of the Monarch
and probably includes Apu-Punchau, who was Severian, who used time travel.

>  > The title autarch is used by a number of
> > people in the Commonwealth in Severian's era to mean ruler, because they
> > know no other word for one.
>
> It might be the most familiar and  the only commonly used one, but I
> find it hard to believe it is the only one during a time of active war;
> surely people talk about the Asciians soldiers and the Periscii raiders
> and must have words for their rulers other than "autarch" if only to
> avoid dishonoring the autarch by association. "King" appears in the
> brown book, which was popular closer to Sev's time than to Typhon's.

Autarch might not be the only word used by people in Sev's era to mean
ruler, but it is a word used as a catch-all for ruler. People in Typhon's
day referred to him as monarch.

>  > Cyriaca uses autarch in that way in her story
> > about the founding of Ultan's library, and there are other cases, such
as
> > Nicaret explaining to Severian why pastries and coffee were served to
people
> > in the antechamber, a custom that began before the reign of Ymar.
> >
> > Jonas, answering a question about the weird soldiers in the Wall, said,
"The
> > old autarchs, who were not autarchs or called so, did use human
soldiers."
> > (CLAW, chap. VIII) Typhon would have answered to "Imperator or something
of
> > the sort" as readily as to autarch.
>
> Yes, this is what I mean, "autarch" or something very similar like
> "autocrat" must be known to Typhon and accepted as a suitably respectful
> or flattering title, seeing as he is such a stickler for respect for his
> authoritai!

Sev said to Ymar: "Ymar, someday you will become the ruler. You'll be the
monarch, although I don't think you'll call yourself that." (URTH, chap.
XXXVIII, 269)

-Roy