(urth) Agia's Weapons

[David Stockhoff]

On 12/19/2011 2:33 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
> Daniel Petersen: http://silkandhornheresy.blogspot.com/2010/06/reading-wolfe-is-dream-like-another.html
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> Nice essay, Daniel! I found the graphic intriguing as well. The dagger put me in mind
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> of a topic from the past which might be worth bringing up- Agia's weapons.
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> I find the description of Agia's four weapons to go beyond what would be needed for
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> "background color" and I've considered that they might have symbolic significance:
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> 1. Agia mentions a "misericorde" sold by her shop with which she wishes she could stab
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> Severian. The name of this slim blade means "divine mercy" and was used to provide a
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> quick, painless death to mortally wounded knights on the battlefield. This sounds like
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> the weapon of a Pelerine to me.


True. Doesn't fit the rest, but a weapon is a weapon when you need one.

Or are you simply suggesting it came from a Pelerine, not that Agia is one?

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> 2. Her "athame" is the warlock's blade and the occult nature of this weapons is likely
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> associated with her scratching of a "jurupari" image. The juripari is a S. American
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> fish and mythical demon. Since both are known for using their mouth as a sort of cage,
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> I think this connects Agia to the witches (Fomalhaut) and the great beasts of the Urth
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> such as Ouroboros.
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> I think the poison on that sword eventually provides a connection between her and the assassin
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> that Severian encounters in the Secret House on Flood Day.


It's true that we are never told the identity of the assassin. We do 
know that he is male (or so Severian assumes., not being around to find 
out), so presumably he's not Agia, but he could be of the Vodalarii 
(Agiarii?). Note that he was a "master swordsman."


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> 3. The crooked dagger she carries at Casdoe's place obviously connects Agia to Thrax. Why,
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> if she is from Nessus? I suspect this connects to weapon 1 and implies a family connection.
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> The only Pelerine we know in Thrax is Cyriaca (who plans to escape to Nessus to cook and sew).
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> Cyriaca is old enough to be Severian's mother but perhaps she is his aunt? Or are there cloned
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> versions of Catherin involved here? Either way, the physical descriptions match up nicely for
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> an aunt/cousin relationship to Severian, if Agia's and Aguilus' father has red hair. I think
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> he does.


If Agia has followed Severian through Thrax, she could have picked up 
the weapon there. One difficulty is explaining how Agia learned to use 
it, but it has already been shown that she is a weapons expert.

Better look up that hair color reference!

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> 4. The "lucivee" with which Agia slaps Severian's face might be the rare case in BotNS of WOlfe
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> inventing a word. I can't find a reference to it as a weapon though perhaps others can. If we go
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> to the French (as for misericorde) it refers to a lynx, so I guess we can conclude it to be akin
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> to a cats claws weapon.
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> The lucivee attaches to the hand with a palm bar and rings for two fingers. Thus if held with a
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> flat palm it can be a slapping weapon. But if a fist is made, the flate blades extend between the
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> fingers and become (as Mantis described his vision of it to me) a "Wolverine set of claws" for
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> slashing.


Right, presumably it resembles the Southeast Asian "tiger's claw," a 
simple, concealable assassin's weapon. Your description is likely.
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> The thing is, the claws used by the Jungle Sorcerers are the same thing. Palm bar with rings, blades
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> for slashing. So this weapon connects Agia to them in some manner. I think it is related to Weapon
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> 2 and also ties Agia to the demonic and occult figures on Urth who are allied with the giant beast
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> monsters of Urth as enemies of the New Sun.

I think that's a leap, because no connection from Sorcerers to Beasts 
has been made. Plausible, just not shown.

However, we do know of at least these three links to the sorcerers 
(athame, lucivee, juripari). If Erebus and Abaia follow the model of 
Cthulhu and his human slaves, I'd expect to see sorcerers and assassins 
working for him.