(urth) Merger

[Andrew Mason]

Gerry Quinn wrote: >
> The whole business as explained by Malrubius's aquastor doesn't make a whole
> lot of sense.
>
> (1) Why be concerned that the particular autarchs who undertook and failed
> the trial might found a dynasty?  I don't see why a dynasty founded by them
> should be worse than a dynasty founded by some autarch who never undertook
> it.

As far as I can see, it isn't Malrubius who says the bit about
founding a dynasty; it's someone - perhaps Apheta - in _Urth_, after
the 'test' has taken place. It may relate only to 'Appian', the point
being that if he had children they would have prevented Severian,
specifically, becoming Autarch. (Are we actually ever told that Ymar
was castrated, or just left to infer it?)

I don't think it likely that this was a deception, given that it is
revealed after the main goal of the Hierogrammates' plan has already
been achieved.


  So was Malrubius's aquastor lying,
> perhaps not about the price of falure, but about its purpose?  Might the
> willingness to proceed despite the risk of such consequences be part of
> Severian's trial?  That has a certain degree of plausibility.

I think that is what we are originally led to believe, the 'dynasty'
point being revealed later. I don't think it is wholly false, but in
'Appian's' case there was also  a more specific purpose. (Since his
trial was a fake, there was no real point in using the threat to test
_him_, though of course the memory of the penalty can still be part of
the test for Severian.)
>
>