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On 26/09/10 22:36, Jeff Wilson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4C9FBCF9.6010205@io.com" type="cite">On 9/26/2010
2:24 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">It's not clear to me that Autarchs eat the
brains only of Autarchs:
<br>
the stated aim of the practice is to make the whole Commonwealth
<br>
present within one person. Though of course this raises the question
<br>
who might have maintaining a chain of brain-eaters before Ymar's time.
<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Is there any evidence that anyone did? I don't see it. There's that
'perhaps' in Severian's musing (really, he has no idea at all how far
back the 'inherited' memories go; he has no direct access to Ymar for
instance - as Conciliator, Sev doesn't even recognise the guy at first,
when he's supposed to have ingested Ymar's memories alongside those of
all the other Autarchs) and while someone, somewhen, has to have
introduced the tradition along with its essential mediator, the alzabo,
it's not at all clear when this happened. <br>
<br>
Sev tells us several times over that it's only the most recent memories
which are at all clear. While he is aware at some level of the
multitude of individuals that dwell within an Autarch, he has direct
and detailed access to the memories of no more than two or three of
them - and in his case, the most prominent alternate is Thecla; no
Autarch, but rather something of an innocent bystander. <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:4C9FBCF9.6010205@io.com" type="cite">In that
case, what distinguishes autarchs from those rulers who are not?
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
I submit that save in the case of Ymar, who was the first, the
distinction is precisely in the ingestion of the memories of the
predecessor. Ymar, it is quite clear, did not perform the alzabo ritual
upon his predecessor Typhon. There's no question about this; it simply
didn't happen. How do we know for sure? Well - when Sev finds Typhon's
dessicated and then resurrected body, it has two heads, and they are
both intact. Nobody has taken an oyster-knife to Typhon's skull; nor to
Piaton's for that matter. <br>
<br>
I think also that this distinction is probably the motivation behind
Vodalus's resurrectionist cult. By ingesting the memories of what is
probably quite a random selection of individuals ('Not another tribade
...!'), he is attempting to turn himself into a kind of faux Autarch.
That's his ambition after all. His lover Thea refers at one point to an
imagined future time 'when Vodalus is Autarch' (she imagines herself as
his Autarchia); and Vodalus himself is desperate to recover the
Autarch's crashed flyer when he's informed by his spy (the Old Autarch
himself of course) that the Autarch is with him in the wreckage. This
would be an ideal brain-eating opportunity; but Vodalus blows it. <br>
<br>
In his message, the Old Autarch is referring to Severian, whom he knows
to be his destined successor; not to himself. (Perhaps he thinks that
Sev will be physically strong enough to resist, or that Vodalus simply
won't consider that the person that his temporary ally Agia is pursuing
could be Autarch in waiting). Vodalus has no idea that his spy is
really the Autarch himself. So when his agents (of whom he fondly
believes Agia to be one) recover the occupants of the craft and he sees
only his spy (obviously gravely injured) and Agia's quarry, he simply
wonders where the Autarch may have gone, and thus lets an opportunity
to seize the throne slip through his hands. <br>
<br>
It's all in the neural chemistry. Perhaps Vodalus thinks that if he
ingests a sufficient number of memories, some of which may come from
individuals who have held positions in the House Absolute, he will
eventually get to know enough of the Words to be able to claim the
throne (on behalf of the exultant class, even). <br>
<br>
<br>
So: while there's very little information on <i>why</i> this tradition
started, I think it's clear enough how it operates (that UOTNS phrase,
'Epitome of Urth', turns out to be entirely appropriate) and also that
Ymar started it. <br>
<br>
jd<br>
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