Typhon

However, I believe there is a mention that the exultants are invaders from "another shore" and I think it has been stated that Typhon may have been their leader. When I say that Typhon returned to Urth, I mean more in the sense that you or I may return to our "homeland." That is to say that Typhon may come from a planet that was a part of the old galactic empire of Urth. In the fall of the galactic empire many areas would have been cut off from other areas of the galaxy. These areas would develop their own cultures and genetic traits over centuries. (maybe hundreds of centuries) I see Typhon as a sort of provincial general who desires to rebuild the empire to its glory days and decides to set up the throne on the "most ancient of planets" Urth. In the end it is only my theory to try to explain why Typhon and the exultants are said to come from another planet, be so similar to 'stock' humans, and yet be so very different (as in: snow white complextions, extreme height, ruthlessness).

Typhon was of extraterrestrial origin and probably brought the exultants with him.

Exultants as offworld invaders: -- Jonas says they are new (II, ch. 10).

True. I guess I had assumed the exultants to be a genetically "improved" aristocracy, rather than offworlders. Which would also fit with Jonas' remark, and explain why they are taller than armigers. But this certainly isn't conclusive and doesn't explain

-- their greater height may originally have been reflective of adaptation to a gravity field less than 1 gee. [!This is speculation!] -- they have access to higher technology (energy weapons, and by extension fliers, clones, human bioengineering) that in the text is called "stellar level" (fliers, clones, human bioengineering would not appear to fit in the "smith" or "Urth" levels of technology).

Typhon as offworld invader: -- "I have told you that I was autarch on many worlds . . . This world, the most ancient of all, I made my capital. That was an error . . . those to whom I had given control of such ships as could reach the stars had fled in them" (III, ch. 26). Were the ships controlled by exultants, or mere sailors?

Linkage between exultants and Typhon: --exultants are ancient nobility (implying that they predate the Autarchy), armigers are newer petty nobility (there is a suggestion in the text that they were created by the Autarch to keep the exultants in check). --Vodalus seems to want to recreate the Monarchy (but then again, most of the trappings he talks about were also inherited by the Autarchy, so perhaps it boils down to Vodalus's technophilic militaristic expansionistic drive, which, by definition, looks like the Monarchy).

As for Typhon,

>"I have told you that I was autarch on many worlds . . . This >world, the most ancient of all, I made my capital."

is suggestive but (as you admit), not conclusive. Typhon's comment that

>"those to whom I had given control of such ships as could reach >the stars had fled in them"

is fascinating in the light of BOtLS. We get the impression from III Chs 25, 26 that Typhon's Piaton-transplant is relatively recent, (an experiment still in progress) which suggests that the Whorl left Urth shortly before the Conciliator arrived and Typhon was abandoned behind his curtain to die. So did the Whorl set sail _after_ Typhon's generals had fled in his starships? This suggests that its despatch was a bit of an emergency measure, rather than being carefully-planned..?

Having reread these passages, I am struck by an ambiguity which I hadn't noticed before. I had always assumed that Severian/the New Sun unwittingly resurrected Typhon - particularly ironic as this comes between two failed resurrections which Severian actually wanted to achieve. But I now note that Severian doesn't seem to touch Typhon at all (although it's not, admittedly, completely clear whether this is necessary for "the Claw" to operate). But he does fiddle with the machinery. So is Typhon resurrected by natural rather than supernatural means?

Re: Typhon's operation. Don't forget V, ch. 38 and 39. Also factor in the young ages of the offspring gods of the Whorl. Cobble together a timeline and put it up for review!

Re: what resurrected Typhon. I don't want to alarm you <g>, but remember that whole thing about child sacrifice? About how maybe, just maybe, Jerboa killed a human child, for which he was impregnated with a piece of Pas? Well, on Urth little Severian was charred ala Moloch while running towards the wedding band of the idol's dexter sinister (note: idol looking in sinister direction of sunset rather than holy direction of sunrise). (Typhon claims to have seen the boy get blasted, but was that an astral body vision?) Anywho, such practices fall under the heading of "tanist."

In a round-about way, I argue that it was the Claw; but I agree with you (or hope that you will agree with me?) that the Claw is a creepy and capricious thing.

> >How much time elapsed between Typhon's reign and Severian's? > > Mantis has said that about a chiliad (1000 Urth years) passed between > the reign of Ymar and the Reign of Severian. Typhon was the last of the > Monarchs, Ymar was one of the first, or the first, of the autarchs. Thus, > about 1000 (Urth) years have passed between Typhon's reign and Sev's reign.

This is a mantic or even lupine opinion have a lot of trouble with. Primarily, I look at the mountains, all or most of which have been carved in the likenesses of rulers. In _Sword_, we are told (as a guess by Severian) that Mount Typhon must have been the first of them, and (I think) this is confirmed in _Urth_, when Severian-as-Conciliator meets Typhon. So we have a space of 1000 years in which the entire future-Andes have been carved. Every ruler post-Typhon is an autarch: did they each carve a mountain? If each reigned 10 years, we only have time for 100 mountains, assuming that they _all_ did one...

My suspicion is that there is either more time between Typhon and Severian than 1000 years (more like 10,000?), or there's an inconsistency between _TBONS_ and _Urth_.

Re: the age of the mountains and what Gene Wolfe said in the People interview. First, what Gene said: I thought it was a little ambiguous, and it seems that communications were a little garbled. However, having expressed those doubts, sure, we can enter two or three new models for posthistory based on this snippet (for example: one, that posthistory is two thousand years, starting at the year AD 2000; two, that the Age of the Autarch is two-thousand years long; or three, that posthistory from Apu-Punchau to Ushas is two-thousand years long).

Next, the age of the mountains. See, I =still= believe that the mountains of Urth are basically ruins of supercity arcologies built by the machines as described in the Tale of the Librarians told by Cyriaca to Severian. So yes, small scale terraforming along the lines that vizcacha says--perhaps (probably?) even to the point of raising an artificial continent. In any event, the implied geological time is short circuited.

> but we know (from Typhon's account of his reign) that this proved a > sudden, unpredicted calamity, and two further references--at > Morwenna's execution and in Dr. Talos's play--suggest that it is > being consumed by a tiny black hole" Feeley, "The Evidence of Things > Not Shown," NYRSF No. 31, March 1991, pg. 8.

Hmmm. That would account for Typhon's sending off a colonization ship, wouldn't it? Perhaps he thought the death of the sun was imminent, and wanted to save a fragment of humanity from the cataclysm. But then why didn't he come along in physical form? Hmmm again. Perhaps Typhon thought he had a few thousand years, and the "Long Sun" ship was an experiment. If so, he must be quite peeved by the information his telemetry is giving him...

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Onomastics

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