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From: mary whalen <marewhalen@yahoo.com> Subject: (urth) Aquastor!!! Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 21:10:17 This is Sean Whalen (prion). I think that I have found the name aquastor. While reading about golems, I saw that aquastor is the mystical name for a created being, such as a golem or homunculus. One legend about the golem is that God told a Jew to sculpt a man out of the clay of the River Jordan. On this was placed a tablet inscribed with the name of god (remember the Hierodules' lecture on souls being like carved words?). The golem was then a healer; a slave of the Jews. Any Jew who looked on it was healed. This resembles Severian so much, I can't help but think it's related. Supposedly, the concentration and power of a trained mind is required for an aquastor's creation and maintenance. Also, the creator is responsible for the actions of the aquastors it creates. Perhaps part of Severian's special relationship with the people from Yesod is that they made an eidolon of him when he died, and are responsible for him. Why would they resurrect some anonymous Urth boy? Because they knew him in his future, which is their past. It's all cyclic, you see. In the BNS, if there is any difference between the terms eidolon and aquastor, it seems to be that the eidolon is created from the memories of the person being recreated. Aquastors come from the memories of other people. The mind from which the memories for the aquastor would not be able to tell that they were not the real people, since they would never act in a way that the originator wouldn't believe them to do, even if the real person would have done something different from that. An eidolon would be exactly like the original, since it is created from the original's memories. Actually, the eidolon would only be a perfect copy if the original had all the memories of its life. A being with imperfect memory would have experienced things and have memories hidden (or unavailable) to its current memories, and would probably actually be slightly different from the original, though not in significant ways, since only remembered memories would probably have affected the original anyway. May I propose a theory? Severian resurrects people; that is apparent. But, what do these renati do? They do one of two things. They appear normal to Severian if he knew them, or they have almost no memories if he didn't. When Severian resurrects the uhlan, he acts like Sev. thinks an uhlan should act, and remembers what Sev. saw happen to him. When Sev. resurrects the soldier, he has no memory, but acts in a way like Jonas, whom Sev. was reminded of when resurrecting him. He knows only what Sev. knew about him: that he was a soldier, and that he had a love. He even completely adopts the name Sev. decided to use for him. The man animated by the necromancer was unknown to him, too, and has no memories except hatred for the necromancer, whom Sev. already knew had "raised" him. There seems to be no reason for these people to have no memories, other than what Sev. knows about them. This theory, if true, solves many problems and questions using only information provided in the books. When Sev. resurrects Thecla in his mind he had eaten part of her and the alzabo, so he had all of her memories when giving her life (recreating her soul in him). We can't even be sure exactly what the process of autarchization is like to someone with imperfect memory and without revitalizing power. prion _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/