From: "Mitchell A. Bailey" <MAB@lindau.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Antechamber through the Age
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 20:10:13 

Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:
> 
> Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:
> 
> >My take has been that the House Absolute was reclaimed ... rather early in the > > Monarch's Empire, several millenia earlier; the painted ceiling could date from a > > time when that part of the antechamber had been an apartment for the monarch 
> > ...the text clearly states that several rooms were consolidated as the antechamber > > grew....
> 
> I suppose.  But I'm not clear on your reference points--by "Monarch" of
> "Monarch's Empire," are you referring to Typhon, the Man Who Would Be
> Monarch of the Second Empire, or some Monarch of the First Empire (Frog,
> for instance)?  Because you use the timeframe "several millennia," well,
> I'm confused.
> 
I'll have to confess to a minor goof, inasmuch as I intended to stick to
your chronology and not try to construct one of my own. Writing from the
seat of my pants, I momentarily forgot that the new Monarchs didn't
reside on urth until Typhon returned. That of course, is not debatable
since Typhon himself stated it (and if you want to argue with Typhon...)

I'm assuming it was originally probably was constructed as a command
bunker complex and then became obsolete (as all military assets tend to
do) a few centuries from our time. Then, after the fall of the great
stellar empire, it could have been rediscovered and reoccupied. OK, the
HA was not the Monarch's residence, but it still could have been the
residence or headquarters of his planetary governor, and possibly before
that the stronghold of any number of petty ethnarchs since the fall of
the K3 Empire some undefined length of time ago. 
That would tend to account for the appearance of rather decadent
pre-Commonwealth and even pre-Typhon occupation. 
...
> >It was at the door to Inire's specula chamber in the Second House that
> >the "crimson teratoid sign" Sev surmised to be of extraterrestrial
> >origin appeared. That seems to be what we're interpreting as radioactive
> >or biohazard warning symbols.
> 
> And Jonas seems to interpret those same symbols as some form of writing; he
> seems to read the one as saying "Urth," or words to that effect.  FWIW.
> 

or, he recognizes the symbol (Danger! Highly Curved Space Hazard! You
May Be Disintegrated or Teleported Somewhere Unpleasant!) as being
peculiar to the Earth he remembers or has researched.

Interesting, though - one would think Inire wopuld have posted that
sign, in which case the language and content would indeed be alien (that
doesn't rule out Jonas knowing it). Maybe Inire followed a practice of
posting a sign with the name of the place, to orient new arrivals, kind
of like the place-signs you saw at railroad stations?

...
> I also think "executive bunker" more likely than missile center--the two
> are rather exclusive of each other, unless the silos are for anti-missile
> missiles, I guess . . .

or spy satellites, or cruise missles, or manned rockets for various
missions...


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