From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) arcologies like mountains
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 11:14:26 -0500

David A Baird said:
... the Hieros/Hierogrammates/Hierodules are creations from Urths past and
now they want the new sun so that Urth can regain it's glory and then in
turn recreate them again. 100K years seems too few for such a cycle.

Crush asked:
Wait a minute. I don't think I'm understanding this point. What possible
limitations of time could the Hieros offer? They go backwards in Time, go
outside of Time, drop in on Time. I presumed that Hieros were created in a
future far beyond the Age of the BothNS.

David responded:
If there's no time limitation to the Hieros activity then why do they rely
on Urth regaining its power?

Now Crush says:
Because...oh wait... now I understand your timeline. You are saying that the
Hieros are created between our time and Severian's and that they are backing
the new Sun in order to have themselves created a second time around? Right?

That's not the way I read tUotNS. My recollection of my reading was that
their ORIGINAL creation had been brought about by beings created by
humankind AFTER the New Sun's advent, AND that those beings would *never* be
created in the Future where the Dying Sun continues to decline.  Dan'l has
offered another fold, saying that the Hieros are created during a previous
universe-cycle - I'll have to re-read the book I guess. But even so, all
this takes place (relatively speaking) AFTER the advent of the New Sun.

Hence, the Hieros are not goosing the Urth toward the New Sun just to
replicate themselves in the future. They are ensuring their own original
creation. And with Dan'l,s twist the possibility arises that THEIR eventual
creation is necessary for humanity's development (and the Hiero's creation,
etc.).

Twisted enough for ya?
--Crush




--