Severian

Severian is the narrator and main character of Gene Wolfe's four-volume novel The Book of the New Sun, as well as its sequel, The Urth of the New Sun. He is a Journeyman of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence (a Guild of torturers) who is exiled after showing mercy to one of his clients.

Severian claims to have perfect memory (his eidetic memory is stated as a fact by Gene Wolfe in Shadows of the New Sun). In spite of this, some critics and analysis claim him to be an unreliable narrator.

At the opening of the novel, Severian saves the life of Vodalus, an outlaw who is fighting to restore Urth to its former glory. As a reward, Vodalus gives Severian a gold coin, which Severian treasures from then on. He later learns that the golden coin is fake. Dr Talos hands Severian a similar coin and tells him it is fake; Severian compares the coin to the coin Vodalus gave him, and notices they are the same (pg. 395, Citadel). Throughout the rest of his youth, Severian idolizes Vodalus and seeks to join him.

Severian starts the novel as an apprentice but shortly becomes the captain of apprentices, and later a Journeyman in the Guild of Torturers. As a boy, he rescues a dog named Triskele, which leads him through secret tunnels to a courtyard belonging to an "exultant" (aristocratic) family, where he meets a girl named Valeria.

While still captain of apprentices, Severian meets and befriends the Chatelaine Thecla, a woman who is part of the Autarch's court who has been imprisoned because her sister had become the consort of Vodalus. Thecla is to be treated with special care, and since she takes a liking to Severian, asks that he sit with her for a while each day. Severian eventually falls in love with Thecla. When Thecla is tortured, Severian is moved by love and pity, and sneaks a knife into her cell, allowing her to take her own life and end her suffering.

Severian is briefly imprisoned, but it is decided that his life is to be spared, and (after being given the sword Terminus Est) he is sent to be the Lictor of Thrax, a city in the north. He is also allowed to keep his Torturer's cloak, which is fuligin, "the color that is darker than black."

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