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Introduced In Shadow Of The Torturer
Severian
A journeyman at the Seekers for Truth and Penitence, who is exiled from his guild at the beginning of the series, which chronicles his journey from exiled torturer to Autarch.
- Cool Sword: Terminus Est. Though it is pointedly not a magic sword, just masterfully crafted.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Well, it's very debatable as to whether Severian is evil or not, but regardless he's the protagonist of the cycle and is almost always seen wearing his fuligin cloak, which is noted as being "blacker than black".
- Dark Messiah: He is the New Sun, bringing new life to the planet through apocalypse.
- Exalted Torturer: Subverted, as he initially believes this, but then comes to later realize that torture is bad. As Autarch, Severian tries to outlaw the Torturers' Guild, saying "It is intolerable that good men should spend their lives dispensing pain."
- Just Following Orders: This is Severian’s justification for what his guild does; they do exactly as the judges and officials request and nothing more or less, so can they really be blamed? As the series goes on, he finds less and less merit in this excuse before turning his back on his craft entirely
- Malevolent Masked Man: Wears a black, wooden mask as part of his guild uniform, and is a very morally ambiguous character.
- Messianic Archetype: His life shares many parallels with that of Jesus Christ.
- Mind Hive: At first its just two personalities after he consumes Thecla. Later on he becomes a proper hive as the next Autarch, containing hundreds of predecessors.
- Mythical Motifs: In addition to the Christ parallels above, Severian is associated with the Incan sun god Apu-Punchau. This is further explored in the follow-up Urth Of The New Sun.
- Off with His Head!: His day job as a lictor.
- Pet the Dog: While morally ambiguous, Severian is truly trying to be a better person, as seen with him helping to free the Green Man, curing the sick in Thrax, or taking in Little Severian when an Alzabo kills the boy’s family.
- Photographic Memory: To such a degree that he does not understand the meaning of the notion "to forget", or so he claims.
- Serial Romeo: He has a tendency to fall in love wholly and quickly, between Thecla, Agia, Dorcas and Valeria.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Has a tendency to fall into this."He (Master Gurloes) mispronounced quite common words: urticate, salpinx, bordereau."
- Torture Technician: His education in the guild of torturers prepared him for this.
- Unreliable Narrator: He has been described as such by several critics and readers.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The uniform of the Guild includes a large cloak, but no shirt, and Severian rarely wears anything else. He even travels through the mountains shirtless!
- Weird Trade Union: He grew up in the Order of Seekers For Truth and Penitence, otherwise known as the torturer's guild.
Vodalus
A legendary revolutionary with whom Severian becomes involved.
- Big Good: He is viewed as such by Severian, and many of the common people of Urth. Ultimately subverted, as not only is he collaborating with the regime of Ascia and by extension Erebus to accomplish his goals, the Autarch is controlling his actions without his knowledge. In the final accounting, he comes across as a rather mediocre figure.
- Cannibalism Superpower: He and his followers consume the flesh of their dead to absorb their memories.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He gets killed offpage by Agia of all people near the end of Citadel of the Autarch.
- Grave Robbing: One of the ways Vodalus and his followers acquire bodies to consume. Severian saves Vodalus's life during a grave robbing mission gone awry.
- I Owe You My Life: Severian saves his life in the opening sequence of the book, and gives him a coin as a token of thanks.
- Large and in Charge: As an exultant, Vodalus stands at least 7 feet tall, and is mentioned as being very strongly built.
- Les Collaborateurs: His organization actively aids the armies of Ascia to further their own goals.
- Out-Gambitted: The Autarch is absolutely playing him for a fool the entire series, not to mention that he eventually gets killed by Agia after breaking his promise to her.
- Rebel Leader: He is the main force of resistance to the regime of the Autarch.
- Unwitting Pawn: He has no clue that the Autarch himself is one of his servants, and actively manipulating his actions.
Thecla
An exultant woman imprisoned by the Autarch to gain leverage over her sister Thea, who is in the service of Vodalus.
- Blue Blood: She is described as belonging to a house more noble and ancient than any prisoner the guild has previously held.
- Enemy Within: One is awakened in her by The Revolutionary, a torture device in the citadel. Her new hostile inner self takes partial control of her limbs and attempts to kill her slowly and painfully, but Severian provides a Mercy Kill.
- Hidden Depths: Not of the good kind either. Her ability to accept Severian despite his being a torturer is because she herself (as with many young Exultants) had tortured the prisoners of the House Absolute for entertainment, giving her no room to judge Severian or his Guild’s “just following orders” excuse.
- First Love: To Severian. He never quite moves on from the love he held for her.
- Luxury Prison Suite: Due to her aristocratic status as an Exultant, Thecla is granted extra privileges such as books from the library, and having Severian assigned to her for companionship.
- Mercy Kill: When her torture actually begins, she is given this by Severian, who is exiled for it
- Nerds Are Sexy: Severian falls deeply in love with her after bonding over their love of obscure books.
- The Pardon: During her time in the Matachin Tower, when Thecla isn't reading, talking with Severian, or doing other things with Severian, she's waiting one one of these from the Autarch.
- Statuesque Stunner: She is described as being the tallest woman Severian has ever seen.
- Virtual Ghost: A fantasy equivalent. Severian eats some of her flesh along with Alzabo extract, leading to a partial copy of her personality appearing in his brain. The copy occasionally takes control, and often gets its memories intermixed with Severian’s. It takes quite a while to turn into a proper copy, and for much of the story Severian does not treat it like it is Thecla reborn until the fourth book.
Master Palaemon
One of the two primary masters of the guild.
- Mentor Archetype: To Severian, though Severian seems to view his predecessor Master Malrubius as more of a mentor to him personally.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: It is by his hand the Severian is exiled rather than tortured to death.
Baldanders
A giant of a man traveling with Dr. Talos.
- Berserk Button: Cacogens. He was essentially groomed as a messiah by them, but because they experience time in reverse, they got progressively less helpful and knowledgeable as time went on, leading to Baldanders thinking they are intentionally abandoning him. He flies into a rage when he sees them in the audience of his final play, and his interactions with them later lead him to try to kill Severian, whom they favor.
- Dueling Messiahs: To Severian, though the latter does not realize it.
- Dumb Muscle: He is actually NOT this, being smart enough to create an advanced automaton such as Dr. Talos.
- Gentle Giant: Subverted. He appears as such, but he enslaves people.
- Humanoid Abomination: Though at first he appears to simply be a very large man, he is actually a creature in the vein of Erebus and Abaia, and constantly growing. One day he will be so large he will have to live in the sea, as he will be so heavy he can only support himself in the water.
- Meaningful Name: Baldanders, or the Soon-Another, is a creature from Germanic literary myths, who is constantly changing form.
- The Power of Acting: Besides his physical strength, this is his greatest strength.
- Recurring Element: He appears in every volume of Book of the New Sun as well as Urth of the New Sun. It verges on Arch-Enemy eventually.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Always fights with his brawn and never with his head when fighting Severian, he was unable to land a hit on him with his mace, but his blows shattered the ground whenever he missed
Dr Talos
A traveling mountebank met by Severian at an inn, who becomes his companion on their mutual journey north.
- Affably Evil: Though he enslaves people, Severian describes him as one of the few people to show him genuine kindness after his exile from the guild.
- Mad Scientist: His experiments and alterations on Jolenta made her very beautiful and desirable, but ultimately kill her
- Ridiculously Human Robot: He ultimately is revealed to be an automaton created by Baldanders.
- The Storyteller: He fancies himself to be this. From what we see, his plays do seem to attract audiences.
- Wandering Minstrel: After the destruction of his and Baldanders estate, the two of them set out as a traveling show.
- World of Symbolism: All of his plays take place in one, with characters such as "Death," or "Innocence."
Jolenta
A waitress at the inn where Severian meets Dr. Talos and Baldanders, who is convinced to join their theater troupe.
- Brainless Beauty: She is the most beautiful woman Severian has ever seen, yet she is clearly not all there in the head.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Was killed in a ritual after slowly deteriorating through the desert for weeks.
- It's All About Me: She seems to have no regard or pity for other people.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Dr. Talos's modifications give her curves so extreme she's always in pain and can hardly perform normal activities (just walking rubs her thighs raw; she sourly remarks she's only comfortable with her legs apart). It also makes her so fascinating to people, even people who aren't normally attracted to women, that she can never go anywhere without constantly being hit on and stared at, and Baldanders is always having to fight off admirers who won't take no for an answer.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Though not initially, the modifications done by Dr Talos render her this.
Agia
A woman Severian becomes smitten with, who tries to prepare him for his trial by combat.
- Brother–Sister Incest: She is in a sexual relationship with her brother Agius.
- Cruel Mercy: On the receiving end from Severian, as he is unable to hate her even after everything she has done to him.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a simple commoner helping her brother run a pawn shop to a multiple murderer who usurps command of the Vodalarii to lead them against the newly crowned Severian. In many ways her story mirrors his, she being dragged along in his wake.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: After Severian spares her, she and Hethor just keep trying to kill him, with no success. It gets to a nearly comical point by the fourth book, where she kills Vodalus, supposedly one of the most powerful people in the Commonwealth, simply because he denied her the chance to torture Severian to death.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She couldn't possibly have expected the chain of events that would result when she decided to opportunistically steal the Claw of the Conciliator and stash it on Severian's person.
- The Vamp: It turns out she is trying to both seduce and kill Severian.
Dorcas
- Amnesiac Hero: She does not remember most of her life.
- But Now I Must Go: Left to discover her previous life in Sword of the Lictor.
- Ironic Fear: Scared of drowning after Severian found her at the bottom of a canal.
- Luke, You Are My Father: She is almost certainly Severian's paternal grandmother, though she is unaware of this.
- The Ophelia: She is almost always confused, and forgets most of her past, yet she is endeared to Severian. For added parallels she is rescued from drowning by Severian.
- Undying Loyalty: To Severian.
Introduced In Claw Of The Conciliator
Jonas
A soldier from Nessus, whom Severian meets and befriends as he is leaving the city.
- Artificial Limbs: He has one robotic hand. It's the other one that's artificial.
- Cool Old Guy: He has many years on Severian. It turns out he's Really 700 Years Old.
- Deadpan Snarker: One of his defining characteristics, Severian guesses he picked it up during his time as a sailor.
- I Shall Return: He vows to return for Jolenta before he leaves Urth.
- Love at First Sight: Immediately falls head over heels in love with Jolenta.
- Meaningful Name: Named after Jonah the biblical traveller.
- Robotic Reveal: About halfway through Claw it is revealed not only his arm is robotic.
- Secretly Dying: For most of Claw, he eventually realizes he must leave the planet to be healed.
- True Companions: Probably the closest thing Severian ever has to this.
- We Can Rebuild Him: Inverted. He is actually a robot who was damaged in a spaceship crash, and with a shortage of robotic parts to repair him, he made do with organic parts.
The Green Man
- The Bus Came Back: After Severian leaves him behind in Saltus, he unexpectedly returns at the climax of the final volume, accompanying Severian to his meeting with the Hierodules.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: He claims to be from the future, with the green color of his skin indicating he comes from a time after the birth of the New Sun. His reappearance in Citadel confirms that he's telling the truth.
- The Freakshow: Severian meets the Green Man as an attraction at a carnival.
The Autarch
The shadowy leader of the Commonwealth, whom Vodalus desires to overthrow.
- Affably Evil: So affable it's debatable whether he's even evil in the first place.
- The Chessmaster: Through assuming a multitude of different identities, he manages to effortlessly manipulate the rebellion against himself, as well as Severian.
- Crippling Castration: Tzadkiel "unmanned" him after he failed to become the New Sun.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Taken to an insane degree. Nobody would have thought that the polite eunuch dusting the art galleries of the House Absolute would also turn out to be the Autarch himself. Not only that, he's also the brothel keeper at the House Azure, as well as one of Vodalus's spies in his own palace, among possibly hundreds of other identities he's assumed. As he explains, he deliberately does this to keep his enemies confused and off-balance.
- Early-Bird Cameo: His true first appearance is in The Shadow of the Torturer, but at the time he's disguised as a simple brothel keeper.
- Frontline General: Personally supervises the war against Ascia from very close to the front lines, at times even taking his personal flyer above the enemy. It proves to be his undoing when the Ascians shoot him down.
- Hero of Another Story: Though little is revealed of his past, he went through a journey very similar to Severian's, and his heroism is proven by the fact that he is the only Autarch since the reign of Ymar who had the courage to attempt to become the New Sun.
- Mind Hive: The Autarch is not really an absolute monarch; he is essentially a senate of dead individuals, sharing a single living body thanks to the power of the Alzabo.
- Passing the Torch: Knowing his death is near, he bequeaths his title to Severian by allowing Severian to consume his memories.
Introduced In Sword Of The Lictor
Abdiesus
The Archon of Thrax. Severian enters into his service as lictor during the third volume.
- Affably Evil: He genuinely likes and trusts Severian, only coming to oppose him after Severian betrays him by refusing to execute Cyriaca.
- Fat Bastard: Severian notes him to be rather overweight, and while no more evil than any other character in the Commonwealth, he's still a rather brutal ruler who comes to oppose Severian.
Cyriaca
A noblewoman from Thrax and former Pelerine.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When seducing him fails to work, she resorts to pleading mercy from Severian, which does.
- Morality Pet: Severian demonstrates his increasing discomfort with his profession by allowing her to leave the party alive, drawing the Archon's forces down on him in the process.
- Naughty Nuns: She used to be a Pelerine, which is the Commonwealth's equivalent of a nun, but is now a rather hedonistic noblewoman who makes a habit of taking lovers to spite her husband.
Casdoe
A common woman who lives in the mountains with her family. She offers shelter to Severian following his flight from Thrax.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. While she does offer hospitality to Severian, she turns out to be offering the same thing to Agia, who subsequently attempts to murder him under her roof. She herself would just like to be left alone.
- Good Parents: Worries a lot about her daughter Severia and is missed by Little Severian when she is killed by the alzabo
- Off with His Head!: The alzabo bites her entire head off when it comes down on her in the forest.
Little Severian
Casdoe's young son, who shares a name with our hero.
- Dare to Be Badass: It gets him killed
- Morality Pet: After his whole family is wiped out by the alzabo, Severian takes him under his wing and travels with him through the mountains.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Gets instantly carbonized by an ancient death trap on Mount Typhon while attempting to search for gold.
Typhon
A strange, freakishly large man with two heads who claims to have once held dominion over Urth.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Makes a grand speech about his intention to conquer the stars as he did in the ancient days, only to be sucker punched off a mountain mere pages after his resurrection.
- Depraved Bisexual: One of his conditions for making Severian governor of Urth is that Severian keep him supplied with a steady stream of slave boys and girls for his pleasure.
- Full-Frontal Assault: When he is resurrected he is totally nude, and proves to be a formidable fighter due to his size and speed.
- God-Emperor: He claims that he used to be one, though the comical ease with which he dies sheds doubt over some of his boastings. In any case, there is a mountain carved in his image, so he couldn't have been lying about everything he said.
- One-Hit Kill: A single, swift punch to his other head is all it takes to knock him off his own mountain to his death.
Piaton
- Big Dumb Body: Used as this by Typhon. Piaton is described as having a heroic physique.
- The Speechless: Piaton is unable to speak. It isn't outright said if he was simply never able to, or if his vocal cords were removed when Typhon's head was grafted on. He's still able to mouth "kill me" to Severian, though.
- Taking You with Me: Begs death from Severian, knowing that it will also kill Typhon.
- Two Beings, One Body: Typhon's head is grafted to his shoulder. Typhon has complete control of their body except for vital functions, which are still controlled by Piaton's brain.
Introduced in Citadel of the Autarch
Miles
A dead soldier that Severian finds while searching for food at the start of the book.
- Ambiguous Situation: If he has some connection to Jonas (whether as a healed Jonas, of if he somehow contains Jonas’ spirit) is never confirmed either way. It is notable, however, that he appears sullen after being told Jolenta died (who he should not know) and has an unusually strong reaction to Severian mentioning he is two people in one, perhaps hinting that Miles himself is likewise.
- Death Amnesia: Has forgotten everything about himself when Severian ressurects him, he slowly remembers more about himself.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Cannot remember his name so Severian nicknames him 'Miles', his real name coincidentally was always Miles.
- Replacement Goldfish: Reminds Severian a lot of Jonas.
Ava
A member of the Pelerines.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discusses this question with Severian.
Guasacht
A mercenary working for the Commonwealth's army.
- Lovable Rogue: He's shameless about his life as a marauder, but he's so upfront about it it's hard to dislike him, and he never actually betrays Severian as one might expect him to.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His fate after the battle with the Ascians is unmentioned.
Daria
A female rider in Guasacht's company of irregulars.
- Action Girl: She's capable of taming a destrier, which is basically a huge, mutant warhorse that runs faster than a sports car, and fights in the frontlines against the Ascians alongside the rest of the company.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Fully expects Severian to rape her after he's able to unhorse her and steal her mount, and is surprised when he doesn't.
- The Not-Love Interest: Of all the women that Chick Magnet Severian runs across on his journey, she is one of the few that he doesn't sleep with. He doesn't take much sexual interest in her at all, in fact, viewing her as another comrade on his journey.
