Severian takes pity on him and gives him a piece of his whetstone so that he can free himself by grinding through his chains, thus recalling his mercy to Thecla, another prisoner, in the first book.

Shortly after leaving the Citadel of Nessus, Severian is caught in a ploy masterminded by Agia and her twin brother Agilus, designed to deprive him of his sword and belongings after he loses a duel to the disguised Agilus.

Severian describes Terminus Est several times as a " paterissa " or cross ( the sword has long, straight guards and is carried over the shoulder, tip-downward ) and once as an " iron phallus " ( an image suggested by the fluid-filled channel inside the blade.

As the man is dragged out of his home by a mob, Severian glimpses Agia in the crowd, a woman who with her twin brother had tried to swindle and then kill Severian to get his priceless executioner's sword.

Upon the destruction of Terminus Est, Severian recovers the hilt of the shattered blade, later returning it to Master Palaemon upon his triumphant return to the Citadel at the close of the series.

In the Shadow of the Torturer, after Severian is expelled from his guild and the city of Nessus for showing mercy to one of his charges, he is sent north to serve as a carnifex in a different city.

Terminus Est is mentioned several times in the book as being able to be removed from its hilt, and especially after it is destroyed, Severian removes the shards from the hilt and keeps the furniture.

Luckily, Severian survives the duel on the Sanguinary Fields ( the portion of Nessus set aside for duels ), even after being struck by a poisoned leaf of an avern ( a plant whose viciously sharp, envenomed leaves were used as dueling weapons ) because he is carrying " The Claw of the Conciliator ", which has the ability ( among others ) to revive the dead by folding time back to when the dead person or thing was still alive.

According to his Chronicles, the Drevlian tribe captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimich, Viatich, and Severian tribes " captured " their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them.

Having been separated from the rest of the group he was traveling with, Severian pauses his search for them here as he is given an opportunity to practice his art ( in this case, execution ) on two people.

It was mentioned as one of Severian towns by Prince Igor in The Tale of Igor's Campaign: " As to my Kurskers, they are famous knights — swaddled under war-horns, nursed under helmets, fed from the point of the lance ; to them the trails are familiar, to them the ravines are known, the bows they have are strung tight, the quivers, unclosed, the sabers, sharpened ; themselves, like gray wolves, they lope in the field, seeking for themselves honor, and for their prince, glory.

Severian lets Agia go and returns to Saltus, where he and Jonas are taken by Vodalus.

Severian and Jonas attend a dinner with Vodalus where they consume the dead Thecla's flesh, which, when combined with an alien substance, allows Thecla's memories to live within Severian.

Before Severian leaves, Master Palaemon gives him Terminus Est.

Terminus Est is eventually destroyed while Severian wields it in battle.

* Julia Ecklar wrote a filk song on her album Divine Intervention called " Terminus Est " about Severian.

It shows dialectal features characteristic of Severian dialect with the exception of two words which were wrongly interpreted by early 19th century German scholars as Polish loan words.

When the war broke out between Vytautas and his Muscovite son-in-law in 1408, Švitrigaila cast his lot with the latter, surrendering all the Severian towns to the Russian army and defecting to Moscow.

A collection also exists in Armenian, combined with some sermons of Severian of Gabala.

Severian searches for her at the town fair but instead has a conversation with a man whose skin is green, held prisoner in a tent as a sideshow attraction.

Stumbling into the gardens of the House Absolute, Severian is reunited with Dorcas, Dr. Talos, and Baldanders, who are preparing to once again perform the play they put on in Nessus in the first book.

Talos and Baldanders part ways with Severian and Dorcas at a crossroad, Severian heading toward Thrax and the giant and his physician headed toward Lake Diaturna.

The waitress Jolenta tries to have Talos take her with him, but he has no more use for her now that the plays were no longer necessary, and Severian is forced to take her.

Upon arriving at the ruinous city, Severian sees a pair of witches initiate a dream-like event in which ghostly dancers of the stone town's past fill the area and engage with the witch's ' servant, who is actually Vodalus's lieutenant Hildegrin.

The book ends with Dorcas and Severian emerging from a stupor in the stone town, Jolenta dead and the witches and Hildegrin gone.

During the Severian persecutions of 202 – 203, Clement left Alexandria.

Severian, Bishop of Gabala ( d. 408 ), wrote that the Earth is flat and the sun does not pass under it in the night, but " travels through the northern parts as if hidden by a wall ".

Diodorus, Severian, and Cosmas Indicopleustes, but also Chrysostom, belonged just to this latter tradition.

This is the case particularly in his Book of the New Sun, the tale of Severian the Torturer's rise to the monarchy in a remote future world that is probably Earth.

It was the northernmost of the Severian cities in the possession of the Chernigov Rurikids and the principality of Novgorod-Seversky.

It was the northernmost of the Severian cities in the possession of the Chernigov Rurikids.

* Cyriacus, a Severian Monophysite.

* In Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, the city which Severian, the main character originates from is called " Nessus.

The town itself was first mentioned the following year in a document issued by Kaributas, Prince of Severian Novgorod, who on December 16 assured his tributary fidelity to his cousin, King Jogaila and Jadwiga of Poland.

First noticed by chroniclers as a Severian town in 1152, Hlukhiv became the seat of a branch of the princely house of Chernigov following the Mongol invasion of Rus.

An old Severian town, Trubchevsk is first mentioned as Trubetsk in East Slavic manuscripts describing the events of 1164 and 1183, although the locally 975 is regarded as the year of its foundation.

By the time of Yaroslav the Wise ( 1019 – 1054 ), the Severian peoples had lost most of their distinctness, and the areas of Severia along the upper course of the Desna River came to be controlled from Chernihiv.

In 1096, Oleg I of Chernigov ( also referred to as Oleh ) created a large Severian Principality, which stretched as far as the upper reaches of the Oka River.

After the Lithuanian defeat at the Battle of Vedrosha, the Severian Principality passed to Moscow.

Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Severian lands, full of Southern Russian ( Ukrainian ) architecture, and populated by a mixture of Ukrainians and Russians, were divided between the Ukrainian and Russian Soviet republics, finally breaking up the land of the former Severians.

The tetralogy chronicles the journey and ascent to power of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who becomes Autarch, the one ruler of the free world.

It is wielded by Severian, a torturer and the narrator of the series.

Officially, Severian remains a journeyman torturer, to conceal the disgrace he has brought upon the guild.