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.
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 also obtains the Claw of the Conciliator, a gem with apparently supernatural powers that Severian is attempting to return to its rightful owners, the Pelerines.
He frequently encounters and occasionally travels with a troupe of actors composed of Dr. Talos; a giant, Baldanders; and a beautiful woman, Jolenta.
He climbs a series of high mountains and rescues a small boy, also named Severian, from an alzabo, a bear-like animal that speaks with the voices of dead people it has eaten.
Ouen confirms that a woman named Catherine was taken by the law (and therefore handed to the Torturers) after having run off from some religious order (probably the Pelerines).
John Clute wrote in Wolfe's obituary that: "Severian is a torturer who forgives his victims, who has perfect verbal recall but lies constantly.
[4] As a professional torturer, despite his displays of mercy, he tends to be clinical and detached when describing his work activities, to the point where he assumes the reader is already familiar with his methods and rationalizations.
By the middle of the first book, he carries with him, at all times, an unusual artifact, the "Claw," which apparently has the power to bring the dead back to life, as he does with Dorcas and, later on, a young soldier (before he brings this young man back to life, Severian seems to realize that he almost prefers the company of the dead to the living).
Cyriaca, who never saw him without his mask, describes Severian as having a narrow waist, a sharp chin with a cleft, deeply set, large and mobile eyes, high cheekbones, flat cheeks, black hair and thin lips.
Severian's height and apparent strength, along with his intelligent and educated manner of speaking, repeatedly lead him to be singled out for special treatment by people who have known him only briefly.
These include Dr. Talos, who offers Severian a partnership; the Autarch, who recognizes him as his successor; Cyriaca, who seduces him; the people of the lake, who follow him into battle; Foila, who asks him to judge a story contest; Mannea of the Pelerines, who sends him on an important mission; Guasacht, who offers him a place in the cavalry; and the captain of the Samru, who gives Severian free passage and protection on his vessel.
Wolfe describes Severian in Shadows of the New Sun as being 6'1", 175 pounds, with straight black hair and a high square forehead.
This is due to (in addition to the obvious ethical quandary, in that raising the sword causes no harm, but the descending stroke ends a life by decapitation) a channel in the spine of the blade, containing liquid hydrargyrum, another name for mercury.
During the course of Severian's travels Terminus Est plays a vital role, alternately saving his life and placing it in peril.
Severian takes meticulous care of the sword, always cleaning, oiling, and sharpening the blade before and after an execution, to the point where he uses Terminus Est to shave with, forgoing a razor.
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.)
Master Gurloes's iron phallus was also a torture instrument, but phallic images have long been used to symbolize fertility and therefore life.
When he started writing what was initially to be a novella, he planned for Severian to be banished and return in position of high authority and also to face the problem with Thecla and role of suffering in human life.