He has been appointed Autarch of his civilization, a kind of supreme leader, and the novel that we are reading is for posterity.
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"The publication of his brilliant 'Fifth Head of Cerberus' in 224 earned him a place among the small band of accomplished stylists in science fiction, along with Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, Joanna Russ and one or two others," Gerald Jonas wrote in The New York Times when the final book of the series, "The Citadel of the Autarch," appeared.
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They board a flier and while heading out over the war zone, they are shot down. The Autarch is dying and tells Severian to consume the alzabo vial around his neck and consume his flesh, as Severian is to be the next Autarch. Severian does so and thus he acquires hundreds of consciousnesses that the Autarch once had. Before the Autarch died, he messaged Vodalus that the Autarch was aboard the flier.
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The Autarch, dying, tells Severian to drink the contents of a vial around the Autarch's neck and eat his brain, as Severian is to be the next Autarch. Severian does so, and since the vial contained the alzabo drug or something similar, he acquires hundreds of consciousnesses that the Autarch had through the same process. Before the Autarch died, he sent a message to Vodalus that the Autarch was aboard the flier. Thea and a group of Vodalus's men descend on the crash site and rescue Severian from their allies the Ascians.
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When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship, apparently to set up a radio transmitter, Farrill faces the Autarch and accuses him of getting his father killed at the hands of the Tyranni. The Autarch affirms the accusation, and Farrill adds that the Autarch feared his father's growing reputation and so caused Farrill's father's death. In a fight, Farrill subdues the Autarch with help from the Autarch's aide, Tedor Rizzet, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and Rizzet try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni fleet arrives and takes them prisoner.
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He leaves his role as Autarch of Urth to seek a new sun for Urth.
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Severian is drawn into the war against Ascia. He nearly perishes in battle but is rescued by the Autarch. Severian is nursed back to health and converses with the Autarch about his role in the Commonwealth. Taking a flier over the war zone, they are shot down.
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Part of her personality and presence occasionally emerge and some characters seem to recognize, or sense, Thecla when they look at him. Travelling further, Severian visits the House Absolute, the throne of the commonwealth's Autarch, and is persuaded by the Autarch to change sides and act as a spy on Vodalus' cause.
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Aratap interrogates Farrill, Artemisia, Gillbret, and Rizzet to ascertain the co-ordinates of the rebellion world, but they do not know where it is. However, the Autarch reveals the information to Aratap. Rizzet kills the Autarch with a blaster in anger. While Aratap interrogates Farrill, Gillbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and short the hyperatomics.
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As new Helghast battalions appear, armed with more powerful weapons, ISA forces find themselves outmanned, outgunned and surrounded. Two new antagonists, Jorhan Stahl and Admiral Orlock, both want to become the new Autarch of Helghan. Sev returns as the protagonist with Rico and Narville. Admiral Orlock eventually becomes the new Autarch due to a circumstantial decision by the Helghan High Council.
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Severian soon finds the new camp where most of those he met during his stay are dead or dying. Eventually, Severian is drawn into war against armies of the North composed of people known as Ascians. Severian nearly perishes but is rescued by the androgynous spy he met in the House Absolute, the Autarch of the Commonwealth. Severian is nursed back to health and converses with the Autarch about his role in the Commonwealth.
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The original Judith became his queen, Quaisoir, while the replica, the Judith we've come to know throughout the book, remained on Earth, bound to the Godolphin family. Sartori convinced Pie to cast a feit on him that caused him to continuously lose his memory of the event. The Autarch wants Gentle to join him as he goes to conquer the Fifth Dominion but Gentle refuses. While fleeing, Pie comes across the Autarch, and attacks Gentle when he arrives.
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The Citadel of the Autarch is a science fantasy novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, first released in 1983. It is the fourth and final volume in the four- volume series The Book of the New Sun.
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He returns to southern Magnamund in Vampirium, to deal with Autarch Sejanoz of Bhanar, who has found the Claw of Naar, a powerful weapon. After retrieving this artefact from the Autarch, in The Hunger of Sejanoz the Grand Master escorts Xo-lin, emperor of Chai, to safety in the distant city of Tazhan across the Lissanian Plain as news of Sejanoz' invasion force reach the palace in Pensei. The following adventure, The Storms of Chai, takes place 18 years later. Just like for the Nyras Sceptre from The Darke Crusade, the Claw of Naar can be coupled with a mystical evil stone to increase its power.
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Quaisoir, amazingly still alive arrives and using her power saves Judith and lets Dowd fall in the well after he reveals that hundreds of years before he found a woman for Hapexamendios, Celestine, who bore him a child. Gentle makes it to the top of the palace where he encounters the Autarch, who reveals that Gentle is the Maestro Sartori, who led the failed effort to reconcile the dominions 200 years before. Going to see the Pivot, Gentle is told that he has to make another attempt at reconciliation. Through explanation by the Autarch and a vision he witnesses, the true events of what happened 200 years before are finally revealed.
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Farrill, realizing the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gillbret is injured and later dies. The space jump is made with the co-ordinates given to them by the late Autarch. However, they find a planetless system with only a white-dwarf star.
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Around the time that Gentle and the others head to the second dominion towards Yzordderrex, the Autarch visits a retreat which used to be the location of the 'Pivot', a large monument which was moved to his palace in Yzordderrex. It is here where we first learn that the Autarch is familiar with Earth, particularly the locales that our heroes are from. Judith finally convinces Godolphin to bring her to Yzordderrex with the threat of leaving him. They head to the retreat where they originally met, but as Godolphin starts their transference to the second dominion, Dowd comes and interferes and ends up going through to Yzordderrex with Judith instead of Godolphin.
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Unlike the first books in the series, The Citadel of the Autarch picks up right after the end of the previous one, The Sword of the Lictor. It tells of the travels of Severian, weak and defenseless after his encounter with Baldanders and Dr. Talos. Severian continues his travels, which lead him into war.
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Shadowmarch became a print project only after both options fell through. Originally, Michael Whelan was the cover artist for Shadowmarch and indeed for most Tad Williams books since 1988, but since he is now concentrating on his fine-art work, artist Todd Lockwood has taken over the series from him. The Shadowplay cover features a painting of Xis, the city of the Autarch.
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Severian accidentally revives Typhon from suspended animation and then kills him. In additional travels, he eventually becomes a mercenary in the north and is seriously injured. During his convalescence he encounters an Ascian man, before venturing out once again. Towards the end of the final volume of Book of the New Sun, he encounters the Autarch again, but they're captured by Vodalus.
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Severian describes himself as having a straight nose, deep-set eyes and sunken cheeks. Thecla states she has "never seen such white skin coupled with dark hair." Regarding Severian's appearance of strength, the Autarch remarks that Severian "seemed to me a construction of horn and boiled leather." He is said to be tall, although not at genetically-altered exultant levels.
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With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about the well-being of his daughter and his brother. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of Farrill discovering them until Farrill lands on one planet in the heart of the nebula. The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere.
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It is a first-person narrative, ostensibly translated by Wolfe into contemporary English, set in a distant future when the Sun has dimmed and Earth is cooler (a "Dying Earth" story). Severian lives in a nation called the Commonwealth, ruled by the Autarch, in the Southern Hemisphere. It is at war with Ascia, its northern neighbor, which is extremely totalitarian.
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He visits other people of his past, assumes the role of Autarch, and suspends the practice of torture. Finding the gold coin Vodalus had given him, he realizes it was counterfeit. He returns to the waiter who slipped him the note in The Shadow of the Torturer. The note was meant for Dorcas, who reminded the waiter of his mother.
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There are stranger things than death here – stranger and older. Much further south, shadow is also falling over the reign of the Autarch, god- king, and supreme ruler. Qinnitan, junior wife, must flee the royal household or die, her greatest secret as yet hidden even from herself. Ancient blood flows through her veins and she will become a unique weapon in the fight against her greatest terror.
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Severian realizes that the last Autarch must have failed and thus become an androgyne. After the meeting, Severian is left on a beach where many wild rose bushes are in bloom. He is pricked by a thorn and realizes that it is identical to the Claw, even to glowing. Seeing that and countless identical Claws on other bushes leads him to a religious experience.
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At the climax of the series, in the third and fourth novels, several factions compete for possession of Southmarch castle, and the deep caves beneath. The Autarch, who has launched a rapid marine invasion of the province; the Qar, who have tired of their siege and attempted to storm the castle; the usurper, holding the castle with his own designs on the slumbering god; and two forces loyal to the Eddons, one a large army recruited by Briony advancing on the castle to lift the siege, another consisting mainly of Funderlings holding their caves beneath the castle, initially unaware of what sleeps further below. An eventual alliance between the Qar and the Eddon loyalists drives out the usurper but fails to prevent the Autarch from gaining access to the cave of the slumbering gods. One of the gods is woken, but easily transcends the Autarch's control.
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Severian saves Vodalus's life, earning his trust and the reward of a single coin. Shortly before Severian is elevated to journeyman he encounters and falls in love with Thecla, a beautiful aristocratic prisoner. Thecla's crime is never made clear, though it is implied that she is imprisoned for political reasons since Thecla's half-sister is Thea, Vodalus's lover. The Autarch (ruler of the Commonwealth) wishes to use Thecla to capture Vodalus.
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And, because of his alliterative wordiness and tendencies to speak in the third person (even if he can speak in a normal fashion when he chooses to do so), it is somewhat difficult to know if he has one specific name, or possibly none at all. So far, he has also been referred to as: ::1.He Whose Name is too Scary to be Spoken ::2.The Advice- Administering Autarch ::3.
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Malrubius tells him that he must one day face a challenge that will either allow man to return to the stars (if he succeeds) or strip him of his manhood, leaving him infertile, and unable to produce an heir (if he fails). Severian realizes that the last Autarch must have failed which feminized him and gave him his androgynous looks. After the meeting, Severian is left on a beach. He discovers a bush covered in thorns.
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The Ascian Language is a fictional language invented by Gene Wolfe for his science fiction series The Book of the New Sun.Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun, Volume 4 (The Citadel of the Autarch), The language is spoken by the inhabitants of the “northern continents” of the future earth, the Ascians, who are enslaved by their masters (the Group of Seventeen) in a way much like the people of Oceania in George Orwell's book 1984.
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A secret society known as the Tabula Rasa formed after this failure; its directive is to prevent the use of magic on the Earth, motivated by the fear that such a disaster may occur again. At the present time, three reconciled dominions are ruled by the Autarch, who lives in the great city of Yzordderrex in the Second Dominion, while the first dominion - though reconciled - is kept inaccessible by the power of the Unbeheld who resides there.
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He learns that many years have passed backwards. He also learns that he possesses healing power that he once attributed the Claw of the Conciliator and is taken as a prisoner into the Citadel, where he tells a story to his followers to comfort them. A prisoner in the next cell writes it down as The Book of the New Sun, the holy text of the Church of the Conciliator. He encounters the first Autarch Ymar and an earlier version of Typhon, who attempts to kill him.
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Fed up with Stahl's arrogance, the senate grants Orlock the title of Autarch, giving him Visari's throne instead. Stahl is ordered to surrender his ships to the First Army's fleet above Helghan so they may be used to attack Earth. The ISA comes under attack from a massive Helghan assault mech, and though they manage to defeat it, their numbers are reduced to just 60 men. Nevertheless, they deactivate the perimeter defenses around Pyrrhus's spaceport, allowing them to access the imperial orbit command center.
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Pie and Gentle arrive in the Fourth Dominion and head to the nearby village of Vanaeph, where the Autarch is coming to investigate rumours of rebellion. They soon get into a conflict with some locals and are helped by a man named Tick Raw. Later, Gentle is confronted by a creature known as a 'Nullianac', and manages to kill it using a protective spell called a 'pneuma'. Pie and Gentle then head to the mountains to find a way of breaking into the Third Dominion.
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Their siege of Southmarch is intended to regain control of the castle and the slumbering god beneath, in the hope of restoring their race. On the southern continent, the powerful but insane Autarch of Xis also desires the power of the gods beneath Southmarch castle, whose existence he has deduced from ancient texts. In order to access that power he requires someone descended from a god and therefore has procured the imprisonment of King Olin Eddon. He is revealed to be behind much of the turmoil in Southmarch.
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He claims the single black one, grown from a species of bush that grow exclusively white Claw shapes, and ponders the meaning of the Claw in relationship to higher beings, time-travel and the New Sun. Severian makes his way back to Nessus aboard a ship whose crew revere him on sight. He visits with people of his past and assumes the role of Autarch. He returns to the waiter who slipped him the note in the Shadow of the Torturer saying that Agia had been there before.
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As Sartori, he was in love with Judith, the lover of Joshua Godolphin, and was able to convince Joshua to let him create a replica of her through magic. During the long process of replicating her however, he got drunk and went into the circle that she was being replicated in, and made love to her. This resulted in a replica of himself being created as well. Once the reconciliation failed, the replica of Sartori left to the dominions and eventually became the ruler of them as the Autarch.
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After the androgyne opens and then closes a portal to someplace with a giant winged alien, Severian swears service to him. In the subsequent conversation, he realizes that the supposed spy is the Autarch. Stumbling into the gardens of the House Absolute, Severian is reunited with Dorcas, Dr. Talos, and Baldanders, who are preparing to perform the play they performed in the first book. Severian participates again, but the play is cut short when Baldanders flies into a rage and attacks the audience, revealing that aliens are among them.
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Ziesing Brothers) The Castle of the Otter is a collection of essays and other non-fiction by Gene Wolfe, related to his Book of the New Sun tetralogy. It takes its title from an incorrect announcement of Wolfe's final volume in Locus.Locus, "People and Publishing", April 1981 The Citadel of the Autarch was the actual name of the final work in the series. Wolfe liked the inaccurate title, though, and reused it as the name for a companion work of non-fiction essays and unused materials from the series (including an article about how Otter got its title).
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Put on trial, Pie explains himself, saying that he became entrapped in the in Ovo and was summoned to the fifth dominion by the Maestro Sartori, who had led the attempt at reconciliation 200 years ago. Pie felt bound to him which is why he never returned until now. Pie is instructed that he is banned from returning to the Eurhetemec Kesperate until he kills the Autarch. Pie heads there with a fellow group of his species but most are killed and he tells his final companion to leave when he finds paintings of familiar places from Earth in the palace.
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Capps currently serves on the board of the Sphero entertainment robotics company in Colorado and is the Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Lonerider Brewing Company. He also serves as an advisor to the Video Games track and is a frequent speaker at Dragon Con. Capps is co-owner of Autarch LLC, responsible for award-winning tabletop role-playing games, such as Adventurer Conqueror King. He formerly served on the boards of directors for the Entertainment Software Association, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), the Game Developers Conference (GDC), and Remedy Entertainment in Finland.
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She is Thea's half-sister, and it is implied that the Autarch (ruler of the Commonwealth) has imprisoned her to use her to capture Vodalus. Severian's attraction to her is hastened by his sexual initiation in a visit to a brothel at the guild's expense. The brothel is run by a eunuch and the prostitutes are clones of noblewomen; Severian chooses the clone of Thecla for his encounter. Shortly after Severian is elevated to journeyman, Thecla is tortured with a machine that makes her uncontrollably suicidal so she will mutilate herself to death with her bare hands.
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Severian quizzes Ouen about his past loves, asking "A woman you loved—or perhaps only one who loved you—a dark woman—was taken once?" 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). Catherine's child was raised by the Guild, which is where we find the young Severian at the beginning of the book. At the end of the book, after becoming Autarch and returning to Nessus, Severian takes Ouen to see Dorcas, who has gone to the abandoned outlying districts of Nessus to look for her husband.
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Although Gentle is able to convince Pie that it's the real him, the Autarch (referred to from this point on through the rest of the book as 'Sartori') attacks Pie, mortally wounding him, then escapes. Gentle decides to bring Pie to a Dearther camp at the Erasure, the border between the Second and First Dominions where Estabrook was healed earlier. Pie heads off into the Erasure after Gentle reluctantly lets him go. Gentle meets up with Father Athanasius again who attempts to kill him, but the entire camp is destroyed by the power of Hapexamendios, who pulls Pie back into the first dominion when he tries to leave.
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While on their way in a carriage, they race with the riders in a passing fiacre, and they crash into and destroy the altar of a female religious order, the Pelerines. The Pelerines accuse Agia of stealing a precious relic called the Claw of the Conciliator. After Agia is searched and released, she and Severian continue their journey to the Botanic Gardens, a large landmark of Nessus created by the mysterious Father Inire, right hand to the Autarch. Inside the gardens, Severian falls into a lake used to inter the dead and is pulled out by a young woman named Dorcas who also seems to have come up from the lake.
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It is not part of the Tyranni conquests but maintains "peaceful" relations with them. There, they meet the Autarch of Lingane, who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth, who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula and believe that for any rebellion world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula. The Tyranni spaceship that was stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels led by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner.
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The shop is owned by a twin brother and sister, and the brother immediately takes interest in Terminus Est, but Severian refuses to sell the sword. Shortly after, a masked and armoured hipparch enters the shop and challenges Severian to a duel. Severian, who believes this is an indirect means for the Autarch to execute him for his crime, is forced to accept, and he departs with the sister, Agia, to secure an avern, a deadly plant used for dueling. While on their way, urged by Agia's bet to a passing fiacre, their driver crashes into and destroys the altar of a religious order, where Agia is accused of stealing a precious artifact.
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The Great Depression of the 1930s saw global economic hardships, a decline in trade and a retreat of democracy and international cooperation. Instead there was a sharp rise in authoritarian governments, economic autarch, and aggressive threats, especially from Germany and Japan. The American response was a retreat from international political, economic and military involvement.Alonzo L. Hamby, For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s (2004) pp 2-40.Piers Brendon, The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s (2000) a comprehensive global political history; 816pp excerpt John A. Garraty, The Great Depression: An Inquiry into the Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Worldwide Depression of the Nineteen-Thirties, As Seen by Contemporaries (1986).
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Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko (Killzone 2 and Killzone 3), mercenary Arran Danner (Killzone: Mercenary), and Shadow Marshal Lucas Kellan (Killzone Shadow Fall). The main antagonist was originally Helghast Autarch Scolar Visari; his death in Killzone 2 brought about the rise of two new antagonists and the hopeful heirs to Visari's throne in Killzone 3: Jorhan Stahl and Admiral Orlock. After Orlock's death and the unknown details of Stahl's death and the destruction of Helghan, now covered in petrusite, the Helghast now live on Vekta with a giant wall dividing them from the Vektans. "The Black Hand", a Helghast paramilitary terrorist group, was formed under Vladko Tyran, who became an antagonist, along with Lady Hera Visari (Scolar Visari's daughter) who has inherited her father's throne.
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After Agia is searched and released, they continue their journey to the Botanic Gardens, a large landmark of Nessus created by the mysterious Father Inire, right hand to the Autarch, where they encounter strange hypnotic illusions and at one point appear to be transported to present-day Earth without realizing it. Inside the gardens, Severian falls into a lake used to inter the dead, and while pulling himself out he finds a young woman named Dorcas to have come up from the lake as well. Dazed and confused, the woman follows Severian and Agia. Severian secures the avern with the help of a man named Hildegrin, who he recognizes as a companion of Vodalus from the night they met in the necropolis.
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Walking the corridors of the House Absolute, Jonas is revealed to be a robot who once crash-landed on earth and is now partly covered by human flesh, and steps into a mirror and disappears, promising to return for Jolenta when he is healed. Severian is lost and eventually encounters the Autarch himself, to whom he swears service, upon being shown a portal to another universe. 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 the first book. Severian participates again, but the play is cut short when Baldanders flies into a rage and attacks the audience, revealing that aliens are among them.
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They arrive in the house of Peccable, a merchant friend of Godolphin's. Arriving in Yzordderrex, Gentle, Pie and Huzzah encounter an entourage containing the Autarch's Queen, Quaisoir, and Gentle is shocked to find out that her appearance is identical to that of Judith's. With the rebellions in Yzordderrex getting out of control, she flees and Gentle becomes convinced that he has to head to the palace to find out if it's really her. Judith meanwhile has another out of body experience where she witnesses Quaisoir after a fight with the Autarch, who is upset with her becoming enamored with religion, and Father Athanasius, the leader of the 'Dearther' group of rebels (and the man who wed Gentle and Pie at the Cradle).
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Set in a bleak, distant future influenced by Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, the story details the life of Severian, a journeyman torturer, exiled from his guild for showing compassion to one of the condemned. The novel is composed of the volumes The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), The Claw of the Conciliator (1981), winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, The Sword of the Lictor (1982), and The Citadel of the Autarch (1983). A coda, The Urth of the New Sun (1987), wraps up some loose ends but is generally considered a separate work. Several of Wolfe's essays about writing the Book of the New Sun series were published in The Castle of the Otter (1982; the title refers to a misprint of the fourth book's title in Locus magazine).
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During the years when The Book of the New Sun was published, Wolfe published two stories from it separately: "Foila's Story: The Armiger's Daughter" (one of the entries in the story-telling contest in the Pelerines' hospital) and "The Tale of the Student and his Son" (one of the two stories that Severian reproduces from a book he obtained for Thecla when she was imprisoned). Shortly after The Citadel of the Autarch, Wolfe published The Castle of the Otter, a book of essays about The Book of the New Sun containing a few fictional elements, such as jokes told by some of the characters. After the original four-volume novel, Wolfe wrote a novel often called a coda, The Urth of the New Sun (1987). He also wrote three short stories, "The Map", "The Cat", and "Empires of Foliage and Flower", that are closely related to The Book of the New Sun.
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