Stephanie Fachiol’s Reviews > The Citadel of the Autarch > Status Update

Maybe you already noticed this, but if not it's more to chew on: all the human characters are named after saints, and almost all of them after martyrs.

Z wrote: "Maybe you already noticed this, but if not it's more to chew on: all the human characters are named after saints, and almost all of them after martyrs."

I did notice, albeit it a bit late, and I'll have to dive into it a bit more in rereads. My background is Protestant and so I am less familiar with the histories of certain saints, and therefore the Revelation imagery jumped out at me far more quickly than what I imagine Catholic and Orthodox readers likely noticed first. I'll admit I'm a little confused on how closely we are meant to view the characters and their saintly counterparts--Thecla the Martyr and Thecla the Exultant share an obvious similarity, but as Severian himself says, Thecla isn't exactly the least vain woman on Urth. (Though I do think, like Severian, she's had an arc of her own)

Sometimes they don't seem to match up at all. Sometimes (like with Dorcas) there's an obvious link that has to have been done intentionally.