Severian

Severian is the main character in the story. He is telling the story in past tense and is writing it down. The reader will find that he stops occasionally to explain things that have happened and things that will happen. Severian has been raised in the torturer's guild and when he turns eighteen he makes the decision to become a torturer himself, although more out of fear of what else he could do than a love of the trade. He falls in love with a woman named Thecla who is to be tortured and killed. Severian is sent away after he breaks a law of the guild and helps Thecla commit suicide.

Severian's character has been raised as a torturer and the reader will see that he spends much of the narration of his story explaining things from the view point of the guild. He becomes an executioner...