(urth) Seeing the signs...

[Ryan Dunn]

Hey Guys,

I've been working on gathering all of the visible signs which are encountered or recounted an then mentioned by Severian throughout the first four volumes. If anyone is curious, they are below. If you have more to add, by all means share. Keep in mind I was pulling literal signs, symbols or designs he sees during his journey which he cannot comprehend fully.

. .

"As she said that, we rounded one of the path's seemingly endless sinuosities. A log tagged with a small white rectangle that could only be a species sign lay across the path, and through the crowding leaves on our left I could see the wall, its greenish glass forming an unobtrusive backdrop for the foliage."
(Shadow of the Torturer, c.21 - The Hut in the Jungle)

. .

"When I left him, the orichalk was gone. In its place - and no doubt with its edge - a design had been scratched on the filthy stones. It might have been the snarling face of Jurupari, or perhaps a map, and it was wreathed with letters I did not know. I rubbed it away with my foot."
(Shadow of the Torturer, c.29 - "Agilus")

. .

"From his sabretache he took an iron phallus. It was about a span and a half long and had a leather thong through the end opposite the tip.

"It must seem idiotic to you who read this, but for an instant I could not imagine what the thing was for, despite the somewhat exaggerated realism of its design. I had a wild notion that the wine had rendered him childish, as a little boy is who supposes there is no essential difference between his wooden mount and a real animal. I wanted to laugh."
(Claw of the Conciliator, c.7 - "The Assassins")

. .

"We had descended perhaps a hundred steps when we reached a door painted with a crimson teratoid sign that appeared to me to be a glyph from some tongue beyond the shores of Urth. At that moment I heard a tread upon the stair." [...]

"I was delighted to hear his voice, and largely in the hope that he would speak again, I asked, 'Where are we, then?'

'On Urth,' he answered, and strode across the room to the folded panels. Their backs were set with clustered diamonds, as I now saw, and enameled with such twisted signs as had been on the door. Yet these signs were no stranger than the actions of my friend Jonas when he threw the panels open. The rigidity I had remarked in him only a moment before was gone—yet he had not returned to his old self."
(Claw of the Conciliator, c.18 - "Mirrors")

. .

"Enter a PROPHET. He wears a goat skin and carries a staff whose head has been crudely carved into a strange symbol."
(Claw of the Conciliator, c.24 - "Dr. Talos's Play")

. .

"Oversized rooms were separated by walls not much thicker than draperies; no floor was level, and no stair straight; each banister and railing I touched seemed ready to come off in my hand. Gnostic designs in white, green, and purple had been chalked on the walls, but there was little furniture, and the air seemed colder than that outside."
(Claw of the Conciliator, c.30 - "The Badger Again")

. .

"The tiles were of many shapes, though they fit together so closely, and at first I thought them representations of birds, lizards, fish and suchlike creatures, all interlocked in the grip of life. Now I feel that this was not so, that they were instead the shapes of a geometry I failed to comprehend, diagrams so complex that the living forms seemed to appear in them as the forms of actual animals appear from the intricate geometries of complex molecules.

"However that might be, these forms seemed to have little connection with the picture or design. Lines of color crossed them, and though they must have been fired into the substance of the tiles in eons past, they were so willful and bright that they might have been laid on only a moment before by some titanic artist's brush. The shades most used were beryl and white, but though I stopped several times and strove to understand what might be depicted there (whether it was writing, or a face, or perhaps a mere decorative design of lines and angles, or a pattern of intertwined verdure) I could not; and perhaps it was each of those, or none, depending on the position from which it was seen and the predisposition the viewer brought to it."
(Sword of the Lictor, c.14 - "The Widow's House")

. .

"Before we had gone another hundred paces, there were strips of red cloth suspended from the trees; some of these were plain, but others had been written over in black in a character I did not understand — or as seemed more likely, with symbols and ideographs of the sort those who pretend to more knowledge than they possess use in imitation of the writing of the astronomers."
(Sword of the Lictor, c.20 - "The Circle of the Sorcerers")

. .

'When the second suitor was closer still he saw that it wore a ring of gold about the ankle of one boot, and the brown wings now seemed no more than a cloak of that color.

'Then he traced a Sign in the air before him to protect him from those spirits that have forgotten their creator, and he called, 'Who are you? Name yourself!'

''You see me,' the figure answered him. 'Name me true, and your wish is my wish.'

''You are the spirit of the lark sent forth by the armiger's daughter,' said the second suitor.

'Your form you may change, but the ring marks you.'"
(Citadel of the Autarch, c.13 - "Foila's Story -- The Armiger's Daughter")

. .

...ryan
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