# Severian's skin colour

*The Urth list — 4 messages, 4 voices, 18 Jun 2005*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4455>

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### Tony Ellis
*18 Jun 2005, 05:21*

Severian is white:

"I've never seen such white skin coupled with dark hair... Do you think
my own skin white?"
"Very white, Chatelaine."
"So do others, but it is dun next to yours. You must flee the sun when
you're a torturer, Severian. You'll burn terribly."
TSOTT, chapter X.

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### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
*18 Jun 2005, 09:51 · in reply to Tony Ellis*

Yaaaay! Textual evidence! Hallelujah!

And, incidentally, this adds credence to the theory that 
Sev is at  least an optimate and possibly an exultant by 
birth...

--Dan'l

> On 6/18/05, Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com> wrote:
> 
> Severian is white:
> 
> "I've never seen such white skin coupled with dark hair... Do you think
> my own skin white?"
> "Very white, Chatelaine."
> "So do others, but it is dun next to yours. You must flee the sun when
> you're a torturer, Severian. You'll burn terribly."
> TSOTT, chapter X.
> 
> _______________________________________________

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### mournings glory
*18 Jun 2005, 12:13 · in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes*

> Yaaaay! Textual evidence! Hallelujah!

There's also this fascinating description by Mr Wolfe himself from THRUST 
19:

Thrust: If Severian were standing in front of us, describe him externally 
and internally.

Wolfe: You didn't say at what point in his life, so I'll choose him at the 
time he leaves the Citadel. He is 6' 1" and weighs 175 pounds. He is pale, 
with dark eyes, dark straight hair, and good teeth. His face is long and 
rather bony; high, square forehead, moderately high cheekbones, strong chin. 
He is muscular; his hands are a little larger than average. He wears heavy, 
black, knee-length leather boots, coarsely but strongly made; soot-black 
trousers of a fabric like soft wool; and a long, hooded cloak (unlinted) of 
the same material. He wears no shirt. Mentally, he is an unconscious 
intellectual--that is to say, he is fascinated by ideas, including problems 
of ethics and morality, but he is not aware that he is an intellectual and 
for the most part he lacks the vocabulary. He is a great deal less like most 
men than he thinks he is. Even so, he knows himself to be alienated by his 
eidetic memory. Subconsciously, he has been further marked by the loss of 
his mother in infancy. He has difficulty in forming relationships because of 
that, although he does sometimes form them; and he tends toward strong 
erotic attachments to women who subconsciously suggest the mother he lost. 
On the simplest level, this means toward women who are physically larger 
than he--Thea, Thecla, the undine--and to Jolenta, who has unusually large 
breasts. Of course, everyone is attracted to Jolenta, or at least nearly 
everyone. On a more subtle level he is attracted to women who act as guides, 
Agia, or counselors, Dorcas.

msg

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### James Wynn
*20 Jun 2005, 14:00 · follows mournings glory*

> ...but he is not aware that he is an intellectual
> and for the most part he lacks the vocabulary

Irony. ;-)

~ Crush

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