Interaction:
'ishsh -- The Trivigaunti high tongue is arabic-derived. 'ish is semitic (Hebrew) for "man". I cannot recall where in Exodus this shows up. If someone can remind me of the page, I'll try to do better.
Quetzal - Quetzalcoatl was the mythical "white man" who was expected to arrive among the Aztecs and change things forever. The Mayans called him Culculcan, as I recall. "Quetzalcoatl" means "feathered serpent." Perhaps a dragon/cherubim association. Quetzal knows his Bible (the pre-Bible of the Urth-universe) and corrects someone in "Exodus" who ascribes a Biblical saying to Pas.
So Quetzal is pretty ambiguous. Perhaps a "converted" vampire who rejects human blood for animal blood?
Pas's motivation - Why would a horrible tyrant like Typhon build a huge spaceship and send away all his slaves, leaving him alone? That does not make a lot of sense -- unless somehow the entire project was masterminded by Quetzal as a way to get home? Perhaps Quetzal had the power to hypnotize Typhon somehow. The Severian Quintet shows lots of aliens present on Urth.
Fifth Head of Cerberus - First, there is no doubt that a shapeshifter takes the place of the scientist in the third part of the book. Second, unless Wolfe has indicated something, I would not take these novellae as in the same universe as Urth. They seem to be set in the future of our own oscillation. Is there some more concrete reason to associate Ste. Anne and Ste. Claire with Green and Blue?
James B. Jordan
Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com