Hierodules

I'm pretty sure the ugly Hierodule masks of F, B and O are an insect, a lamprey (fish) and a human leper. I think Famulimus is the leper. yep, earthly hierodules, uh praying mantises, have very triangular heads. So does Thecla (face anyway). Perhaps Michael Andre-Driussi also? Praying Mantises are pretty scary looking up close but helpful to us because they eat a bunch of nasty, harmful bugs. Plus they pray! Deliberate symbolism by Wolfe?

This is correct. And there were exceptionally beautiful human faces -- to the point, as I recall, that they were no longer quite human -- underneath the second layer of masks. Severian, if I recall correctly, remarks that they appear to him to be what the walking statue in the garden of the House Absolute was based on. --Dan'l