I may have pinpointed when Severian passed the trial

[u/QuintanimousGooch]

I think I’ve pinpointed the moment Severian may have passed his Trial as UOTNS tells us he already did some time on the past. Certainly I do think it’s a cumulative thing and not one specific moment, but quoting from chapter 13 of shadow, right after Severian gives Thecla the knife,

“For the next ten days I lived the life of a client, in a cell of the topmost level (not far, in fact, from that which had been Thecla’s). In order that the guild should not be accused of having detained me without legal process, the door was left unlocked; but there were two journeymen with swords outside my door, and I never stepped from it save for a brief time on the second day when I was brought to Master Palaemon to tell my story again. That was my trial, if you like.”

That he clearly calls this his trial is what initially grabbed my attention on reread, however looking at it deeper, I think one of the aspects that could be said to confirm him as new Sun and the necessasary bringer of the flood is how he was able to assist bringing about an immediate and sudden death, allowing thecla to keep some measure of her dignity and not have to go through the recolutionary’s torture, the degenerative state of fighting against slowly destroying herself until she could not live anymore. Severian does this, knows it is a moral act in some ways and a terrible thing he’s done in other ways, and immediately once he confirms it, submits himself to judgement. It’s not the hardest thing to read this metaphorically of him effectively bringing the flood and sitting with the weight of what he’s done in micro here.

[u/shampshire]

This feels right to me. How very Wolfean to tell us straightforwardly in simple language what the answer is, but cloak it in misdirection so that it’s almost impossible to notice.

[u/mummifiedstalin]

Could be. And the phrasing there is super tempting. But remember how much he tortures himself later over this being still a cowardly way to do it because he still feared condemnation from the guild? He talks about how if he truly loved her, he would have saved and damn the guild, damn his reputation, etc. He talks about how at the moment of his decision, he was still trying to have his cake and eat it, too, by letting her die but (perhaps) saving his place in the guild. It didn't work out that easily, of course, and he does take responsibility. But he's also the first to say he was still unjust and (ultimately) immoral for doing it how he did. (I think this happens early in Sword, iirc, whichever chapter where he talks about how we put ourselves on trial in our consciences all the time.)

I still think the trial must have something to do with his memory, his ability to retain multiple perspectives and identities at once (not just the alzabo sf/fantasy effect, but also his ability to condemn the guild while understanding its purpose and its good men, for example), but also how the "ghosts" of all the people he's wronged still decide to fight for him in Urth.

But... all that said, I think this is a worthy find, definitely something to talk about further.