Along with "Shadow of the Torturer", this entry to BOTNS emphasizes the world's detritus - but it's directly confronted as opposed to the worldbuilding nature of the first entry. Here, the reader (and Severian) experience the results of humanity's off-world imports, wildlife repopulation efforts, and the culminating being human over millions of years. Case in point: Typhon. Almost a non sequitur moment, but if you've got millions of years of humanity and millions of years of humanity's plotting, then of course they'll start to build up and come to fruition at inappropriate times.

The alzabo scene is just as horrifying as you might think, and it's proof Wolfe can write abject horror in addition to his vast repertoire of implied horror.