when harrow is reading out the summons from the first house at the very beginning of gtn the letter says the following:
“The Emperor calls now for postulants to the position of Lyctor, heirs to the eight stalwarts who have served these ten thousand years: as many of them now lie waiting for the rivers to rise on the day they wake to their King, those lonely Guard remaining petition for their numbers to be renewed and their Lord above Lords to find eight new liegemen.” (paperback p. 39)
which on first read sounds like pretty standard catholic-esque language about a second coming and New Life, etc etc, but upon reread it’s like. hang on. “rivers to rise” sounds a lot like The River. the passage implies that the lyctors who have died fighting the resurrection beasts will be resurrected (again, for some of them) a la second coming.
are we going to see some more og lyctors in alecto????