December 2022

capnsoapy:

i have become unhealthily obsessed with trying to categorise the Nine Resurrection Beasts

• In Harrow the Ninth, chapter two, John Gaius tells Harrow there are nine Beasts. He says that they have killed five and that there are three left. Harrow mentally notes that the maths don’t add up, but knowing that Alecto is an RB makes it compute (3 out there, 5 dead, 1 imprisoned). Although frustratingly, John only enumerates three of the dead (Two, Six, and Eight), leaving six RBs left to sort; one is Alecto, two are dead, and three are threats.

• In Harrow the Ninth, chapter thirty-six, the Lyctors encounter the Seventh RB, and in planning for this showdown recount some of their previous attempts at fighting RBs; the late Two, Six, and Eight, as well as One and Four. This confirms that Seven is alive, and that One and Four are not Alecto.
In this same chapter, Seven is described as both “brood of [Six]” and “packmate of [Eight]”, implying some close connection between this string of numbers but nothing concrete.

• In Nona the Ninth, Nona/Alecto speaks with the Seventh Beast, and refers to it by name; Varun. With Waruna being the old Malay name for Neptune, and Varuna being the Hindu God of the seas, this pretty solidly points to the Seventh RB being the revenant soul of Neptune. Varun recognises Nona/Alecto as being the revenant of Earth also.

So all that tells us is;

1. Described as “a great and incoherent machine”.
2. Dead.
3. Unknown.
4. Described as “a humanoid creature with a beautiful face”.
5. Unknown.
6. Dead.
7. Alive. Revenant of Neptune.
8. Dead.
9. Unknown.

Two of 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 are dead. My guess is 1 and 4; Mercymorn doesn’t explicitely say that they are killed but they’re mentioned alongside the three confirmed kills.
One of 3, 5, or 9 must be Alecto. My guess is 9; simply due to the “the Ninth” suffix for Nona and Alecto needing to refer to something. Also, it’s plausible that her identity as an RB went unknown until after the other eight had been indexed.

So if you add some speculation (canon in bold, guesswork in italics), you get;

1. Dead
2. Dead
3. Alive
4. Dead
5. Alive
6. Dead
7. Alive (Neptune)
8. Dead
9. Alive (Earth)

The trail runs cold there. The only thing left to do is speculate wildly based on the physical descriptions of the Beasts let’s go!

The Second Beast “spewed quicksilver…”. Quicksilver is the planetary metallic name for mercury, so 2 = Mercury.
The Fourth Beast had “a beautiful face”. Beauty = love and love = Venus so 4 = Venus.
The First Beast had “swords for wings”. Swords are for war and so 1 = Mars.
The Sixth Beast had “enormous sphincters”. So. 6 = Uranus.
The Eighth Beast “was red, and it had a single eye”. Possibly referring to the Great Red Spot? So 8 = Jupiter.

And… I think that’s about as far as I can go.

1. Dead (Mars)
2. Dead (Mercury)
3. Alive (Saturn/Pluto)
4. Dead (Venus)
5. Alive (Saturn/Pluto)
6. Dead (Uranus)
7. Alive (Neptune)
8. Dead (Jupiter)
9. Alive (Earth)

If any of this wild speculation disagrees with yours. I fully believe that Tamsyn has left us enough breadcrumbs to connect the planets, the houses, the saints, and the beasts together and we just need to find them

…

oh, and what about the Sun?

But what are they numbered after?

Not the order of the planets (varun would be eight)

Not the houses that inhabit the planets (the seventh is usually speculated on venus)

Not the order in which john killed them:

ALT

The one about houses is the weakest, as it is based on 2 unconfirmed speculations, whereas the other two only on one.

Anyways I have no answers, only questions.