BoE calls necromancers “wizards” and has a very rudimentary understanding of how it all works, anyway my point is for nona the ninth, i posit that “zombies” is referring to people ressurected by either necromancy a related thalergetic/thanergetic power. so either John’s ressurections (his powers dont seem to be garden variety necromancy) or revenent posession (like what wake did in cytherea, or what palamedes did with animating the hand bones that harrow made).

the summary says the zombies are “coming back”, which means it has happened in the past – we know John ressurected people at least once in the past and we know canonically in HtN had a whole bunch of ready-to-ressurect bodies just sitting on the Erebos.

we also know that something is Wrong In The River – souls are getting stuck, which could possibly make it easier for said souls to stay around as revenents and possess random corpses.

“magnus had finished his canapé and said enthusiastically, ‘agreed, this is top. have you ever eaten party food before, lady harrowhark? because if you haven’t, this is a very good approximation. no taste, but incredibly salty’”

(HtN ch. 41)

losing my shit at this specific part of the Her Divine Highness AU where harrow has apparently recreated party food in her brain bubble but didn’t give it any taste. besides salt. harrowhark grew up on nutrient paste and snow leeks, and has been to two parties in her entire life – both of which ended in murder/attempted murder. at neither of those parties did she enjoy the food. im absolutely obsessed.

i’m thinking about in GtN when isaac (defensively) is like “we’re not canon fodder, the first thing i learned was was wards” and jeannemary (later) talking about her and isaac’s big families and saying “you need spares in the fouth” and im thinking about the…. idealistic, in-denial, indoctrinated experience of thinking that you are valued and protected, because you were raised to think there is honor in Blind Fidelity, and Death For The Emperor, and so you want to believe you are more than just scrap or bodies, but you aren’t. and you know that and everything around you (the size of your family, the ubiquity of orphans, the fact that you were convienced post-humerously in a vat womb from banked genetic material, it being a common jibe to say that upon enlistment you should be issued a medal of honor and a coffin) is showing evidence that you are in fact nothing more than meat for the machine. thinking about issac and jeannemary trying to enlist in the cohort at 11 and being denied on age grounds and at 12 and being denied for mumps (but not age!!). thinking about abigail and magnus protesting it, saying they were too young, but in reality being mostly powerless to stop their enlistment. thinking about harrow (in the HtN coffee adept AU) and gideon (in GtN) both being horrified and disgusted by how young they are. thinking about that.

thinking about. the tritendarii. thinking about “dad wanted a matched set” and “we didn’t want anyone to seperate us” and “i need you” and the responding “i need you”, and “i wont tell her” and “she could have taken me” and “she can insult me as she likes”. i’m thinking about “try taking coronabeth’s memories from me, i’d kill you myself”. and god. fuck. whatever the fuck is going on in their dynamic we have only scratched the surface. ianthe might have been the necromancer but i don’t believe for a second that it was such a simple power dynamic.

one flesh, one end – that’s the THING with twins, isn’t it? they had spent all of three nights apart in what, 21, 22 years? before ianthe killed naberius and left coronabeth crying on the floor and saved her life. it makes sense then that ianthe has such distain for harrow’s choice to forget gideon. telling harrow she’s running away, etc. i don’t think it’s just ianthe being mean and having a crush. i think ianthe really does think it cruel and horrible that harrow chose to forget gideon, and she doesn’t understand harrow’s decision as one of love. it’s not compatible with how she views the world. she could never kill coronabeth, but she would never, ever forget her. and because of naberius, ianthe was able to neatly sidestep the terrible requirement of lyctorhood, that says you kill and consume the person closest to you. because ianthe only ever cared about coronabeth. other ppl have already written abt ianthe probably knowing the necro-cav dynamics as consumption from the start, so she prevented the person closest to her from becoming her cavalier, and prevented her cavalier from becoming the person closest to her, etc etc, so i won’t re-trod it here

and i think coronabeth probably relates to gideon “i already gave you my flesh, and i already gave you my end” “all i ever wanted you to do was eat me” “you rolled a rock over me instead of giving up your own damn aganda” nav a LOT. i’m sure coronabeth offered to be ianthe’s cavalier. im sure she begged ianthe for it, in secret, and im sure ianthe refused. corona (and gideon!) want to be consumed, it’s the ideal kind of love that has been modeled to them by society, that’s what they offer to the person they care about most in the world, and that is exactly what is denied to them by those same people.

“it’s for your own good”, harrow and ianthe say.

“that’s not the point”, gideon and coronabeth reply

im obsessed.

master list of who is alive or dead, pre-NtN! it gets… complicated!

I did not include every single character ever mentioned because I wish to remain sane, but i guess if sister glaurica comes back and becomes widly integral to the story then i will have been proven a fool. But!! i think i got everyone that (i think is) plot relevent! Let’s start off easy:

ALIVE (with body and soul still together)

• Ianthe Tridentarius (+ the incorporated soul of Naberius Tern) (last seen in the River, saving Jod)
• Emperor John Gaius (last seen in the River, being saved by Ianthe)
• Camilla Hect (last seen on a BOE planet with new eyes, with “Nona” as well as two other people)
• Coronabreth Tridentarius (last seen on a murdered planet with Camilla and Judith)
• Judith Deuteros (last seen on a murdered planet with Camilla and Coronabeth)
• Comander We Suffer (last seen in AYU, on a BOE base/ship)
• Fleet Admiral Sarpeadon (last seen on the behemoth-class flagship the Seat of the Emperor, formerly  known as the Erebos)

Now it gets weird. I am defining “Alive” to mean “the person, with body and soul still married, has NOT died/been killed/had their body irreparably destroyed, Jod excluded (presuming he did die once, a myriad ago)” and “Dead” to mean “quite a lot of different states of being that can happen after destruction of the body when it still houses the soul”. Defined below:

DEAD (revenant, not in river)

• Palamedes Sextus (last seen posessing his own skull transformed into a hand, with Camilla and Judith and Coronabeth, on a murdered planet, as of NtN presumed to be with Camilla and Pyrra)

DEAD (soul active, not in river, non-revenent)

• Pyrra Dve (last seen being submerged in the river, in Gideon the First’s body, as of NtN presumed to be with “Nona”, Camilla, and Palamades) 

DEAD (presummed to have passed on from the river)

• Isaac Tettares (Last seen in Harrowhard’s dream bubble, soul presumed to have been ushered away immediately afterwards by Abigail Pent)
• Jeannemary Chatur  (Last seen in Harrowhard’s dream bubble, soul presumed to have been ushered away immediately afterwards by Abigail Pent)

DEAD (died in Life, presumed to be in the River or a River Bubble)

• Abigail Pent  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Magnus Quinn  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Ortus Nigenad  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Dulcinea Septimus  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Protesilaus Eboma  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Mattias Nonius (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Marta Dyas  (last seen fighting the RB #7)
• Ninth House Crew (Crux, Aiglamamine, the Rev. Father and the Rev. Mother) (Last seen in Harrowhard’s dream bubble, bodies presumed to still be on the Ninth) (like A and C might not be dead but. I think they’re dead. Their characters seemed “correct” in the river bubble)

DEAD (soul status unknown)

• Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity (soul last seen in cytherea’s body, having her head exploded, dead for the second time, body presumably farming snow leeks somewhere on the Ninth)
• Gideon the First (soul side only, killed by RB in the river, body still active)
• Colum Asht (soul lost when he was put under by Silas in GtN, body killed by Ianthe)
• Silas Octakiseron (soul last seen escaping Harrow’s river bubble, body killed by the posessed body of Colum Asht)
• Teacher, little old man version (soul last known to have escaped Harrow’s river bubble, body killed by the Second House)

DEAD (soul status unknown, lyctor edition - can lyctors even GO to the river? what happens to them? what happens to the cavalier’s soul when a lyctor dies when not in-the-river?)

• Gideon, original flavor (soul last seen being killed in the river by RB #7, body last seen housing Pyrra Dve)
• Mercymorn (last seen having having her heart exploded by Jod :( )
• [Cristabel Oct (eaten and incorporated 10,000 years ago)]
• Cyrus (last seen having lured RB #6 into a black hole, killing them both)
• [Valancy Trinit (eaten and incorporated 10,000 years ago)]
• Cytherea (soul and body killed at Canaan house, body last seen with its head exploded)
• [Loveday Heptane (eaten and incorporated 10,000 years ago)]

And finally…. my favorite section! you thought it was already complicated. it gets MORE complicated!

IT’S COMPLICATED (lyctor edition)

• Augustine (last seen being pulled, both body and soul, into the stoma)
• [Alfred Quinque (eaten and incorporated 10,000 years ago)]
• Ulysses (Last seen having wrestled RB #8 into the stoma)
• [Titania Tetra (eaten and incorporated 10,000 yrears ago)]
• Cassiopeia (last seen being “torn apart by ghosts” near RB #7, something I do not believe for a second)
• [Nigella Shodash (eaten and incorporated 10,000 years ago)]
• Anastasia (is she alive? is she dead? is she The Body? she never completed lyctorhood, but only Samael was killed in the process. what happened to her!!!! Body and soul status unknown)
• Samael Novenary (body killed by Jod 10,000 years ago, soul “not all the way in” Anastasia, it’s complicated)

IT’S COMPLICATED (unholy terror edition)

• Alecto, A.L., Annabel Lee, the Emperor’s Bodyguard (is she a RB? is she the First House? is she The Body? is she in some kind of staisis?)

IT’S COMPLICATED (Nona edition)

• Nona… the Ninth? (how did she wake up in a different body? did she die before? who is she! why does she challenge Camilla to figure out who she is! does she not know? can she not say? when is her birthday? is she the The Body? is she a dog? is she in Gideon Nav’s body? Soul last seen in a body that doesn’t belong to her, on a BOE planet, with Camilla Hect and Pyrra and Palamades)

IT’S COMPLICATED (Drearbough edition)

• Harrowhark Nonagesimus (Body last seen being dunked into the river by augustine along with the Mithraum, being piloted by Gideon (new and improved). Soul last seen falling asleep in a tomb with a copy of Frontline Titties of the Fifth. is Her soul in THE Tomb? is she in the River? is she in Hell? did she get eaten by the stoma?) 
• Gideon Nav (Body last seen failing to rot on a BOE base, developing a cult following, perhaps being piloted around by Nona. soul last seen “dying a second time around” but probbaly just being very dramatic, being saved by a wildly gorgeous, yellow eyed woman that perhaps looks The Body. was this real? was this in the river? where is she? HOW is she?) 
• The Body (last known to be in the locked tomb, on the Ninth. is she in stasis? who is she? is she still in the tomb? is she alecto? is she anastasia? is she a ressurection beast? is she a failed lyctor? is she the emporer’s final death? is she nona? are harrow’s hallucinations a projection of The Body’s soul, or something else?)

“Harrow regretted not making [Ortus] take a solem vow of silence, to walk the place as the mute and intimidating bulk his father had been. only a very obedient idiot of a cavalier would have stuck with that.” (HtN, ch 18)

very obedient idiot of a cavalier (affectionate) (Gideon Nav Not Talking Time)

ok so. in HtN, harrowhark is wandering around the mithraeum and there’s this wall of arches and bones with rapiers, and she keeps being drawn back to the black one. anyway, I’m transcribing the quote from the audiobook, so pls forgive any punctuation/formatting inaccuracies:

“there were 9 decorative arches on the eastmost side of the room. you had by now investigated each arch carefully. the brown floor tiles were inlaid halfway up the wall in these arches and then became glass of every different color. and in the center of each polychromatic sweep was a sword bracket. some of the brackets were empty, and some held rapiers. one in particular always drew you back to it. a black rapier with a basket hilt formed of ebon wires. at the termination of each wire was a single canine tooth, and the end -pomel - was a soft warm knob of black dyed bone”

(HtN, ch 16)

and i am CONVINCED that

1) the arches represent the original lyctor/cav pairs and john. the rainbow aesthetic for the lyctors (combination of colors, before they split into seperate houses, plus it matches the rainbowy cloaks they all wear), 9 of them, etc

2) that is the sword of Samael Novenary. black! bone pomel! teeth in the basket hilt! (and this could be reaching but. Anastasia and Samael were alone with John when he killed Samael. Samael’s rapier might well have been the only killing weapon in the room…. though Jod being God, maybe he didn’t need a weapon but what i’m saying is… murder weapon. grave goods. revenant?)

3) in addition to the black rapier described belonged to Samael, and I think the other rapiers in the brackets are the recovered weapons of the cavalier’s/lyctors who have died. or symbolic representations of them. the text never mentions specifically how many, and which, brackets are empty vs which ones/how many have a sword in them, but i’d wager the only empty brackets would be the second, fifth, and eighth (because they are all actively using their swords).

imagining gideon taking care of harrow’s body………… using the sonic (clothes ON) or bathing in the dark??? applying face paint because she knows harrow would want it. applying face paint badly because she never paid enough attention to actually remember how to apply each version of skull. applying thicker and thicker layers of face paint in hopes of seeing just one (1) pimple and becoming absolutley irate when it never happens. doing squats. press ups. learning to move with and within harrow’s physical vitiation. eating a ton at every opportunity because she thinks harrow needs it. coming across necromantic theory and begrudgingly reading it (while not understanding anything) cuz maybe harrow will get the info somehow and find it useful. looking into the mirror every night and yelling at harrow to come back. sobs.

Naberius “Chew Toy” Tern absolutley exudes straight boy insufferable vibes but he truly has one of the worst jobs in the universe. at least on par with, but possibly even worse than Colum Asht’s job, frankly. Colum gets soul siphoned on the reg but his necromancer at least seems to care about him. Naberius doesn’t even have that?

Judith’s files say he was born to a longstanding cavalier family, so he was literally Assigned Cavalier At Birth (ACAB lmao). he never had any future other than to be owned and dominated by the one he was created to support and follow. and he didn’t only have one necromancer, like most cavaliers. he had TWO to contend with. it doesn’t rlly matter for this that Coronabeth wasn’t a necromancer, she was in the necromancer social position relative to him. and he kept Coronabeth’s secret from the rest of the universe for his WHOLE LIFE, fought their battles, trained from the cradle to be their sword. maybe even trained & taught coronabeth, depending on how deeply kept her secret was. and his necromancers???? bit him??? regularly??? hard enough to draw blood. and when trying to call the Fifth’s ghosts Ianthe literally didnt just bite she like, ripped out a whole part of his palm. they did this regularly enough that he doesn’t ever flinch. even when coronabeth sinks her teeth into him purely out of emotion, he just submits to it. he knew there was no higher necromantic purpose in that bite. literally “this is my emotional support chew toy”.

and not only that…… Naberius’ necromancers didn’t even like him. they made fun of him and debased him publicly, who knows what went on in private. and we didn’t get much info, but he didn’t sound like he had anyone close to him back home – he mentions he should have stayed home and gotten married but Ianthe said no one was even offering, implying maybe he was as isolated at home as he was at Canaan. Coronabeth, who he clearly seemed closer to, publicly told him off for daring to defend her to Ianthe. when Ianthe killed him, ATE him, consumed his soul, the only thing Coronabeth said was “who cares about Babs?” all the other Lyctors have spent 10,000 talking about their cavaliers, but when Ianthe ascends she barely mentions him. I can only imagine their official binding ceremony as an awkward event filled with too much pomp and circumstance, featuring them all swearing one flesh one end while Ianthe and Coronabeth made direct eye contact and he was mostly ignored.

this post is already long enough but im fascinated by the different ways the inherently consumptive nature of the necro/cav relationship is portrayed throughout the nine houses. i think the Third has one of the most blatant, but also (bc Gideon just thinks Naberius is an ass, and Harrow barely remembers him) one of the most narratively ignored.

imagining harrow on the Mithraeum having a fucking aneurysm one morning cuz john made her eggs that look like this:

ALT

ok im rereading Gideon the Ninth (again!!!!!) and thinking abt the interactions between Coronabeth and Judith with the added context of As Yet Unsent………. in ch 21, p. 237, Judith gets really upset that Coronabeth is trying to bride Palamedes to give her access to the Facility, because Coronabeth does not have her own key. and initially I just dismissed Judith as Being Annoying Because She Loves Rules but on reread im realizing. Coronabeth is offering Palamedes money and prizes but she’s also acting SUPER suggestive twoards him. she’s propositioning him to try and bribe him to take her into the Facility. Coronabeth says “the third house will go down on its knees for the sixth house” while she “enroaches on his personal space”. Gideon, watching, notes that if Coronabeth had been treating her the same way, Gideon would have fainted.

Anyway. Judith is jealous!!! Judith Deuteros has been deeply repressed and also in love with Coronabeth for 12 whole years and she is upset because she is JEALOUS