obsessed with the idea of there being someone out there who randomly picked up Harrow The Ninth and decided to read it without realizing it is a sequel. obsessed.
ALTNINTH SAINT TO SERVE THE KING UNDYING
obsessed with the idea of there being someone out there who randomly picked up Harrow The Ninth and decided to read it without realizing it is a sequel. obsessed.
I am thinking again about when John says “if you abandon something, you have no more right to act as if you own it”. and at first I assumed he was talking about Blood Of Eden, which I think he is, but I also think he is talking about himself. and Harrow.
John tells Harrow this immediately after he learns of her parents’ genocide. he assures her that he will shepard her dead 200; he will remember them until and long after dominicus has burnt away. John isn’t JUST talking about Harrow’s dead 200. he’s talking about the dead 10 billion and every single person that dies as a sacrifice to his empire’s expansion. he’s justifying his own crimes by saying as long as he remembers them, as long as he does not percieve himself abandoning them, he still has right to own them, use them, burn them as the battery of his empire. and he’s telling Harrow that she can do the same.
really struck rn by how Abigail Pent had a fern collection and Protesilaus bred flowers for a hobby. how the food on the Third house was so good that Naberious considered the canaan house fair to be gross. the idea that the other houses are living generally normal lives with plant collections and meals that regularly contained multiple food groups rlly puts a spotlight on how stark the ninth house was. nothing but black greasepaint and brown soil and white bones.
im just fascinated thinking abt how the knowledge of and moral opposition to necromancy may have influenced BOE on a cultural level.
while The Nine Houses view Blood Of Eden as an annoyance or just like…. a pest that must be defeated as a matter of course (”nameless insurgents”), it seems like BOE views the nine houses as its mortal and moral enemy. we learned in the ch2 Nona exerpt that the language that The Nine Houses uses, while common, has fallen out of favor bc “bad people use it”. therefore it makes sense for BOE to adopt an even more reactionary approach in order to define itself in direct opposition to what it sees as the most morally corrupt parts of The Nine Houses: specifically, necromancy and their treatment of the human body.
The Nine Houses uses human bodies as fucking. couches. and macaroni art. human leather on the seats, your grandfather’s bones on the wall, your dearly departed mother sister father’s bones farming the fields for eternity. what kind of death rituals does one adopt to set oneself apart from that? probably something about holding the human body as inviolate, and likely requiring complete destruction of the body (i.e. cremation) very soon after death – to prevent the loved ones bones and flesh from being necromantically used/taken. burying your dead grandma in the ground is like leaving a juicy treat for any wandering necromancer.
medical procedures such as organ transplants (dead or live doner) are probably also banned and/or viewed as deeply immoral (might still happen but like, on the black market) as taking another person’s body part and using it to power your own is…… well…… that’s basically what necromancers do and probably also makes you a zombie!
with regards to the living body, culturally it would make sense if body modification – especially elective body modification – was generally frowned upon. it would make sense for scars to be heralded as incredibly positive traits, because lyctors (”zombies”) don’t scar – and competently preformed thalergetic healing likely doesn’t leave much trace either. zombies and necromancers just heal up whole again, but healing with a big scar proves your alligance to BOE.
anyway. does anyone have more thoughts? The Nine Houses are so wild just by themselves and BOE opens up such a new world of fascinating cultural posibilities.
im thinking about how when Mercymorn sees Gideon-in-Harrow, and freaks out, she says “now i have to take the river all the way home and fight my way through anastasia’s horrid tomb cult” (HtN p. 409). im thinking abt this because the lyctors are powerful. like, can kill a whole planet in <5 minutes kind of incomprehensibly powerful. why was Mercymorn even thinking about having to fight her way through the tomb cult? like yeah she doesn’t sound intimidated, just annoyed…but annoying a lyctor is still a massive feat, and the 9th as we know it only has old people, dead people, and bones. the only fighting shape necromancer was Harrow, the only fighting shape non-necromancer was Gideon. maybe Aiglamanine. even if we dont consider the fact that Harrow&Gideon are not on the 9th to cause Mercy any trouble, 1 normal necromancer, 1 octogenarian swords master, and a 19 year old jock would barely even be noticed by a lyctor at full power, much less actually annoy her or cause any trouble. what is going on in Anastasia’s house. I don’t know if I’m a dog barking up the wrong tree here but I feel like there’s big secrets left to be revealed about the 9th house. grinds teeth aggressively September 13th can’t come fast enough
i think it would be really neat to have a Naberius v. Gideon rematch duel but like, lyctorized (Harrow + Gideon v. Ianthe + Naberious). I think Gideon would have a lot of fun beating up Naberious with her big sword and I think Harrow would get some good enrichment in going after Ianthe. I think Ianthe would pretend to be very bored/annoyed by the whole thing, and who cares about Babs?
😭 jod stop me from trying to buy the illumicrate set I DONT need them I DONT collect books they would JUST collect dust they would cost a lot of MONEY the stress of trying to grab a limited eddition copy is NOT GOOD for me i DONT even like hardcover books in general the only copies I want are the paper back editions because they are easy to carry around in my backpack and come with the short stories/extras in the back……… DONT tempt me with fancy filigree and bone art. I’m so weak for fancy filigree and bone art
fun bone fact!! bones are actually physically continuous with muscle and tendon. you are connected from your skin to your muscle to your tendon to your bone. bone is highly vascularized, innervated, and categorized anatomically as connective tissue, which means it is in the same bucket as blood and lymphatic fluid. bone is very much alive and growing and healing, the only difference is it sticks around after the rest of you decays away. anyway!!! what I mean by this is that, anatomically speaking, there’s very little that is practically, physically separating Harrow as a bone adept from the flesh magicians she despises. to spring a bone up, Harrow has to be able to tap into thalergy just as much as a flesh magician growing a muscle. like yes of course they are difference facets of the body, but they’re deeply intertwined with MUCH less differences than people realize. anyway this just means Harrow’s derision of what she sees as the softer subjects is picky and petty and personal instead of actually grounded in fact, which is SO true of academia. 10/10 no notes.
ALTNINTH SAINT TO SERVE THE KING UNDYING
“Now, with both of her palms pressed flat against Gideon’s rib cage, with Gideon’s hands tangled in her hair and her mouth peppering kisses down the semilunar line of Gideon’s abdomen, Harrow could see Gideon so clearly it was like staring into the sun.”
Vaguely post-canon griddlehark. Harrow thinks too much. Gideon is having a great time.
Rated M; 18+
really truly have not fully processed that nona will be released in 3 weeks. like i know it’s soon but it’s SO soon. im not ready.
honestly.
the bit in HtN in the canaan house dream bubble where harrow says something along the lines of, “this is unsustainable, you are all in danger, we need to find a way for you to escape” and abigail responds, “we know how. we already did it for the kids. we all could have left at any time and we all chose to stay, for you”. and then harrow is like, “ok but at least ortus should leave. he isn’t a fighter, he never was, he deserves to leave” and abigail just shuts her down. she’s like, “i already tried, and he can’t be convinced. he wants to stay for you”. i am unwell about it. harrow can’t even really try to convince the remaining souls to leave her because they have already sent away the ones who needed to be protected and they have already tried to convince each other, and failed. there’s nothing left for her to use as ammunition against herself. there’s nothing left but evidence that she is cared for. forgive me but i just want characters who have spent their life drowning in self loating to be forced to reckon with the fact that they are loved.
i love gideon nav. like, i think it is a safe bet that most people who pick up Gideon the Ninth probably fall into the category of people who think bone decor, skull face paint, dressing goth, and being a necromancer is all pretty awesome. but then you have this narrator, gideon, who is just immediately like: skull paint makes us look so dumb…. gives me acne….. necromancers are weedy NERDS who need to learn how to bench…. dressing like this is so uncool :///
ALT
ALTIn the myriadic year of our Lord—the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!— Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.
bonus: POV you are Harrowhark Nonagesimus
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALTGideon, 18
0.1 miles away
Former pretender to the title of Cavalier Primary of the Ninth House. Open NOW to any and all offers including but not limited to Cavalier of Literally Any Other House, carrying you/your items, and dying heroically with your name on my lips. Sword length on request.