"A soldier's best quality is her sense of allegiance. Of loyalty. Nothing else survives." [1]
Aiglamene (Eye-GLAM-en-ay) is the Captain of the Guard of the Ninth House and Gideon Nav's sword-master. Though she is loyal to her House and the Lady Harrowhark Nonagesimus, she is sympathetic to Gideon's plight and seeks to be on her side as often as possible. She is promoted to Marshal upon Harrow's departure to the First House.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Aiglamene fought on far-off front lines when she was younger, where she lost her leg and presumably gained her other scars. She served on the Cohort strike force and achieved the rank of Captain before her discharge. At some point, either when she was off-planet or before the Ninth House closed itself to outsiders, she “saw the primary cavalier of the House of the Second fight in his youth”[2]
She was in charge of the weapons training for both Ortus Nigenad and Gideon Nav.
Aiglamene, as Captain of the Guard, has been made aware that Priamhark and Pelleamena died years ago and that Harrow is the true leader of the Ninth House.
Gideon the Ninth[]
Act I[]
Aiglamene appears at the landing field after Marshal Crux has left, having heard him "abusing Gideon [Nav] to anyone who will listen." [3] She is understanding, but stern with Gideon—without permission from Harrowhark Nonagesimus, she cannot allow Gideon to leave to enlist in the Cohort. Aiglamene plays a brief mental game with Gideon before she simply walks off, but quickly returns with Crux and Harrow.
Despite Aiglamene's protestations, Harrow proposes a duel and Gideon accepts. As Gideon and Harrow prepare to duel, Aiglamene chastises Gideon for her lack of good sportsmanship and loyalty to her House. She demands that Gideon give Harrow a weapon, but Gideon refuses. Despite this, the duel ends in Harrow's favor, and Aiglamene is instructed to tell the shuttle to wait an hour for its passenger.
Aiglamene attends muster and hears The Emperor's summons—calling the Heirs to The Nine Houses and their cavaliers to First House. She chastises Ortus Nigenad, the current cavalier primary, for refusing his duty, and his mother for supporting and coddling him. After the muster, she accuses Gideon of not being able to "spell obligation if I shoved the letters up your ass."[1] She tries her best to instill a concept of loyalty into her student and, though she inevitably fails, she offers Gideon her sword and bags back.
A week later, Harrow tasks Aiglamene with turning Gideon into a proper cavalier primary to replace Ortus—who has escaped on Gideon's shuttle. She suggests training Gideon in the cavalier's rapier and knuckles, though Harrow is partial to the powder or the chain. As Gideon resists the idea of teaming up with Harrow, Aiglamene works to convince her that this is truly her only chance to get off of Ninth House and out of her bondage. In the end, Gideon listens to her mentor and agrees to train.
Over the next three months, Aiglamene shapes Gideon as best she can into a passable cavalier. They train hard in sword fighting, and she sets her to exercises such as walking a pace behind Harrow for long periods of time. She is genuinely proud and impressed at the progress Gideon is able to make in that time, though somewhat doubts it will be enough. At the end of their time, she presents Gideon with a reforged rapier and knuckles. Before she departs for First House, Harrow promotes Aiglamene to the position of Marshal.
Nona the Ninth[]
Through unknown means, devils infiltrate the Ninth House. As the Marshal of the House, Aiglamene likely leads the counterattack of locking possessed people in their cells or pushing the corrupted bodies over the rail to the bottom of the tiers. Retreating, Aiglamene and most of the other survivors barricade themselves behind the Anastasian monument on a lower level.
A day and a night after the initial attack, Gideon Nav (renamed Kiriona Gaia) returns to the Ninth House with Pyrrha Dve, Paul, and Nona in tow. Arriving at the Anastasian monument, Kiriona asks for Aiglamene. She appears quickly to unbar the gate and orders someone to help Crux, who’s injured from his fight with the devils. Aiglamene leads the House in a formal welcome of the Reverend Daughter.
Aiglamene rises from her knee with difficulty, then touches Kiriona’s face. Realizing Kiriona is a reanimated corpse, Aiglamene turns a furious gaze on Nona, but Kiriona quickly explains that Nona isn’t Harrow. Aiglamene immediately denies Pyrrha’s request to have access to the Tomb, but she knows her refusal holds little weight.
Joined by Crux, Aiglamene leads Pyrrha, Paul, Nona, and Kiriona towards the Tomb. Ianthe the First is waiting for them at the entrance, and she quickly traps their feet in a sticky substance. Believing Kiriona to share her goal of keeping the Tomb locked, Ianthe pulls her fellow prince out of the muck. Once freed, Kiriona claims to be under orders from the Emperor to open the Tomb and kill Alecto. Nona’s body—Harrow’s body—begins to fall apart as it rejects the foreign soul. Moving quickly to save Nona and Harrow, Pyrrha disables Ianthe with a Herald bullet, then Aiglamene directs the frantic group past the initial stone and though the antechamber to the true rock. To satisfy the thanergy burst required to open the Tomb, Aiglamene volunteers to be sacrificed, but Kiriona chooses to kill a willing Crux instead. With the addition of Kiriona’s blood (the Emperor’s blood by extension), Paul opens the Tomb. Nona crosses the moat to the Body, allowing Alecto and Harrow’s souls to revert to their bodies. While she does this, a group of “dead children” (likely Ninth citizens possessed by devils) launch an attack on Aiglamene, Paul, Pyrrha, and Kiriona on the shore of the moat. Though Alecto notes that the fight is loud, it is unclear whether she helps them fight the devils before leaving the Ninth House to seek out the Emperor.
Appearance and Personality[]
Appearance[]
"The captain of the House guard had a head of melty scars and a missing leg which an indifferently talented bone adept had replaced for her. It bowed horribly and gave her the appearance of a building with the foundations hastily shored up. She was younger than Crux, which was to say, old as balls: but she had a quickness to her, a liveliness, that was clean." [1]
Like most of the citizens of the Ninth, Aiglamene wears her age in every aspect of her appearance. Her skin is marred by liver spots, hard-carved wrinkles, and scars. Her replacement leg bows and had gone wrong somewhere around her hip, and between that and the melted look of her scarred skin, Aiglamene is the “most asymmetrical person that Nona [has] ever seen.”[4]But behind the strange seesawing walk and the scars and the pouchy eye sockets, she has a keen-eyed hawk’s face, and she holds herself tall and proud.
Personality[]
“With all due respect, you’ve dealt her too ill, my lady. I hate this idea. If I were ten years younger I would beg you to condescend to take me. But you won’t vouchsafe her, and so I must…If I vouchsafe the freedom of Gideon Nav and it is not given to her, then—begging your pardon for my ingratitude—it is a betrayal of myself, who is your retainer and was your mother’s retainer.”[2]
Her personality is primarily fair—she is helpful when she is able to be and clearly cares for Gideon (though she does not express it openly). She first saw potential in Gideon and requested she be given a sword, but Aiglamene will not tolerate disloyalty and open disobedience from anyone, especially Gideon. Despite being eighty-some years old, Aiglamene has a passion to her that is rare in the Ninth House, and is still capable of being invested in the living.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Swordsman: Aiglamene, a Cohort trained fighter and Captain of the Guard, is an extremely proficient in swordsmanship and a variety of other weapons techniques.
Relationships[]
[]
Gideon describes her relationship with Aiglamene as:
"Nobody had ever loved her in the House of the Ninth, and certainly Aiglamene did not love her and would have laughed herself to her overdue death at the idea: but in her had been a measure of tolerance, a willingness to loosen the leash and see what Gideon could do with free rein. Gideon loved free rein." [3]
The two have a simple mentorship and Aiglamene grows short with Gideon's immaturity. Gideon is her student, and a frequently impulsive and insubordinate one at that. She tries to instill a measure of obedience and respect through mutual respect, but it is a lesson Gideon refuses to learn. Despite this, she seems to see a genuine hint of promise in Gideon, and tries to foster it the best of her abilities. She is not tender, but it is the only support Gideon ever receives from Ninth House.
“[Aiglamene] reached out—she touched the side of the Prince’s face—they both recoiled.”[4]
If Aiglamene was never gentle with Gideon in life, she is only briefly gentle with her in death. Once she realizes that Gideon is dead, Aiglamene quickly turns all her ire on Harrowhark, furiously blaming her for the loss of Gideon’s life.
Trivia[]
- "Aigla" refers to "l'aigle," which is French for the eagle. [5]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nona the Ninth Day 5, Ch. 31
- ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," A Little Explanation of Naming Systems