"Mercy would be the first to tell you that Cristabel Oct was a delight. [...] Maybe don't mention her name to Augustine though."[1]
Cristabel Oct (CRIS-ta-bell) is the cavalier primary to the Second Saint to Serve the King Undying, Mercymorn the First, and part of the original sixteen disciples to serve the Emperor at Canaan House after the Resurrection.
Biography[]
Life Before the Resurrection[]
Prior to the Resurrection, the scientist John Gaius worked with a crew of enigmatically named friends whose initials align with several of the names of those who later became his Saints. Given a close relationship with “M—“ (likely Mercymorn), the similarly gendered pronoun, and process of elimination, it appears likely that Cristabel is the one referred to in John’s recounted story as “the nun” or “M—’s nun.”
Though John’s project is originally focused on developing a way to safely cryogenically preserve living humans during spaceflight, the government eventually pulls funding and shuts the facility down. Left with a building full of corpses, John is surprised to learn that some of the bodies he worked with are not decomposing. After a series of experiments on the bodies, John discovers that he can control these incorruptible corpses through a process that he later attributes to necromancy. Through the power of the internet, he gains a cult following and begins to receive an influx of people coming to him and asking him to heal their ailments.
Somewhere during John’s rising popularity, M— invites her best friend, the nun, into the inner circle, despite John’s unfounded worries about the nun naming him the Antichrist. On the contrary, when John becomes overwhelmed with the workload of healing everyone who comes calling, the nun advises him to learn from Christ’s mistakes and limit the miracles to one hour a day. The nun also buys the group some more time before the government interferes by applying to the Vatican to declare John’s necromancy a veritable miracle. When the government does inevitably come calling, the nun shelters with the others behind an impenetrable wall composed of various cow parts that John erects around the facility.
While the crowds of pilgrims amass outside and multiple governments put pressure on John and his followers, he begins to spend his spare time working with the nun to figure out a way to completely resurrect a body. The nun insists that it’s impossible without access to that person’s soul, and she posits that finding the soul would bring them closer to God. John makes a breakthrough in this arena when five people die just outside the cow wall, and he harnesses the power of their deaths to immediately kill over a hundred other people.
As John continues to gain power, he obsesses over the FTL project that his cryo project had been shut down in favor of. The nun and A— junior devote themselves to following the FTL project’s monetary moves. They uncover a conspiracy that the world’s trillionaires plan to take the ships for themselves, leaving the rest of Earth’s population to die. John decides to act fast to prevent this plan from going into effect.
Despite being censured by nearly every government in the world, John had been contracted by a powerful nation to necromantically puppet its indisposed leader. In exchange, John received money and a suitcase nuke, which he utilizes as leverage in his plan to stop the FTL ships. After sending G— out of the country with the nuke, John barricades himself in his room with the nun to desperately try to solve the problem of the soul. They break from their unsuccessful attempt for the soul for C— and N—’s last-ditch attempt at a wedding, which the nun officiates.
After this small moment of joy, John breaks the news to the others that the nuke is armed and G— is a dead man’s switch. The group erupts into a furious argument about John’s genocidal intentions, and the nun and A— junior try unsuccessfully to mediate between the two sides. During the fight, the group receives word that some of the pilgrims inside the wall have defected from the cause and taken the other cultists hostage. John and his disciples mobilize—continuing their argument while they frantically build barricades and try to negotiate with the ex-cultists. Overwhelmed by the situation, John locks himself in his room. M— and her nun yell at him through the door, to no avail. M— gives up and joins the skirmish against the ex-cultists. After praying over John, the nun slips away, returning bearing one of P—’s guns. After explaining that she believes that John can still save everyone, she asks him to concentrate, says one final prayer, then shoots herself. Her death and her soul provide John with the breakthrough he needs, and he leaves the nun where she fell.
Life After the Resurrection[]
Cristabel Oct and her necromancer, Mercymorn, are among the first disciples to serve the Emperor at Canaan House following The Resurrection. There, Cristabel is instrumental to the founding of the role of cavalier and, along with Alfred Quinque, coins the vow "one flesh, one end."[2]
Together, Mercymorn and Cristabel found the Eighth House, known as the Keepers of the Tome and the Forgiving House.
Though the precise circumstances of Mercymorn's ascension to Lyctor are unknown, Alfred's necromancer, Augustine speaks of Cristabel "leading [Alfred] astray"[3] and forcing Augustine to ascend to Lyctorhood "under scrambling pressure,"[4] thus implying that the two cavaliers may have formed a suicide pact and forced their respective necromancers to ascend against their will.
Appearance and Personality[]
Little is known about Cristabel's physical appearance save her eyes which Harrowhark describes as
"...a slumbrous, sand-tinted hazel with grey-madder clouds within them, like a red hurricane moving over a gaseous mantle, like a storm-ridden planet of red dust."[5]
Augustine describes Cristabel's personality as:
"A total delight. Effervescent. Kind to animals and children. A master of the sword. Did not have the intellect you'd ordinarily find in a sandwich or an orange, and was a sickening twerp into the bargain. The Eighth House will never see her like again."[6]
Described as a "fanatic," Cristabel's passion and fervor for both her role as cavalier and the pursuit of Lyctorhood remains at the heart of both roles a myriad later. Beyond that, it is difficult to get a clear picture of her personality as the remaining Lyctors who knew her, Augustine and Mercymorn, have heated and opposite opinions of her.
As with all Lyctors, Mercymorn's Saint name, Joy, was chosen by John as a representation of Cristabel.
Relationships[]
Augustine the First[]
"She should be so lucky as to be any kind of use, as she wasn't any in life. [...] I hope you know that one day I'll wrench Cristabel's rotten ghost from your corpse, and eat her."[7]
Augustine was never fond of Cristabel—in large part due to the influence she had over his brother and cavalier, Alfred. In return, it is unlikely that Cristabel held any great affection for Augustine either.
Alfred Quinque[]
"...someone stop cris and alfred before the sex toy phrase catches on, thanks"[2]
To the displeasure of both of their necromancers, Cristabel and Alfred were close. Co-creators of much of the concept of cavaliers, the two clearly spent a lot of time working together. Though Augustine considered her to be a bad influence the Emperor believed that Alfred could not have been forced into anything he didn't want.
Mercymorn the First[]
"When you mentioned her cavalier's name, she went rigid, as though stung. The Saint of Joy turned to you, scrunch-mouthed and nauseous with rage, and wheezed: 'Don't you ever—ever—use her name with me, you useless child, you impertinent cell.'"[1]
Mercymorn, Cristabel's necromancer, quite plainly cared a great deal for her cavalier.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Gideon the Ninth," A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 30
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 51
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 6
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 17
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 31