"I am a necromancer and I am a cavalier. I am the vengeance of the ten billion. I have come back home to kill the Emperor and burn his Houses." [1]
Cytherea the First (KITH-er-AY-a) is the Seventh Saint to Serve the King Undying. Terminally ill with the hereditary heptanary blood cancer, Cytherea and her cavalier, Loveday Heptane, were invited to come to be disciples to the Emperor at Canaan House. She ascended to Lyctorhood hoping it would save her life and has instead spent a myriad dying.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Cytherea was born into an established Seventh House several (possibly hundreds) of years after the Resurrection. Afflicted with the heptanary blood cancer, Cytherea was a necromantically powerful but physically frail necromancer. For her cavalier, she took Loveday Heptane.
When Cytherea was around thirty years old, The Emperor was drawn to the Seventh House to see something he refers to only as "the miracle at Rhodes"[2] (possibly a reference to Cytherea herself). Though he originally asked not to see "the woman," when it became clear that Cytherea had necromantic ability she was invited to join the disciples at Canaan House.
Loveday was opposed to traveling due to Cytherea's condition,[2] however, once the principles of Lyctorhood became clear, she pushed her necromancer to ascend in an attempt to save her life. Loveday Heptane sacrificed herself, believing that becoming a Lyctor would heal and save her necromancer from her illness.[3] The day after, Cytherea grieved with Mercymorn, stating that "We had the choice to stop."[2]
Cytherea lived and worked with the Emperor and his Lyctoral Saints for the next myriad. She would have learned about the Resurrection Beasts and helped fight them—witnessing the deaths of Cyrus, Ulysses, and Cassiopeia—as well as known Alecto and participated in convincing the Emperor to kill her.
Toward the end of the myriad, she began to spend more time alone. Prior to the gathering at Canaan House, Cytherea had last seen Mercymorn a decade ago, and Augustine a decade before that.[2] It is believed that she joined forces with the Blood of Eden and developed the plan to use the gathering at Canaan House to lure the Emperor back into the Dominican System in conjunction with them.[4]
Gideon the Ninth[]
Act I[]
Cytherea boards the shuttle carrying Dulcinea Septimus and her cavalier, Protesilaus Ebdoma, en route to First House. Before she can subdue them, Protesilaus leaps to his scion's defense and Cytherea has no choice but to kill him. Cytherea interrogates Dulcinea and attempts to learn as much as possible about her life and what those at Canaan House might know of her before killing her as well.
To assume the identity of Dulcinea, Cytherea animates the corpse of Protesilaus using the theorem of the beguiling corpse—allowing him to move and speak at her command. She does not do a particularly careful job, leaving an awkward uncanny corpse.
Cytherea steps off the shuttle and immediately faints into the arms of the priest nearest her. Gideon Nav rushes over to help her, taking her from the priest and earning herself Protesilaus's sword at her neck for her trouble. Cytherea calls off Protesilaus and smooths over the offense with her charm. She is quickly helped inside to recover—possibly the goal all along as she doesn't know if anyone at Canaan House will recognize her.
Inside the House, Cytherea sits on a couch, is offered tea, and chokes on it. Her undead cavalier is quick to help her clear her airway. She listens to Teacher explain the task but does not participate in the conversation. She is relieved to discover that Teacher either does not recognize her or has decided not to reveal her. Cytherea and Protesilaus are guided away to their rooms by a skeleton construct.
Act II[]
Early in her first morning at Canaan House, Cytherea, through the use of Protesilaus, uses perpetual ash to permanently lock the door to her old Lyctor study. To keep up appearances, Cytherea is lounging on the garden terrace when Gideon stumbles upon her.
She asks Gideon to help her, clarifying that she already knows about Gideon's vow of silence. She monologues briefly before asking to see Gideon's eyes and is transfixed by their golden color. Cytherea, aware of the Dios apate, major plot, immediately understands the truth about Lyctorhood and the extent of the Emperor's lies.
Cytherea continues on, asking Gideon to draw her sword, and praising her stance. She asks if Gideon is used to a heavier sword. Gideon, caught out, attempts to flee and is given a convenient exit with the arrival of Protesilaus. As she leaves, Cytherea calls out to her and says she wishes they would meet again.
Over the next several days, Cytherea makes herself comfortable on the terraces with her romance novels. She frequently calls Gideon over to help her with menial tasks and attempts to make conversation with her. Gideon refrains from taking the bait but does appreciate her conversation and kindness (however strange).
At the same time, she sends her corpse cavalier around the House and into the Facility to gather and obscure any information that might allow a postulant to ascend or any sign of her time at Canaan House after the Resurrection. At some point during this time, she acquires one Facility room key.
Cytherea attends Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn's anniversary dinner and spends much of her time talking with Abigail. She learns that Abigail is a scholar and interested in the era between the Resurrection and the establishment of the Emperor's sovereignty. Abigail claims that the chance to study real artifacts is invaluable, and explains that she has discovered encoded communications between the original Lyctors—which would, of course, include Cytherea herself.
Later in the evening, Cytherea's morose attempts at conversation with Gideon are interrupted by Palamedes awkwardly offering her tea, which she accepts gratefully but disinterestedly—unaware of his attachment to Dulcinea Septimus. The conversation with Gideon is left unfinished.
Following the party, Cytherea follows Abigail and Magnus into the Facility and kills them, fearing they might come to recognize her true identity. Pressed for time, she stashes the key that Abigail has won inside Abigail's abdomen and flees before she is seen.
Act III[]
Cytherea is late to arrive at the crime scene, wearing a short shirt and ill-fitting pants. Palamedes pauses his work to lend her his bedrobe, but quickly returns to his business. Likely in an act to cover her identity, Gideon sees her reach out as if to help and have the beguiling-corpse Protesilaus draw her back, as if she is too unwell to join in the efforts. She feigns illness yet again when Silas Octakiseron arrives on the scene and soul-siphons his cavalier, Colum. As soon as it becomes clear his efforts to reach the spirits of Abigail and Magnus appear to be working, Cytherea faints and gives Protesilaus an opportunity to knock Silas out.
Upstairs, Cytherea continues her faint act, spending much of the conference with Teacher limp in Protesilaus' arms. She first joins the conversation to admit, to the great surprise of everyone, that she is in possession of a key to the Facility. When Silas' black eye is brought up, she joins in again to settle her squabble with Eighth House by apologizing profusely and arranging a duel between Protesilaus and Colum. After the meeting, she follows the group of necromancers going to the freezer to conduct an investigation of the deceased.
"Ghosts and monsters, [...] remnants and the dead... the disturbed dead. The idea that someone is still here and furious... or that something has been lurking here forever. Maybe it's that I find the idea comforting... that thousands of years after you're gone... is when you really live. That your echo is louder than your voice." [5]
Cytherea meets Harrow and Gideon at the foot of the hatch ladder when they return to the Facility after completing the Transference room and proposes that their Houses work together. She proposes a trade: "Dulcinea" is too weak to perform the task herself, so she will share the solution with Harrow, if Harrow agrees to share the key after the fact. She takes the Ninth House into the lab and explains that this test is about the necromancer siphoning thalergy from the cavalier to sustain them as they cross a vicious necromantic field.
Harrow takes Gideon out of the room to discuss their options, and they return ready to complete the task. As Gideon writhes under the torture of the siphoning, Cytherea soothes her and comforts her. Her words slide from platitudes to a deep remorse for the pain necromancers inflict on their cavaliers. The Ninth manages to survive the ordeal, but as soon as Gideon is conscious Harrow demands that "Dulcinea" release her. Before she leaves, Harrow asks why Cytherea wanted to be a Lyctor, to which she replies "I didn't want to die." [5]
When Harrowhark accidentally beheads Protesilaus, Cytherea must quickly get rid of his and the real Dulcinea's bodies. She stuffs them both into the incinerator, and the ash is discovered by the Fourth House teens the next morning. When Protesilaus fails to show up for his duel with Colum Asht, the postulants correctly assume he has been murdered. Cytherea places herself on the rainy garden terrace as if she has fallen, where she is found by Gideon and Camilla and taken to be nursed back to what little health she had.
Cytherea is taken to a small room near the priests chambers, where she can be watched and cared for around the clock. While she is resting. Silas Octakiseron and Colum Asht call on her, saying they feel somewhat responsible, due to their scheduled duel, and asking if that might take her keys into their safekeeping. Cytherea accepts, and hands over her keys willingly.
Act IV[]
A shell-shocked and grieving Gideon is brought to Cytherea's room. They talk, and Cytherea gives a pessimistic monologue about death and reality of being terminally ill in a House that worships the beauty of death. She guesses that Gideon was not raised in the tradition of her House and never said her cavalier's vows, and Gideon admits it freely calling herself the "fakest-ass cavalier who ever faked." [6] Dulcinea disagrees, saying she's a cavalier worthy of being a Lyctor. Palamedes comes in to check on them, and Gideon storms out.
Palamedes and Harrowhark gather the remaining postulants and bring them to "Dulcinea"'s sick room. With Protesilaus' decapitated head in hand, Palamedes proposes that Protesilaus has been dead the whole time and has been reanimated by flesh magic called the beguiling corpse-- which Cytherea confirms easily. She spins a mostly-true and conveniently third-person narrative of Lady Septimus, whose cavalier tragically died just before leaving Seventh House. She claims that the adepts of Seventh worked together to cast the beguiling corpse so that their ailing necromancer would appear strong, and that the thanergy created by her own dying body sustained it.
Silas Octakiseron takes moral issue with her actions, but Judith defends her saying there is no point in a trial when she is bed-bound and dying. Part way through the conversations, Cytherea's illness flares, and Palamedes and Camilla help tend to her and get her comfortable again. The group begins to break apart, and go their separate ways. Teacher (and his priests) pledge to watch over her at all times.
A day later, Teacher leaves briefly to close a door, and does not return. Sixth and Ninth House pass through Cytherea's room in search of him, and find her priest servant broken and crumbled. She points them in the right direction, and they leave her to her own devices. She is still there when Palamedes returns. He confronts "Dulcinea" wanting the answers to two questions: "Why the Fifth?", and "Where is she?" He discusses the answers with her calmly, biding his time so that he can uncover every failing part of her body. Finally, when it is revealed that Dulcinea is weeks dead and burned in the incinerator, he releases his entire reserve of energy. He kills himself in a brilliant necromantic explosion to push Cytherea's illness past the point of equilibrium.
The explosion rocks her, tearing her apart and accelerating her illness, but she still emerges from the rubble. Hair and clothes burned away, dressed in a blood stained sheet, she finds Gideon in the Atrium and finally announces herself-- and her intention to attack. Camilla appears, and throws herself into the fight, attacking fiercely and driving Cytherea back. Cytherea only barely manages the onslaught, before Harrow appears and buries her in bone.
Cytherea summons the construct that killed Isaac Tettares, and the first turns necromantic. Gideon and Harrow launch into battle as a team, Harrow clearing the way for Gideon to smash through the construct with her sword. Camilla fights around them, darting in and out of sight. Harrow is is winding up for a powerful attack when Cytherea, healed, attacks Gideon directly. Gideon fights her back and she disappears again. Harrow topples the construct, and tells Gideon she needs to use her perceptions again. They meld and Harrow directs her strikes, and after each she plugs the hole with perpetual bone. Exhausted, Harrowhark passes out.
Camilla makes her way towards Cytherea, and gets a knife to her throat but it is stopped by Cytherea's magic. She sends a tentacle of bone to spear Camilla, but Gideon's warning gives her enough time to move and Camilla is only wounded. Cytherea is about to finish Camilla, when Ianthe stabs her in the abdomen. She creates a thin shield out of blood and repels dozens of bone attacks from the immobilized construct. Cytherea walks off the rapier, and the two Lyctors go at each other. They fight almost faster than can be watched, and demolish the room around them as they go, cracking the floor and bringing down the walls.
As they fight, Gideon, with Harrow in tow, makes her way over to Camilla and frees her from the bone she is impaled on. As the room crumbles, the three of them stumble outside. As Ianthe and Cytherea fight, Cytherea's wounds return and Ianthe adds to them. She seems on the point of victory when Cytherea grabs at her throat and siphons her, healing completely. Cytherea steps on Ianthe’s right arm and cuts it off. Camilla throws one of her knives, spearing Cytherea in a lump on her back. Cytherea removes it, siphons from Ianthe again, and turns to Gideon. Gideon and Cytherea fight, but it is hopeless. Even with a direct hit, Gideon can't wound her. Harrow comes to and sends skeletons after Cytherea, who in turns summons the construct. Harrow builds a shield of bone around herself, Gideon, and Camilla, leaving Ianthe and Cytherea on the outside.
Act V[]
Harrow comes to screaming, and with the voice of Gideon in her head. Gideon's voice tells her to take down the construct, and she does. She picks up Gideon's sword and walks towards Cytherea. She completes Palamedes work, and pushes her illness beyond its limits. Then, Harrow drives the sword into Cytherea's heart, killing her.
Harrow the Ninth[]
Nine Months Before the Emperor's Murder[]
The body of Cytherea the First is taken to the Mithraeum and given a proper funeral with the Emperor, Augustine, Mercymorn, Gideon, Harrowhark, and Ianthe in attendance. Afterward, she is laid to rest in a crypt in the halls of Mithraeum where the revenant of Commander Wake possesses and uses her body to enact her plans.
Appearance and Personality[]
Gideon first describes Cytherea as thus:
"It was a slender young thing whose mouth was a brilliant red with blood. Her dress was a frivolous concoction of seafoam green frills, the blood on it startling against such a backdrop. Her skin seemed transparent-- horribly transparent, with the veins at her hands and the sides of her temples a visible cluster of mauve branches and stems. Her eyes fluttered open: they were huge and blue, with velvety brown lashes." [7]
Relationships[]
[]
Initially, Cytherea's interest in the Gideon and the Ninth House is superficial and fleeting. She is more concerned with successfully launching her impersonation of Dulcinea than she is with Gideon.
"Oh, God, I was rescued by a shadow cultist! I'm so sorry! Thank you! This is one for the history books. [...] Protesilaus, help me up so that we can apologize. I can't believe I get to look real tomb maidens in the face." [7]
However, after realizing the truth of Gideon's eyes and what it means for Cytherea's own ascent to Lyctorhood, it soon becomes clear that Gideon has become an emotional link to Cytherea's time in Canaan House and everything she lost there.
"You're all right. Gideon, Gideon.... you're so young. Don't give yourself away. Do you know, it's not worth it... none of this is worth it, at all. It's cruel. It's so cruel. You are so young-- and vital-- and alive. Gideon, you're all right... remember this, and don't let anyone do it to you ever again. I'm sorry. We take so much. I'm so sorry." [5]
Trivia[]
- Cytherea's name is a reference to/alternate name for the goddess Aphrodite, based on one of the locations her cult first arrived in Greece. It's relevant to note that Cytherean Aphrodite was adopted from the Canaanite deity Astarte, and had warlike aspects that were later suppressed.[8]
References[]
- ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act IV, Ch. 35
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 9
- ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act IV, Ch. 35
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 14
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Gideon the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 20
- ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 26
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 7
- ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," A Little Explanation of Naming Systems