Ok, since I’m now a locked tomb blog kinda now, and I Have Thoughts, I’m gonna share them with you. What would happen if Cytherea hadn’t shown up? I don’t mean like “everyone has happy fun times and works on necromancy together!” First of all, Silas Octikiseron is there, and he always gonna be No Fun. A non-Cytherea Canaan House would still be full of petty sniping at each other. What I’m saying is, the necromancers of Canaan house are some of the most brilliant to have ever existed.
We’ve got Ianthe , Abigail , Palamedes, and Harrow, who could all make claim to being the best in their respective fields. You honestly think these four couldn’t figure out perfect lyctorhood together? Hell, in canon Palamedes figured out Something that allowed Cam to both survive and get his eyes, and they had this planned out before his suicide attack on Cytherea. Ianthe figured out imperfect lyctorhood without any help, Cytherea killed Abigail first explicitly because her spirit medium abilities and knowledge of history could figure out who Cytherea was! And then Harrow, who managed to preform the lyctoral process while being attacked by a much older lyctor! If we get into Harrow the Ninth, she’s one of two people in canon who can manage theorems in The River! You honestly wanna tell me if they put their heads together, they couldn’t figure it out?
So my idea is that the Necromantic Dream Team over here figures out perfect lyctorhood, thinks “Oh yeah, this is probably how we do it.“ Then everybody who wants to be a lyctor becomes one, cavaliers intact, and they send a call to God like, ”Ok everybody’s done”. Could you imagine? Everybody just walking on the ship with their cavaliers like it was nothing? I can’t decide if it would be funny or absolutely heartbreaking. Funny from an outsider’s perspective, but Augustine and Mercy and maybe Gideon the First would just break. Pyrrha, Cristabel, and Alfred‘s sacrifice meant nothing, and these children figured out what they couldn’t! The angst potential here!
[image description: a series of illustrations of ianthe and coronabeth tridentarius from the locked tomb trilogy. a few are portraits. one shows corona leaning on ianthe’s back while they wink at each other. another shows corona resting her head on ianthe’s chest and the last shows ianthe entertaining corona with necromancy under a blanket.]
[ID: A drawing of Coronabeth and Ianthe from The Locked Tomb. Coronabeth is a thin person with tanned pale skin, long wavy golden blonde hair, and purple eyes. She wears a white blouse with ruffled sleeves, a white bow in her hair, blue rings, gray bell bottom pants with a gold trim and an embroidered Roman numeral 3, and a rapier belt. Ianthe is a thin person with very pale skin, long straight blonde hair, one blue and one purple eye, and a gold bone arm. She wears a blue slip dress, a netlike gold necklace, a gold ribcage corset, gray tights, and gold pumps. There is a blue translucent shawl tucked around her forearms. Ianthe smiles and sits perched on a windowsill. Coronabeth is turned towards Ianthe, looking over her own shoulder and smiling at the viewer. There is a gold skeleton border around them. The bottom reads: “Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile.” The second image is a closeup of the Tridentarii. End ID]
[ID: A drawing of Camilla and Coronabeth from The Locked Tomb. Camilla is a thin, muscular person with brown skin, dark brown hair in a bob cut and bangs, and brown eyes. She wears a gray turtleneck vest over a short sleeved white shirt, a black chest sword harness, fingerless gloves, black pants, a belt, and brown lace-up boots. She holds a sword in each hand. Coronabeth stands behind Camilla to her right. Corona is a taller, thin person with pale skin, long wavy blonde hair, and purple eyes. She wears rings, a low neck white shirt, a purple jewel necklace, gold corset, rapier belt, black trousers, and black boots. Corona rests one hand on the hilt of her sheathed rapier. She tilts Camilla’s head towards her with her other hand. Camilla furrows her brows slightly. Coronabeth smiles. There is a thin gold border. Rays of light point outwards from a circle behind them. End ID]
