So with the Nona cover reveal on Thursday (so excited! What does she look like?) I’ve been thinking about the Locked Tomb. So perfect lyctorhood, theoretically, allows both necromancer and cavalier to survive, while still gaining lyctoral abilities. And if Jod is the norm for perfect lyctorhood, the lyctoral abilities are far beyond imperfect lyctors. But lyctorhood isn’t just getting a boost in the necromantic department. You also gain your cavalier’s skills, hence why cavaliers use rapiers, so the lyctor can lift a weapon with their wimpy necro arms. In a perfect lyctorhood, the cavalier probably gains necromantic abilities as well.
So, my theory. John Gaius is not a necromancer. He was Alecto’s cavalier. We already know they were the first necro-cav pair, but I think we’ve got who was the necromancer and who was the cavalier wrong. The story I’ve got in my head is that John is the only normal human to survive whatever wiped out the Earth. You can say Alecto was already there and somehow changed by the Earth’s destruction, but I think a better explanation is that she was created from whatever happened. We know from Harrow that large thanergy bursts at the time of conception create powerful necromancers, and the death of the ten billion would have created a lot of thanergy. So born from that thanergy burst, Alecto is the first necromancer. If John is responsible for the world ending, this would be why he says he created her, and calls her “My Adam” (I.e. Frankenstein‘s Monster).
Now Alecto’s a powerful necromancer, but even she can’t preform the resurrection alone. So she and John figure out perfect lyctorhood, to increase her power and give him the same power. So they do, and that’s great. They preform the resurrection as a team, and recruit some of John’s personal friends and their loved ones to become their disciples. (John mentions he knew Augustine before the Resurrection, so I’m assuming he knew all of them.) But Cristabel and Alfred are too hasty. They think lyctorhood requires a sacrifice to work. So they kill themselves to allow Augustine and Mercymorn to ascend. John doesn’t wanna say they were wrong and make their deaths pointless, so sacrificial lyctorhood becomes the norm.
Now Alecto’s not human in this theory. She’s a byproduct of the death of the ten billion. So she disturbs the other lyctors. John’s afraid of them discovering perfect lyctorhood, and also likes that power and doesn’t wanna share with Alecto, so into the tomb she goes. She was buried with the cavalier sword to sell the lie that she was John’s cavalier. Then the second generation of lyctors show up. What’s important is this theory is Anastasia and Samael. Anastasia and Samael figure out perfect lyctorhood, but don’t know John is a perfect lyctor. So they’re like “Hey God, we may have discovered a new method for lyctorhood. Wanna observe the process?” And John’s like “Yes, I would like to see that. (You can never know about that cause my empire would fall apart and if other people knew about perfect lyctorhood I wouldn’t be God-Emperor of Everything anymore)” Anastasia and Samael actually get the process right, but John kills Samael mid process, and claims they didn’t get it right. Anastasia is sent to the tomb, where she can do no harm.
Where’s my evidence? Well, first of all, we know John’s original eyes are uncommon, but not anything mystical, just a lipochrome mutation. However, nobody’s got eyes like Alecto. The white on black look with solid sclera? That’s magic baby! Also, necromancers are born with their abilities. Necromancy didn’t exist before the world ended. And why would you fear your partner so much unless your abilities that make you so special were stolen from her? Why can God defeat Alecto once, but never again? Because she knows his game now, and is equal in power. Anyway, there’s the theory, feel free to help me workshop it.
I’m so sorry for anyone who followed me for Not-Locked -Tomb content, but I keep having thoughts. So Mercymorn and Augustine call their plans Dios Apate Major (seducing John to conceive Gideon) and Dios Apate Minor (seducing John so Harrow can kill Gideon Prime.) These are very thematically appropriate names. Dios Apate refers to an event in the Iliad where Hera seduces Zeus to give an advantage to Greece in the Trojan War. So, plans that involve sex in order to accomplish a larger goal. My thought is, how the fuck do they know what Dios Apate is?
In the final showdown, John makes reference to the fact that pre-resurrection Augustine would have killed post-resurrection Augustine for saying that they don’t have to fight the Blood of Eden, and no one needs to pay for Earth dying. So they don’t remember anything pre-resurrection. So like, did John sit them down and read the Illiad? Did he just have story time in Canaan House so he could make literary references and have people get it?
So, here’s more Locked Tomb thoughts, cause brainworms. So one of Wake’s note in Harrow’s River bubble says “THE EGGS YOU GAVE ME ALL DIED AND YOU LIED TO ME SO I DID THE IMPLANTATION MYSELF YOU SELF-SERVING ZOMBIE” Obviously, this is talking about Wake having to impregnate herself with Gideon instead of using donor eggs and i‘d assume an artificial womb, cause we know the Nine Houses have those. But who donated the eggs?
Most likely, it was Mercy, cause this was all top secret, and why risk stealing some rando’s eggs vs. just using your own. Mercy being a lyctor is probably why the donor eggs didn’t work. Mercy is a fucked up lyctor, whereas Wake is just a human woman. That, and I think Harrow’s backstory tells us it’s hard for necromancers in general to conceive, that’s why they had to kill all those babies instead of just pumping out kids till they got a necromancer.
My point is, how fucked up would a biological child of John and Mercy be? Horrible little goblin baby.
the thing about that john gaius tragic hero thing is that to speculate which specific tragic figure taz muir might be referencing via him is, i think, beside the point of her comment, which is not just that she sees him as a tragic figure, but that he sees himself that way and is kind of fashioning himself in that generic line. for me that’s much more interesting than speculating specifically who he’s supposed to be – i don’t think he’s supposed to be any pre-existing tragic figure, i think he’s making himself into a new one. his relationship to his lyctors (and their cavaliers) and alecto, not to mention his kind of “aw shucks i guess i have to commit necromantic atrocities i’m so sorry about it but also not sorry enough to stop” approach to imperialism, sure it might resonate in certain ways with existing tragic characters, i certainly won’t deny that, but i think that’s because of the tropes of tragedy that surround john and that muir has hinted he’s crafting his image in reference to. this isn’t john gaius starring in the tragedy of oedipus or lear, this is, in his mind, the tragedy of john gaius.
i think that gets most interesting when it comes to the ~tragic downfall~ aspect, or the requisite reversal of fortunes that aristotle talks about in the poetics re: tragedy. if john is fashioning himself as someone who is doomed to fail in some way, i think that speaks to the way he treats his approach to empire-building as a kind of pseudo-solemn pseudo-apology. he’s boundto do this, it’s just the kind of guy he’s predetermined to be. in that way he’s not dissimilar to agamemnon putting on the yoke of necessity to sacrifice his daughter. one popular reading of that moment is that it (at least to some degree) absolves agamemnon of full responsibility for the violence he goes on to commit, that he was choosing the best out of a bunch of bad options. of course, even in the tragedies that agamemnon appears in, it’s much more complicated than that, but it feels like john is trying to garner the same response re: his own violence. he wants you to think he’s been damned if you do, damned if you don’t-ed into leading a wide-scale galactic colonialist death cult. the sun will go out if necromancy dies! the nine houses will be lost!! (nevermind that they could be evacuated reasonably enough that it theoretically formed a part of augustine and mercymorn’s plan)
idk this is really just rambling at this point i just feel like it’s more interesting to think about the forces at play within tragedy as a genre and how john models himself as a victim of those forces, potentially as a way to try to evade moral responsibility for what he’s doing. maybe as a way to convince himself? most likely as a way to convince those closest to him? idk???? i don’t think he’s an agamemnon dupe though
missed my fav ancient war criminals, so i drew a few more of og Lyctors as textposts/headlines (1,2, & 4 suggested by the Locked Tomb Podcast) (part 1)
the funniest thing about john gaius is that when he makes meme references you know He Knows What He’s Doing. like when harrow says “you studied the blade” that’s not her that’s tamsyn muir—harrow thinks she came up with that herself, but when god himself says “none houses with left grief” he absolutely knows what he’s saying and he’s doing it on purpose
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