I have Thoughts about Augustine and Mercymorn’s titles. Saint of Patience and Saint of Joy. Augustine isn’t patient. He doesnt tolerate what he perceives as incompetence, and he can be kind of a dick. Mercymorn isn’t joyful. She’s a bitter, unhappy woman who‘s been alive for far too long. The patience and joy came from Alfred and Cristabel. It’s both a memorial to their cavaliers and a reminder of their failures. They literally took everything from Alfred and Cristabel, their souls, their lives. But they couldn’t preserve the traits they were known for, and most likely, the traits Augustine and Mercy loved them for. Like, yes, horrible old necromancers, but I feel sorry for them.
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.
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!
Camilla Hect as a character is So Funny to me, cause so much of the Locked Tomb is fucked up relationship dynamics, and she’s singlemindedly Just Here to Make Sure Palamedes is OK. Like in the first book we’ve got “Gideon and Harrow have their whole fucked up little thing, Harrow is in love with a corpse, Coronabeth flirts with Gideon, “Dulcinea” is trying to radicalize Gideon, Palamedes is low key angsting like a tragic lovelorn maiden cause “Dulcinea” won’t acknowledge him. Cam’s just like “Ok, my necromancer is upset by Dulcinea, so let’s be upset with her, but other than that, I am the model cavalier and am completely here for my necromancer and him alone.“
Then, in Harrow the Ninth, she’s stuck with Judith and Corona’s whole thing, and then she meets Harrow, who has fucking lobotomized herself to preserve her not-girlfriend, and it’s still just “I performed like a weird half-lyctor Thing with my necromancer and am trying to resurrect him or whatever.”
Like, girl must be so tired with everyone’s nonsense. And now she’s planning a birthday party for Nona, who may or may not have a crush on her, and may or may not be the aforementioned chilly corpse Harrow wants to bone. (Haha, bone.) We Stan Camilla Hect, let the girl rest.
“Bury me next to you in that unmarked grave, Joy (…) we have hated each other too long and too passionately to stop … but my bones will rest easy next to your bones.”
a mock Harrow the Ninth cover I drew for a self-directed painting course I’m taking, because I’m still (and forever) obsessed with the idea of Harrow getting to see planets full of greenery and life (painting without text)
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)
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