History Characters / TheLockedTombMain

[[folder: Shared Tropes]]

* InSeriesNickname: Harrow only addresses her either by her surname or "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions that she uses her proper first name. It gets dropped in ''Harrow the Ninth''

* AmbiguousSituation: Their potential nature as a true Lyctor is viewed differently by different characters: the other Lyctors, Pyrrha, and Palamedes, who don't know the extent of "the work" believe Harrow perfected the process, while Abigail and the remaining revenants try to walk Harrow through her grief and fear that resurfacing will kill Gideon for good. In the end, it's left unclear at the end of ''Harrow the Ninth'' which viewpoint is correct, though the fact that Gideon resurfaced at all means Abigail's interpretation wasn't totally accurate.
* ChildhoodFriends: They were, at one point, compeletely obsessed with each other, as the only other children of their generations. Despite how they fought and antagonized each other, it was still the closest thing to a friendship with someone close to their age either of them had. That is, until the death of Harrow's parents twisted the fremeny dynamic into something more cruel.

* TheGift: Both of them are superbly talented at their profession, with Gideon being a relentless fighter and Harrow being one of the most innately talented necromancers in the history of the Empire.

* HeroicSacrifice: She impales herself in the heart so that Harrow can [[MergerOfSouls extract her soul]] and become a Lyctor powerful enough to kill Cytherea, and thereby save both Harrow and Camilla. Harrow even discusses how she views it as "murder" and not "suicide".
--> "She was in an impossible situation, and she died trying to escape it. She was murdered, but she manoeuvred her murder to let me live."

* HealingFactor: Unlike Harrow, she has the innate regeneration that normal Lyctors have, which is the only thing that keeps her from being killed by Heralds shortly after resurfacing. And unlike Pyrrha Dve, it's extremely fast, even by the standards of other Lyctors.

* LoveEpiphany: Post-humously! In the time since her death, she seems to have come to realize that she truly does love Harrow in addition to the duty she feels towards her, though she believes Harrow can't reciprocate, and is fixated only on the Body, a fact which may not be entirely true.

* LoveAtFirstSight: For the dead girl inside the Locked Tomb, effectively TheAntichrist of the Empire's religion, and the real reason Harrow wants to become a Lyctor and safeguard the Tomb, not the preservation of her House.

* UncertainDoom: Having fended off Wake from hijacking her body, and learned from Dulcinea that Gideon is both aware and active now, she dissolves the DreamLand she was trapped in, dives into the River and resurfaces inside the empty Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane likely a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep and/or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto, in order to sidestep the open question of what will happen to Gideon if she assumes control of her body again with “the work” undone.

* UncertainDoom: Having fended off Wake from hijacking her body, and learned from Dulcinea that Gideon is both aware and active in her body, she dissolves the DreamLand she was trapped in, dives into the River and resurfaces inside the empty Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane likely a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep and/or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto, in order to sidestep the open question of what will happen to Gideon if she assumes control of her body again with the Work undone.

* UncertainDoom: Having fended off Wake from hijacking her body, she dissolves the DreamLand she was trapped in, dives into the River and resurfaces inside the empty Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane likely a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep and/or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto.

After getting everything she ever wanted--Lyctorhood, the restoration of her House, the safeguarding of the Body-- [[FreakOut Harrow could not handle the guilt and grief of Gideon's death]]. Prior to the beginning of ''Harrow the Ninth'', she performed [[MemoryGambit "the work"]] [[TraumaInducedAmnesia overwriting every memory of Gideon]] in an attempt to save her soul from total consumption and in the process [[DeathOfPersonality attempting to commit psychic suicide so that a new Harrow could go forward unburdened]]. Seeing this through came with a heavy toll: the new Harrow is a flawed Lyctor

* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Portions of her past occasionally get told in passing flash backs

* MemoryGambit: The ultimate goal of "the work" is to preserve Gideon's soul and mind inside of Harrow, with the added benefit alleviating the overwhelming grief and guilt she feels. It's ultimately successful, though whether Gideon's preservation is temporary or permanent is left unclear.

* MindHive: At least temporarily. Thanks to Harrow performing the work and rendering herself unable to perceive Gideon at all, Gideon's mind and soul has persisted inside her body, semi-conscious for the intervening nine months. Gideon compares it to living in a well or watching the events of the story as a play through a blindfold, and seems to have access to some, if not all, of Harrow's memories.

* ButchLesbian: Prefers her short hair, and was originally tall and buff as heck, with a squishy center. Classic butch.

* IAmWho: Subverted. Her origins are both incredibly significant and utterly irrelvant, as the first and only child of The Emperor, born solely as a HumanWeapon to break the lock on the Tomb sealed with his blood.

* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Her uncommon eye color is remarked upon by Dulcinea, and it's one more thing contributing to her AmbiguouslyHuman status.

Gideon Nav, dead for nine months, wakes up with a rapier in her necromancer's gut and Harrow's soul missing in action. Preserved from total consumption by Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia, Gideon is now a ghost inside Harrow, only returning in Act 5 as Harrow is trapped in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, being revealed to have been the [[NarratorAllAlong person narrating the story to Harrow,]] with the remainder of the story primarily taking place from her perspective.

* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: She and Pyrrha, trapped as two cavaliers inside their absent and dead (respectively) necromancers, are stuck inside the depths of the River, soon to be crushed by the pressure or devoured by ravenous ghosts; as she dies, she sees Alecto operating on her, possibly as a hallucination.
* HealingFactor: Unlike Harrow, she has the innate regeneration that normal Lyctors have, which is the only thing that keeps her from being killed by Heralds shortly after resurfacing.

* LoveEpiphany: Post-humously! In the time since her death, she seems to have come to realize that she truly does love Harrow in addition to the duty she feels towards her, though she believes Harrow doesn't reciprocate, and is fixated only on the Body, a fact which may not be entirely true.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Her existence as a person who was born solely to be killed but just didn't die reveals not just one but ''two'' dark secrets of the Emperor to his Lyctors, exposing his true nature after a myriad of lies.
* TraumaCongaLine: Wakes up inside Harrow and in quick succession finds out who her parents are, that she was born solely as a HumanWeapon, that her mother never loved her and planned to kill her, that her father is God and also probably evil, finds out her namesake is dead, and then gets dropped into the River, all while knowing Harrow rejected her sacrifice and struggling to adjust to her undeath in Harrow's body.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The detailing of her backstory in ''Harrow the Ninth'' indicates that she has some form of mental illness that has interfered with her life in the past -- aside from having thoughts of suicide from as young as three -- with an intense focus on rituals, a near phobic revulsion to being seen without her veil and facepaint, and visual and auditory hallucinations. While she's not formally diagnosed, the fact that her symptoms occurred alongside the outset of puberty strongly suggest she has schizophrenia, along with trauma from her harsh upbringing.

* DrivenToSuicide: Once she understood the circumstances behind her conception, she broke into the Locked Tomb in a nihilistic attempt to kill herself. At the age of 10. Despite not following through, it is heavily implied she has continued to struggle with suicidal depression in the years since. She's very deeply suicidal early in ''Harrow the Ninth'' but does manage to move past it, mostly.

After getting everything she ever wanted--Lyctorhood, the restoration of her House, the safeguarding of the Body-- [[FreakOut Harrow could not handle the grief and guilt of Gideon's death]]. Prior to the beginning of ''Harrow the Ninth'', she completely remade her memories to remove Gideon Nav from them entirely, [[DeathOfPersonality attempting to commit psychic suicide so that a new Harrow could go forward unburdened]]. Seeing this through came with a heavy toll: the new Harrow is dramatically different, openly apathetic to the point of being suicidal, tormented by nightmares and hallucinations, and a thoroughly UnreliableNarrator.

* SanitySlippage: Hallucinates frequently, created an entirely new past for herself, and is so suicidal she barely cares about anything around her.

* TragicKeepsake: Gideon's longsword becomes this to an almost religious degree; Harrow keeps it on her person constantly, even though she can barely carry it, believes it hates her violently, and throws up any time she tries to wield it, creates elaborate rituals to treat it, and only parts from it with great reluctance.
* TraumaButton: Any use of the name Gideon around her or things that might cause her to remember causes spontaneous bleeding from her ears. This is actually part of "the work": part of her skull has been spelled to press against her brain to stop her from processing information that might undo the work.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: The death of Gideon leaves her so distraught that Harrow deliberately killed and restructured her memories to remove Gideon from them entirely.
* UncertainDoom: She dives into the River and resurfaces inside the empty Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane possibly real, possibly a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep and/or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto.

Gideon Nav, dead for nine months, wakes up with a rapier in her necromancer's gut and Harrow's soul missing in action. Preserved from total consumption by Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia, Gideon is now a ghost inside Harrow, only returning in Act 5 as Harrow is trapped in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, being revealed to have been the [[NarratorAllAlong person narrating the story to Harrow,]] with the remainder of the story primarily taking place from her perspective.
----

The other primary protagonist, and the POV character of ''Harrow the Ninth''. The Reverend Daughter of Drearburh, heir to the Ninth House, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is haughty, one of the most powerful necromancers of her generation, and Gideon's lifelong bully. It is only out of necessity that she conscripts Gideon as her cavalier for the Lyctor trials, because more than she hates Gideon, Harrow needs to become a Lyctor to safeguard her House and the Locked Tomb.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Gideon believes that she's nearly incapable of loving anyone other than Alecto. It's mostly, but not totally true; Harrow still experiences attraction to other women, but ultimately refuses Ianthe's affections for this reason. However the fact that two of her {{Elseworld}} fantasies center around imagining a relationship with Gideon imply she might be the only exception.

* IAmWho: Double subverted. Despite her MysteriousPast and wanting to know more about her origins, when she finds a partial note with her name on it in an ancient study at Canaan House, she's uncharacteristically terrified of what it means, and her narration says that the scrap of paper feels "as dangerous as a live grenade". She never gets a chance to pursue this before her death. It's only after her death that she finds out her true parentage, and is pretty disgusted by it.

* ItsAllMyFault: A habit of hers, probably tied to her ChronicHeroSyndrome. Becomes particularly apparent when she isn't able to prevent Isaac and Jeannemary from getting killed. It's also revealed that since the age of ''eleven'', she's blamed herself for Harrow's parents' suicides.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: It turns out she is this to Harrow, in a twisted and complicated way. They've known each other their whole lives, and Harrow can't imagine life without her. When Gideon is not only killed, but willingly sacrifices herself to give Harrow everything she ever wanted, the resulting guilt and trauma completely shatters Harrow.

Gideon Nav, dead for nine months, wakes up with a rapier in her gut and her necromancer's soul missing in action. Preserved from total consumption by Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia, Gideon is now a ghost inside Harrow, only returning in Act 5 as Harrow is trapped in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, being revealed to have been the [[NarratorAllAlong person narrating the story to Harrow,]] with the remainder of the story primarily taking place from her perspective.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: There are a lot of hints throughout the book that Gideon's MysteriousPast is hiding some deep secrets, heavily implying she's something other than a normal human, though what exactly she is remains a mystery.

* TheBigGuy: She's tall, absolutely ripped, and is the only cavalier who favors a heavy weapon which -- once she finally breaks it out -- smashes through her opponents like a wrecking ball.

* AmbiguousSituation: Their potential nature as a true Lyctor is viewed differently by different characters: the other Lyctors, Pyrrha, and Palamedes, who don't know the extent of "the work" believe Harrow perfected the process, while Abigail and the remaining revenants try to walk Harrow through her grief and fear that resurfacing will kill Gideon for good. In the end, it's left unclear at the end of ''Harrow the Ninth''
* ChildhoodFriends: They were, at one point, compeletely obsessed with each other, as the only other children of their generations. Despite how they fought and antagonized each other, it was still the closest thing to a friendship with someone her age. That is, until the death of Harrow's parents twisted the fremeny dynamic into something more cruel.
* {{Determinator}}: In subtly different ways. Gideon will do anything to protect others, even when her body is battered, broken, or she's faced with impossible odds. Harrow, on the other hand, will do anything to accomplish her goals, pursuing them with single minded devotion.
* EyeColorChange: Subverted unlike other Lyctors. Even when she and Gideon swap places, they both retain their original eye colors. A brief chapter from Ianthe's perspective before Harrow performed the work shows that this trope had started to take effect before Harrow removed her ability to perceive Gideon.

* MindHive: At least temporarily. Thanks to Harrow performing the work and rendering herself unable to percieve Gideon at all, Gideon's mind and soul has persisted inside her body, semi-conscious for intervening nine months. Gideon compares it to living in a well or watching the events of the story as a play through a blindfold, and seems to have access to some, if not all, of Harrow's memories.

* TraumaButton: Any use of the name Gideon around her causes her to start panicking, pass out, or both. This is actually a physical response the part of her skull has to hearing any information that might undo the work.

* UncertainDoom: She dives into the River and resurfaces inside the empty Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane possibly the real Tomb, possibly a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep and/or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto.

[[folder:Gideon]]
!!Gideon Nav
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gideon_the_ninth.jpg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:figure out a good line to go here]]

The primary protagonist and the third person narrator of ''Gideon the Ninth''. An indentured servant of the Ninth House since she was taken in as a foundling, she grew up detested and unwanted, spending years training with her sword in order to one day leave the Ninth behind and never look back. She ends up being dragged by Harrow to the Lyctor trials on the First after the Ninth's cavalier primary fled, knowing that Harrow's success is likely the only way she'll ever escape the Ninth for good.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: There are a lot of hints throughout the book that Gideon's MysteriousPast is hiding some deep secrets, heavily implying she's something other than a normal human, though what exactly she is remains a mystery.
* AuraVision: In tandem with Harrow riding her mind, she can see thanergetic concentrations and patterns as weird shining auras. Necromancers, even Lyctors, don't percieve thanergy with their eyes, and Harrow is stunned when Gideon mentions it.

* BadDreams: She got them a lot as a kid, especially ones about the Locked Tomb opening. [[spoiler:Her dreams get a lot worse after the Fourth's death, her nightmares mostly revolving around all the deaths she failed to prevent.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Gideon is fond of [[TeamDad Magnus]] because he was the first person in her entire life to be kind and friendly to her. It's also why she's hit so hard by his death.
* BerserkButton: One of the few things that pushes her buttons instantly is others speculating about her origins and her mother's origins.
* {{BFS}}: Downplayed. Her two-hander is six feet long, but is a realistically proportioned Zweihander, and only stands out by virtue of being an infantry soldier's weapon when most cavaliers use rapiers.
* TheBigGuy: She's tall, absolutely ripped, and is the only cavalier who favors a heavy weapon which -- once she finally breaks it out -- smashes through her opponents like a wrecking ball.
* BlackSwordsAreBetter: Inverted. Gideon's rapier has a black blade to match the Tomb, but she hates it and far prefers her plain metallic two-hander.

* BodyguardCrush: Part of her attraction to Dulcinea stems from a desire to take care of and protect her. Toyed with for Harrow. As Harrow opens up, Gideon's narration starts to compliment her, and comments on her physical appearance far more, but is overwhelmingly shocked that ''Harrow'' has anything attractive about her until the final few chapters.

* ButchLesbian: Short hair, tall, buff as heck, with a squishy center. Classic butch.
* CargoShip: Directly {{Invoked}} to show how much Gideon values her two-hander.
--> "[Gideon] loved her sword so much she could frigging marry it.”
* ChildNamingRequest: With a twist; she was named Gideon after the only thing her mother's ghost said after being summoned, which was a shrieked "Gideon! Gideon! Gideon!" before disappearing.
* CombatPragmatist: Flat-out refuses to "throw a bone" to Harrow and make their duel fair for the sake of anything as nebulous as "honor." This persists to Canaan House, be it sucker punching Tern during a stuffy show match or kicking Camilla's dagger out of her hands.
* CoolShades: Her IconicItem. They're even featured on the book's cover, and the final chapter header changes the Ninth House's icon to include them after her death.
* ChickMagnet: At least, ''she'' certainly thinks so.
-->'''Gideon:''' Why must I have been born so attractive?
* ChildhoodFriends: When Gideon describes her childhood with Harrow, she recalls it fondly. Despite how they fought and antagonized each other, it was still the closest thing to a friendship with someone her age. That is, until the death of Harrow's parents twisted the fremeny dynamic into something more cruel.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: In spite of her upbringing and her snark, Gideon is a very empathetic and compassionate person who immediately becomes invested in "every weirdo" at Canaan House. Her first instinct is always to help, as evidenced by her [[FallingIntoHisArms reaction to Dulcinea's shaky arrival]], which extend even to those she dislikes, such as Harrow and Silas. And, after finally being told that her adoptive House tried to murder her, and Harrow's resulting self-loathing and attempted suicide, Gideon's immediate reaction is to express genuine sympathy and forgive her.
* DarkSkinnedRedhead: While her skin color goes unmentioned in her narration, Gideon is depicted with brown skin and red hair on the cover of ''Gideon the Ninth'', and the fact that a Lyctor has a similar appearance in ''Harrow the Ninth'' is used to strongly imply a connection between the two of them.

* {{Determinator}}: A broken knee? Ravaged arm and severe blood loss? Nigh unbeatable odds? Won't stop Gideon.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Her narration indulges in this a lot, usually when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit, though it also flavors her more sincere attraction to Dulcinea, with her narration often fixated on Dulcinea's eyes and hair. Also used as a hint towards her BodyguardCrush towards Harrow. As she sees Harrow without makeup several times towards the end of the book, her narration often fixates on Harrow's face and lips.
* ElectiveMute: Pretends to have taken a vow of silence shortly after arriving at Canaan House to avoid blowing her cover, surprising a few characters when she starts talking and reveals herself as a foul-mouthed irreverent rather than a grim devotee of the Tomb. It cracks early on around the Sixth and ends up breaking entirely once the shit hits the fan at the end of Act Three.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: She almost immediately becomes very obviously infatuated with Dulcinea to the point where Harrow tries to limit the time Gideon spends around her.
* FieryRedhead: Her bright red hair is uncommon in the Nine Houses, and is something her mysterious mother shared. Gideon is as spirited and passionate as the trope suggests.
* FinalSpeech: Before her HeroicSuicide, she gives one to Harrow.
-->'''Gideon:''' Harrow, I can't keep my promise, because the entire point of me is you. You get that, right? That's what cavaliers sign up for. There is no me without you. One flesh, one end.\\
'''Harrow:''' Nav, what are you doing?\\
'''Gideon:''' The cruelest thing anyone has ever done to you in your whole entire life, believe me. You'll know what to do, and if you don't do it, what I'm about to do will be no use to anyone.\\
'''Gideon:''' For the Ninth!
* GenderBlenderName: "Gideon" is generally a male given name, not that anyone brings this up.
* GoOutWithASmile: Gideon's corpse is still wearing a smile after she sacrifices herself and the battle is won.
* HateAtFirstSight: She and Harrow supposedly hated each other since the moment Harrow was ''born''.

* HeroicSacrifice: She impales herself in the heart so that Harrow can [[MergerOfSouls extract her soul]] and become a Lyctor powerful enough to kill Cytherea, and thereby save both Harrow and Camilla.

* HypocriticalHumor: Almost always refers to Jeannemary and Isaac as "the shitty teens" in her narration, despite being only four years older than them, and very immature and naive in her own right.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Though she's more than passably skilled with the rapier, her real skill and passion lies with her two hander. When she finally breaks it out, she and Harrow quickly dismantle Cytherea's bone construct, and when she duels Cytherea, Gideon effortlessly smashes through her defenses, only failing to kill her due to the HealingFactor she possesses.

* IconicItem: Her beloved two-hander and especially her aviator sunglasses. They're featured on the cover of ''Gideon the Ninth'', and she wears them in all but the deepest darkness.
* IndenturedServitude: The Ninth raised her since she was a baby, a debt they won't soon let her forget.
* InSeriesNickname: Harrow only addresses her either by her surname or "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions that she uses her proper first name.
* ItsAllMyFault: A habit of hers, probably tied to her ChronicHeroSyndrome. Becomes particularly apparent when she isn't able to prevent Isaac and Jeannemary from getting killed. It's also revealed that since the age of ''eleven'', she's blamed herself for Harrow's parents' suicides.
* LeaveHimToMe: Temporarily. When she believes Harrow is responsible for the murders, she is left saying a variation on this repeatedly, and very nearly ended up waiting in their quarters to kill her.
* LightningBruiser: Gideon is very strong and surprisingly quick among the other cavaliers. It's downplayed with the rapier due to her lack of training and dislike of it, but both her speed and power are fully realized with her two hander.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: It turns out she is this to Harrow, in a twisted and complicated way. They've known each other their whole lives, and Harrow can't imagine life without her. When Gideon is not only killed, but willingly sacrifices herself to give Harrow everything she ever wanted, the resulting guilt and trauma completely shatters Harrow.
* KnuckleCracking: Gideon has a tendency to pop her kunckles, shoulders, and neck, but in an inversion, only does so when she's nervous or thinking, and never does so before a fight.
* MadeOfIron: Gideon's unusual durability is remarked upon a few times. She survives the extended siphoning in the Avulsion room and recovers completely from the experience in less than a day, when Palamedes says it ought to have given her permanent brain damage, if not outright killed her. Then there's the matter of the nerve gas that was released in her nursery when she was a baby, when just releasing the gas blinded Harrow's great-aunts. Gideon breathed it for ten minutes unharmed.

* MundaneLuxury: Gideon grew up in the austere and cloistered conditions of the Ninth House. Thus simple luxuries like a bath or fresh vegetables are incredibly extravagant and she takes her time to enjoy them in Caanan House.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: Gideon is ''jacked'' from years of intense workouts and training with a {{BFS}}, and is noted to be even more than what she'd be required to be to gain entry to the Cohort, due to a dream of excelling the second she joined and also having a habit of exercising whenever she's bored, which happened often in the Ninth. Consequently, she's a LightningBruiser who's able to outfight cavaliers born to the role despite only having a few months of training with a rapier.
* MysteriousPast: The circumstances around her birth and being taken in by the Ninth are hinted to contain some unusual connections to the First and Canaan House itself, but this is never actually explored in the first book, and Gideon is dead by the time Harrow starts to uncover the mysteries around her past. It's lampshaded as well, as Gideon's narration notes that her origins are "obviously mysterious as hell".
* NaiveNewcomer: A downplayed version, and toyed with on top of that. Since she's lived her entire life on the Ninth and wasn't Harrow's first choice of cavalier, she doesn't know much about the other Houses, especially their [[MasterOfOneMagic necromantic specialties]], or what being a cavalier primary actually entails. However, it also extends to things that she's unfamiliar with but are normal in real life, such as daily nightfall, baths, and what a salad is.
* NeverFoundTheBody: The Emperor's forces fail to find her body at the end of the first book. Which is odd given it was last seen laying dead in a courtyard right next to where they found Harrow and Ianthe. This ends up having been a lie to protect Harrow's feelings.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After the death of the Fourth right in front of her, Gideon's sarcasm turns very bitter and hurtful, often directed at herself as her self-loathing rises, and she starts lashing out at people more frequently. It isn't until she and Harrow finally reconcile that she shakes it off.
** Gideon's narration also makes note of the fact that, although they despise each other, and Harrow routinely hurts Gideon emotionally and physically, Gideon has never physically threatened or hurt Harrow in return, and the times that Gideon comes genuinely close to doing so are times when she's especially upset or infuriated by Harrow.
* OrphansOrdeal: It's a sore point for her that she knows nothing about her family or where she came from, and was raised by a House full of people who never loved her or showed her any real kindness.
* PowerFist: Her offhand weapon alongside the rapier is a set of spiked, obsidian knuckle-knives. Subverted in that they're mainly for appearances' sake, as Gideon has absolutely no idea how to use them for anything beyond blocking and backhanding.

* UnknownRival: Harrow claims she barely remembers Gideon exists most of the time, though she's clearly lying.
* WhatBeautifulEyes: Several characters, including Dulcinea, comment on her eye color as being striking. During the final chapters when the perspective shifts to Harrow, her narration also makes note of how she has always been startled by Gideon's eyes.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Despite how much she professes to loathe the Ninth, as a child she tried desperately to earn approval from her adoptive House, including telling Harrow's parents that Harrow had unlocked the Tomb out of a misguided sense to finally be praised. While she's largely past it by the time the story takes place, it's Harrow calling her the finest cavalier in the history of the Ninth that cements her decision to commit HeroicSuicide.

!! Tropes from ''Harrow the Ninth''
-> "I'm not fucking dead," I said, which wasn't even true.

Gideon Nav, dead for nine months, wakes up with a rapier in her gut and her necromancer's soul missing in action. Preserved from total consumption by Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia, Gideon is now a ghost inside Harrow, only returning in Act 5 as Harrow is trapped in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, being revealed to have been the [[NarratorAllAlong person narrating the story to Harrow,]] with the remainder of the story primarily taking place from her perspective.

* AmbiguousSituation: Pyrrha and Palamedes both believe she persists because Harrow managed to perfect the Lyctorhood process, but it's unclear if that's truly the case or if it was only due to Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia.

* MindHive: The work performed by Harrow preserved her soul and mind, though it's unclear in story if Harrow became a true Lyctor like Gideon the First or if her resurfacing will inevitably destroy Gideon.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Her existence as a person who was born solely to be killed but just didn't die reveals a dark secret of the Emperor to his Lyctors, exposing his true nature after a myriad of lies.

* TheUnreveal: The questions raised in ''Gideon the Ninth'' about Gideon's AmbiguouslyHuman nature and [[MadeOfIron surviving multiple incidents that should've killed her]] go unanswered when the mysteries of her parentage are revealed, mostly because the people in question have far more important issues than Gideon to care about.

* OneHundredPercentAdorationRating: Excluding Gideon, all her subjects in the Ninth House are absolutely devoted to her.
* AChildShallLeadThem: Became the leader of her house at the age of 10 after the suicide of her parents, though only a few people know that they're dead.

* BittersweetSeventeen: Harrow is seventeen in book one, and deals with such ComingOfAge trials as: leaving home for the first time, growing closer to her first crush, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trying to ascend to Lyctorhood to secure the future of her House]].

* CassandraTruth: Harrow often expresses her dislike of Dulcinea, much to Gideon's exasperation. Guess who turns out to be behind all the murders?

* ClingyJealousGirl: When she tries to limit the time Gideon spends around Dulcinea, Gideon accuses her of being jealous, but Harrow insists that it's because Dulcinea isn't trustworthy. :Although she ends up being right, Harrow was also being jealous.
* CrazyPrepared: Is never without weapons, and usually several steps ahead of everyone else.
* CreepyLonerGirl: Harrow fits this to a T. It's also invoked: she encourages the other Houses to see her this way, as it fits into the mysterious reputation of the Ninth and prevents them from prying.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Compare how she acts with Gideon at the start of the book and at the end. She also defrosts to the other heirs at Canaan House, enough to be concerned about their whereabouts in the epilogue.
* {{Determinator}}: In a different style than Gideon, but she does not stop working towards her goals until she's physically unable to. An early example is that she cataloged and mapped over 200 doors in Canaan House on the very first day they arrived.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Gideon may be the eponymous, point of view character of the first book, but Harrow's story develops in tandem with hers and is just as important. Tellingly, the second book is named after Harrow and shifts to her perspective following Gideon's HeroicSacrifice.
* DisproportionateRetribution: In her introductory chapter, she kicks Gideon in the face while she's disabled -- hard enough to make Gideon cough up a tooth -- for trying to leave. This is comparatively mild; Harrow is fond of doling these out to Gideon for her escape attempts, such as poisoning her food so that Gideon was sick for a month and giving her frostbite by turning off the heating to her cell.
* DrivenToSuicide: Once she understood the circumstances behind her conception, she broke into the Locked Tomb in a nihilistic attempt to kill herself. At the age of 10. Despite not following through, it is heavily implied she has continued to struggle with suicidal depression in the years since.
* EasilyForgiven: When told all the darkest secrets of the Ninth, Gideon forgives Harrow's lifelong abuse of her easily and immediately. Even Harrow is stunned.

* HateAtFirstSight: Apparently she's hated Gideon since she was ''born''.
* HeroicBSOD: Gideon's death hits her extremely hard, and in the final chapter and epilogue of ''Gideon the Ninth'' she's left sobbing and deeply heartbroken.

* IWorkAlone: Harrow, being largely self-taught and having run her House essentially by herself since childhood assumes that the Lyctorhood trials are purely about testing her as a necromancer, having brought Gideon as a cavalier entirely for appearances' sake, [[IneffectualLoner only to find that the trials are about testing the bond between cavalier and necromancer]] after working herself to the bone for weeks. She only begrudgingly works with Gideon initially, but eventually ends up working with her and the Sixth closely.

* MundaneUtility: She uses her own blood as ink and isn't above using skeletons for mundane things such as propping herself up in bed.
* NoSocialSkills: Gideon is amused to discover that Harrow isn't just aloof, but absolutely terrified at the prospect of having to socialize at a cordial dinner party. Considering Harrow's spent most of her time with skeletons and nuns, it makes sense she has no idea how to interact with anyone in a casual setting.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Remarked upon frequently by Gideon's narration, which is disarmed to see Harrow open up and start to treat her with compassion throughout her CharacterArc in ''Gideon the Ninth''. Most especially when the final secrets are revealed between them, which leaves Harrow stammering, apologetic, and has her admit that Gideon is her OnlyFriend.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe enraged that Gideon feels sorry for her]] even after everything Harrow's done to Gideon over the years, furiously begs Gideon to strike her down, yelling that she deserves to die by Gideon's hand. To her mortification, Gideon [[CooldownHug hugs her]] instead.
* PowerStrainBlackout: Harrow passes out quite a few times after straining her magic too far. She's the only necromancer at Canaan House shown to do so, though she often pushes herself past the limits where other necromancers would back down.
* PowersAsPrograms: As part of consuming Gideon's soul to ascend to Lyctorhood, she gained all of Gideon's experience with a zweihander. However this turned out to be temporary, as the TraumaInducedAmnesia she inflicted upon herself after Gideon's death included the loss of Gideon's skill.
* ProperlyParanoid: Harrow can be said to be easily the most antagonistic towards the other Houses at Canaan House and she handles the first murderers much better than most of the rest of the cast.
* PsychicNosebleed: As a side effect of using necromancy, she often gets blood sweat, nosebleeds, blood from the eyes, and even exploded blood vessels when really letting loose with her magic.
* PyrrhicVictory: Harrow achieves everything she set out to do in ''Gideon the Ninth'', becoming a Lyctor and getting the Emperor to renew the Ninth House. However, it came at the cost of Gideon, her only friend and LivingEmotionalCrutch, and it's telling that her first words to the Emperor in the epilogue are to beg him to undo what she's done.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Harrow has been puppeteering her parents' corpses since she was ''ten''. Also at age ten, she broke into the Locked Tomb housing TheAntichrist, which she was taught was pretty much the most evil and forbidden thing anyone in the Empire could do, in a nihilistic attempt to kill herself.
* {{Tsundere}}: Just look at how often she calls Gideon an idiot, while becoming a flustered mess when Gideon hugs her. Deconstructed in that her treatment of Gideon has created a lot of emotional baggage between them and is a huge roadblock to Gideon trusting her. Reconstructed after they have a long, honest conversation; Harrow is still this trope, but now that their relationship is in a better place, their back-and-forth is less loaded and tense, and more affectionate.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Harrow has an intense dislike of swords and swordfighting, particularly of Gideon's two-hander, which she seems to be actually afraid of. It ends up being a bigger problem for her in ''Harrow the Ninth'', where as a Lyctor, she needs to rely on a sword that she hates.
* {{Workaholic}}: Harrow devotes time, soul, and body to restoring her House and achieving Lyctorhood. Things like "sleep" and "food" are trivial and optional.

!! Tropes from ''Harrow the Ninth''
After getting everything she ever wanted--Lyctorhood, the restoration of her House, the safeguarding of the Body-- [[FreakOut Harrow could not handle the grief and guilt of Gideon's death]]. Prior to the beginning of ''Harrow the Ninth'', she completely remade her memories to remove Gideon Nav from them entirely, [[DeathOfPersonality attempting to commit psychic suicide so that a new Harrow could go forward unburdened]]. Seeing this through came with a heavy toll: the new Harrow is dramatically different, openly apathetic to the point of being suicidal, tormented by nightmares and hallucinations, and a thoroughly UnreliableNarrator.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The detailing of her backstory in ''Harrow the Ninth'' indicates that she has some form of mental illness that has interfered with her life in the past -- aside from having thoughts of suicide from as young as three -- with an intense focus on rituals, a near phobic revulsion to being seen without her veil and facepaint, and visual and auditory hallucinations. While she's not formally diagnosed, the fact that her symptoms occurred alongside the outset of puberty strongly suggest she has schizophrenia, along with trauma from her harsh upbringing.

* DeathSeeker: Despite her past-self's demand that she not kill herself, Harrow openly wishes she was dead fairly often.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: The SecondPersonNarration about her notes that she finds Mercy's eyes "dreamy", and somewhat resentfully admits that Ianthe is beautiful.
* EyeColorChange: Subverted unlike other Lyctors. Even when she and Gideon swap places, they both retain their original eye colors. A brief chapter from Ianthe's perspective before Harrow performed the work shows that this trope had started to take effect before she removed her ability to perceive Gideon.
* TheFaceless: Deconstructed. While it's almost mandatory for the Ninth to obscure their faces and bodies, Harrow practices it to an extreme due to deep self loathing and mental instability, and is deeply uncomfortable when she can't be faceless.
* FakeMemories: About half of the chapters in Act One describe a false set of memories of the events of Canaan House and Harrow's life before then, replacing Gideon with Ortus, though characters within them constantly point out that even Harrow knows on some level they aren't real.

* HauntedHeroine: In keeping with the trope, it's left unclear if Harrow's hallucinations are due to mental illness or being haunted. Her experience in the River and comments from Abigail in her FakeMemories suggest that imprints of the souls of the 200 dead children of the Ninth might be forever bound to her soul, or that, at a minimum, Harrow fears that they are.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Gideon believes that she's nearly incapable of loving anyone other than Alecto. It's mostly, but not totally true; Harrow still experiences attraction to other women, but ultimately refuses Ianthe's affections for this reason. However the fact that two of her {{Elseworld}} fantasies center around imagining a relationship with Gideon imply she might be the only exception.

* UncertainDoom: She dives into the River and resurfaces inside the Tomb, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane possibly the real Tomb, possibly a mental space created by Gideon]], before falling asleep or dying in the empty coffin that is supposed to house Alecto.

* LoveEpiphany: Post-humously! In the time since her death, she seems to have come to realize that she truly does love Harrow in addition to the duty she feels towards her, though she believes Harrow doesn't reciprocate, and is fixated only on the Body, a fact which isn't entirely true.

* EyeColorChange: Subverted unlike other Lyctors. Even when she and Gideon swap places, they both retain their original eye colors. A brief chapter from Ianthe's perspective before Harrow performed the work shows that it had started to affect her before she removed her ability to perceive Gideon.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Gideon, at least believes that she's nearly incapable of loving anyone other than Alecto. It's mostly, but not totally true; Harrow still experiences sexual attraction to other women, but ultimately refuses Ianthe's affections for this reason. However the fact that two of her {{Elseworld}} fantasies center around imagining a relationship with Gideon imply she might be the only exception.

--> "I'm not fucking dead," I said, which wasn't even true.

Preserved by Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia, Gideon is now a ghost in her necromancer, only returning in Act 5 as Harrow is trapped in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Her father is God the Emperor, whose cavalier is Alecto the First, the same corpse her necromancer (whose body she now shares) has been in love with since she was a child, her mother is a RebelLeader who was in a relationship with both her Lyctoral namesake and ''his'' dead cavalier taking control of his body intermittently, the former of whom led to her premature death, a fact which likely kept Gideon herself alive, all of which she finds out in the span of an hour.
* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: She and Pyrrha, trapped as two cavaliers inside their absent necromancers, are stuck inside the depths of the River, soon to be crushed by the pressure or devoured by ravenous ghosts; as she dies, she sees Alecto operating on her, possibly as a hallucination.

* LoveEpiphany: Post-humously! In the time since her death, she seems to have come to realize that she truly does love Harrow in addition to the duty she feels towards her, though believes Harrow's fixated only on the Body.
* SecretLegacy: Gideon is the daughter of the Emperor and Commander Wake, making her the first and only heir to the Necromancer Divine and the most dangerous leader of Blood of Eden who's ever existed.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Existence as a woman who was born solely to be killed finally reveals the darkest secret of the Emperor and exposes his true nature.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Gideon, at least believes that she's nearly incapable of loving anyone other than Alecto. Harrow refuses Ianthe's affections for this reason, but her {{Elseworld}} fantasies centered around Gideon imply she might be the only exception.

* UncertainDoom: She dives into the River and resurfaces inside the Tomb, seemingly a mental space created by Gideon, before falling asleep in the empty coffin.

* NeverFoundTheBody: The Emperor's forces fail to find her body at the end of the first book. Which is odd given it was last seen laying dead in a courtyard right next to where they found Harrow and Ianthe.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Her father is God the Emperor, her aunt is Alecto the First, who her necromancer (whose body she now shares) has been in love with since she was a child, her mother is a RebelLeader who was in a relationship with both her Lyctoral namesake and ''his'' dead cavalier taking control of his body intermittently, the former of whom led to her premature death, a fact which likely kept Gideon herself alive, all of which she finds out in the span of an hour.
* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: She and Pyrrha, trapped as two cavaliers inside their absent necromancers, are stuck inside the depths of the River, soon to be crushed by the pressure or devoured by ravenous ghosts; as she dies, she possibly hallucinates Alecto operating on her in a hospital.

* LoveRevelation: Post-humously! In the time since her death, she seems to have come to realize that she truly does love Harrow in addition to her duty to her, though believes Harrow's fixated only on the Body.
* SecretLegacy: Gideon is the daughter of the Emperor and Commander Wake, making her the first and only heir to the Necromancer Divine and the most dangerous leader of Blood of Eden who's ever existed.

* EyeColorChange: Subverted unlike other Lyctors.

* AmbiguousSituation: Phyrra and Palamedes both believe she persists because Harrow managed to perfect the Lyctorhood process, but it's unclear if that's truly the case or if it was only due to Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia.
* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: She and Phyrra, trapped as two cavaliers inside their absent necromancers, are stuck inside the depths of the River, soon to be crushed by the pressure or devoured by ravenous ghosts; as she dies, she possibly hallucinates Alecto operating on her in a hospital.

* SecretLegacy: Gideon is the daughter of the Emperor and Commander Wake, making her an heir to the Necromancer Divine and the most dangerous leader of Blood of Eden who's ever existed.

* AmbiguousSitutation: Phyrra and Palamedes both believe she persists because Harrow managed to perfect the Lyctorhood process, but it's unclear if that's truly the case or if it was only due to Harrow's TraumaInducedAmnesia.

* LimbSensationFascination: Inverted. She's incredibly weirded out to be inside Harrow's frail body, especially in losing her height and strength.
* TraumaCongaLine: Wakes up inside Harrow and in quick succession finds out who her parents are, that her mother never loved her and planned to kill her, that her father is God and also probably evil, finds out her namesake is dead, and then gets dropped into the River.

* DecoyProtagonist: Gideon is the main P.O.V character of ''Gideon the Ninth'', and the narrative focuses on her time in Caanan House, but ultimately the book is about Harrow's ascension to Lyctorhood. To emphasize the point, the focus switches to Harrow for the last chapters.

* IAmWho: Subverted. Despite her MysteriousPast and wanting to know more about her origins, when she finds a partial note with her name on it in an ancient study at Canaan House, she's uncharacteristically terrified of what it means, and her narration says that the scrap of paper feels "as dangerous as a live grenade". She never gets a chance to pursue this before her death.

* TraumaCongaLine: Wakes up inside Harrow and in quick succession finds out who her parents are, that her mother never loved her, that her father is God and also probably evil, finds out her namesake is dead, and then gets dropped into the River.

'''''NOTE''''': Due to the large amount of reveals about the primary characters, this page contains '''unmarked spoilers''' for ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'' and the preview of ''Literature/HarrowTheNinth''.

* EyeColorChange: Her false memories lead her to believe that she took on Ortus' dark eyes, but comments from others indicate her irises have turned golden after Gideon's death.

* SanitySlippage: Hallucinates frequently, created an entirely new past for herself, and is so suicidal she barely cares about anything around her.

* DeathOfPersonality: Deconstructed. Harrow attempted to do so, but the resulting psyche is so frail that she's nearly catatonic for weeks, and the constant [[AsideComment Aside Comments]] in her FakeMemories imply that on some level, Harrow still knows the truth.

* TraumaButton: Any use of the name Gideon around her causes her to start panicking, pass out, or both.

* BodyguardCrush: Part of her attraction to Dulcinea stems from a desire to take care of and protect her. Toyed with for Harrow. As Harrow opens up, Gideon's narration starts to compliment her, and notices her physical appearance far more than previously, but is frankly shocked that ''Harrow'' has anything attractive about her.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Her narration indulges in this a lot, usually when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit, though it also flavors her more sincere attraction to Dulcinea, with her narration often fixated on Dulcinea's eyes and hair. Also used as a hint towards her BodyguardCrush towards Harrow. As she sees Harrow without makeup several times towards the end of the book, her narration often talks about her face and lips.

* IAmWho: Subverted. Despite her MysteriousPast and wanting to know more about her origins, when she finds a partial note with her name on it in an ancient study at Canaan House, she's uncharacteristically terrified of what it means, and her narration says that the scrap of paper feels "as dangerous as a live grenade". She doesn't pursue this lead further in the first book, and is dead by the end of it.

* MusclesAreMeaningful: Gideon is ''jacked'' from years of intense workouts and training with a {{BFS}}, and is noted to be even more than what she'd be required to be to gain entry to the Cohort, due to a dream of excelling the second she joined and also having a habit of exercising whenever she's bored, which happened often in the Ninth. Consequently, she's fast enough to keep up with lifelong cavaliers despite being handicapped by constantly wearing her church robes and is strong enough to physically overpower them.

* AntiHero: She’s the other protagonist of the book, but not nearly as virtuous or traditionally heroic as Gideon. There are times in the first book when it's called into question whether Harrow is one of the "good guys" ''at all'', but ultimately Harrowhark does what she does for the sake of her House, and she's not at all as heartless as she tries to appear.

* CassandraTruth: Harrow often expresses her distrust of the Seventh House, much to Gideon's exasperation. Guess who turns out to (sort of) be behind all the murders?
* ChildProdigy: It's mentioned that she should control skeletons before she could properly walk.

* CreepyLonerGirl: Harrow fits this to a T. She encourages the other Houses to see her this way, as it fits into the mysterious reputation of the Ninth and prevents them from prying.

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Gideon may be the eponymous, point of view character of book one, but Harrow's story develops in tandem with hers and is just as important. Tellingly, the second book is named after Harrow and shifts to her perspective following Gideon's HeroicSacrifice.

* TheGift: Harrow is likely the strongest necromancer in the entire history of the Ninth, and has been raising skeletons since almost before she could walk. She even describes herself as "the perfect necromancer". There is a reason for this, as her parents killed almost all of the Ninth's children to ensure her conception.

* MundaneUtility: She uses her own blood as ink and isn't above using skeletons to prop herself up in bed.

* PowerStrainBlackout: Harrow passes out quite a few times after straining her magic too far. She's the only necromancer in the book shown to do so, though she often pushes herself past the limits where other necromancers would back down.
* PowersAsPrograms: As part of consuming Gideon's soul to ascend to Lyctorhood, she gains all of Gideon's experience with a zweihander, but part of the mental break she suffered made her lose the memories.

The other primary protagonist, and the POV character of ''Harrow the Ninth''. The Reverend Daughter of Drearburh, her to the Ninth House, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is haughty, one of the most powerful necromancers of her generation, and Gideon's lifelong bully. It is only out of necessity that she conscripts Gideon as her cavalier for the Lyctor trials, because more than she hates Gideon, Harrow needs to become a Lyctor to safeguard her House and the Locked Tomb.

----
[[folder: Gideon]]

!!Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of Drearbruh, Harrow the First

After getting everything she ever wanted--Lyctorhood, the restoration of her House, the safeguarding of the Body-- [[FreakOut Harrow could not handle the grief and guilt of Gideon's death]]. Prior to the beginning of ''Harrow the Ninth'', she completely remade her memories to remove Gideon Nav from them entirely, [[DeathOfPersonality attempting to commit psychic suicide so that a new Harrow could go forward unburdened]]. Seeing this through came with a heavy toll: the new Harrow is dramatically different, openly apathetic to the point of being suicidal, tormented by nightmares and hallucinations, and a thoroughly UnreliableNarrator.
----

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gideon Nav]]

After getting everything she ever wanted--Lyctorhood, the restoration of her House, the safeguarding of the Body-- [[FreakOut Harrow could not handle the grief and guilt of Gideon's death]]. Prior to the beginning of ''Harrow the Ninth'', she completely remade her memories to remove Gideon Nav from them entirely, [[PersonalityDeath attempting to commit psychic suicide so that a new Harrow could go forward unburdened]]. Seeing this through came with a heavy toll: the new Harrow is dramatically different, openly apathetic to the point of being suicidal, tormented by nightmares and hallucinations, and a thoroughly UnreliableNarrator.

* IAmWho: Subverted. Despite her MysteriousPast and wanting to know more about her origins, when [[spoiler:she finds a partial note with her name on it in an ancient study at Canaan House, she's uncharacteristically terrified of what it means, and her narration says that the scrap of paper feels "as dangerous as a live grenade"]]. She doesn't pursue this lead further in the first book, and is dead by the end of it.

* BlackEyesOfEvil: Doesn't extend to her sclera like in some examples, but her irises are so dark as to appear black, and she's Gideon's lifelong tormentor. [[spoiler:Also ultimately ends up as a subversion]].
* BodyguardCrush: [[spoiler:It's very heavily implied that she has a crush on Gideon beneath all of the tangled emotions between them.]]

* CassandraTruth: Harrow often expresses her distrust of the Seventh House, much to Gideon's exasperation. [[spoiler:Guess who turns out to (sort of) be behind all the murders?]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: When she tries to limit the time Gideon spends around Dulcinea, Gideon accuses her of being jealous, but Harrow insists that it's because Dulcinea isn't trustworthy. [[spoiler:Although she ends up being right, Harrow was also being jealous.]]

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Gideon may be the eponymous, point of view character of book one, but Harrow's story develops in tandem with hers and is just as important. Tellingly, the second book is named after Harrow and shifts to her perspective following [[spoiler:Gideon's HeroicSacrifice]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Once she understood the circumstances behind her conception, she broke into the Locked Tomb in a nihilistic attempt to kill herself. At the age of 10. Despite not following through, it is heavily implied she has continued to struggle with suicidal depression in the years since.]]
* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler: When told all the darkest secrets of the Ninth, Gideon forgives Harrow's lifelong abuse of her easily and immediately. Even Harrow is stunned]].

* TheGift: Harrow is likely the strongest necromancer in the entire history of the Ninth, and has been raising skeletons since almost before she could walk. She even describes herself as "the perfect necromancer". There is a reason for this, [[spoiler:as her parents killed almost all of the Ninth's children to ensure her conception]].

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Gideon's death hits her extremely hard, and in the final chapter and epilogue of ''Gideon the Ninth'' she's left sobbing and deeply heartbroken.]]

* LoveAtFirstSight: [[spoiler:For the dead girl inside the Locked Tomb, effectively TheAntichrist of the Empire's religion, and the real reason Harrow wants to become a Lyctor and safeguard the Tomb, not the preservation of her House.]]
-->'''Harrow:''' [[spoiler:Nav, when I saw her face, I decided I wanted to live. I decided to live forever just in case she ever woke up.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Remarked upon frequently by Gideon's narration, which is disarmed to see Harrow open up and start to treat her with compassion throughout her CharacterArc in ''Gideon the Ninth''. Most especially when the final secrets are revealed between them, which leaves Harrow stammering, apologetic, and [[spoiler:has her admit that Gideon is her OnlyFriend]].
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe enraged that Gideon feels sorry for her]] even after everything Harrow's done to Gideon over the years, furiously begs Gideon to strike her down, yelling that she deserves to die by Gideon's hand. To her mortification, Gideon [[CooldownHug hugs her]] instead.]]

* PowersAsPrograms: [[spoiler:As part of consuming Gideon's soul to ascend to Lyctorhood, she gains all of Gideon's experience with a zweihander, but part of the mental break she suffered made her lose the memories.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Harrow can be said to be easily the most antagonistic towards the other Houses at Canaan House and [[spoiler:she handles the first murderers much better than most of the rest of the cast]].

* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:Harrow achieves everything she set out to do in ''Gideon the Ninth'', becoming a Lyctor and getting the Emperor to renew the Ninth House. However, it came at the cost of Gideon, her only friend and LivingEmotionalCrutch, and it's telling that her first words to the Emperor in the epilogue are to beg him to undo what she's done.]]

* SupernaturalAngst: The circumstances of her own conception fuel a lot of her self-loathing. [[spoiler:Her parents murdered all 200 children in their House in a secret HumanSacrifice ritual to ensure she would be born a potent necromancer. Harrow herself calls her conception "a war crime", and remarks that "the universe ought to scream when my feet touch the ground."]]

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Harrow has been puppeteering her parents' corpses since she was ''ten''. [[spoiler:Also at age ten, she broke into the Locked Tomb housing TheAntichrist, which she was taught was pretty much the most evil and forbidden thing anyone in the Empire could do, in a nihilistic attempt to kill herself.]]
* {{Tsundere}}: Just look at how often she calls Gideon an idiot, while becoming a flustered mess when Gideon hugs her. Deconstructed in that her treatment of Gideon has created a lot of emotional baggage between them and is a huge roadblock to Gideon trusting her. [[spoiler:Reconstructed after they have a long, honest conversation; Harrow is still this trope, but now that their relationship is in a better place, their back-and-forth is less loaded and tense, and more affectionate.]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Harrow has an intense dislike of swords and swordfighting, particularly of Gideon's two-hander, which she seems to be actually afraid of. [[spoiler:It ends up being a bigger problem for her in ''Harrow the Ninth'', where as a Lyctor, she needs to rely on a sword that she hates.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: The detailing of her backstory in ''Harrow the Ninth'' indicates that she has some form of mental illness that has interfered with her life in the past [[spoiler:-- aside from having thoughts of suicide from as young as three --]] with an intense focus on rituals, a near phobic revulsion to being seen without her veil and facepaint, and visual and auditory hallucinations. While she's not formally diagnosed, the fact that her symptoms occurred alongside the outset of puberty strongly suggest she has schizophrenia, along with trauma from her harsh upbringing.

* DeathOfPersonality: Attempted. [[spoiler:Gideon's death was so traumatic for Harrow that she completely restructured her memories and past to remove Gideon from her life entirely, and she characterizes this in her letters to her future self as a death. Even then, the resulting psyche is so frail that she's nearly catatonic for weeks, and the constant [[AsideComment Aside Comments]] in her FakeMemories imply that on some level, Harrow still knows the truth.]]
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Despite her past-self's demand that she not kill herself, Harrow openly wishes she was dead fairly often.]]

* EyeColorChange: [[spoiler:Her false memories lead her to believe that she took on Ortus' dark eyes, but comments from others indicate her irises have turned golden after Gideon's death.]]
* TheFaceless: Deconstructed. While it's almost mandatory for the Ninth to obscure their faces and bodies, Harrow practices it to an extreme [[spoiler:due to deep self loathing and mental instability]], and is deeply uncomfortable when she can't be faceless.
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler:About half of the chapters in Act One describe a false set of memories of the events of Canaan House and Harrow's life before then, replacing Gideon with Ortus, though characters within them constantly point out that even Harrow knows on some level they aren't real.]]
* FreakOut: Becoming a Lyctor triggered a weeks long one that left Harrow projectile vomiting at the drop of a hat, disgusted with anyone seeing her body, and [[spoiler:a deliberate and complete restructuring of her memories to remove every memory of Gideon]].
* HauntedHeroine: In keeping with the trope, it's left unclear if Harrow's hallucinations are due to mental illness or being haunted. [[spoiler:Her experience in the River and comments from Abigail in her FakeMemories suggest that imprints of the souls of the 200 dead children of the Ninth might be forever bound to her soul, or that, at a minimum, Harrow fears that they are.]]
* NoodleIncident: [[spoiler:Comments from Ianthe indicate that she flew into a murderous rage the one time medical staff on the ''Erebos'' tried to remove Gideon's longsword from her, but Harrow herself can only distantly recall it.]]
* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Hallucinates frequently, created an entirely new past for herself, and is so suicidal she barely cares about anything around her.]]

* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler:Gideon's longsword]] becomes this to an almost religious degree; Harrow keeps it on her person constantly, even though [[spoiler:she can barely carry it, believes it hates her violently, and throws up any time she tries to wield it]], creates elaborate rituals to treat it, and only parts from it with great reluctance.
* TraumaButton: [[spoiler:Any use of the name Gideon around her causes her to start panicking, pass out, or both.]]
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler:The death of Gideon leaves her so distraught that Harrow deliberately killed and restructured her memories to remove Gideon from them entirely.]]