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* AsTheGoodBookSays: Inexplicably, Gideon [[spoiler:or at least, Harrow's hallucination/memory of Gideon]] quotes Ruth 1:17 to Harrow in the final chapter before the epilogue of book one. At the very least, it implies TheBible exists in-universe and this galaxy is not so far removed from our own after all.
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* AsTheGoodBookSays: Inexplicably, Gideon [[spoiler:or at least, Harrow's hallucination/memory of Gideon]] quotes Ruth 1:17 to Harrow in the final chapter before the epilogue of book one. At the very least, it implies TheBible the Bible exists in-universe and this galaxy is not so far removed from our own after all.
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* EyeColourChange: A very unsettling example occurs with [[spoiler:Ianthe, after she consumes Naberius's soul. Her eyes keep flickering between her natural eye color and his, sometimes just becoming entirely pupiless and white.]]
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* EyeColourChange: A very unsettling example occurs with [[spoiler:Ianthe, after Ianthe, [[spoiler:after she consumes Naberius's soul. Her eyes keep flickering between her natural eye color and his, sometimes just becoming entirely pupiless and white.]]
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* UnderestimatingBadassery: Judith Deuteros challenges the [[TheSmartGuy Sixth House]] to a duel to make an example of them, and ''everyone'' thinks they're about to see a soldier beat up a librarian. Camilla the Sixth swiftly proves her House is not to be underestimated.
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* ThemeNaming: Character surnames correspond to their House number: '''Deu'''teros, '''Tri'''dentarius, '''Tett'''ares, and so on.
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* AsTheGoodBookSays: Inexplicably, Gideon [[spoiler:or at least, Harrow's hallucination/memory of Gideon]] quotes Ruth 1:17 to Harrow in the final chapter before the epilogue of book one. At the very least, it implies TheBible exists in-universe and this galaxy is not so far removed from our own after all.
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* HatedHometown: Gideon feels nothing but resentment for the Ninth House, is beyond delighted to leave it behind, and loves the idea of the whole place just dying and disappearing. CharacterDevelopment eventually has her letting her hatred go.
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* TheChampion: This is what a cavalier primary is meant to be for their necromancer, every ounce of their duty revolving around this one person.
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* HappilyMarried: Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn of the Fifth House have been married for over a decade, and are the most well-adjusted duo of the entire cast.
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* HandsOnApproach: Gideon gets up close and personal to Harrow to teach her how to grip her longsword. [[spoiler:Except this is after Gideon's dead and Harrow's [[MergerOfSouls absorbed her soul]], making this possibly the most heartbreaking and metaphysical use of this trope ever.]]
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* BodyguardCrush: Implied to be the case for Camilla's feelings toward Palamedes, whom she's sworn to protect and look after. Gideon's feelings for Harrow also grow in tandem with her commitment to her duty as cavalier.
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* InSeriesNickname: Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions she uses her proper first name.
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* InSeriesNickname: Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions she uses her proper first name. Coronabeth and Ianthe use the nickname "Babs" for their cav Naberius.
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* DualWielding: Camilla Hect prefers to fight with dual shortswords.
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* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Isaac and Jeannemary both die impaled by dozens of bones. The last we see Judith, she has one pierced in her gut and Palamedes says there's nothing that can be done for her.]]
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* BearHug: Gideon grabs Harrow in one that lifts her off the ground, thoroughly flustering them both.
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* InsultedAwake: Palamedes calls himself the greatest necromancer of his generation, offending Harrow enough that she surfaces from her blackout for a few seconds just to refute him.
-->'''Palamedes''': Thought that would wake her up.
-->'''Palamedes''': Thought that would wake her up.
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* DeadPersonConversation: The final chapter before the epilogue [[spoiler:has Gideon comforting, guiding and teasing Harrow after the former's HeroicSuicide. It's left unclear whether Harrow is hallucinating her as a coping mechanism or if it's the last remnant of Gideon's soul saying goodbye to her somehow.]]
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* InterrogatingTheDead: This is supposedly the Fifth House's necromantic specialty. [[spoiler:It's part of the reason why Abigail was Cytherea's first victim.]]
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* InterrogatingTheDead: InterrogatingTheDead:
** This is supposedly the Fifth House's necromantic specialty. [[spoiler:It's part of the reason why Abigail was Cytherea's first victim.]]]]
** The Ninth necromancers also tried to do this with Gideon's dead mother after finding her corpse and an [[DoorstopBaby infant Gideon]] at the Ninth's doorstep. Her ghost was not very cooperative and only screeched ''"Gideon!"'' three times, which was how they decided to name the baby.
** Silas Octakiseron did this to [[spoiler:Sister Glaurica]], explaining how he knows a lot more about the Ninth House than he should.
** This is supposedly the Fifth House's necromantic specialty. [[spoiler:It's part of the reason why Abigail was Cytherea's first victim.
** The Ninth necromancers also tried to do this with Gideon's dead mother after finding her corpse and an [[DoorstopBaby infant Gideon]] at the Ninth's doorstep. Her ghost was not very cooperative and only screeched ''"Gideon!"'' three times, which was how they decided to name the baby.
** Silas Octakiseron did this to [[spoiler:Sister Glaurica]], explaining how he knows a lot more about the Ninth House than he should.
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* BloodFromEveryOrifice: Happens to Gideon when Harrow is [[LivingBattery draining her]] in the avulsion room. Harrow herself ends up this way a lot as a more extreme version of a PsychicNosebleed when she's straining her magic.
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* DyingDeclarationOfLove: Gideon briefly tries to pretend this was the case [[spoiler:with Palamedes, telling Camilla his last words were, "Tell Camilla I love her." Camilla does not buy this for a second, and Gideon immediately backtracks.]]
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* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: This is the reason Gideon gives for why she's hit so hard by [[spoiler:Magnus's death. He was the first person to ever be kind and friendly to her.]]
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* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: This is the reason Gideon gives for why she's hit so hard by [[spoiler:Magnus's death. He is very fond of [[TeamDad Magnus]] because he was the first person to ever be kind and friendly to her.her. [[spoiler:It's also why she's hit so hard by his death.]]
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* ArcWords: In the first book, "One flesh, one end."
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* HealingFactor: Lyctors are capable of this to an insane degree, provided they have enough LifeEnergy to draw on, either their own or [[LivingBattery someone else's]].
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* HumanResources: Pretty much all necromancy requires some form of this, whether it be bones, blood, or [[LifeEnergy thalergy/thanergy]].
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* ImmortalityHurts: Lyctors can be killed permanently in battle but due to their powerful HealingFactor it is ''very'' difficult to do so. However, they feel every bit of pain from any horrible maiming they suffer that would kill normal humans. [[spoiler:Lyctorhood also never removed the cancer from Cytherea's body, only trapped her in a permanent agonizing advanced stage of the disease for the last 10,000 years.]]
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* ElectiveMute: Vows of silence are common for religious penitents of the Ninth. Harrow, who has been [[OfCorpseHesAlive puppeteering her parents' corpses]] for seven years, claims they'd both taken the vow. Most of the other Houses also assume Gideon is under a vow of silence for the first half of the book, as Harrow ordered her not to talk to anyone for fear of her saying something stupid.
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* TeenGenius: Harrowhark. Palamedes is also only 20 during the story, and already the Master Warden of the Library, so it can be assumed he was, too.
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* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Gideon's peculiar gold eyes are mentioned a few times, most notably by [[spoiler:Cytherea]]. They, along with her [[MadeOfIron peculiar durability]], prodigious skill with the sword, and mysterious origins hint that Gideon may be more than just human.
* TeenGenius: Harrowhark. Palamedes is also only 20 during the story, and already the Master Warden of the Library, so it can be assumed hewas, was one, too.
* TeenGenius: Harrowhark. Palamedes is also only 20 during the story, and already the Master Warden of the Library, so it can be assumed he
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* EyeColourChange: A very unsettling example occurs with [[spoiler:Ianthe, after she consumes Naberius's soul. Her eyes keep flickering between her natural eye color and his, sometimes just becoming entirely pupiless and white.]]
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* PenPals: [[spoiler:Palamedes Sextus and Dulcinea Septimus]], for twelve years before the events of the book. They never met in person but he even proposed marriage to her at one point.
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* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe mortified 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.]]
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* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe mortified 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.]]
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* AnywhereButTheirLips: Gideon very carefully kisses [[spoiler:Harrow]] on the top of her nose after they clear the air.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Gideon indulges in this a lot, usually when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit.
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* EatingTheEyeCandy: Gideon indulges in this a lot, usually when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit.
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* EatingTheEyeCandy: Gideon indulges in this a lot, usually when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit.
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* OnlyFriend: [[spoiler:Harrow reveals this is how she actually views Gideon, despite having mostly treated her like she despised her.]]
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* ThePromise: Harrow asks Gideon to promise her that if Harrow dies, Gideon will return to the Ninth and protect the Locked Tomb in her stead. [[spoiler:In the end, Gideon refuses to honor that promise because she won't let Harrow be the one who dies.]]
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* DoorstopBaby: Gideon to a T, only instead of a basket on a doorstep, she was found in a bio-container plugged into the hazard suit of her dead mother who was found mysteriously materialized in a drag-chute of the Ninth House.
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* ParentalAbandonment: Gideon is a {{Foundling}} who's never met her parents, Harrow's parents were DrivenToSuicide when she was ten, and Jeannemary says this trope is rampant in the Fourth House where most kids have lost one or both parents to some brave, suicidal deed on the front lines of the Cohort.
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* CannonFodder: This is the reputation of the Fourth House, who are reckless and loyal to a fault and enlist in the Cohort in droves. Jeannemary the Fourth even explicitly, angrily declares that her House is more than just this trope.
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* ChildSoldiers: Jeannemary and Isaac of the Fourth House are only fourteen at most, but intend to enlist next year and in fact would have already been enlisted if Isaac hadn't gotten the mumps during recruitment period. It's said noble scions of Fourth House are often on the front lines well before their sixteenth birthdays.
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* LamePunReaction: Nobody but Coronabeth reacts to Gideon and Magnus's IncrediblyLamePuns with anything but disgust.
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* LamePunReaction: Nobody but Coronabeth reacts to Gideon and Magnus's IncrediblyLamePuns puns with anything but disgust.
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* MadeOfIron: Gideon's unusual durability is remarked upon a few times. She survives the extended siphoning in the avulsion room which Palamedes says ought to have given her permanent brain damage if not outright killed her. [[spoiler:She also survived being exposes to nerve gas for ''ten minutes'' as an infant, when Harrow's parents tried to sacrifice her along with all other 200 children in the nursery.]]
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* MadeOfIron: Gideon's unusual durability is remarked upon a few times. She survives the extended siphoning in the avulsion room which Palamedes says ought to have given her permanent brain damage if not outright killed her. [[spoiler:She also survived being exposes exposed to nerve gas for ''ten minutes'' as an infant, when Harrow's parents tried to sacrifice her along with all other 200 children in the nursery.]]
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* MoralEventHorizon: Harrow's parents crossed this long ago [[spoiler:when they sacrificed 200 children, an entire generation of their House, in a ritual to ensure Harrow would be born a necromancer. Harrow says she's aware nothing she does can ever justify the crime of her existence. As far as her parents are concerned, Harrow herself crossed this by entering the Locked Tomb, so much so that they were DrivenToSuicide and fully expected her to hang herself too.]]
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->''"We do bones, motherfucker."''
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a [[IndenturedServitude life of servitude]] and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and [[TheNecromancer bone witch extraordinaire]], has been summoned into action. [[{{God}} The Emperor]] has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
''The Locked Tomb'' is a trilogy by Tamsyn Muir, which debuted on September 10, 2019 with ''Gideon the Ninth''. The second book ''Harrow the Ninth'' will be released on June 2, 2020. The conclusion ''Alecto the Ninth'' will be released in 2021.
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!! The Locked Tomb provides examples of:
* AbandonedLaboratory: The locked lower levels of Canaan House contain a series of creepy abandoned labs with the remnants of necromantic experiments. They're also supposed to be ''extremely'' haunted.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Briefly discussed and parodied by Gideon. The heirs were expecting Canaan House to be this, and are disappointed to find it is very decidedly not a school of any kind.
* TheAgeless: The body of a Lyctor is preserved at the exact point in time they achieved Lyctorhood, meaning they don't get older and can't die from old age.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Camilla Hect is implied to be in love with her necromancer Palamedes Sextus, who only has eyes for Dulcinea Septimus, who is fixated on Gideon. When Gideon realizes this, she flails around in despair at the messiness of it all.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Gideon has spent her whole life an outcast in the Ninth House, presumably because she arrived at the House a {{Foundling}} under extremely mysterious circumstances, and cares nothing for the Ninth's traditions and religion.
* AnimateDead: Well, this ''is'' an Empire of necromancers.
* TheAntichrist: Whatever is trapped inside the Locked Tomb is implied to be this: the Emperor's greatest enemy whom he defeated once, but cannot defeat again, and thus must never wake.
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:By the end of the first book, only Harrow, Ianthe, and presumably Camilla and Coronabeth are left alive, out of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters at Canaan House.]]
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Harrow and Gideon share a... complicated relationship. Despite their frequent assertions that they'd love to see the other die a painful death, whenever one of them is actually in real danger of dying, the other inevitably freaks out and becomes protective.
* BadassBoast: Harrowhark is prone to this.
-->'''Harrow''': "I have bested my father. I have bested my father and my grandmother--every single necromancer ever taught by my House--every necromancer who has ever touched a skeleton."
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: This is the reason Gideon gives for why she's hit so hard by [[spoiler:Magnus's death. He was the first person to ever be kind and friendly to her.]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: Harrow and Gideon, although their animosity is rooted in a lot more genuine resentment and trauma than typical examples.
* BigGuyLittleGuy: The Eighth House pair of massive Colum and his creepy younger uncle Silas.
* BookDumb: Gideon's intelligence is frequently insulted and she doesn't read anything other than porn mags, but she's a quick study and a brilliant fighter.
* BrainsAndBrawn: Pretty much all necromancer and cavalier pairs inevitably fall into this dynamic.
* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Just as Gideon and Harrow seem to have reached a more comfortable place in their relationship, they have an explosive falling-out [[spoiler:after the deaths of the Fourth.]] They reconcile for good shortly before the climactic confrontation of the book.
* BuildingOfAdventure: Nearly all of book one takes place inside the mysterious, abandoned [[BigFancyCastle Canaan House]].
* CameBackStrong: Implied to be the case for the Emperor, after the Great Resurrection that ascended him to godhood.
* CassandraTruth: Harrow repeatedly expresses her distrust of the Seventh House, much to Gideon's exasperation. [[spoiler:Guess who turns out to be behind all the murders?]]
* CastFromHitPoints: Necromancers are often drawing from their own [[LifeEnergy thanergy and/or thalergy]] to power the bulk of their magic.
* ChekhovsSkill: Psychometry, the Sixth House's knack for reading and tracing the echoes of life that death leaves on objects. [[spoiler:It's how Palamedes realizes Dulcinea is behind the murders, when his hand brushes against the message on the wall she left in the last locked Lyctor room.]]
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Gideon. Much to Harrow's chagrin.
* CooldownHug: Gideon gives a crushing one to [[spoiler:Harrow, when she has a total breakdown after laying bare her soul and demanding Gideon to strike her down for everything she'd done to her.]]
* CreepyBasement: The locked lower levels of Canaan House where the Lyctor challenges are located.
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Protesilaus. And Teacher and the other two priests. And the real Dulcinea Septimus.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Most notably, Gideon, Harrow, and Camilla.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler:Cytherea killed the real Dulcinea Septimus en route to Canaan House, and took her place knowing that 1) no one had actually met Dulcinea in person and 2) Seventh House heirs all look remarkably similar anyway.]]
* DeathOfAChild: Harrow notes the death of a baby always releases incredible amounts of necromantic power. [[spoiler:Her parents very much [[HumanSacrifice took advantage]] of this.]]
* DefrostingIceQueen: Harrowhark Nonagesimus. At the start of the book Gideon is actually certain she's incapable of crying.
* DemBones: Bone constructs are everywhere in an Empire of necromancers, but are the Ninth's specialty.
* DemonicPossession: Teacher warns something like this is bound to happen if you leave a soulless body in an insanely HauntedCastle for any amount of time. [[spoiler:Silas does not listen, and both he and Colum pay for it.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Gideon ''very much'' proves herself to be this by the end of the book, powering through grievous injuries [[spoiler:and facing down a quasi-immortal foe]].
* DisabilityAlibi: Dulcinea Septimus is not seen as a viable suspect for the murders considering her advanced blood cancer barely allows her to walk two paces on her own without collapsing in coughs.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Harrow was fond of doling these out to Gideon for her various escape attempts back in the Ninth. Examples included poisoning her food, and giving her frostbite by turning off the heating.
* TheDulcineaEffect: A prime target for this is the aptly named Dulcinea Septimus, thanks to her terminal illness. Gideon is compelled to protect her the second they meet. [[spoiler:And it turns out Palamedes Sextus has devoted his life to trying to rescue her from her illness ever since he began trading letters with her ten years ago. He never even needed to meet her in person to fall in love with her.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Harrowhark's parents, when she was ten. [[spoiler:They hanged themselves in front of her, and even meant for her to join them in the deed, because she committed the gravest possible sin by unlocking and entering the Locked Tomb containing TheAntichrist.]]
* DwindlingParty: [[spoiler:The body count begins with Magnus and Abigail, and only grows from there. By the end of the first book only four of the 18 main players of Canaan House are left standing.]]
* TheEmpire: The details are left vague, but it's clear the Nine Houses comprise a galactic Empire constantly waging war on... something. Gideon sarcastically uses the word "fascist" once but the politics of it aren't brought up again during the first book.
* FantasticScience: Necromancy is treated more like a science than anything else, requiring studying the proper theorems to pull off.
* FieryRedhead: Gideon Nav. Her hair color is mentioned by several characters.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Broadly speaking, Gideon is sanguine, Harrow is choleric, Palamedes is melancholic, and Camilla is phlegmatic.
* GlassCannon: Palamedes explicitly calls necromancers this. It's why they need cavaliers and other melee soldiers protecting them to be effective.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Gideon's corpse is still wearing a smile after she sacrifices herself and the battle is won.]]
* HauntedCastle: Canaan House, at least according to Teacher.
* HeldGaze: Gideon and Harrowhark do this a ''lot''.
* HeroicBSOD: Gideon gets one early on after [[HopeCrusher Harrow]] utterly destroys her plan to leave the Ninth House for good. She also experiences a briefer but more serious one after [[spoiler:she fails to prevent the deaths of Isaac and Jeannemary.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Palamedes Sextus detonates himself in an attempt to bring down Cytherea. In the end, Gideon does this too. See HeroicSuicide below.]]
* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:What Gideon does in the end, to save Harrow and Camilla. She skewers herself in the heart so Harrow can [[MergerOfSouls extract her soul]] and become a Lyctor powerful enough to kill Cytherea.]]
* HeroesPreferSwords: All the cavaliers have swords, technically, but Gideon has a special enthusiasm for them and is the only one to favor a longsword (a [[{{BFS}} Zweihander]], specifically) instead of a rapier.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Gideon did ''not'' have a good time growing up in the Ninth as a universally reviled indentured servant. She's mostly blase about it, but it gets PlayedForDrama later, especially when it comes to her twisted and entangled history with Harrow.
* HolierThanThou: The defining characteristic of the zealous Eighth House, and its heir Silas Octakiseron exemplifies this perfectly.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The real reason Harrow is so powerful. Before conceiving her, her parents sacrificed 200 infants and children of their own House in a ritual to ensure Harrow would be a necromancer, and an immensely talented one.]]
* IconicItem: Gideon's sunglasses. She tends to wear them even when it's dark.
* IllGirl: The sweet, airy Dulcinea Septimus, who has advanced blood cancer and was not expected to live past 25.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Terminally ill Dulcinea is prone to coughing [[BloodFromTheMouth blood]].
* IndenturedServitude: Gideon spent her life an indentured servant of the Ninth House, as they were the ones who raised her since infancy.
* InSeriesNickname: Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions she uses her proper first name.
* InterrogatingTheDead: This is supposedly the Fifth House's necromantic specialty. [[spoiler:It's part of the reason why Abigail was Cytherea's first victim.]]
* ItsAllMyFault: Gideon is very prone to this, most notably [[spoiler:when it comes to the deaths of Isaac and Jeannemary. She also reveals to Palamedes that for seven whole years, she's blamed herself for Harrow's parents' suicides and believes it almost justifies Harrow's torment of her.]]
* LamePunReaction: Nobody but Coronabeth reacts to Gideon and Magnus's IncrediblyLamePuns with anything but disgust.
* LifeEnergy: Thalergy (life energy) and thanergy (death energy) are both important when it comes to fueling necromancy. The Second House specializes in draining thanergy from their dying enemies and using it to bolster the life energy of their cavaliers: getting drained of either your thanergy or thalergy is supposed to be an enormously agonizing process.
* LivingBattery: The Eighth House, whose necromantic specialty is soul siphoning, has a reputation for breeding their cavaliers to basically be this for the necromancers. The avulsion room challenge is also about turning a cavalier into this. Gideon lets herself be a battery for Harrow twice, but Harrow refuses to siphon from her again the third time [[spoiler:after seeing what happened to [[DemonicPossession Colum]].]]
* MadeOfIron: Gideon's unusual durability is remarked upon a few times. She survives the extended siphoning in the avulsion room which Palamedes says ought to have given her permanent brain damage if not outright killed her. [[spoiler:She also survived being exposes to nerve gas for ''ten minutes'' as an infant, when Harrow's parents tried to sacrifice her along with all other 200 children in the nursery.]]
* MagicKnight: The Lyctors are this [[spoiler:because becoming a Lyctor requires a necromancer to consume and integrate the soul of their cavalier, gaining the prowess of both.]]
* ManySpiritsInsideOfOne: [[spoiler:It's revealed Teacher is in fact a thousand souls stuffed into one corpse, the result of some horrific Canaan House experiment. This also happens briefly to Colum, as a number of malignant forces possess his unoccupied body while Silas was siphoning from him, leading to some very disturbing BodyHorror and both Silas and Colum's deaths.]]
* MergerOfSouls: [[spoiler:Becoming a Lyctor more or less boils down to this, requiring the necromancer to extract, consume, and successfully integrate the soul of their cavalier. It kills the cavalier in the process, but if Ianthe's [[FightingFromTheInside struggle]] with Naberius Tern's soul is anything to go by, something of the cavalier still lives on inside the necromancer.]]
* MindMeld: The first Lyctor challenge Harrow and Gideon undertake involves this. Harrow also uses this ability to access Palamedes's photographic memory of a key he wants Harrow to recreate.
* MoralEventHorizon: Harrow's parents crossed this long ago [[spoiler:when they sacrificed 200 children, an entire generation of their House, in a ritual to ensure Harrow would be born a necromancer. Harrow says she's aware nothing she does can ever justify the crime of her existence. As far as her parents are concerned, Harrow herself crossed this by entering the Locked Tomb, so much so that they were DrivenToSuicide and fully expected her to hang herself too.]]
* {{Necromancy}}: The Empire is built on this, and the royal scions of all eight Houses are powerful necromancers with different areas of specialization, ranging from [[DemBones bone constructs]] to [[InterrogatingTheDead spirit channeling]] to soul siphoning.
* NerdGlasses: Palamedes Sextus, heir of the bookish and logic-obsessed Sixth House, wears glasses with lenses as thick as glass found on ''spacecraft''.
* NeverOneMurder: [[spoiler:Abigail and Magnus are found dead at the end of Act Two, but they're far from the last to die. Protesilaus goes missing not long after, and it all escalates from there.]]
* OfCorpseHesAlive: Hilariously, Harrow has gotten away with doing this with her dead parents for ''seven years'', telling people her parents have taken a vow of silence, among other things. A more serious version occurs with [[spoiler:Protesilaus, the very boring Seventh cav who turns out to be a corpse perfectly preserved and puppeted by necromantic forces. Harrow is one of the only people to pick up on it right away, having had experience with her parents.]]
* OurSoulsAreDifferent
* ParentalSubstitute: The Fifth House pair Abigail and Magnus seem to be this for the Fourth House kids Isaac and Jeannemary. Gideon's tough old mentor Aiglamene, who taught her swordplay, is also the closest thing Gideon has ever had to a parental figure.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe mortified 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.]]
* PolarOppositeTwins: Coronabeth and Ianthe, the heirs of the Third House. Corona is beautiful, colorful, and bubbly, while Ianthe is creepy, grey, quiet and--when she does speak--extremely vicious and rude. [[spoiler:It's revealed that Corona is not a necromancer at all, while Ianthe is so powerful she was able to cover for Corona and pretend to be two necromancers their whole lives.]]
* PowerStrainBlackout: There are a few times when Harrow passes out after overextending herself with her magic.
* PsychicNosebleed: "Blood sweat" is a very common side effect of necromancy, and Harrow frequently gets this along with nosebleeds, blood from the eyes, and even exploded blood vessels when really letting loose with her magic.
* PungeonMaster: Gideon and Magnus. Gideon even says she assumes puns are automatically funny.
* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: "Dulcinea", who is actually Cytherea the First, one of the Emperor's first Lyctors and over 10,000 years old.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The girl]] sealed inside the Locked Tomb is this, at least according to Empire religion.
* SquishyWizard: Necromancers. Immensely powerful, but pretty much universally out of shape and physically fragile.
* TeenGenius: Harrowhark. Palamedes is also only 20 during the story, and already the Master Warden of the Library, so it can be assumed he was, too.
* 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.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Cytherea. She bitterly warns Palamedes and Gideon that Lyctorhood is not worth it. Notably, becoming TheAgeless didn't cure her cancer, only blocked off death as a potential escape from the pain.]]
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Both times Harrow actually calls Gideon by her first name instead of "Griddle" or [[LastNameBasis Nav]], Gideon calls her out on it. The first time happens when she's scared Gideon is about to die, and the second occurs when she asks Gideon to make her [[ThePromise an important promise]] after a heart-to-heart.
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a [[IndenturedServitude life of servitude]] and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and [[TheNecromancer bone witch extraordinaire]], has been summoned into action. [[{{God}} The Emperor]] has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
''The Locked Tomb'' is a trilogy by Tamsyn Muir, which debuted on September 10, 2019 with ''Gideon the Ninth''. The second book ''Harrow the Ninth'' will be released on June 2, 2020. The conclusion ''Alecto the Ninth'' will be released in 2021.
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!! The Locked Tomb provides examples of:
* AbandonedLaboratory: The locked lower levels of Canaan House contain a series of creepy abandoned labs with the remnants of necromantic experiments. They're also supposed to be ''extremely'' haunted.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Briefly discussed and parodied by Gideon. The heirs were expecting Canaan House to be this, and are disappointed to find it is very decidedly not a school of any kind.
* TheAgeless: The body of a Lyctor is preserved at the exact point in time they achieved Lyctorhood, meaning they don't get older and can't die from old age.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Camilla Hect is implied to be in love with her necromancer Palamedes Sextus, who only has eyes for Dulcinea Septimus, who is fixated on Gideon. When Gideon realizes this, she flails around in despair at the messiness of it all.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Gideon has spent her whole life an outcast in the Ninth House, presumably because she arrived at the House a {{Foundling}} under extremely mysterious circumstances, and cares nothing for the Ninth's traditions and religion.
* AnimateDead: Well, this ''is'' an Empire of necromancers.
* TheAntichrist: Whatever is trapped inside the Locked Tomb is implied to be this: the Emperor's greatest enemy whom he defeated once, but cannot defeat again, and thus must never wake.
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:By the end of the first book, only Harrow, Ianthe, and presumably Camilla and Coronabeth are left alive, out of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters at Canaan House.]]
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Harrow and Gideon share a... complicated relationship. Despite their frequent assertions that they'd love to see the other die a painful death, whenever one of them is actually in real danger of dying, the other inevitably freaks out and becomes protective.
* BadassBoast: Harrowhark is prone to this.
-->'''Harrow''': "I have bested my father. I have bested my father and my grandmother--every single necromancer ever taught by my House--every necromancer who has ever touched a skeleton."
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: This is the reason Gideon gives for why she's hit so hard by [[spoiler:Magnus's death. He was the first person to ever be kind and friendly to her.]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: Harrow and Gideon, although their animosity is rooted in a lot more genuine resentment and trauma than typical examples.
* BigGuyLittleGuy: The Eighth House pair of massive Colum and his creepy younger uncle Silas.
* BookDumb: Gideon's intelligence is frequently insulted and she doesn't read anything other than porn mags, but she's a quick study and a brilliant fighter.
* BrainsAndBrawn: Pretty much all necromancer and cavalier pairs inevitably fall into this dynamic.
* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Just as Gideon and Harrow seem to have reached a more comfortable place in their relationship, they have an explosive falling-out [[spoiler:after the deaths of the Fourth.]] They reconcile for good shortly before the climactic confrontation of the book.
* BuildingOfAdventure: Nearly all of book one takes place inside the mysterious, abandoned [[BigFancyCastle Canaan House]].
* CameBackStrong: Implied to be the case for the Emperor, after the Great Resurrection that ascended him to godhood.
* CassandraTruth: Harrow repeatedly expresses her distrust of the Seventh House, much to Gideon's exasperation. [[spoiler:Guess who turns out to be behind all the murders?]]
* CastFromHitPoints: Necromancers are often drawing from their own [[LifeEnergy thanergy and/or thalergy]] to power the bulk of their magic.
* ChekhovsSkill: Psychometry, the Sixth House's knack for reading and tracing the echoes of life that death leaves on objects. [[spoiler:It's how Palamedes realizes Dulcinea is behind the murders, when his hand brushes against the message on the wall she left in the last locked Lyctor room.]]
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Gideon. Much to Harrow's chagrin.
* CooldownHug: Gideon gives a crushing one to [[spoiler:Harrow, when she has a total breakdown after laying bare her soul and demanding Gideon to strike her down for everything she'd done to her.]]
* CreepyBasement: The locked lower levels of Canaan House where the Lyctor challenges are located.
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Protesilaus. And Teacher and the other two priests. And the real Dulcinea Septimus.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Most notably, Gideon, Harrow, and Camilla.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler:Cytherea killed the real Dulcinea Septimus en route to Canaan House, and took her place knowing that 1) no one had actually met Dulcinea in person and 2) Seventh House heirs all look remarkably similar anyway.]]
* DeathOfAChild: Harrow notes the death of a baby always releases incredible amounts of necromantic power. [[spoiler:Her parents very much [[HumanSacrifice took advantage]] of this.]]
* DefrostingIceQueen: Harrowhark Nonagesimus. At the start of the book Gideon is actually certain she's incapable of crying.
* DemBones: Bone constructs are everywhere in an Empire of necromancers, but are the Ninth's specialty.
* DemonicPossession: Teacher warns something like this is bound to happen if you leave a soulless body in an insanely HauntedCastle for any amount of time. [[spoiler:Silas does not listen, and both he and Colum pay for it.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Gideon ''very much'' proves herself to be this by the end of the book, powering through grievous injuries [[spoiler:and facing down a quasi-immortal foe]].
* DisabilityAlibi: Dulcinea Septimus is not seen as a viable suspect for the murders considering her advanced blood cancer barely allows her to walk two paces on her own without collapsing in coughs.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Harrow was fond of doling these out to Gideon for her various escape attempts back in the Ninth. Examples included poisoning her food, and giving her frostbite by turning off the heating.
* TheDulcineaEffect: A prime target for this is the aptly named Dulcinea Septimus, thanks to her terminal illness. Gideon is compelled to protect her the second they meet. [[spoiler:And it turns out Palamedes Sextus has devoted his life to trying to rescue her from her illness ever since he began trading letters with her ten years ago. He never even needed to meet her in person to fall in love with her.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Harrowhark's parents, when she was ten. [[spoiler:They hanged themselves in front of her, and even meant for her to join them in the deed, because she committed the gravest possible sin by unlocking and entering the Locked Tomb containing TheAntichrist.]]
* DwindlingParty: [[spoiler:The body count begins with Magnus and Abigail, and only grows from there. By the end of the first book only four of the 18 main players of Canaan House are left standing.]]
* TheEmpire: The details are left vague, but it's clear the Nine Houses comprise a galactic Empire constantly waging war on... something. Gideon sarcastically uses the word "fascist" once but the politics of it aren't brought up again during the first book.
* FantasticScience: Necromancy is treated more like a science than anything else, requiring studying the proper theorems to pull off.
* FieryRedhead: Gideon Nav. Her hair color is mentioned by several characters.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Broadly speaking, Gideon is sanguine, Harrow is choleric, Palamedes is melancholic, and Camilla is phlegmatic.
* GlassCannon: Palamedes explicitly calls necromancers this. It's why they need cavaliers and other melee soldiers protecting them to be effective.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Gideon's corpse is still wearing a smile after she sacrifices herself and the battle is won.]]
* HauntedCastle: Canaan House, at least according to Teacher.
* HeldGaze: Gideon and Harrowhark do this a ''lot''.
* HeroicBSOD: Gideon gets one early on after [[HopeCrusher Harrow]] utterly destroys her plan to leave the Ninth House for good. She also experiences a briefer but more serious one after [[spoiler:she fails to prevent the deaths of Isaac and Jeannemary.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Palamedes Sextus detonates himself in an attempt to bring down Cytherea. In the end, Gideon does this too. See HeroicSuicide below.]]
* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:What Gideon does in the end, to save Harrow and Camilla. She skewers herself in the heart so Harrow can [[MergerOfSouls extract her soul]] and become a Lyctor powerful enough to kill Cytherea.]]
* HeroesPreferSwords: All the cavaliers have swords, technically, but Gideon has a special enthusiasm for them and is the only one to favor a longsword (a [[{{BFS}} Zweihander]], specifically) instead of a rapier.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Gideon did ''not'' have a good time growing up in the Ninth as a universally reviled indentured servant. She's mostly blase about it, but it gets PlayedForDrama later, especially when it comes to her twisted and entangled history with Harrow.
* HolierThanThou: The defining characteristic of the zealous Eighth House, and its heir Silas Octakiseron exemplifies this perfectly.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The real reason Harrow is so powerful. Before conceiving her, her parents sacrificed 200 infants and children of their own House in a ritual to ensure Harrow would be a necromancer, and an immensely talented one.]]
* IconicItem: Gideon's sunglasses. She tends to wear them even when it's dark.
* IllGirl: The sweet, airy Dulcinea Septimus, who has advanced blood cancer and was not expected to live past 25.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Terminally ill Dulcinea is prone to coughing [[BloodFromTheMouth blood]].
* IndenturedServitude: Gideon spent her life an indentured servant of the Ninth House, as they were the ones who raised her since infancy.
* InSeriesNickname: Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions she uses her proper first name.
* InterrogatingTheDead: This is supposedly the Fifth House's necromantic specialty. [[spoiler:It's part of the reason why Abigail was Cytherea's first victim.]]
* ItsAllMyFault: Gideon is very prone to this, most notably [[spoiler:when it comes to the deaths of Isaac and Jeannemary. She also reveals to Palamedes that for seven whole years, she's blamed herself for Harrow's parents' suicides and believes it almost justifies Harrow's torment of her.]]
* LamePunReaction: Nobody but Coronabeth reacts to Gideon and Magnus's IncrediblyLamePuns with anything but disgust.
* LifeEnergy: Thalergy (life energy) and thanergy (death energy) are both important when it comes to fueling necromancy. The Second House specializes in draining thanergy from their dying enemies and using it to bolster the life energy of their cavaliers: getting drained of either your thanergy or thalergy is supposed to be an enormously agonizing process.
* LivingBattery: The Eighth House, whose necromantic specialty is soul siphoning, has a reputation for breeding their cavaliers to basically be this for the necromancers. The avulsion room challenge is also about turning a cavalier into this. Gideon lets herself be a battery for Harrow twice, but Harrow refuses to siphon from her again the third time [[spoiler:after seeing what happened to [[DemonicPossession Colum]].]]
* MadeOfIron: Gideon's unusual durability is remarked upon a few times. She survives the extended siphoning in the avulsion room which Palamedes says ought to have given her permanent brain damage if not outright killed her. [[spoiler:She also survived being exposes to nerve gas for ''ten minutes'' as an infant, when Harrow's parents tried to sacrifice her along with all other 200 children in the nursery.]]
* MagicKnight: The Lyctors are this [[spoiler:because becoming a Lyctor requires a necromancer to consume and integrate the soul of their cavalier, gaining the prowess of both.]]
* ManySpiritsInsideOfOne: [[spoiler:It's revealed Teacher is in fact a thousand souls stuffed into one corpse, the result of some horrific Canaan House experiment. This also happens briefly to Colum, as a number of malignant forces possess his unoccupied body while Silas was siphoning from him, leading to some very disturbing BodyHorror and both Silas and Colum's deaths.]]
* MergerOfSouls: [[spoiler:Becoming a Lyctor more or less boils down to this, requiring the necromancer to extract, consume, and successfully integrate the soul of their cavalier. It kills the cavalier in the process, but if Ianthe's [[FightingFromTheInside struggle]] with Naberius Tern's soul is anything to go by, something of the cavalier still lives on inside the necromancer.]]
* MindMeld: The first Lyctor challenge Harrow and Gideon undertake involves this. Harrow also uses this ability to access Palamedes's photographic memory of a key he wants Harrow to recreate.
* MoralEventHorizon: Harrow's parents crossed this long ago [[spoiler:when they sacrificed 200 children, an entire generation of their House, in a ritual to ensure Harrow would be born a necromancer. Harrow says she's aware nothing she does can ever justify the crime of her existence. As far as her parents are concerned, Harrow herself crossed this by entering the Locked Tomb, so much so that they were DrivenToSuicide and fully expected her to hang herself too.]]
* {{Necromancy}}: The Empire is built on this, and the royal scions of all eight Houses are powerful necromancers with different areas of specialization, ranging from [[DemBones bone constructs]] to [[InterrogatingTheDead spirit channeling]] to soul siphoning.
* NerdGlasses: Palamedes Sextus, heir of the bookish and logic-obsessed Sixth House, wears glasses with lenses as thick as glass found on ''spacecraft''.
* NeverOneMurder: [[spoiler:Abigail and Magnus are found dead at the end of Act Two, but they're far from the last to die. Protesilaus goes missing not long after, and it all escalates from there.]]
* OfCorpseHesAlive: Hilariously, Harrow has gotten away with doing this with her dead parents for ''seven years'', telling people her parents have taken a vow of silence, among other things. A more serious version occurs with [[spoiler:Protesilaus, the very boring Seventh cav who turns out to be a corpse perfectly preserved and puppeted by necromantic forces. Harrow is one of the only people to pick up on it right away, having had experience with her parents.]]
* OurSoulsAreDifferent
* ParentalSubstitute: The Fifth House pair Abigail and Magnus seem to be this for the Fourth House kids Isaac and Jeannemary. Gideon's tough old mentor Aiglamene, who taught her swordplay, is also the closest thing Gideon has ever had to a parental figure.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Harrow, [[DontYouDarePityMe mortified 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.]]
* PolarOppositeTwins: Coronabeth and Ianthe, the heirs of the Third House. Corona is beautiful, colorful, and bubbly, while Ianthe is creepy, grey, quiet and--when she does speak--extremely vicious and rude. [[spoiler:It's revealed that Corona is not a necromancer at all, while Ianthe is so powerful she was able to cover for Corona and pretend to be two necromancers their whole lives.]]
* PowerStrainBlackout: There are a few times when Harrow passes out after overextending herself with her magic.
* PsychicNosebleed: "Blood sweat" is a very common side effect of necromancy, and Harrow frequently gets this along with nosebleeds, blood from the eyes, and even exploded blood vessels when really letting loose with her magic.
* PungeonMaster: Gideon and Magnus. Gideon even says she assumes puns are automatically funny.
* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: "Dulcinea", who is actually Cytherea the First, one of the Emperor's first Lyctors and over 10,000 years old.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The girl]] sealed inside the Locked Tomb is this, at least according to Empire religion.
* SquishyWizard: Necromancers. Immensely powerful, but pretty much universally out of shape and physically fragile.
* TeenGenius: Harrowhark. Palamedes is also only 20 during the story, and already the Master Warden of the Library, so it can be assumed he was, too.
* 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.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Cytherea. She bitterly warns Palamedes and Gideon that Lyctorhood is not worth it. Notably, becoming TheAgeless didn't cure her cancer, only blocked off death as a potential escape from the pain.]]
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Both times Harrow actually calls Gideon by her first name instead of "Griddle" or [[LastNameBasis Nav]], Gideon calls her out on it. The first time happens when she's scared Gideon is about to die, and the second occurs when she asks Gideon to make her [[ThePromise an important promise]] after a heart-to-heart.
