NOTE: Due to the large amount of reveals regarding the Sixth, this page contains unmarked spoilers for all works in the series, including Nona the Ninth.
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Palamedes
Palamedes Sextus
HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SIXTH, MASTER WARDEN OF THE LIBRARY
The youngest ever Master Warden of the Library, and leader of the Sixth House.
- Afterlife Antechamber: As part of his Resurrection Gambit, he created a bubble anchored to the Riverbank that preserves him from properly entering it, and spent eight months clinging to his remains while extremely bored.
- Berserk Button: Hurting the people he cares about is a pretty big one. He shouts at Judith and publicly humiliates her after her plan gets Camilla injured in an unnecessary duel. Later on in the same book, he turns himself into a human bomb by detonating his thanergy reserves in an attempt to kill Cytherea, who murdered Dulcinea.
- Bodyguard Crush: While he was deeply in love with Dulcinea from a young age, he's still a "perfect fool" for Camilla, who regards him as tending to overreact in defense of her. He's joked about losing her to the Alexandrites, the Sixth House category for attractive and competent people, and comments on missing her bitterly due to their Lyctoral status in Nona the Ninth.
- The Chains of Commanding: His role as the Warden of the Sixth butts up against the violent and unstable political realities of non-Empire planets after he convinces the Sixth to defect from the Empire, while also wanting to take responsibility for the remaining Cohort members driven mad by Number Seven, and the 9 million residents and refugees of New Rho; trying to balance and care for everyone in that equation is something he and Camilla refuse to give up on, even as Pyrrha calls it hopelessly idealistic.
- Chekhov's Skill: Palamedes spends much of his time at Canaan House picking up thanergetic traces with his psychometry and commenting on them. His psychometry ends up being how Cytherea's true identity is revealed, after he accidentally touches a message she'd written.
- Determinator: Most people dismiss as impossible his method of tethering himself to the Riverbank and holding on with sheer bloody-mindedness for months on end, given a revenant would eventually lose focus. Palamedes and Camilla know first hand just how much of a problem that kind of focus can be.
- Face Death with Dignity: The last time he's seen in life, he gives Gideon an honest smile, and he's obscured from sight while he confronts "Dulcinea" before committing a Heroic Suicide.
- Fictional Disability: His presence in Nona mirrors one; due to the proximity of Number Seven, and his resurrection inside Camilla being only a very partial Lyctorhood, he's only able to surface inside Camilla for a few minutes at a time without going mad or causing her body pain. Although difficult to deal with, Palamedes refuses to compromise on the time limit for risk of hurting Camilla. It's eventually removed when they complete their Lyctoral bond and fuse souls.
- Final Speech: Doubling as a Shut Up, Hannibal! speech to Cytherea while enacting his Heroic Suicide.
- Gets a second with Camilla before their deaths and rebirth as Paul.
- Foil: Harrow's primary counterpart. Like Harrow, he became the head of his House at a young age, and is one of the few necromancers able to match her in both genius and smugness, but unlike Harrow, he's a well adjusted and compassionate person. Their specialties also parallel one another, with Palamedes being a spirit magician who studied medicine while Harrow is classic bone adept. Most blatantly, they both also fell in all consuming love with someone unattainable when they were young and would use that devotion to drive them forward for years. Or, as Gideon puts it: "You're both into old dead chicks." Ianthe, being facetious, outright calls Harrow his distaff counterpart in Nona.
- Forgets to Eat: He's very skinny, and Camilla notes that it's a pain to get him to eat when he's focused on something. Even death doesn't solve the issue, as he gets too distracted to eat Camilla's breakfast while talking with Nona and Pyrrha at the beginning of Nona.
- Friendly Rivalry: Develops one with Harrow in the later portions of Gideon the Ninth that continues beyond the end of the book; both of them effusively praise the other as brilliant, while striving to outdo one another, with their arguments serving both as academic disagreements and attempts to push the other past their limitations. In Harrow the Ninth, Harrow even admits that while she's the better necromancer, he's the better person, and is relieved he's not around at points to observe how slow she is to understanding.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Detonates his thanergy reserves in an attempt to kill Cytherea. It doesn't initially work, but is critical to slowing her down enough that the others can finish her off.
- Insufferable Genius: When he and Harrow are working together they compete over this position.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Although he has a long and complicated history with Dulcinea, he is never rude to Gideon, despite Dulcinea's obvious interest in her, and his obvious interest in Dulcinea. He tells Cam that he is only happy to see Dulcinea with someone who can make her laugh. When recounting his history with Dulcinea to Cytherea, Pal says that he always completely understood that the intensity of his feelings didn't mean she, older and far more aware of her own situation than he was, had to reciprocate.
- The Leader: As Master Warden, he's not merely the heir of the Sixth but the actual leader. He's noted as being very unlike the Sixth in that he's relaxed and approachable, and he ends up taking on a leadership role at Canaan House.
- Continues in Nona; despite being only present for less than an hour a day, Camilla's unwavering loyalty to him and his role as Warden mean that although Pyrrha offers up plenty of criticism, he serves as the leader of Nona's family.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Camilla. They've known each other all their lives, are completely loyal to one another, and trust each other implicitly. It's less platonic on Camilla's side, as she's carries romantic feelings for Palamedes, but both of them recognize that Palamedes doesn't reciprocate.
- Meaningful Name: Palamedes was one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan War, and an archtypal example of a Genius Bruiser. Muir notes he was almost named after the far better known Diomedes, who features prominently in The Iliad being favored by Athena and going on to other notable events after the Trojan war, but ultimately she changed it for the joke Gideon makes about his name.
- The Medic: He has focused his studies on the distinctly non-necromantic medical sciences, making him the go-to medic of Canaan House. His medical knowledge of Seventh House health issues is critical to inflicting "turbo-cancer" on Cytherea later, which she doesn't have time to cure and which disrupts her usual healing factor enough that Harrow can defeat her.
- Mundane Utility: Though his studies in medicine are not actually necromantic in nature, his Psychometry helps perform quick medical assessments without specialized equipment.
- Nerd Glasses: His lenses are as thick as glass found on spacecraft. Also, he's a nerd. Even after his death and resurrection inside Camilla's body without the physical need for glasses, he complains of a reflexive need to press something up his nose constantly, so he and Camilla have taken to wearing Gideon's sunglasses.
- Nice Guy: His defining attribute as a character. Initially, he's almost as fixated on becoming Lyctor as Harrow is, but it doesn't stop him from being a very fair-minded, compassionate, and decent person, which extends to everyone around him (most of the time), being especially protective of Camilla. He also rejects Lyctorhood as Cytherea and Ianthe describe it, as he would never consume Camilla's soul, though he's more enthusiastic about the possibility of a perfect Lyctorhood. Harrow even describes their Friendly Rivalry by saying she is the better necromancer, but he is the better person.
- Not Enough to Bury: He died by detonating his thanergy reserves all at once, and when Harrow encounters his coffin in Harrow the Ninth, all she notes in the coffin is shards of bone and ash, barely anything like a corpse. When Camilla returns with a fragment of his skull, Gideon's narration inside Harrow observes how utterly painstaking it must have been to identify and glue together slivers of bone no larger than fingernail clippings.
- Photographic Memory: Of course he has one.
- Precocious Crush: When he was eight, he began trading letters with a 15-year-old Dulcinea and fell in love with her, though he knew he was too young for her at the time. He's never really gotten over it either, although he mostly just wants Dulcinea to be happy.
- Psychometry: The Sixth House’s necromantic specialty, reading and tracking the echoes that death leaves on objects. Palamedes himself is particularly skilled with it, as he had to pass exams requiring it to become the Sixth House's heir.
- Rage Breaking Point: While he gets frustrated with others at multiple points, he only ever outright loses his temper at the Second for needlessly challenging him and getting Camilla and Marta wounded, and his explosive, furious outburst stuns everyone in the room into silence.
- Resurrection Gambit: He planned for his death, preparing to make himself a revenant. His suicide had a secondary effect of preserving him in a bubble inside the River, to be recovered by Camilla later. The Stinger of Harrow the Ninth reveals he managed to become a very partial Lyctor alongside Camilla.
- The Rival: Even before she leaves the Ninth House, Harrow sees the Sixth as the biggest threat out of all the Houses. The feeling is mutual, as he quickly comes to view Harrow as the biggest threat and unknown at Canaan House, and remains competitive with her, though never openly antagonistic (unlike Harrow). Ultimately ends up as a subversion, as they quickly become allies with a healthier academic rivalry and eventually become true friends.
- Single-Target Sexuality: He's loved Dulcinea ever since he was a child, and she's the primary reason he drove himself to become the Master Warden at such a young age, even if he recognized she never truly reciprocated.
- The Smart Guy: Unlike the other Houses who inherit their titles by blood, the Sixth House chooses its heir through a series of entrance exams; exams that Palamedes was the youngest to ever pass by years and years.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Palamedes is impatient with people who don't at least try to keep up with him. Even before his Rage Breaking Point he displays great annoyance as things that seem self-evident to him are surprises to others.
- Subverted in Nona; with someone who genuinely doesn't understand things as quickly as others, or asks questions repeatedly because she needs to be reassured, Palamedes is surprisingly patient and gentle in repeating the same answers over and over.
- Teen Genius: He made the rank of Scholar by the time he was thirteen (his mother, who made it at fifteen, is already considered exceptional) and it's noted that even among the Sixth he's considered a genius despite being only 20. He also made it through the exams to become heir to the Sixth at the same age, beating out multiple other (much older) candidates.
- Tranquil Fury: He lets Cytherea ramble about her motives for a few minutes. He then tells her that he was only giving her a chance to "justify murdering innocent children" to give him time to enhance the cancer inside of her, and then explains how he's about to blow himself up. He says this as simply and calmly as if he were cleaning his glasses.
- Pal is annoyed when We Suffer describes the Canaan House incident as taking out high-ranking House personnel but, either having more perspective on how non-House people regard the Cohort or because We Suffer hadn't done it herself, leaves it at insisting that those personnel had included fourteen-year-olds.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: His defining physical feature is a pair of clear and bright grey eyes, which are beautiful enough that several different narrators throughout the series comment on their beauty repeatedly; naturally, once he becomes a Lyctor with Camilla, he loses them for her soil-colored brown-grey eyes.
- When She Smiles: His normally gaunt appearance lightens considerably when he smiles, though he only does so rarely.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: He's stunned when Harrow tells him that he's been dead for eight months, having believed it would only take her a week at most to contact him.
Camilla
Camilla Hect
CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, WARDEN'S HAND OF THE LIBRARY
The cavalier primary to Palamedes, and Warden’s Hand of the Library. The first-person narrator of The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex.- Action Girl: A prerequisite of being cavalier primary, even in a house like the Sixth, but Camilla sticks out for being almost as skilled a Master Swordswoman as Gideon and one of the very few people able to fight Lyctors without necromancy. All the more notable because the Sixth is a library house where cavaliers usually get more academic (or erotic poetry) training than sword training, making her skill and dedication all the more notable.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her fighting style is compared by Gideon to a grease fire: leaving a lot of openings but moving quickly with no-holds barred, with the goal of winning a fight as quickly as possible. The combination makes her a ferocious fighter, but means she carries the risk of being bested by someone with greater technical skill or winning but getting hurt in the process.
- Badass Bookworm: Camilla looks like a librarian, can keep up with Palamedes' analysis without dropping a beat, and grew up in the Sixth House, which has a reputation for cavaliers somewhere between laughable and non-existent. Despite this, it is a huge mistake to underestimate her combat capabilities.
- Bodyguard Crush: It's heavily implied she's been in love with Palamedes since they were children, and that she's become as excellent of a cavalier as she is to stay by his side forever, even if she knows he'll never reciprocate her feelings in that way.
- The Champion: Out of all the cavalier primaries, she perhaps embodies the best of a cavalier, being a superb fighter, smart in her own right, being able to restrain her necromancer's bad habits, and above all else, is completely loyal to him.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Throughout Gideon the Ninth, she suggests having a low opinion of Dulcinea, who Palamedes loves and who she loves in turn. It ends up downplayed, as Dulcinea is as much a friend to her as she is to Palamedes, and she is only hurt on Palamedes' behalf that Cytherea in her disguise as Dulcinea acts as if they are strangers.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Her eyes are a dark brown-grey to emphasize her calm dependability. They're often compared to frost-covered soil or stone. In Nona the Ninth, as Palamedes achieves a partial Lyctorhood with her, her natural eye color becomes his original one; combined with her general demeanor falls into Icy Gray Eyes.
- Combat Parkour: In her introduction, when disarmed by Gideon, Camilla kicks her dagger back into her hand and does a backwards handspring going down stairs. Gideon is thoroughly impressed.
- Combat Pragmatist: Camilla has trained to fight like a warrior. She's prepared to fight for Palamedes on battlefields with real stakes, not just the performative duels most of the cavaliers are used to; when injured by Marta in a duel, her reaction is to snarl, dislocate her arm, and twist it until Judith's forced to call mercy.
- Cool Big Sis: Effectively serves as a mother or older sister figure to Nona, being the stern member of her family compared to the more indulgent Pyrrha and the teacherly Palamedes; Nona even directly describes her as "the person who takes care of her". What keeps her from being the Team Mom is that she doesn't have the same relationship with Pyrrha, who treats her more as a rebellious and idealistic teenager a few years too late, or Palamedes, who she still serves as cavalier to.
- Courtly Love: She's spent her whole life pining over Palamedes and performing heroic feats as part of her literally Undying Loyalty to him, knowing full well he will never return her feelings. Their status as necromancer heir and his cavalier even echoes the archetypal Lady and Knight.
- Crazy-Prepared: She carries a lot of equipment around at all times just in case Palamedes might undertake an impromptu investigation or be called on for medical knowledge, ranging from practical things such as water and a torch to measuring tapes and medical equipment. She even briefly considers carrying around a full microscope.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not nearly as much as Gideon and Harrow, but she has her moments of dry wit. Her very first lines in the series are sarcastic responses to Palamedes being fixated on small details at Canaan House that she clearly thinks are irrelevant.
- Dual Wielding: She's excellent at the rapier and knife, and is skilled with a number of other weapons, but her preferred weapons of choice are dual shortswords.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Crown tries to use "Millie" for her, which she hates ferociously. Crown is able to use this to confirm her suspicions that she's managed to resurrect Palamedes when he fails to react to it like Camilla should.
- Elemental Motifs: Frozen soil and stone; Camilla is practical and sensible and dependable, superficially chilly and aloof, but caring underneath it.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first time Gideon encounters the Sixth separately from the rest of the Houses establishes that Camilla is a Deadpan Snarker, completely loyal to Palamedes, and an extremely skilled cavalier.
- Eye Color Change: Her dark brown-grey eyes are replaced with Palamedes' grey eyes in The Stinger of Harrow the Ninth, revealing she found a way to become a form of Lyctor with Palamedes.
- Foil: Gideon's primary counterpart. They're both sarcastic, highly skilled cavaliers (unexpectedly so, for their Houses) who are primarily trained in weapons other than the rapier and who are totally devoted to their necromancer (eventually), while also being in (seemingly, at least) unrequited love with them. However, Camilla is relentlessly stoic and quiet compared Gideon's talkative Sad Clown.
- Fragile Speedster: Her greatest attribute as a fighter is being blindingly quick. However, this speed comes at the cost of her fighting style having many openings that an experienced fighter can exploit, meaning that she takes a lot of damage in the process against opponents that she doesn't overwhelm immediately.
- Heroic RRoD: Having achieved a strange and partial Lyctorhood with Palamedes in Nona the Ninth comes with physical consquences, as Palamedes uses the principles of Lyctorhood in novel and untested ways, which Pyrrha, one of the designers of the Eightfold, berates him for, as it's slowly killing Camilla. Extensive switching back and forth between their souls leaves Camilla with severe exhaustion, and whenever they coexist in the same body at the same time, the resulting thanergy shock leaves Camilla with a severe blood sweat and near inability to move.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: While she's tremendously skilled with her rapier and knife, her primary weapons are actually dual shortswords, which she only fights with when she truly needs to do so.
- In-Series Nickname: Palamedes almost always refers to her as "Cam", apparently having picked it up from Dulcie. Gideon picks up on it as well in the final chapters of Gideon the Ninth.
- Kissing Cousins: Downplayed and subverted at that; it's heavily implied that due to the Sixth's limited genetic pool, Camilla and Palamedes are too genetically related to be allowed to have children together. However, Palamedes doesn't love her romantically, and Camilla respects that their relationship is largely platonic.
- Last-Name Basis: Almost never refers to Palamedes by name, instead using his formal title of Warden, or Scholar in The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex. The sole time she does so in the series is seemingly to tell Gideon his name (and therefore the audience), though she uses it in sporadically in The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex.
- Meaningful Name: Camilla is named from the swift warrior princess of the Volsci from The Aeneid, and was picked to match the syllable sound in Palamedes' name.
- The Medic: Not as much as Palamedes, but she assists him in his medical evaluations and has enough proficiency in her own right to supervise emergency surgery.
- Put on a Bus: She appears only briefly in Harrow the Ninth, appearing before Harrow midway through the book before reappearing in The Stinger.
- The Quiet One: She's not prone to talking freely, preferring simple direct statements, though she loosens up a bit around people she trusts, such as Palamedes.
- The Reliable One: Camilla is quiet and can easily fade into the background amid the colorful cast of the series, but she is also levelheaded and hypercompetent and can always be counted on to get the task done.
- The Stoic: She rarely emotes, even compared to the stoicism of most cavaliers. When she does it's usually resigned exasperation with the antics of those around her, or small signs of affection for those she cares about; even her agony at Palamedes' (temporary) death is kept tightly restrained. The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex indicates she was like this even as a teenager, though she and Pal do end that story doubled over in laughter at the aforementioned doctor's name.
- Not So Stoic: Bursts into fierce and violent tears in the final moments of her life as Palamedes says his goodbyes to her when they prepare to complete their Lyctoral fusion, out of relief and joy and love.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Her reaction to Palamedes' death is muted by her drive to fulfill his Resurrection Gambit, but it's clear that the fear of failure and pain of losing the Warden deeply affects her during the events of Harrow and As Yet Unsent:Camilla Hect was a closed object, with locks and snaps; she had an expression like the rock before the Tomb, inexorable, giving nothing away. But her eyes—her eyes were dark as the grit mixed with the soil, neither grey nor brown but both. They were the eyes of a winter season without any promise of spring. In comparing the eyes to the face, you saw a zipped-up agony.And she said, with that same, dull, blank, diamond-hard pain: "The Cohort took the rest of him away. And I don't know where they have put him."
- Uncertain Doom: She's seen alive and badly wounded before Gideon's suicide, but Harrow's narration loses track of her, and the Emperor’s forces find no trace of her at Canaan House, alive or dead. Harrow the Ninth reveals that she survived, and is a member of Blood of Eden.
- Undying Loyalty: She's utterly devoted to Palamedes' wellbeing and goals. As demonstrated by The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex, this has been true since they were both children.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Downplayed and ultimately subverted. She has known Palamedes since they were both young, and has watched him pine helplessly over Dulcinea for all those years, but the love between them is no less real and valuable, and the two of them ultimately complete their Lyctoral bond in a rushed and informal ceremony evocative of a wedding.
- When She Smiles: Only very rarely smiles, but her fierce and brief smiles lighten her face considerably, and make her look quite a bit like Palamedes. In Nona the Ninth, Nona loves Camilla's smile ferociously and treasures every single one, knowing exactly how precious her smile is.
- Worthy Opponent: Gideon, having faced only the likes of Magnus and Naberius by the time she meets Camilla in Gideon the Ninth, comes to see her as one of these after their battle.Holy shit. Here was a warrior, not just a cavalier. Gideon was suddenly fighting for her life and exhilarated by it.
Paul
Paul
"But there are more worlds than this. Come with us. We are the love that is perfected by death—but even death will be no more; death can also die."
The Master Warden of the Sixth, Palamedes Sextus, the greatest necromancer of his generation, cannot accept Lyctorhood as the Lyctors of old knew it, as Ianthe Tridentarius committed it, as Harrowhark Nonagesimus had it thrust upon her: an act of sacrifice too simple and too cruel to be the end point of a necromancer and his cavalier. Throughout the series he comes to a different view, that true Lyctorhood is a mutual sacrifice and rebirth, a Merger of Souls he deems a Grand Lysis. He and Camilla love each other too much to accept anything less. In order to bring Nona home and at long last unlock the Tomb, to save Camilla's life, and to perfect their love, Palamedes and Camilla opt to do the best and truest and kindest thing that they can do, and perform their Grand Lysis, dying in the process to create Paul.
- Dissonant Serenity: Paul is calm and confident and slightly distant from the finale of Nona the Ninth, even as Nona is dying and the Ninth is in mortal peril from the arrival of the devils.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Early on, Nona recounts a flashback to an incident where she and Camilla were ambushed by Merv Wing Edenites, causing Camilla-and-Palamedes to both be present at the same time. Nona recognizes them as someone new, like she does Paul later, but the process nearly kills Camilla with resulting thanergy shock.
- Exotic Eye Designs: As a fused soul, they have an entirely different type of eye than other Lyctors in the series, with Palamedes' grey irises and Camilla's slate eyes in place of the pupil.
- Meaningful Rename: As they formed a complete Lyctoral fusion, the resulting person is neither Palamedes Sextus nor Camilla Hect; they adopt the name Paul, and politely reject attempts to add anything else. Kiriona still interjects to find a new way to make their name an innuendo.
- The Medic: Naturally, as a gestalt of two people who were both medically trained, Paul is as well; serving as both doctor and assistant at the same time, with the benefit of Lyctoral healing.
- Merger of Souls: Palamedes' conception of a true Lyctorhood is what he deems "a Grand Lysis": a complete fusion of two souls, a literal end point of "One flesh, one end." The Sixth ultimately choose to complete their bond, to transport Nona through the River, to open the Tomb, to save Camilla's life, and as a grand act of undying love. Paul is the resulting person, not Palamedes or Camilla, but someone new; Paul has both of their memories and can think like either of them if they wish, but chooses deliberately to go forward as a new person.
- Permafusion: Applies to all Lyctors by some definition, but Paul is the only real example we see of both halves making a new whole (as opposed to two souls occupying one body, or one soul being subsumed by the other).
- Pronoun Trouble: As a new person born from a Merger of Souls and a relatively short time to get used to it, Paul switches between "we" and "I".
- Super-Strength: Paul is noted to be far stronger than Camilla's body has any right to be, and they easily roll away barriers to the Tomb and carry Crux, a massive man in full armor.
- That Man Is Dead: They are Palamedes-and-Camilla, but both Camilla and Palamedes are dead. Nona instantly recognizes Paul as Camilla once recognized her, as someone new; when people reflexively address them by either name, Paul is careful to refer to both of them in the past tense.
