NOTE: Several trope listings are spoiler entries. Several characters are Walking Spoilers and have spoiler tags removed.
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Two is for discipline, heedless of trial;
Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;
Four for fidelity, facing ahead;
Five for tradition and debts to the dead;
Six for the truth over solace in lies;
Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;
Eight for salvation no matter the cost;
Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost.
Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;
Four for fidelity, facing ahead;
Five for tradition and debts to the dead;
Six for the truth over solace in lies;
Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;
Eight for salvation no matter the cost;
Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost.
The Empire of the Nine Houses
In General
- The Empire: Duh. In a bit of a twist, while the Empire rules over enormous swathes of territory, only the Dominicus system is actually considered part of it. The "shepherded" territories are just temporary sources of Thanergy that will burn out soon.
- Galactic Superpower: Played with. On one hand, it's not clear just how far the empire extends (though a brief Imagine Spot from Gideon describes her fighting battles "galaxies and galaxies" away) and no other large interstellar civilizations ever get mentioned — the rest of humanity seems isolated to the planetary level, if even that (aside from Blood of Eden, a decentralized insurgency). On the other, the Nine Houses have a combined population of mere millions, which doesn't make for much of an army, and it seems they only control a relative handful of planets across those galaxies, the populations of which are constantly being resettled to other planets as they become unlivable thanks to thanergetic poisoning.
- Planet of Hats: An empire of several hats. Each of the nine planets making up its core provides a different specialized service for it, which in turn leads to them being stereotyped among other Houses.
The Cohort
The military arm of the Empire, a vast galaxy spannning armed force that draws from the Nine Houses.
- Child Soldiers: Very common. Some Houses seem to prefer fighters seek Cohort placement in their late teens or so but the Second and the Fourth take them very young. Isaac and Jeannmary were turned aside as too young at eleven, then for having mumps the next year, meaning they could have got in as twelve-year-olds. The Second takes them even younger, though into the "Junior Cohort Territorials" at first.
- Martyrdom Culture: To die in service and have your remains interred aboard the Mithraeum is considered possibly the highest honor one can receive. This goes double if you serve directly on God's flagship, leading to behavior that Mercymorn and even John himself find exasperating. This may be related to the fact that the Nine Houses makes mass death their starting priority during any invasion, to give their necromancers thanergy to work with; theirs or the enemy's, it doesn't really matter.
- Schizo Tech: The Cohort gets around aboard spacecraft capable of orbital bombardment and then lands troops who fight with swords. Not even sci-fi swords, just regular steel.
- Skeleton Motif: Cohort starships are covered in real, human bones.
The Ninth House
Keepers of the Locked Tomb, House of the Sewn Tongue, the Black Vestals
In General
The Ninth House is a house of secrets, a cloistered tomb tended by silent nuns and skeletal thralls. Tasked with a dreadful duty by the Emperor, the Ninth are treated with fear and suspicion, but command respect.
- The Alcatraz: The prison operated by the Cohort near the Ninth's surface is described as only holding the worst criminals of the Empire.
- Apocalypse Cult: Ninth religion, practiced in the deepest, darkest hole of the Empire is an Inversion; despite being swathed in black, manipulating skeletons, and even prone to Human Sacrifice, they worship fervently to stop the apocalypse, praying over the grave of God's greatest enemy and treating its inevitable reawakening as the end of everything. Ultimately subverted. It's actually just a very abstracted Cargo Cult, as their entire sect of Empire religion was based on a misconception from the very beginning, as the Tomb is impossible to open without the blood of God.
- Combat Pragmatist: Despite being not as tied to the Cohort as the martial Second and Fourth, politeness and rules are something the Ninth has never paid attention to, and every fighter from the Ninth is shown being willing to rely on tricks, fighting dirty, and pressing every advantage to win.For all its mouldering brittleness, the Ninth was hard as iron.
- Dem Bones: The Ninth is the only house to specialize in bone magic, and makes extensive use of skeletal constructs.
- The Dreaded: The whole "skeleton tomb cult" thing gives them a certain reputation, even in a galaxy spanning Empire of necromancy. The other Houses' reactions to being near a member of the Ninth in full religious garb generally ranges from off-put to openly fearful.
- Dying Town: The Ninth is on its last legs at the beginning of Gideon the Ninth: impoverished and decrepit, populated almost entirely by the dead and the elderly soon-to-be-dead, and with their necromantic bloodlines down to a single family with no viable candidates to continue it. The Ninth House could, at any time, request aid from the other Houses... but that would mean publicizing just how bad things things have gotten, and by the end of it they wouldn't be the Ninth House any more. The restoration of her house is part of why Harrow is desperate to become a Lyctor. Of course, the Ninth is dying primarily because Harrow's parents murdered an entire generation of children to ensure Harrow's birth. She does get her wish at the beginning of Harrow the Ninth, when the Emperor donates them several hundred healthy adults and teenagers he'd had in stasis since the Resurrection.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The classic Ninth appearance is this, with dark hair and eyes so dark they're very nearly black. It also very visibly marks the dark-skinned redhead Gideon Nav as someone not originally from the Ninth.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Invoked aesthetically. The Ninth is a dark hole in a dead planet where everyone's obsessed with worshipping a corpse; the climate of the Ninth ranges from frigid to frozen over. However their evillness, Human Sacrifice aside, is more vague.
- Elemental Motifs: Darkness, which is both an intentional religious choice and a practical reality of where the House is located and its poverty.
- Fantastic Religious Weirdness: In contrast to the religion of the broader Empire (which can generally be described as Catholicism with some quirks), Ninth religion is treated as an entirely different sect, or even a blasphemous cult. Those adhering to the faith of the Locked Tomb worship God and the corpse within the Tomb equally, praying fervently that the Tomb stays shut forever. Those more devoutly drawn to the faith wear ceremonial facepaint to mimic skulls (with an entire canon of differing paints of subtly different meanings), and dress in all black, and conceal their faces. The whole effect only serves to make them excessively creepy in the eyes of the Empire.
- Founder of the Kingdom: Downplayed. Anastasia, the Lyctor once from the Ninth and one of its first members, has a near mythical status in the modern day, with a monument to her reserved for the Ninth's greatest heroes. However, after an entire myriad, little memory remains other than the name and the monument, and Harrow is somewhat surprised and unsettled to find she existed at all.
- Innate Night Vision: Downplayed. There's not any magical or biological component, but due to the Ninth's location and poverty meaning it is extremely dark at all times, Niners are consequently much better than others at seeing in near total darkness; both Gideon and Harrow describe scenes in dim twilight as being as bright as full day to them. However, they can't see in complete darkness, and full sunlight takes them some time to adapt to.
- The Paranoiac: At their worst, the Ninth is obsessed with keeping irrelevant secrets, suspecting everyone of treachery at all times, and prone to massively inflating their own sense of importance. In the broader Empire, those who look past their reputation as creepy shadow cultists often find them obnoxiously cryptic and judgemental.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Tomb is the Can from the unknown enemy of God that lays inside, and the Ninth sprung up to worship at the threshold, which others find to be a heresy.
- Small, Secluded World: While those of the Ninth were once more involved in the Empire it is a part of, the House itself is implied to have always been a lonely dark hole in a distant part of the Empire, only sometimes taking pilgrims and letting the Cohort operate a prison on its surface, which is part of why they are widely feared in the Empire.
- Tongue-Tied: The Keepers of the Locked Tomb are not known as the House of the Sewn Tongue for nothing. The process entails magically replacing part of a Sewn Tongue's jaw, preventing them from discussing a forbidden topic completely.
Harrow's Parents
Pelleamena Novenarius & Priamhark Noniusvianus
THE REVEREND MOTHER AND FATHER OF DREARBURH
Harrowhark's parents and the current rulers of Drearburh are little more than figureheads, having been dead for the better part of a decade by the time Gideon the Ninth begins, leaving Harrow to puppet their corpses around to maintain appearances.- Abusive Parents: They raised Harrow to be intimately aware of what they did to concieve her, including leading her in 45 minutes of prayers every night about how she was a necromantic abomination made from the souls of 200 dead children and that she had to prove herself "worthy" of the genocide. Their emotional and mental abuse nearly drove Harrow to suicide at the ripe age of nine.
- Driven to Suicide: Hanged themselves when Harrow was ten years old, along with their cavalier Mortus. Right in front of Harrow, too, 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 this universe's equivalent to the The Antichrist.
- Meaningful Name: Priam was the king of the Trojans, who was murdered after watching his city fall to the enemy. "Pelleamena" is a female version of Peleus, the father of Achilles, which is fitting as Pelleamena is the mother of an incredibly talented necromancer who is nevertheless hamstrung by emotional turmoil.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: Harrow used necromancy to preserve their bodies (at least from the shoulders up) and has been puppeteering them ever since. She tells her subjects that her parents have taken a vow of silence, are fasting, and so on. Gideon is appalled no one has caught on. Ortus, it turns out, does know but has said nothing.
- My God, What Have I Done?: While they never seem to have been pleasant people, according to Crux, they used to be different before they killed an entire generation of the Ninth. Harrow can only ever recall them as exhausted and distant teachers more than parents, and it's heavily implied the lingering guilt was a factor in their suicides.
- Puppet King: Quite literally: see above. While they're still the rulers of Drearburh in name, Harrow controls them and everything else in practice.
- Would Hurt a Child: They were quite cruel to Gideon when she was young. They also tried to kill her as an infant, and did succeed in killing the other 200 babies and children of the House in a mass Human Sacrifice. Not to mention the fact they expected Harrow to kill herself along with them.
Aiglamene
Aiglamene
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD OF THE NINTH
The last soldier of the Ninth is one of its oldest members, and still fully capable of defending the Ninth by any means necessary. Served as Gideon's sword-master, and is the only person in the Ninth to treat her with anything other than disdain.- Handicapped Badass: She's an incredible swordswoman, but refuses to serve as Harrow's cavalier primary because she's also old as balls and has a not-quite-functional necromantic prosthesis replacing one of her legs.
- Master Swordsman: She's an extremely talented swordswoman and despite her age, she is capable enough with weapons as different as the rapier and zweihander to make Gideon into one of the best fighters in the history of the Ninth.
- Meaningful Name: "Aigla" comes from French for "eagle", befitting a sharp eyed and dangerous woman with a harsh appearance. And like several other Ninth characters, her name is nine characters long.
- Old Soldier: She's in her 80s, wizened and scarred, and still the most (and just about only) capable soldier Drearburh has, and fully capable of knocking Gideon to the floor in only a few moves.
- Parental Substitute: Though she would laugh her ass off at the suggestion, she's effectively the closest thing to a parent that Gideon had growing up, as the only person who saw her as anything more than a burden and a nuisance. Gideon, for her part, actually listens to Aiglamene, and treats her with a respect lacking for any other member of the Ninth House. And beyond her skill with a sword, some of Gideon's sheer stubbornness seems to have come from her.
- When Gideon returns to the Ninth as the corpse prince Kiriona, Aiglamene is furious that she's dead, and levels a Death Glare at Nona, who she believes is Harrowhark. Not knowing the reason behind it, she clearly feels that Harrow didn't keep her promise and is unhappy that Gideon is dead.
- Rugged Scar: Her whole head is comprised of "melty scars."
- Tough Love: She's the only adult in the Ninth House who cares about Gideon to any degree, but she's no softer for it. She treats her so gruffly that Gideon can't even conceive that Aiglamene could love her, and she at times hits or physically threatens Gideon. Still, it's clear she's invested in Gideon's wellbeing despite everything, and even stands up to Harrow on her behalf.
- Undying Loyalty: To Harrowhark. As much as she cares about Gideon, she won't stand for anyone disrespecting her Lady.
- With Due Respect: Aiglamene does, however, stand up to Harrow — and even puts her own honor on the line — to ensure Harrow will abide by her promise to set Gideon free after the Lyctor trials. When Gideon returns home nearly 2 years later, dead, she immediately prepares to tear into Harrow, until Kiriona informs her that Nona isn't the Reverend Daughter.
Crux
Crux
MARSHALL OF THE NINTH HOUSE
Ninth to the core, the Marshall is an unbelievably old man, and yet is still quick to violence and even quicker to rage, especially against any slight or disloyalty to the royal family of Drearbruh who he serves without question.- Flowery Insults: This and equally florid threats make up most of his dialogue.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Goads Kiriona/Gideon into killing him to open the Tomb to save Nona, and therefore Harrow's life, though he delivers a final parting insult to her in the process.
- Jerkass: He's rude to everyone but Harrow and absolutely delights in anything that makes Gideon suffer.
- Kick the Dog: Gideon died willingly to save Harrow and make her a Lyctor, lived anyways, and found herself Kiriona Gaia, the only child of God. Crux curses her with his last breath regardless, hating her even as she kills him by his own request."You remain—what you are. A worthless millstone hung about my darling's neck. You were born to make her suffer. You lived as you died Gideon Nav—a disappointment to me—and to God."
- Morality Pet: His treatment of Harrowhark is the sole indication he's capable of things like compassion and gentleness.
- Number Two: To Harrow. He's left in charge when Harrow and Gideon leave Drearburh.
- Old Retainer: He is ancient and certainly gives off these vibes in regards to Harrow's family.
- Parental Substitute: Harrow has some fond memories of him taking care of her after the death of her parents and the hallucination riddled fugue that she was in afterwards. In turn, Harrow used her magic to help prolong his life. Nona makes it clear he views her as practically his own daughter.
- Punny Name: "Crux" literally means "Cross", and he's always angry.
- Undying Loyalty: To Harrowhark, and the Ninth House in general. Harrow says he can't stand disloyalty, to the point that he blows up the shuttle stolen by Ortus and Glaurica for their audacity to abandon their duty.
Ortus
Ortus Nigenad
Matthias Nonius (Unmarked Spoilers)
Matthias Nonius
The greatest cavalier in the history of the Ninth, famous in death and immortalized, however poorly, in Ortus Nigenad's The Noniad.- Badass Boast: Prone to these in The Noniad. The real Nonius has some of his own.Abigail: I speak your name, Matthias Nonius, cavalier of the Ninth House. I charge you to protect the Reverend Daughter of Drearburh, and to slay her enemies.
Nonius: Waste not your breath. Such was my task when I lived; why now in my death would I need a reminder?
Harrow: Oh, God. - Badass Normal: Not a necromancer or gifted in magical arts, but is a good enough warrior to best the Sleeper and help drive off a Resurrection Beast in the afterlife. When he was alive, he fought alongside and against Gideon the First. Thatâs right, he fought a lyctor
- Expecting Someone Taller: Harrow's surprised that Nonius is actually fairly short after 18 books of Ortus constantly praising him. He's every bit as capable as The Noniad makes him out to be though.
- Famed In-Story: Even the other Houses recognize how legendary of a cavalier he was, and he's been literally worshiped within the Ninth in the past.
- Got Me Doing It: Speaks mostly in Ortus' meter when he's resummoned, as The Noniad warps the conditions of Harrow's Dream Land. He repeatedly asks why he's speaking in verse.
- Honor Before Reason: Part of the reason Harrow hates The Noniad is that Nonius is so tediously devoted to honor. The actual Nonius is as well, to a point. When the Sleeper's constant dirty fighting leads to his sword being knocked out of his hand, he stops trying to be honorable and quickly dismantles her.
- Tranquil Fury: When the Sleeper disarms him after he offers leniency to her, Nonius advances with a cold fury and completely destroys her.
- Walking Spoiler: The very fact that he appears in person is a spoiler. He returns as a ghost in Harrow's Dream Land at the climatic moment, fending off the Sleeper along with the other revenants.
The Locked Tomb (Unmarked Spoilers)
"The Body" / A.L. / Alecto the First
The Second House
The Emperor's Strength, House of the Crimson Shield, the Centurion's House
In General
The Second House is the militant strength of the Emperor. Deeply interwoven with the Cohort, they comport themselves with military rigor in all situations. Their fervent devotion to rank and order makes them prone to taking charge, often over the protestations of other houses.
- Child Soldiers: Judith joined the Emperor's service at six and the Junior Cohort Territorials at eleven, Marta at ten. Unlike what's expected from the Fourth they appear not to be shipped out to the front lines without several years of training first.
- Color Motif: Red and white, as a House of warriors.
- Hufflepuff House: The least detailed of the Houses as of yet.
- Magic Knight: The Lyctor who founded their house was unusually physically capable, and while mortal Second necromancers aren't on his level, Judith notes in As Yet Unsent that necromancers of the Second aren't as physically frail as those of other Houses.
- Proud Warrior Race: Their hat; while most Houses have strong ties to the Cohort, the Second is the Cohort. It's routine for children to join the Home Guard, and many ship out well before puberty, and they don't seem to have a formal heir, instead selecting Judith due to her suitability for the mission.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: The Second's necromancers specialty is draining the thalergy of the living, which they can then use to bolster the abilities of a cavalier.
Judith
Judith Deuteros
Marta
Marta Dyas
CAVALIER PRIMARY OF THE SECOND, RANKED FIRST LIEUTENANT OF THE COHORT
A cavalier with a fearsome reputation and a long partnership with her necromancer, Marta Dyas is the epitome of a Cohort cavalier, as decorated as she is dangerous.- Braids of Action: She has the same braids as her captain.
- Flat Character: Marta is a disciplined soldier who follows Judith's every order without question. Her few notable differences are a greater inclination to work with others, a strong sense of honor, and a keen eye for combat. Even returning in Harrow's Dream Land, she's still mostly devoted to her duty, though she does get a bit more chance to stand on her own. While she's still out of focus, she is very willing to work with others and put herself in danger and shows signs of a dry sense of humor. In As Yet Unsent Judith admits to having been in love with her and that Marta rebuffed her advances as improper.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After her brutal combat with Camilla, Marta's only reaction was requesting a cold beer afterward, and held no grudges against the Sixth later.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Harrow explicitly says that Marta's death meant nothing, and the realization that this is the case hits Judith very hard. Marta herself finds some purpose after her death by going to fight the Resurrection Beast with the Saint of Duty.
- Undying Loyalty: To her captain and the Cohort.
- The Worf Effect: Rare take on the trope. Marta is a veteran of the Cohort who has seen actual combat in service of the Emperor, and the Cohort itself considers her one of the best fighters in the Empire. She's fast, reactive, and can push through a lot of pain, but she is quickly and brutally defeated by Camilla, to show how skilled she is when she's not holding back. However, this is only relative to Camilla, who also manages to best *Cytherea* multiple times.
- Downplayed in Harrow the Ninth, with her being defeated by the Sleeper before Matthias Nonius is summoned. But she is shown to be *faster* and more accurate on the draw than even the legendary Commander Wake herself, and is overall one of the more effective fighters in the battle.
The Third House
Mouth of the Emperor, the Procession, House of the Shining Dead
In General
The Third House is the vanguard of trend in the Empire, setting fashion and sparking gossip with their every move. Not only do they spark rumors, they also diligently collect intelligence, both personal and political.
- The Beautiful Elite: Their reputation in the Nine Houses.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Their less savory reputation in the Nine Houses is one of constant scheming and plotting.
- Color Motif: Gold and purple, to match their nobility.
- Human Resources: Their necromantic specialty is being able to fully utilize the thanergy of corpses.
Coronabeth
Coronabeth Tridentarius
Ianthe
Ianthe Tridentarius
Naberius (Unmarked Spoilers)
Naberius Tern
CAVALIER PRIMARY OF THE THIRD, PRINCE OF IDA
Naberius the Third was born to a cavalier family of Resurrection purity, producing nothing but cavaliers for the past ten thousand years. Prince Tern himself is an almost peerless master of the rapier, but outside of formal duels between cavaliers, is brash and impulsive, used to a lifetime of royal treatment, and is almost inherently unlikable.- Achilles' Heel: While even Gideon acknowledges that he's extremely technically skilled at the rapier, he's actually one of the weaker fighters at Canaan House, as he's used to the structured fighting of tournaments and duels, while the serious cavaliers have no compunctions about fighting dirty and breaking any rules along the way. Judith's intelligence dossier explicitly notes this as his main weakness.
- Ambiguous Situation: The short story "The Unwanted Guest" reveals that his traits, memories, and opinions have been bleeding into Ianthe's since she ate him and so rather than existing seperately as fuel being burned he is comingled with her, to some extent indistinguishable.
- Blood Knight: Basically the only thing he cares about aside from the Third and his ego is fighting, and he constantly tries to rope other cavaliers into debates and discussions about tournaments and fighting styles.
- Butt-Monkey: He's constantly made fun of and humiliated by Gideon's narration, Ianthe, and Coronabeth.
- Child Soldiers: As a cavalier born to the role in a family that has provided cavaliers for millennia, multiple characters note that Naberius was likely handed a rapier the moment he left the cradle. Ianthe confirms it, saying he was assigned to her at birth.
- Everyone Has Standards: After Silas... acquires Dulcinea's keys Naberius responds with outrage, calling Silas a "callous bastard". Then again, Jeannemary then says he's just sorry he didn't think of it first, and he immediately threatens her.
- Fighting from the Inside: Comments from Ianthe and Cytherea indicate that what remains of his mind is fighting from within Ianthe throughout the finale of Gideon the Ninth, furious over his own murder. However he seems to have lost by the time Harrow the Ninth takes place, going unmentioned.
- The Fighting Narcissist: He clearly takes great pride in his appearance and his swordsmanship, though because of his personality, nobody pays much attention to the former. As for the latter, in an unusual take on the trope, his skill isn't at all flashy, but incredibly well trained and precise, though his arrogance hampers him greatly.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Used with a variation in Harrow the Ninth. Ianthe and Harrow rarely discuss Naberius except as brief asides or when Harrow is jabbing at Ianthe's murder of him, and Ianthe treats him as having been little more than a stepping stone. However, the Second-Person Narration mentions Naberius more frequently, because Gideon is the narrator, and she often remembers the dead of Canaan House and is a fellow cavalier besides. "The Unwanted Guest" has Ianthe discussing him more and saying that she was quite fond of him, in her way, but has no regrets.
- In-Series Nickname: Corona and Ianthe call him "Babs."
- In the Back: Ianthe stabs him in the back in order to absorb his soul and become a Lyctor.
- Jerkass: He is snobby, narcissistic, and perfectly willing to yell at the Fourth House kids.
- Meaningful Name: Naberius is a three-headed demon and alter ego of Cerberus from Ars Goetia.
- People Puppets: In Nona the Ninth, his corpse returns as a Remote Body being piloted by Ianthe to get around the looming presence of Number Seven and the madness it induces in necromancers. Though this lets her walk around right beneath a Resurrection Beast, it also greatly hampers her powers, horrifies Coronabeth, and makes Nona mistake Naberius for Ianthe, leading her to conclude that "he's" Corona's boyfriend. Palamedes later has a Battle in the Center of the Mind with Ianthe that has her ceding Naberius's body to him, at which point he spends several hours using him as his new body, until ultimately both he and Ianthe abandon it.
- Royal Brat: Naberius is petulant, whiny, and very insistent on his "prince" title.
- Smug Snake: He is supremely overconfident in his skills and his title, and is a jerk to everyone aside from Ianthe and Corona.Judith: "[Naberius] also has an extremely good opinion of himself and his swordplay, an opinion that Lt. Dyas notes occasionally aligns with reality."
- Undying Loyalty: Despite how they treat him, Naberius is unfailingly loyal to Ianthe and Coronabeth, but he becomes conflicted when the twins are quarreling with each other. The fact that he ultimately has to submit to Ianthe, knowing the truth of Corona's lack of necromancy, seems to privately makes him seethe. Ianthe tells Palamedes that Naberius was loyal to and worshipped Coronabeth even when it hurt him, but Ianthe was consistent.I ruled him through fear and poison and he relaxed into it like a hot bath.
- Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: It's noted that he's incredibly technically skilled and well-trained as a duelist: however, it's noted that he hasn't seen much genuine combat and is extremely arrogant to boot, hampering his abilities in a real fight. In his match with Gideon, he wins the duel, but she still knocks him down and takes him off-guard: Marta notes that while Naberius is the better duelist, Gideon is the better fighter.
- Worthy Opponent: A subversion: while he praised Gideon's skill to Corona in private, he remains condescending to her in public, albeit too intimidated to fight her. When Ianthe tells Palamedes what she thought of Gideon, Naberius's opinions bleed through without her noticing and she expounds on how he felt, and uses his speech patterns - he did not respect her the more for the fight.
The Fourth House
Hope of the Emperor, the Emperor's Sword
In General
The Fourth House is the vanguard of the Empire, first over the line on every battlefield as the Emperor wages war across the galaxy. Noble scions of the Fourth often find themselves in the field well before their sixteenth birthdays.
- Action Bomb: While they prefer to use others' corpses, they are very capable of blowing themselves up if needed.
- Cannon Fodder: Their reputation among the Nine Houses is of reckless wild acts to establish a front line for the Cohort. It's not unearned, but Isaac notes they try to be smart about it, since a death that doesn't help anything is just stupid.
- Child Soldiers: It's common for the Fourth to attempt to enlist as preteens. The Second accepts recruits even younger but then spends several years training them, while the Fourth are shipped out what seems to be quite fast.
- Color Motif: Navy, a martial color that match their profinity in spirit magic.
- Containment Field: The Fourth takes special care in crafting wards, and even goes so far as to ritually scarify them onto Cohort recruits before they're shipped out.
- Fearless Fool:Strengths: Bravery unfettered by common sense.
Weaknesses: Bravery unfettered by common sense. - Flesh and Bombs: They specialize in rapid thanergetic fission, turning corpses into bombs.
- Hufflepuff House: The second-least detailed House after the Second. It's even discussed in-universe, with the other Houses viewing the Fifth's close relationship towards the Fourth as an inevitable prelude to the Fourth becoming part of the Fifth.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Large families are the norm in the Fourth, to go with their reputation as Cannon Fodder; Isaac is the first of eight children and Jeanne is the second of six.
- Maurice Chevalier Accent: The Fourth are notably depicted as having stereotypical French accents in the audiobook versions of the series, presumably inspired by Jeannemary's name being French.
- Parental Abandonment: Most kids in the Fourth have lost one or both parents to some brave, suicidal deed on the front lines of the Cohort. It's even enforced in the latter case: Isaac's father died years prior to any of his eight children being born.
Isaac
Isaac Tettares
HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE FOURTH, BARON OF TISIS
The youngest of the heirs, being only thirteen, Isaac is one of the few characters to defy the stereotypes of his House, being very un-Fourth in his shy and reserved nature. Has a very close, sibling-like bond with his cavalier, doing nearly everything with her.- Break the Cutie: He and Jeannemary take the death of the Fifth very badly, and spend the next few days on edge and exhausted, stalking the halls and paranoid of everyone but Coronabeth and Gideon, until they're the next to be killed.
- Childhood Friends: He has been paired with Jeannemary since they were very young.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: He's the Baron of Tisis and leader of the Fourth House, despite being only thirteen. Extra content states that there's a regent in place. After his death, the title is presumably taken over by one of his younger siblings.
- Child Soldiers: He and Jeannemary would have been enlisted already if Isaac hadn't gotten the mumps during the recruitment period, and they still intend to enlist the next year. He's thirteen. They would have enlisted even earlier, but Abigail forbade them and he had younger siblings to look after.
- Cultural Rebel: The Fourth House is often regarded as reckless cannon fodder, but - possibly due to his close proximity to levelheaded Magnus and Abigail - Isaac is noted to be cautious and careful. He tries, but after several extremely stressful days and a real scare his nerve shatters and his Fourth comes through, attempting to committ a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Due to the Dead: While teaming up with the Sixth and the Ninth he says that the Fourth's first priority is finding out who killed Magnus and Abigail. They also never asked for their facility key because Magnus told them to hold off, and never entered a Lyctoral study because Abigail told them to wait.
- Easily Embarrassed Youngster: He is constantly embarrassed by everything from Magnus' lame jokes and stories, to anything Jeannemary says.
- Emo Teen: Described as such by Gideon, eye makeup and all.
- Like Brother and Sister: He and Jeannemary bicker like siblings. It helps that Jeannemary's implied crush on Gideon and the extra content teasing him being engaged to a guy suggest that it's a case of incompatible orientations as well.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Downplayed example with Jeannemary. Isaac is a sensitive, cautious Squishy Wizard, while Jeannemary is a reckless, violence-loving melee fighter.
- Meaningful Name: The notes in the back of the first book point out that Isaac's early, violent death foreshadows Gideon's, just like the Biblical Isaac foreshadows the death of Christ by carrying the wood for his own sacrifice up a mountain.
- Phrase Catcher: Gideon's narration almost exclusively refers to him and Jeannemary as "the horrible teens" and other variations.
- Put on a Bus: He and Jeannemary are hurried along by Abigail to whatever afterlife awaits them after she banishes them from Harrow's recreation of Canaan House, as Abigail believes their innocence will make their journey through the River painless. She briefly almost pulls them back before Abigail shuts down that Elseworld hard.
- Satellite Character: In part due to his age and in part due to Gideon's narration connecting with Jeannemary more closely as a fellow cavalier, Isaac is usually treated as an extension of Jeannemary, tending to defer to her.
- Technicolor Fire: His unnamed necromantic specialty is conjuring ghostly blue-green fire that seems to be able to destroy physical objects.
- Those Two Guys: Never seen apart from his cavalier until his death.
Jeannemary
Jeannemary Chatur
CAVALIER PRIMARY OF THE FOURTH, KNIGHT OF TISIS
The cavalier primary to Isaac, and a knight of Tisis.- Big Sister Instinct: Is the recipient of this from Gideon, and has it in turn for Isaac, who's a year her junior.
- Break the Cutie: She and Isaac take the deaths of the Fifth very badly, and spend the next few days on edge and exhausted, stalking the halls and paranoid of everyone but Coronabeth and Gideon, until Isaac dies in the labs. Jeannemary absolutely loses it after that in the short time before she is killed as well.
- Childhood Friends: She has been paired with Isaac since they were very young. She notes she hated him at first.
- Child Soldiers: She and Isaac would have been enlisted already if Isaac hadn't gotten the mumps during the recruitment period, and they still intend to enlist the next year. She's fourteen. They would have enlisted even earlier, but Abigail stopped them.
- Corpsing: In-Universe. In one of Harrow's Elseworlds in Harrow the Ninth, she has difficulty keeping a straight face while saying the provided lines, and has to get Isaac to say some of them for her to get through it without cracking up.
- Easily Embarrassed Youngster: She is constantly embarrassed by everything from Magnusâ lame jokes and stories, to anything Isaac says.
- Emo Teen: Described as such by Gideon.
- Foil: Not only is she symbolically a foil for Gideon, being likewise naive and out of her depth at Canaan House, but Gideon herself recognizes the similarities on some level. Her narration always frames her interactions with the Fourth through her relationship with Jeannemary. Jeannemary's murder is also the death that hits Gideon the hardest at Canaan House, as she feels directly responsible for it, becoming My Greatest Failure.
- Like Brother and Sister: She and Isaac bicker like siblings, and she's absolutely devastated by his death.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Downplayed example with Isaac. Isaac is a sensitive, cautious Squishy Wizard, while Jeannemary is a reckless, violence-loving melee fighter.
- Meaningful Name: Jeannemary derives from Joan of Arc and the Virgin Mary, and like Joan of Arc, Jeannemary is a warrior who dies young.
- Muscle Angst: A very rare female example of wishing her biceps were bigger, after she asks Gideon to flex.
- Phrase Catcher: Gideon's narration almost exclusively refers to her and Isaac as "the horrible teens" and other variations.
- Precocious Crush: She's implied to develop one on Gideon over the course of Gideon The Ninth, being impressed with Gideon's swordsmanship (and her biceps) and coming to her for comfort after the deaths of Magnus and Abigail.
- Put on a Bus: She and Isaac are hurried along by Abigail to whatever afterlife awaits them, after she banishes them from Harrow's recreation of Canaan House, as Abigail believes their innocence will make their journey through the River painless. She briefly almost pulls them back before Abigail shuts down that Elseworld hard, though Jeanne tells Magnus to tell Harrow to tell Gideon hi, in case she sees her before any of them do.
- Those Two Guys: Never seen apart from her necromancer, until his death, which completely shatters her in the short amount of time before she's killed as well.
- Undying Loyalty: To Isaac. She refuses to leave him alone in any sort of danger, even if it means risking her life.
The Fifth House
Heart of the Emperor, Watchers over the River
In General
The Fifth House is the core of the Empire, especially if you listen to them tell it. With myriad years of tradition behind them, they have become a superpower whose gravity threatens to subsume any house that falters.
- Color Motif: Brown; they're subdued bureaucrats and academics compared to the other Houses, and have a strong association with family.
- Interrogating the Dead: Their necromantic specialty is in talking to spirits.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Have a reputation for going to great lengths to appear highly civilized, but they have a subdued savagery beneath it, as they routinely deal with the insane hunger of feral ghosts.
Abigail
Abigail Pent
Magnus
Magnus Quinn
CAVALIER PRIMARY OF THE FIFTH, SENESCHAL OF KONIORTOS COURT
The cavalier primary to Abigail, and seneschal of Koniortos Court.- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Jeannemary and Isaac are intensely embarrassed by his dad jokes and earnest friendliness. At one point he even begins recounting a story about something Jeannemary did when she was five.
- Endearingly Dorky: He is brimming with lame dad jokes and awkward courtesy, and his clumsy attempts to make small talk with the intimidating Ninth solidify him as this.
- Happily Married: To Abigail.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: In the narration for the second book, Harrow describes a group as consisting of "heroes, soldiers, poets, and Magnus".
- Luck-Based Search Technique: Abigail jokes that he just might stumble into finding something important in the second book.
- Nepotism: He claims that the only reason he gets to be cavalier primary is because he's married to the heir. The Cohort files back this up, and note this is relatively common among the Fifth.
- Nice Guy: He takes pains to make Gideon feel included despite being afraid of her, and is just a pleasant and nice person to everybody around him.
- Non-Action Guy: Easily the weakest fighter of all the cavaliers; in a showmatch with Gideon he's defeated in three moves. He proudly tells the group the story of when five-year-old Jeannemary challenged him to a duel and would have beaten him if she wasn't using tableware. The Cohort's files on him call him a "schoolboy fighter" of no distinction. He looked into joining the Cohort when he was eighteen - much, much older than the minimum enlistment age - but never showed further interest.
- Papa Wolf: The only time we see him get pissed off is when Naberius Tern starts messing with Jeannemary.
- Parental Substitute: To Jeannemary and Isaac, and has shades of this towards Harrow in the second book.
- Pungeon Master: He loves puns, and will make them every chance he gets, even if Coronabeth is the only one who laughs.
- Team Dad: Everyone likes him, and he's a very paternal figure to the Fourth; the one time he is ever shown as anything other than smiling is when Naberius insults Jeannemary's fighting style.
The Sixth House
The Emperor's Reason, the Master Wardens
In General
In their orbital Library, the Sixth House preserves and investigates the collective knowledge of the Empire. Masters of a thousand esoteric fields of study, they are often considered bookish, but are never to be underestimated.
- Color Motif: Grey, befitting their drab exterior yet sharp intellect.
- Defector from Decadence: Following directions left by Cassiopeia the First, the entirety of the Sixth defected from the Empire in the time span between Harrow and Nona. However by the time Nona begins, the translocated Sixth is disconnected from the protagonists due to broken promises on behalf of Blood of Eden.
- Dying Town: While not quite as desperate as the Ninth, the Sixth has long had extremely strict compatibility limits as to who within the Sixth can have children with each other, as almost everyone is related to one another. (To give an idea of how strict, there are only six people Camilla is eligible to reproduce with, while Palamedes only has four options. And this is with having an entire division of their military whose primary objective is "get laid by foreigners". )
- Foil: As the most prominent characters from the Sixth serve as the primary foils to the protagonists of the Ninth, so too does the House as a whole serve to foil the Ninth in general. Both Houses are at the fringes of the Empire, and are secretive, small, and poor. However unlike the cultist Ninth, the Sixth, with their focus on research and preservation, are viewed more as odd and awkward than the feared and hated Ninth. Much like the Ninth, the Sixth was also originally built around a mysterious 'installation', with currently unknown purposes.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: The Sixth have something of a reputation for this, which is by design, as the Sixth desperately needs more genetic diversity. All children conceived by a Sixth parent are legally Sixth, and when Cam and Pal were children there was an entire division of notably attractive Sixth cavaliers who learned more about erotic poetry than swordfighting so they could go join the Cohort and...diversify the Sixth's gene pool.
- In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: A deliberate invocation, despite not holding true for the rest of the Empire, as a result of their limited genetic pool and small population; every character from the Sixth shown having brown skin and brown hair, and most even seem to have relatively similar facial features and expressions.
- Parents as People: Exaggerated: the Library is a House of academics who have to be bought out to take parental leave and be at least marginally involved in their children's lives. It's also implied that relationships are often purely practical and not necessarily romantic, so they don't really have traditional nuclear families; Sixth reproduction is tightly controlled to prevent inbreeding, so while there is some choice, that choice is usually "these are the only five people on the planet who aren't your cousins, pick one". Palamedes' own mother has a cordial relationship with him, but treats him far more as a peer than a child, only rarely showing motherly affection.
- Psychometry: The House's specialty comes in the form of spirit magic that traces the signs that death and decay leaves on objects.
- Small, Secluded World: Much like the Ninth, the Sixth is at the fringes of the Empire, consisting only of a remote installation set in the polar region of a planet close to Domincus, with the outside world being completely uninhabitable. While not as cut off from the Empire as the Ninth, the Library is very much its own world, with visitors being infrequent to rare.
- Small Town Boredom: The Library isn't exactly a thrilling place for Sixth children to grow up from Camilla's accounts of it. Watching skeletons get covered in orange gunge to do maintainence work on the outside of the station passes for fun simply because there's little else to do.
- Uncertain Doom: Near the very end of Harrow, the Emperor is briefly killed, and being tied to Dominicus this might have affected the sun briefly. Since the Sixth House is the closest to the sun, they're the most vulnerable if something goes wrong, and the Emperor wonders if they survived or not.
- The beginning of Nona establishes that they did survive, but raises a new uncertain fate for them: after the entire House defected from the Empire to Blood of Eden, broken promises on behalf of Blood of Eden has led to the House being stranded on another planet far from the Warden, their selected representatives, and Eden's negotiations. The arrival of Number Seven makes matters worse, as even the proximity of the Resurrection Beast within the same galaxy would drive all the necromancers mad, though Nona ends on a relatively optimistic note, as the Oversight Board independently determined that blinding themselves would stave off the worst effects of Number Seven's proximity.
- Uterine Replicator: A offhand comment in Nona the Ninth reveals that they do "gravid carry" only for research purposes.
- Vast Bureaucracy: The Library is described as a vast academic bureaucracy full of infighting between similarily named departments, all covered in a flood of paperwork. There was a protracted interdepartmental battle over the titular room in the "The Mysterious Study of Dr. Sex", and forms (in triplicate) appear at every turn.
Palamedes
Palamedes Sextus
Camilla
Camilla Hect
Archivist Zeta
Archivist Juno Zeta
An Archivist in the Sixth House and Palamedes Sextus' mother, in that order.- Innocent Innuendo: In "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex", much of her exposition regarding Dr. Donald Sex and his lost study room falls into this due to the good doctor's unfortunate house name.
- Meaningful Name: Juno is the Roman goddess of childbirth and marriage, while Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet.
- Motor Mouth: Rambles at length to Palamedes and Camilla about office gossip before getting to the point when she picks them up for the unsealing of Doctor Sex's study. Palamedes and Camilla can hardly get a word in edgewise, and she doesn't remember to tell them where they're going until she's asked. She's just as bad around Blood of Eden, which gets Palamedes worried someone will take offense and shoot her.
- Parents as People: Far more dedicated to her research as an Archivist than being a parental figure to Palamedes, though she still has a polite and friendly relationship with him.
- Teen Genius: Formerly; she made Scholar at 15.
Kiona
Kiona
Camilla's older half sister.- The Quiet One: Like her younger sister, she doesn't seem prone to talking unnecessarily; she says nothing at all in the sole chapter she appears in during Nona the Ninth.
The Seventh House
Joy of the Emperor, the Rose Unblown
In General
The Seventh House embody the particular beauty only found in dying things. They are the rose hanging lush with decay, the vines that pull down walls of stone, the bloom of color in a terminal patientâs cheeks. They draw out moments of beauty, preserving people, places, and times in amber for later dissection and delectation.
- Color Motif: Seafoam green, which connects them both to the living world and the River.
- Victorian Novel Disease: Their necromantic line is prone to a form of blood cancer that the Seventh persists in maintaining throughout the generations because they believe it produces beauty in doing so, as well as facilitating necromancy without relying on external sources of thanergy. The two characters shown actually living with said cancer are not exactly thrilled with this line of thinking.
Dulcinea (Unmarked Spoilers)
Dulcinea Septimus
HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SEVENTH, DUCHESS OF RHODES
As an heir to the Seventh, Dulcinea Septimus has suffered from the Heptanary blood cancer of the Seventh's necromancer line since childhood, and has spent most of her life dying.- Ambiguous Situation: Just how Dulcie feels about Palamedes by the time he's twenty goes unsaid. According to Camilla he proposed a year ago and she turned him down "but not on the grounds that she didn't like him"; it's left vague if she didn't view him romantically, if she was doing so because she expected to die soon, or if it was due to the limitations on intra-House marriage. At a minimum, Dulcie does view him as a friend, and was looking forwards to meeting him and Camilla in person at Canaan House before she was murdered.
- She appears as a disembodied voice in the short story "The Unwanted Guest", where she encourages and advises Palamedes, and still leaves it ambiguous. She certainly does care deeply for both him and Camilla.
You two were my best friends, and that was real. I loved real, ugly, unfinished things. Gracelessly uncompleted things. There's freedom, too, in not ever being completed. - Blood from the Mouth: Frequently coughs blood and worse. She's not expected to live much longer by the time she arrives at Canaan House.
- Dead All Along: She was killed by Cytherea before ever reaching Canaan House, and has been impersonated by her ever since.
- Disability Alibi: 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.
- Deadpan Snarker: When her ghost appears in Harrow the Ninth, she reveals herself to have quite a dry sense of humor.
- The Dulcinea Effect: The Duchess of Rhodes is aptly named, thanks to her terminal illness. Gideon is compelled to protect her the second they meet, something deliberately invoked by Cytherea. And it turns out Palamedes Sextus has devoted his life to trying to rescue the real Dulcie from her illness ever since he began trading letters with her twelve years ago. He never even needed to meet her in person to fall in love with her.
- Grin of Audacity: When planning to trap the Sleeper in Harrow's Dream Land, Dulcie grins almost ferally at the chance for revenge.
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: In Gideon the Ninth, courtesy of Cytherea having killed and replaced her before her arrival at Canaan house. Zig-zagged in Harrow the Ninth when Harrowhark meets her ghost and observes that the ruse wouldn't have worked on anyone who'd met her before.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Terminally ill Dulcinea is prone to coughing blood and worse. The actual Dulcie becomes increasingly less visibly ill over time, thanks to already being dead. Cytherea says they have the same illness and Dulcie's is as advanced as Cytherea was.
- Meaningful Name: An idealized woman who doesn't really exist. The real Dulcinea goes instead by "Dulcie".
- The Nicknamer: Refers to everyone with nicknames, including herself as "Dulcie". Palamedes seems to have picked up "Cam" from her.
- Something about a Rose: Defied. While Cytherea used the motif as her, the real Dulcie is sick of roses.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Cytherea-as-Dulcinea, for all her helpless affect, is extremely physically capable. (Although she is sick, and vulnerable because of it, it doesn't impede her as much as she pretends.)
- When the real Dulcie appears in the second book she seems to be in better and better health as the book progresses, leaving her wheelchair and nasal shunt behind. However, she is still sick and does still sometimes have coughing fits and very little physical ability. As a ghost she, like the others, has all the limitations that came with their bodies — it seems her image of herself was ill, just not in as bad of a shape as she was when she was murdered. Additionally, Harrow is unconsciously "scripting" many of Dulcie's symptoms—but she never saw Dulcie's real disability, she saw Cytherea's impersonation of it, which was based on Dulcie lying through her teeth. So Dulcie is also getting rid of symptoms she never really had in the first place.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Played straight but lampshaded. Dulcie was genuinely an extremely nice woman who treated everyone well. Palamades notes that when he first wrote to her he was eight and she was fifteen, but she showed endless tact and sympathy towards him, a child who wanted to save her. On the other hand:Dulcie: The only thing that ever stopped me being exactly who I wanted was the worry I would soon be dead ... and now I am dead, Reverend Daughter, and I am sick of roses, and I am horny for revenge.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that she was Dead All Along and then still returns in Harrow the Ninth spoils major twists in both books.
Protesilaus (Unmarked Spoilers)
Protesilaus Ebdoma
CAVALAIER PRIMARY OF THE SEVENTH, KNIGHT OF RHODES
The cavalier primary to Dulcinea, a hulking warrior of few words.- Chain Pain: His offhand is a chain, something which is considered an extremely difficult offhand to master. Dulcinea even notes that he was indeed a very skilled cavalier before his untimely death; when he uses it to fight the Sleeper, he's able to deflect bullets.
- Dead All Along: He died before ever reaching Canaan House, and has been puppeted by Cytherea ever since.
- Empty Shell: He's noted as being often dead-eyed, compared to a sleep-walker, and rarely responds to much, though he is quick to help Dulcinea and defend her physically. Which makes sense, given he's dead, and his defense of Dulcinea was really just a way for Cytherea to prevent her cover from being blown.
- Flat Character: He is repeatedly called basic and boring. Which makes sense, considering he's not much more than a reanimated corpse. His actual reappearance in Harrow the Ninth subverts this, making Harrow wonder how any of them could've mistaken his empty body for a real person. She does however come to think of him as boring in a whole new way - he's just so dutiful and heroic.
- Gentle Giant: He's absolutely massive and a tremendously skilled warrior, Happily Married with children, writes poetry and breeds flowers, and is devoted to Dulcie. The Cohort complains that they can't understand why he was paired with a dying necromancer and speculate that it was meant to be a short-term pairing scaffolding him to a new necro for the long term; Dulcie herself complains that he's too hopelessly noble to abandon her to pursue more prestige with a healthier necro.
- Hero of Another Story: Judith's files mention Protesilaus joining the Cohort at eighteen, touring on three different front lines, and having an impressive reputation that's referenced by other characters in the first book, disappointed that he's not living up to it. He's also the oldest person officially traveling to Canaan House.
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: In Gideon the Ninth, courtesy of Cytherea puppeting his zombie around since before his arrival at Canaan house. Zig-zagged in Harrow the Ninth when Harrowhark meets his ghost and is amazed that anyone could have fallen for the ruse.
- Meaningful Name: Protesilaus is the first hero to die at Troy, and here was dead before he arrived.
- The Quiet One: He really doesn't say much. Even when he actually appears as himself.
- The Rival: He doesn't reciprocate it, but, as a far better poet and an actual warrior, he's the person Ortus wants to be, and Ortus hates him for it.
- Warrior Poet: He writes poetry and breeds flowers, and was, before his death, one of the greatest living cavaliers in the Empire.
The Eighth House
Keepers of the Tome, the Forgiving House
In General
Though all the Houses speak words of worship for their divine Emperor, the Eighth reach depths of devotion that approach zealotry. As the font of mortal forgiveness for sin, they take great pleasure in withholding mercy and pronouncing judgment.
- Color Motif: Pure white and nothing but, evoking both their Black-and-White Morality and the Emperor's own motif of iridescent white.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Their necromantic specialty is soul siphoning, which even the Emperor has warned against using.
- Holier Than Thou: The defining characteristic of the zealous Eighth House.Palamedes: The Eighth House thinks there's right and there's wrong, and by a series of happy coincidences they always end up being right.
- Ironic Name: They're called "the forgiving house" but tend toward the Knight Templar.
- Light Is Not Good: The Eighth's shtick; they dress in pure white and have austere living habits, but they also practice one of the most dangerous sub-disciplines of necromancy, soul siphoning, and treat their cavaliers as little more than human batteries.
- Living Battery: What soul siphoning amounts to, sending a cavalier's soul elsewhere and draining the energy that flows into their empty vessel. Where exactly the soul gets sent is unclear, but an incidental comment from Augustine suggests that it is Hell itself.
Silas
Silas Octakiseron
HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE EIGHTH, MASTER TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS
The heir to the Eighth House, and master templar of the White Glass.- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Utilizes soul siphoning, which all the other Houses view unfavorably (from unease to outright contempt). It's not exactly banned, but even the Emperor warns against using it. Teacher warns Silas that siphoning in the haunted Canaan House is sheer lunacy. He's absolutely right.
- Demoted to Extra: After being one of the most prominent necromancers in Gideon the Ninth, he appears only briefly in Harrow the Ninth, throwing himself off the cliffs of the fake Canaan House to avoid Harrow's liminal space, with Abigail alluding to this having terrible consequences for his soul.
- Disney Villain Death: In Harrow's Dream Land, he's last seen jumping off the edge after killing the fake Corona. Given that he was an actual ghost, Abigail fears what became of him.
- Everyone Has Standards: Silas uses Colum as a Living Battery for his necromancy, but he's absolutely disgusted by the process of becoming a Lyctor and that Ianthe murdered Naberius to become one, he's horrified that Colum believed he would ever be willing to do that to him, and he immediately tries to kill Ianthe for what she's done. Unfortunately, Silas promptly loses whatever points he gained when he siphons Colum against his will.
- Foil: To Harrow. They're both highly religious, wield outsized authority for their age, and have a distinctly parasitic relationship to their cavaliers. Silas always wears white, and his necromancy is associated with souls and light, while Harrow wears nothing but black, and her necromancy centers on bones. Unlike Harrow, who deeply regrets the way she's treated Gideon, and eventually even tries to sacrifice herself to save Gideon, Silas overrides Colum's will constantly, and ends up getting them both killed due to his hubris.
- Holier Than Thou: The Eighth House has a reputation for zealotry, and Silas embodies this. At Canaan House, he's of the opinion that he's the only "pure" person present and it's up to him to force the path of divine righteousness on everyone else. It also ends up being sincere, and not merely manuevering for advantage. Despite everyone's assumptions, he ends up hoarding keys primarily to prevent others from studying the Lyctor labs, coming to view the mere existence of the Lyctor trials as blasphemous.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: People spend most of the book warning him about the danger of soul siphoning, which Silas repeatedly brushes off. When he starts siphoning Colum against his will to fight Ianthe, Colum's empty body ends up possessed, and stabs him through the throat.
- Hypocrite: There are several necromantic practices which Silas denounces as heresy, but Dulcinea notes that the only one the Emperor has openly cautioned against is soul siphoning, Silas' own speciality. And the process of becoming a Lyctor, in which a necromancer devours their cavalier's soul and uses it as a renewable energy source (and which Silas also condemns as heresy) is basically just a scaled up version of soul siphoning. Multiple characters, including Colum, call him out on this as well.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While he's a haughty jerk quick to call anything he disagrees with blasphemous, he's entirely right in his suspicion that the death of the Ninth's children was on purpose, and that the cover story of a "vent flu" didn't make any sense.
- Two extend into Harrow the Ninth. He's the first of the revenants to become fully aware of the parameters of Harrow's liminal space, and treats both her and the fascimile of Corona with extreme disdain; not unjustified given Ianthe led to his death and Harrow's pulling him into her Dream Land. Additionally, in the first book he makes an explicit point that swallowing and burning a cavalier's soul to become a Lyctor is a blasphemous sin and a crime punishable by death - and the Resurrection Beasts in the second are out to try to kill anyone who's committed that "sin", while everyone in the First clearly views it as utterly abominal.
- Karmic Death: He siphons Colum even when he's been warned several times not to do so and against Colum's will in this particular instance. Colum ends up possessed, and Silas is so secure in his own righteousness and abilities that he tries to return Colum to his body rather than fleeing; he ends up skewered through the throat.
- Knight Templar: Silas does everything he does because he genuinely believes he's in the right in the eyes of the Emperor. Calling things blasphemous is practically his catchphrase. Ultimately his warped morality ends in his and his cavalier's deaths when he decides to pass judgement on Ianthe's sin for becoming a Lyctor
- Tautological Templar: Most of his actions can be summarized as "since I'm right, I can do whatever I want." He insists that he is the only morally pure person in the trial, and therefore sees nothing wrong with confiscating keys and doing whatever is necessary to prevent the others from ascending. When Colum promises Gideon her safety, Silas breaks that promise without a second thought, since a promise to an "honorless dog" is irrelevant. Colum, notably, refuses to cooperate with him on this.Palamedes Sextus: The Eighth House thinks there's right and there's wrong, and by a series of happy coincidences they always end up being right.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Colum states that Silas used to look up to him as a child, and that he loved Silas then, but that he can't stand the man he's become.
- Younger Than They Look: He's only 16, making him the second youngest necromancer at Canaan House, and much younger than most of the other heirs he lectures.
Colum
Colum Asht
CAVALIER PRIMARY OF THE EIGHTH, TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS
The cavalier primary to Silas, and a templar of the white glass.- Ambiguous Situation: Unlike the other dead, he never makes any sort of appearance in Harrow's Dream Land. Given siphoning is said to operate by sending a soul "elsewhere", it's possible he never ended up in the River in the first place.
- Beware the Nice Ones: At first comes off as only an Extreme Doormat raised in the Eighth House ways, but eventually it turns out he is absolutely willing to chew Silas out when he thinks he really needs to, and is much sharper than he seems early on.
- Demonic Possession: Teacher warns early on that this could happen to him if Silas soul-siphons him in Canaan House. This warning comes to fruition during the fight with Ianthe, and leads to both his and Silas' deaths.
- Everyone Has Standards: Colum has given Silas everything except his sword and his honour, but when Silas asks him to break an oath he made to Gideon, Colum is absolutely appalled that Silas would ask him to do that and refuses.
- Exorcist Head: His head turns 180 degrees while he's possessed.
- Eye Colour Change: After being possessed, his eyes turn completely black.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being born and bred purely to serve as a Living Battery, Colum is actually a highly skilled and dangerous cavalier. He also has a sensibility and intelligence that surprises Gideon, and helps provide key insights into the mystery of who was burnt in the incinerator.
- I Gave My Word: When he confiscates Gideon's weapons in the Eighth's quarters, he promises on his honor that no harm will come to her. He takes this very seriously: see below.
- Lightning Bruiser: Gideon expects Colum to be able to hit really hard; after all, he's a big guy. She is surprised at how fast he can move while doing it, though.
- Living Battery: His primary role as cavalier to Silas, and something he was born to do even before Silas was concieved; it's also notably left him with a battered, aged appearance despite being younger than Magnus.
- Meaningful Name: His given name derives from a sacrificial dove (Columba), while his house name very blatantly refers to his usage as a Living Battery. In the Nine Houses last names aren't inheritable and are given deliberately — just as Ianthe and Corona both being Tridentarius indicates their father's desire to have them be a linked pair, Colum and his two brothers (who also have sacrificial first names) are all Asht, indicating both their purpose to be interchangeable depending on Silas' blood type, and the fact that they were all born to be consumed.
- Many Spirits Inside of One: After Silas siphons his soul to empower himself for the fight with Ianthe, multiple spirits possess Colum.He now moved like there were six people inside him, and none of those six people had ever been inside a human being before.
- MookâFace Turn: Colum silently abides by many of Silas' decisions that anger him, but he won't let Silas attack an unarmed Gideon after Colum had promised their meeting would not be violent.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Colum has lived in this trope for years, disliking the direction Silas has taken, but obeying him anyway out of duty. He finally defies him when he tries to get Colum to attack Gideon after giving his word that their meeting would be peaceful.
- Odd Name Out: His given name breaks the Religious and Mythological Theme Naming that almost everyone else in the cast follows.
- Too Many Mouths: While he's possessed, his eyeballs disappear and turn into mouths.
- Walking Transplant: A fantasy version: he and his brothers were born purely so that Silas would have someone to siphon the soul from to power his necromancy, and he's been given antigens and antibodies since before Silas was born to make it easier for Silas to do so. He even mentions that the fact that he has brothers is purely because his parents wanted different blood type options depending on what would be easiest for Silas to use.
- Younger Than They Look: Years of siphoning have taken a marked toll on his body; he's noted as having a washed out, jaundiced tinge to his skin and seems like a fairly battered middle aged man, despite only being in his early 30s.
