#Thanergy

[thechekhov]

I'd completely forgotten these little gifs I made for the TLT video. Thalergy and thanergy! I just really like how they turned out. :)

[incoherentbee]

im reading this analysis post by someone way smarter than me, and realized something.

the reason nona died at the end of NtN is because of anastasia’s tripod principle! the body of harrowhark nonagesimus still had thalergy (if thats due to her 'heavy' soul or due to the partial petty lysis, i dont know) but it didnt have a fully intact soul!!

nona's 'soul' was enough to keep the body from becoming 'a very weird vegetable' but it wasnt enough to knock the cells into producing thalergy again

sidenote: this might be why nona was unable to do necromancy herself. her body had just enough thalergy reserves to keep moving around for about six months but a) those reserves were not being refilled b) due to the finite amount of thalergy in the system, thanergy reserves cannot be brought up to levels necessary for a novice necromancer to utilize them

i think, alot of the same priciples work for kiriona too. i think the reason john doesnt resurrect her 'properly' is because he cant. i think, the only reason kiriona is 'alive' longer than nona is because of who kiriona's father is. not enough of her soul was left after harrow's lysis, so he couldnt resurrect her properly, and he stapled her soul into a corpse as a short cut, and most likely is pumping at least some amount of thalergy into the kiriona (similarly to how hes suplying thalergy to dominicus) simply to stave off the inevitable decay of her meat. and, if in doing so, he gets an indestructible swordhand who is too emotionally broken to question him? well thats just a bonus

[reallesbiancorn]

Would gummy bears have thanergy since they're made of bones?

[beingrobingivesmemagic]

Was singing along to 'I'm Just Ken' and when I got to 'Can you feel the kenergy' I sang instead 'Can you feel the thanergy' and I now need a TLT cover of this song desperately

[mayasaura]

What were your thoughts on that theory that the Tridentarii were actually conjoined at birth?

Ianthe neglected to mention it when she was regaling the dinner party with the story of Corona's umbilical cord almost strangling her in the womb, but that doesn't mean it's not possible! I haven't heard this theory before, that's fun. Do you mean it as physical symbolism of their codependency, to go with having the same arithmonym?

I think if I were going to assign the Tridentarii another twin-related fetal health complication to make symbolism from, I'd give them TTTS. Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. It's when twins sharing a placenta have an imbalance in the blood exchanged; one twin sends more blood than it receives, and the other receives more blood than it sends. It's like that "one of them received more nutrients in the womb" meme, only with a net effect that's negative for everyone involved. Sooooo Third House chique.

[sumamitt]

this one hurts

[theriverbeyond]

if you’re looking for stuff about necromancy as violation I always considered the cow thing to be a big example of that! Maybe it’s my inner 4-H kid, but it’s such an undignified and horrifying way to slaughter an animal IMO. It’s this drawn out, grotesque death that parallels both Mercymorn’s death and the 7ths blood cancer. It’s just such a disrespectful way to slaughter an animal, and I think you can read it as John’s first major betrayal of self, especially as it relates to his indigenous roots. Anyway. There’s just so much there.

you're RIGHT and i also think this is a case of how this is a feature, not a bug of necromancy.

death fuels necromancy, but it is specifically cruel, violent death that results in the most necromantic potential. gradual death/senescence en masse gives general ambient power (necromancy only works in areas where things have lived and died) but it is a mass of sudden violent death that flips a planet. Siphoning, in both the style of the Second and the Eighth house, lends necromantic power via an exquisitely painful process that can easily end in death. Necromancy itself eats away at the tissues, leaving all necromancers essentially physically disabled (Ianthe barely had the ability to hold her arms up to braid her own hair). Babies give off the largest burst of power when they die, and the Fourth House -- a planet that could very well be filled with only children -- specializes in suicide bombs.

and then of course you have the eugenics that is built into both the Seventh and the Eighth Houses -- and the Heptentary blood cancer specifically fascinates me because of how it is positioned as, essentially, a boon. If you get death-fuel by being in proximity to death, and you yourself are always dying, then you always have access to a very personal well of power. Until you die. "A dying woman is the perfect necromancer"..... An entire House that values short-lived necromantic potential over anything else and breeds their heirs to have this violation embedded into their blood.

and that isn't even really getting into the fact that this is just the violence that the House enacts upon it's own citizens. the majority of people on the business end of necromancy aren't House citizens at all, but non-House civilians whose death and dead bodies are hijacked to serve the Empire's purpose. but that's another essay

[wackachewbacca]

It’s interesting how in GtN Harrow talks about how she has to be the person to see and free Alecto and no other necromancer is capable of doing so which makes sense since Harrow is the vessel of 200 souls and that resonates with Alecto who is the vessel of close to 8 billion souls. They’re magnets to each other and child Harrow couldn’t resist the pull

[adolin]

See three weed smoking girlfriends is the name, and thats way too much context for BOE names. Itd be some random part of it like "And Yes They Smoke Weed"

I accept this. It would sound really portentous and epic. Among BoE, "Yes They Smoke Weed" is believed to have been part of a hymn describing a ritual once practised to confer clarity of mind. The "three girlfriends" part of the fragment appears to imply that the ritual involved an orgy

[bb-enablefreebuild]

I dunno if this is discussed in TLT discourse at all but oh my god. Harrowhark’s parents are evil. Like, INSANELY evil. How selfish and crazy do you have to be to sacrifice ALL of the children of the Ninth House to have an heir…to a house that is ALREADY DYING??? Did they Not think ahead??? What was. The point. These are probably the most selfish and absurd people I’ve read about poor Harrow.

[beedreamscape]

I think the thing about necromancy is really the lack of choice regarding it, this being born an adept thing.

If it were a deal one could make, it'd be very sweet: you'll get powers over human/life matter, you'll be able to master hemocraft, bone magic, flesh magic, soul magic and siphoning, psychometry, healing; you'll have to study for it BUT the catch is your health will be chronically depleted, not fatally, but you'll never be strong or truly energetic, also you'll have to surround yourself with death to power up.

And you'll get assigned a jock best friend who you'll develop a codependent relationship with, whether platonic or romantic is up to you, and whose soul you'll have to play around with like a yarn ball every now and then.

[fleshes-and-ends]

these little moments 🥺 palamedes i smooch u on the forehead thank u for giving these touch-starved girls some much-needed contact

[southsidewrites]

Ninth House fans, please reassure me that Harrow the Ninth is worth it.

I'm about 40% of the way through, and I'm having so much less fun than I did with Gideon the Ninth. I literally never know what's going on, why it matters, and what the fuck half the words even mean.

I thought the first one was confusing, but at least it made some kind of sense.

[eastgaysian]

My take on tlt in general is that it’s very good, but when I read Gideon at first I thought it was garbage. I was pissed off by the ending, thought the world building was dumb as hell, etc. I eventually decided to give harrow the ninth a go and it completely changed my perspective on Gideon the ninth and the whole series. Just my two cents.

help. well the thing about the first book in a series not really making you want to read the rest of the series is that, you didn't do a great job with your first book then huh. it doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the series is going to be bad, but the reader hasn't been given any reason to believe it's going to be good, either. like without hearing other people's opinions, i independently would have no interest in continuing the series. i already gave you 400 pages to grab my attention you shouldn't need another 400 after that!

[griddlegold]

prefacing this with i am on a train and can't check my books: what if the reason the houses are so 'behind' when it comes to tech (swords instead of guns, plastic pens being archaic) is jod's interpretation of returning to a less wasteful existence? he was someone who wanted to save humanity from a death they brought on through wastefulness and industry. what if, being built on one man's ideas, the nine houses are designed on an earlier existence - one without plastic, or true paper, or other resources dependent on nonrenewable natural resources

[chaos-has-theories]

Dreamed I was a baby lyctor on a roadtrip with John and the rest through uhhhh time-travelled pre-resurrection earth? But fucked up?

Mercymorn was gaslighting John about never having been from New Zealand, actually. John was gaslighting us about setting our van on fire to scare us. Everyone was gaslighting John about being perfectly aware of what he was doing.

Mercy and Augustine started crying because it was the first time they got to see the seashells they grew up with.