#palemedes sextus

[grievingbovine]

"Yeah,” she admitted. “Is it—I mean—is it real?”

He looked at her. “It’s nearly ten thousand years old, if that’s what you mean.”

“Well, I’m not,” she said. “So … what the fuck, basically.”

“The ultimate question,” he agreed, returning his attention to the flimsy.

This is one of my favorite character interactions in the series. I'm always struck by how sexpal treats what others would see as a very basic and direct question as a deep philosophical one. He doesn't really treat her like she's dumb, probably the first person ever to treat her like a person and offer comfort. They held hands uncomfortably and I really wanted this bromance to play out.

[greatandquestionablecontent]

Me on my second Gideon the Ninth read through, getting to the Second/Sixth tabletop fight scene

[eyes-like-coal]

sorry but i just can't imagine pal as a skinny twink. he is goth martin blackwood to me

[gloopglorpgleeroopuh]

Camilla Hect my beloved

[lunchtimebedamned1997]

Harrow the Ninth real-time reading thoughts + GTN character concept doodles (pt. 1)

| Here | Part two |

Please no spoilers for chapters after #6! (or for book 3... obviously)

Someone on my Gideon concept art post (I've since checked, it was @samgemrus) said they'd like to hear more of my thoughts as I read HTN, so I thought I'd indulge, since I do love a good yap XD

Let's start with the book one stuff! Art! Wanted to draw Palemedes and Camilla next bc they're my babies I adore them!!! (Speedpaint under the cut!)

I don't know why I imagine some characters the way I do but here we are, Cam with the wrong hair and Sextus with what is probably (?) too pretty of a face. I tend to imagine characters I like the personality of to be more personally aesthetically pleasing lmao I do not remember if this man's attractiveness was described or not the main character is so gay and i'm bi so idk... I guess everyone gets to be pretty XD

(Also you might peep the note in the upper left, I'll put the spoilers I got while finishing up the art at the very bottom of the post so that you can avoid them if you wish to!!)

Alright, that's book one housekeeping, let's move on to book two! thoughts and rambles and theories abound from the beginning-chapter six!

Okay! So! The second-person perspective! I still don't like it! But my discomfort with the format aids the story well, and it's been interesting to have dreams of Harrow's being written in third person along the lines of the previous book. I find that it gives off the sense that Harrow only feels moored (even by falsehoods) when she is removed from the truth of her current reality. By using the pronoun 'you' to guide the bulk of the story thus far, it leads the reader to be faced directly with Harrow's discomfort, confusion, and aching wrongness. We are the voice deep inside of her that is screaming for things to be righted and to make different choices as she fumbles along without hearing us at all.

Never would I have guessed in my journey though the GTN that Ianthe Tridentarius was going to be in any way largely important. Let alone that we'd have to spend so much time with that miserable woman.

I imagine that Harrow's false memories/delusions, that her 'forgetfulness' around and about Gideon, is for her own sanity; and perhaps is even an attempt to stop them from merging completely into Lyctor. Some play by Harrow as we once knew her, to try and save Gideon or herself - or them both.

God is weird.

God is... hm. I - he's unsettled me to be honest, but perhaps I'm just scarred by the Dumbledore-type. The ones that seem kindly and wise in their age and appearance of relative normalcy (/averageness). I can't help but feel as though he is somehow secretly very awful. The creation of his power - the way the galaxy died and these monsters were created... surely he must have been some kind of desperate as a mortal man. A man from our time. Wouldn't he be? A man who was... what? Grappling for power? To try and save anything he could? To save someone he loved? To stop someone... he loved? There is the locked tomb to consider. Since we discovered the process of becoming a Lyctor, I couldn't help but suspect, that with sword in hand, that perhaps this girl in the ice is not a lyctor but a Cavalier?

I'm not entirely sure of my reason for thinking that. Some sort of gut sense. 'God' seemed to know exactly what would happen to Harrow if he separated (or attempted to separate) Gideon and Harrow's now-entwined souls. Maybe he'd done it to himself? Maybe the reason he'd be unable to stop her if she reawakened would be because then they would be truly separate and broken? Like - perhaps he's still siphoning from her even now?

Maybe - maybe she's just a body. Maybe her soul is still entwined with his (if I'm even right that those two are connected in this way) and if you were to awaken the body... perhaps it would rend God apart in some unfixable way? Re-seperate the souls? Reverse whatever process granted him his power...

And why does he have more power than a Lyctor? Was he man to begin with at all? Or something else that gave up godhood and then returned to it? I'm excited and terrified to know.

We still no nothing of this other, more ancient Gideon. The one mentioned on the scrap of flimsy in GTN, the one Gideon's mother's body screamed out endlessly upon being called back from the dead.

For a while I thought Gideon must surely be our Gideon's fath- oh - ohhh my GOD is - is 'God' Gideon's father?! Is 'God' that ancient Gideon?! Because - oh fuck - because Gideon - our Gideon, she didn't die from the poison that brought fourth the power for Harrow's conception. Gideon didn't die when Harrow siphioned her for the trial with the box! Didn't someone expressly mention in book one that it seemed impossible that Gideon was alright - Camilla, wasn't it? That Gideon wasn't just alright, but that apart from being tired (and traumatized af lmao) she was completely healthy?!

God also chasitised Mercy for not wanting to share her name with her new sisters (also, I'm assuming 'sister is a religeous endearment like nuns or smth, but if not, marked that as - you know, no. either way mark that down as I'm uncomfy XD) and yet, we don't get to know his name. Most people wouldn't think to ask the name of 'God' would they. A man of a thousand epithets - but surely he has some 'true name' as he phrased it before, right?

Holy fucking fuck. Am I on the right track?! DON'T ANSWER THAT XD

I still don't know how (our) Gideon's mother would have made it to the here-and-now, or... unless she wasn't old? Unless she wasn't from then... Maybe she just worked closely with them on the ship? The ship... the ship he (god) feels sorrowful to leave as if it holds some kind of significant memory? Fuck there's so many loose ends, and I've probably tangled all the wrong threads but... holy fuck, that would be interesting wouldn't it?

Also Mercy is deeply annoying so far XD

Here's the Pam and Cam speedpaint to finish this very long red-string post up XD (Also don't ask how I'm drawing so many concepts this fast bc idk - it's probably the neurodivergencies and the fact that they're sketches lmao)

I wanted to give Cam scars, but I have a feeling girly is about to go through a LOT more bs and I wanna wait until I know more of what she's been through before I decide what scars to give her :3

THE SPOILERS (?) I GOT:

Apparently, Gideon's father's name is John (boring) and Cam gets murdered?! (SAD!!!!) I think I got other ones as well, but IDK if it's just small details I missed/forgot from book one or if some resurrection shenanigans are gonna happen with a couple people from the book one cast??? (Particularly Sextus??? Probably not tho lmao)

[rapselsstuff]

The birth of Paul, because that scene messed me up and I will never be the same

[lightisthepaperkilller]

Indie Palemedes Sextus blog for The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir.

AU and canon divergent friendly, multi-fandom friendly. 25+ minors DNI

Multi-para to novella, semi-lit to lit

[grievingbovine]

The fact that John practiced medical necromancy and palemedes sextus laughed at the concept, meaning John put 0 time into teaching it to anyone, is very telling. It's not a lyctor only thing, because he did it before becoming God. But augustine says "back then none of us could do something for her, excepting [God]".

I think the only other person who could was Mercy, but that was due to her anatomical knowledge, which Augustine dismisses as impractical and only necessary to kill lyctors. Maybe that's why it isn't wide spread.

[greatandquestionablecontent]

Hi it’s me again with more Gideon the Ninth reread meta thoughts.

Consider:

p. 257, when analyzing the incinerator cremains as a group:

"Interesting you should say them."

Ianthe had two small fragments on her palms. One of them was recognisably part of a tooth. For some reason, this dental fact had Harrow looking at lanthe's palms, then lanthe, then lanthe's palms again as though both were suddenly the most fascinating things in the world. Gideon recognised this sudden diamond focus: Harrowhark was reestimating a threat.

lanthe said, idly: "You see? There's at least two people in there."

And then, p. 310, when talking to Palamedes:

He frowned. “It's the Third I'm least certain of. I don't know which twin to watch out for."

"The big one," said Harrow, without hesitation. Gideon was pretty sure both twins were the same size, and was surprised to discover that even the anatomist's gaze of Harrowhark Nonagesimus was not immune to the radiance coming off Princess Corona. "They're both only middling necromancers, but the big one is the dominant. She says I; the sister says we."

"Honestly a good point. Still not sure.

Maybe that’s what she’d believed before, but she knows better now — Ianthe is the real threat. Very Harrow-fashion, holding her cards close to her chest, just in case, even with apparent allies.

[ashenviolets]

The Locked Tomb sketch dumps continue

[a-home-to-what-consumes-me]

“It was good. We were Happy”

Quick sketch of the scene that lives rent free in my head

[osseoephemera]

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I recognise most of the accents (or at least I think I do) and here is what I think they are:

(I am a little sad that no one has a kiwi accent, particularly Jod, but Moira Quirk is so amazing that I can forgive that)

English Received Pronunciation (or 'standard' English) Harrowhark, Marta Dyas and Judith Deutorous from the Second, the Tridentarii from Third, Duclinea and Protesilous from the Seventh, Augustine and Mercymorn and John Gais from the First, Nona, Aim/The Angel. Some, like Ianthe, have a very posh version of this.

Working Class Southern English/Cockney Gideon Nav, Aiglemene, Crux, Hot Sauce and her Gang, most of the people on New Rho,

French Isaac Tettares and Jeannemary Chatur from the Fourth, We Suffer from BOE, Phyrra Dve (but faintly, I think).

Welsh Abigail Pent and Magnus Quin from the fifth.

Northern English Camilla Hect and Palemedes Sextus from the Sixth, Gideon the First (its probable that a Brit could narrow this down further to which part of the North the accents come from, but I can't!)

Ones I can't remember or can't pick: The Eighth House, Wake, Ortus Niganad, Mattius Nonius,

I want someone that knows fuck all about accents to analyze the accent choices for the houses in the Moira quirk audiobooks, because I'm sure they were deliberate decisions and I literally would not have been able to keep everyone straight if they'd all had the same accents