#tlt paul

[pine-rhyme]

I think it would be funny in Alecto, if we spend more time on the Ninth, for the great aunts to, very affectedly, inform Harrow of her parents' passing during their silent practice to which Harrow barelly even manages to act either surprised or mournful (while Kiriona has a fit of laughter nearby).

"And that makes you, Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus, our 311th Reverend Mother."

Freshly out of Hell and still dazed by whatever happend post tomb opening, Reverend Mother Harrowhark Nonagesimus, can urge no other reaction out of her but a slightly out of breath, shamefully informal "Ok."

Cue a pleathoa of mom jokes that everybody seems to get into.

"Reverend- forgive me Harrowhark, I cannot in good faith look at your face and call you-"

"Then please don't. Thank you, Paul."

"Oh, mother!" ejaculates Ianthe at her every movement.

"Oh, sorry mommy", Kiriona is already begging for it.

Worst things worst she is still, functionally, the last person ever born on the Ninth.

[rat-studio]

I don't like confrontation but I'm staring at the sun I won't quit until my eyes go red I'll finish what's begun

Verse 2! I really liked the idea of Nona being sooo annoyed at Varun-- pretty much exactly like this post-- so I tried to make her look as irritated as possible here. Song: Unsweetened Lemonade by Amélie Farren

Verse 1 Verse 3

Version without lyrics, timelapse, and reference/symbolism explanations below cut.

[vulpes-aestatis]

Listening to the HtN audiobook and just got past the past where Jod explains the origin of the RBs.

Did Paul commit the "indelible sin"? Will the RBs hunt them like the other lyctors?

[puffywiz]

Nona thoughts

[featherbreak]

Camilla’s clockwork interrupted with a series of urgent beeps: the BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP of a timer alarm, faster and more panicked than the usual time’s-up sound. ... but then Camilla had straightened and was blinking furiously, and it was Camilla. Her eyes were pale grey again and she shuddered like herself.

happy Nona the Ninth paperback release day! here's some New Rho Palamedes Sextus Camilla Hect for your "I just read The Unwanted Guest or remembered that Paul exists, and now I have 99 feelings & all of them are pain" mood.

no? can't be just me sobbing about Camilla Hect forever

bonus action outtake inspired by @shesmymausoleum 's awesome fanart of my last cosplay post:

[katakaluptastrophy]

@greatandquestionablecontent noted that my discussion of Paul and St Paul didn't touch on the latter's awful views on women and sexuality.

And while I very much hope those aren't relevant for our new Lyctor-ish buddy Paul, they very much do haunt the narrative of The Locked Tomb.

We get one in-world bit of theology in Gideon the Ninth: the Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers, which talks about how the Houses understand the relationship between necromancer and cavalier and god. And it's pretty much St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, ctrl + F'd for necromancy, with a few other infamous Pauline verses thrown in for good measure, especially from 1 Corinthians:

A necromancer who must leave her House and fight requires a swordswoman./For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. - Ephesians 5:31

Our necromantic characteristics make us more like the Emperor...the necromancer and the cavalier are no different./[A man] is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. - 1 Cor 11:7

As [the Emperor] was once man, and became God...so were we dead and became alive./And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:22

Their love is the love that fears only for the other: the love of service on both sides. Some have tried to characterise this relationship as the cavalier’s obedience to the necromancer, but the necromancer must be in turn obedient to the needs of the cavalier without being asked or prompted: theirs is arguably the heavier burden./Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, with honour preventing [anticipating] one another. - Romans 12:10 (I suspect this one is also meant to call to mind Ephesians 5's instructions for wives to submit to their husbands, while husbands are asked to love their wives like Christ loves the church - an instruction proponents of so-called Biblical gender roles will often describe in language similar to the Sermon as being the bigger ask.)

The love of the cavalier for the necromancer, and the necromancer for the cavalier...cannot be libidinous./But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity...because these are improper for God’s holy people. - Ephesians 5:3

So cavaliership very much reproduces the gendered asymmetries of power found in many traditional Pauline-flavoured interpretations of Christian marriage.

But when you look at some of the invective around a romantic or sexual necromancer/cavalier relationship, it's coded rather more as homophobia.

The Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers hedges around explicitly condemning necro/cav relationships as specifically against the will of god, but makes it clear that's very much a view held within the Houses:

"after a myriad of thought about the matter, marrying your cavalier remains taboo at best. There have been those who have argued eloquently that it is traitorous to the ideals of the Necrolord Prime."

While St Paul isn't the only source of egregiously homophobic Bible verses, he's responsible for a good chunk of them, and the idea of this specifically defying the designs of God is a recurring theme...

It's worth noting that not all of what's generally described as St Paul's writing likely actually is. And Ephesians, which features so strongly here, is one of those "pseudo-Pauline" letters - a sort of Pauline fanfiction written to fill in perceived gaps or deal with issues as they arose.

But it feels oddly appropriate that the Houses' theology of gender cavaliership, itself an imitation of St Paul, is so strongly inspired by an imitation of St Paul...

[bad-ads]

tlt camilla and palamedes really said actually the all consuming and cannibalistic nature of love and lyctorhood isnt just romantic relationships! its also for QPRs

[swordsandspectacles]

Yes, forever, yes. Life is too short, and Love is too long.

[bookwyrminspiration]

[toweringclam]

The only proof I need that Kiriona is not actually Gideon is that she didn't call Paul "Sex Cam."

[derseprinceoftbd]

Interesting that Pal briefly thinks Harrowhark is one of his "Perfect Lyctors" given she's just Harrow, and not, like, "Griddlehark the First, Saint of Complicated Feelings About One's Self." Like, was he not expecting actual fusion? Did he think the ideal situation was what he had with Cam in Nona, or maybe a Pacific Rim situation? Like, my understanding is that Pal doesn't exist "within Paul"; was that not part of the plan?

[mellori]

I think its a good thing all of earth's culture is either lost or reduced to contextlessness, because imagine having to watch the critically acclaimed (it's me I'm the critics*) Season 2 Episode 24 of Star Trek: Voyager, "Tuvix" sitting next to Paul. Talk about awkward.

*also it's the actual critics

[thekearlyn]

Don't get me wrong, I respect the choice of Paul for Palamedes and Camilla's new combined name, but I think there is a much funnier option: Calamedes (calamity).

I feel like this is the option Gideon/Kiriona would prefer.

[greatandquestionablecontent]

my main ship combined to be a singular new person who is now driving a bus into hell

[umbra-archival]

Drew some Pyrrha/Cam&Pal/Paul minor angst for the 2023 Library Discord exchange, inspired on the lyrics of “Pieces of the People We Love” by The Rapture. This was a gift to Jess, who I don’t have in here, but if you come across this I hope you liked it!

[ridrawsart]

You Can't Take Loved Away

I started sketching this soon after I finished Nona the Ninth for the first time. That book hurt me. Deeply. Found Family stories always do but this one was especially rough. I found it interesting to see how devastated so many people were about Paul. I loved the description of Paul's creation and how Cam and Pal came to the choice of making them. During my re-read, I thought it was a fascinating way of going about the character and showing their own version of lyctorhood.