The Locked Tomb

The Locked Tomb series is a SFF lesbian horror book series written by Tamsyn Muir, consisting of Gideon the Ninth (September 2019), Harrow the Ninth (August 2020), Nona the Ninth (September 2022), and Alecto the Ninth (upcoming in 2023). 
The series was initially intended to be a trilogy, but in July 2021 Tor.com announced a fourth book in the series."Announcing Nona the Ninth, a New Addition to The Locked Tomb Series From Tamsyn Muir!", Tor.com, 30 July 2021
==Overview==
===Novels===
The series consists of: 
# Gideon the Ninth (published September 2019)
# Harrow the Ninth (published August 2020)
# Nona the Ninth (published September 2022)
# Alecto the Ninth (upcoming in 2023)
A related short story, The Mysterious Study of Dr. Sex, featuring Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect solving a mystery at age 13, is available for free on Tor's website.
A second short story, As Yet Unsent, depicting Judith Deuteros writing a journal of her experiences following the ending of Gideon the Ninth, is also available on Tor's website after having originally been published in the back of Harrow the Ninth's paperback release in 2021.
===Synopsis===
The Locked Tomb series primarily deals with the evolving and complex relationship between Gideon Nav and Harrowhark “Harrow” Nonagesimus against a backdrop of necromancy, intergalactic war, and the mysteries of Lyctorhood (aka: how one becomes God's Dead Best Friend, a functional immortal with extremely powerful necromantic abilities? And what if doing so is a Very Bad Idea?). The series is incomplete, pending the release of Alecto the Ninth.
 
Gideon the Ninth is told primarily from Gideon Nav's point of view; Harrow the Ninth is told from Harrow's, and Nona the Ninth is told from the point of view of a new character named Nona. 
===Characters===
In order of House (not series prominence):
# The First House
# The Second House
## Necromancer: Judith Deuteros
## Cavalier: Marta Dyas
# The Third House
## Necromancer: Ianthe Tridentarius
## Necromancer (?): Coronabeth Tridentarius
## Cavalier: Naberius "Babs" Tern
# The Fourth House 
## Necromancer: Isaac Tettares
## Cavalier: Jeannemary Chatur
# The Fifth House
## Necromancer: Abigail Pent
## Cavalier: Magnus Quinn
# The Sixth House
## Necromancer: Palamedes Sextus
## Cavalier: Camilla Hect
# The Seventh House
## Necromancer: Dulcinea Septimus
## Cavalier: Protesilaus Ebdoma
# The Eighth House
## Necromancer: Silas Octakiseron
## Cavalier: Colum Asht
# The Ninth House
## Necromancer: Harrowhark “Harrow” Nonagesimus
## Cavalier: Gideon Nav
====Lyctors====
* Augustine the First (cavalier Alfred Quinque)
* Mercymorn the First (cavalier Cristabel Oct)
* Gideon/Ortus the First (cavalier Pyrrha Dve)
* Cytherea the First (cavalier Loveday Heptane)
* Ulysses the First (cavalier Titania Tetra)
* Cyrus the First (cavalier Valancy Trinit)
* Cassiopeia the First (cavalier Nigella Shodash)
* Anastasia the First (cavalier Samael Novenary)
====Non-Empire Characters====
* Commander Wake, aka Commander Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity
* Commander We Suffer and We Suffer
* Lieutenant Our Lady of The Passion
* Hot Sauce
====Other====
* John Gaius, aka God, aka the Emperor Undying, the Necrolord Prime, the Kindly Prince, etc.
* Alecto a.k.a. The Body of the Locked Tomb
* Ortus Nigenad, former Cavalier Primary of the House of the Ninth
* Mattias Nonius, a renowned Cavalier of the Ninth House from ancient times
* Teacher, of Canaan House
* Nona
==History of the Fandom== 
The fandom for the series spans both books released thus far. 
The fandom has tracked Tamsyn's use of memes throughout her novels, and there are several posts on Tumblr where users react to finding a familiar meme in a passage. Some fans consider the shitposts of TLT to be unparalleled. A number of Discord servers have also been created for fans to interact with one another in. 
By September 2020, there were a little over 300 works in the AO3 tag for the series. By January of 2021, that number had more than doubled to 750+, in part thanks to the books' popularity in fandom exchanges such as Yuletide. Spoilers are common in fanfic for the series, and are difficult to avoid. An overwhelming majority of the fics are for femslash pairings just like the canon of the book, with genfic the next most common category. 
==Shipping==
The most popular pairing for the series (juggernaut ship) is overwhelmingly Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus (also called Griddlehark), the main canon ship.
There are also small showings for:
* Harrowhark Nonagesimus/Ianthe Tridentarius
* Camilla Hect/Palamedes Sextus
* Camilla Hect/Coronabeth Tridentarius
* Coronabeth Tridentarius/Judith Deuteros 
* Abigail Pent/Magnus Quinn
* Gideon Nav/Ianthe Tridentarius
* Coronabeth Tridentarius/Ianthe Tridentarius
* Gideon Nav/John Gaius
* Mercymorn/John Gaius/Augustine/Other of the original Lyctors in various combinations
In universe, relationships between a necromancer and their cavalier are considered taboo. A necromancer and their cavalier are inherently a team, live in each other's pockets, and pledge to each other: "One flesh, one end." But they're not supposed to fall in love, because… Arbitrary.*** Canon does not take this taboo very seriously, with Abigail and Magnus being married, and Harrow and Gideon being the main ship. Fandom doesn't take the taboo seriously either, and ships necromancers and their cavaliers all the time.
*** Note: while it is generally not very well elaborated on in canon and often shown as arbitrary, and definitely ignored often in both canon and fanworks (or used for forbidden spice). There is some thematic reasoning behind the prohibition on relationships between linked cavaliers and necromancers. Namely that there is some commentary on colonialism/empire and it's links to relationship control and heteronormativity. The cavalier and necromancer "relationship" is simultaneously shown as the most ideal, most pure and important bond in society, but at the same time wanting to have explicit physical relations, or even romantic feelings for your "other half" is seen as a issue because the relationship is supposed to be about helping the empire (and what you can do for it) and conquest and not your personal feelings. This is shown to be... at least somewhat unsustainable, as many of the pairs that are well bonded and fight well together do engage in relationships and may refuse to do the "ideal thing" that pairs are supposed to do in the end, or to do it only on their own, different, terms.
===Common Tropes===
* Character studies 
* Canon Divergence AU
* Angst 
* Fluff 
* Hurt/comfort
* Post-canon, although these fics may be speculative in nature (set in the post-canon of Gideon the Ninth or Harrow the Ninth), or envision a post-canon future for after the entire series is concluded.
* Incest /Pseudoincest and Incest Kinks
* There are several AUs which canon starts but does not follow through on, as Harrow envisions different ways certain events might have transpired:
** Role Reversal AU
** Ball AU
** Coffee Shop AU
==Example Fanworks== 
===Fanfic===
* Daughters of Hungry Ghosts by zoicite.
===Fanart===
* Fan-edit of the Gideon and Harrow the Ninth covers photoshopped so it looks like they're holding hands, with reactions in the comment thread. Edit by adoorgayskull on Tumblr, requested by thelockedtomb, accessed Oct 11, 2020.
* “It was good. We were happy.” by foxdoodles on Tumblr [NONA THE NINTH SPOILERS]
* Modern AU by uglygirlstatus on Tumblr (part 1) (part 2)
* "Tamsyn Muir said she headcanons Jod as Taika Waititi, so this happened" by rosenkranz-does-things on Tumblr
===Zines===
* The Nine
* Unconditional, multimedia zine with other book fandoms
===Meta===
===Playlists===
=== Cosplay ===
* ND Stevenson (creator of Nimona, Lumberjanes, and She-Ra) as Gideon Nav (Halloween 2021)
* cassylvan and wyrd_play on Twitter as Gideon and Harrow
* PhiaCos on Twitter as Ianthe
==Communities & Archives==
* The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir on AO3
* r/TheNinthHouse on Reddit
==Resources==
* by Tamsyn, March 8 2019
* The Locked Tomb Fandom Wiki
==References==