Glossary

**The Glossary** is an appendix to Gideon the Ninth, released with the paperback edition 14 July 2020. The glossary is expanded in an appendix to Harrow the Ninth, released with the paperback edition 21 Septemeber 2021. This appendix contains definitions of some of the most frequently used terms unique to the Locked Tomb Series. Here, the definitions have been abbreviated and the number of terms has been expanded.

For a complete list of terms in alphabetical order, please see the Glossary Category Page.

## Locations

Dominicus
The central thanergenic star of the Nine Houses system.
The Nine Houses/The Dominican System
The name of both the empire and the system that comprise the Necrolord Prime's home system. Each House shares its name with the planet on which it is based.
The Nine Houses are:
* The First House (previously based in Canaan House)
* The Second House
* The Third House
* The Fourth House
* The Fifth House
* The Sixth House (the location of The Library)
* The Seventh House
* The Eighth House
* The Ninth House (based in Castle Drearburh)

The Locked Tomb
The resting place of an unfathomable enemy. Also the name of the religion of the nuns of the Ninth House, who watch over the Tomb.
The Mithraeum
The sacred space station home of God and his Lyctors.
The River
A liminal space below the perceptible world.
## Necromantic Terms

Anatomist
A form of flesh magic specializing in anatomy.
Animaphilia
A form of flesh magic.
Apopneumatism
The process of a soul separating from a body (following death).
Blood Magic
A sub-school of flesh magic, primarily for creating wards.
Bone Magic
One of the three major schools of necromancy; it controls, creates and animates bones.
Flesh Magic
The school of magic chiefly to do with flesh.
Generalist
An unspecialized jack-of-all-trades necromancer.
Lymph Magic
A sub-school of flesh magic, thought to be inferior to blood magic.
Necromancy
The magic done by the adepts of the Nine Planets system.
Occultist
A necromancer interested in the mysteries of the River.
Psychometry
A form of magic, practiced primarily by the Sixth House, which reads the history of an object through its thalergy and thangery signatures.
Siphoner
A taboo genre of magic specializing in drawing thanergy or spirit energy from a living being.
Speaker to the Dead
A necromancer who specializes in raising ghosts.
Spirit Magic
The school of magic chiefly concerned with the River, ghosts and revenants, as well as with liminal magic spaces and nexuses.
Stele
A necromantic construct used by Nine Houses spacecraft for faster than light travel.
Thalergy
Life energy.
Thanergy
Death energy.
Theorems
Studied and stable magical practices (i.e. spells).
## People/Species

Adept
Another term for necromancer.
Blood of Eden
An insurgency group working against the Emperor and the Cohort.
Cavalier
A swordsman of the Nine Houses who has sworn themselves to a specific necromancer.
The Cohort
The Emperor's military forces.
Disciples
Sixteen people called to serve The Emperor at the dawn of the Nine Houses.
The Emperor
The immortal founder, ruler and God of the Nine Houses. Also known as the King or Prince Undying, the Necrolord Prime.
Lyctor
A powerful necromancer second only to the Emperor, to whom they are personal servants, guards, and disciples.
Necromancer
An adept of the Nine Houses, born with the ability to control thanergy and thalergy, as well as the ability to convert the latter to the former.
Postulants
Seventeen people called to serve the Emperor a myriad after the creation of the Nine Houses.
Resurrection Beast
A revenant monster, created by the resurrection of a planet.
Revenant
A ghost; what may remain tethered to life when a body dies.
Wizard
A derogatory term for necromancers used by the Blood of Eden.
## Other Terms

Heptanary Blood Cancer
A genetic cancer that impacts the Seventh House.
Myriad
A period of ten thousand years.