Gideon

Saint of Duty

The Third Saint to Serve the King Undying

*This article refers to the Lyctor Gideon the First, for the cavalier Gideon the Ninth please refer to Gideon Nav.*

**Gideon the First, Saint of Duty** is the Third Saint to serve the King Undying.

## **Biography**

### Life Pre-Resurrection

Prior to the Resurrection, the scientist John Gaius worked with a crew of enigmatically named friends. Given that their initials align with the names of those who later became his Saints, a close relationship with “P—“ (likely Pyrrha), and the similarly gendered pronoun, it appears likely that Gideon was the one referred to in his recounted story as “G—“.

G— was described by Gaius as a fellow “hometown boy,” and had met P— sometime before the events leading to the Resurrection. In keeping with the title “Saint of Duty,” G— was known to follow Gaius’s orders without question. This devotion would eventually lead to his demise, when he was ordered to serve as a “dead man’s switch” with a briefcase nuke, in an attempt to stave off the launch of an FTL ship. When their efforts failed, Gaius remotely killed G—, which started a nuclear war.

### **Post-Resurrection**

In Canaan House, Gideon discovered the theorem of transference ("the utilization of a living soul"), the third part of the Lyctor megatheorem.

### **Harrow the Ninth**

#### Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder

A few days after their return to Mithraeum, Gideon decides that Harrow is a danger to John and needs to be killed. He finds her in the kitchen, sneaks up behind her and stabs her. Harrow deflects the blow and fights back—giving herself bone claws and quickly crafting five skeleton constructs. Gideon destroys them and chases Harrow into the halls. He throws his spear and hits her, but Mercymorn stumbles upon them and puts an end to it. She pulls the spear from Harrow, heals her, and chastises Gideon for attempting to kill Harrow where she has to intervene—making veiled references to his interference with the Dios Apate Major plot. Gideon requests Harrow's sword, but Harrow and Mercymorn deny him.

He attempts to murder her fourteen more times, but each time he is stopped by another Lyctor on board or John himself. As he has made a pact with *"an authority [God has] no power to gainsay"* the Emperor will not put a stop to the attempts, but as the Emperor would clearly be displeased with anyone who allowed Harrow to be killed, all the Lyctor's aboard are duty bound to stop any attempt they witness. They are left in a high stakes stalemate.

#### Nine Months Before the Emperor's Murder

Gideon the First returns from his unnamed mission to find John, Mercymorn, and Augustine eulogizing the corpse of Cytherea the First. He announces that the Seventh Resurrection Beast is at the rim, its brain already submerged in the River, and that it will be at Mithraeum in under ten months. John and Mercymorn attempt to deny the possibility, but Gideon cuts them off insisting it is true. He asks John simply to choose: stay and fight, or run. Surrendering, John decides that must follow through on the choice they made when recruiting new Lyctors and fight.

#### Four Months Before the Emperor's Murder

As the Resurrection Beast draws nearer, Harrow and Ianthe are left to each others company as the "adults" delve into complex planning. One night after training, Harrow stumbles on Gideon kissing the corpse of Cytherea. Though they are alone in her crypt, Gideon makes no attempt to harm Harrow and commands that she leaves. It is likely that at this point, Gideon's body was actually animated by his cavalier, Pyrrha Dve (it is noted that his voice sounds different, and the eyes are not seen). A while later, he comes into her rooms using his thanergy void abilities to crumble her extensive wards. He finds her in the bath and launches his spear at her. She dodges and fights back with the bone in her body, which he also begins to strip away from her. She uses her teeth to gouge his eyes, and Gideon retreats.

John asks Harrow to make dinner for everyone, and she obliges. At dinner, John serves her mediocre attempt at soup which is filled with Gideon's least favorite vegetables. As they discuss her soup, Harrow explodes Gideon with her own marrow she has cooked into the soup. John freezes everyone with his necromancy and chides Harrow. She pleas that he protect her from Gideon's attacks, but he only asks her when she last slept. At her response, he heals Gideon and sends everyone but Mercymorn out of the room—instructing Ianthe to put Harrow to bed. Augustine leaves with Gideon, offering him a cigarette. As Harrow leaves, Gideon salutes her with his cigarette.

One day, Gideon receives a formal dinner party invitation from Augustine. He lays out a fantastic feast—candles, white linen, silver cutlery, and a many-coursed decadent meal. They feast and drink for two hours, all becoming quite drunk. Gideon is less than enthused with this event, and keeps mostly to himself and even attempting to commiserate silently with Harrow. Augustine and Mercymorn begin toasting to lost friends which leads to an argument over their cavaliers, Cristabel and Alfred. Augustine turns to the toast to Pyrrha, Gideon's cavalier, which angers him. Ianthe redirects the toast to enemies and Augustine toasts to Commander Wake, and Gideon storms out of the dinner.

At some point between his departure and Harrow's, he (or his cavalier Pyrrha) sought out Cytherea, currently animated by the revenant of Commander Wake. Wake stabs Gideon's body through the heart, and he looses consciousness. he does not truly come to until John finds him and Harrow, as briefly during this time Pyrrha has control of his body. She tries to ask wake about why she brought along the ba(by) 19 years ago, and tells Harrow that fresh blood wards will keep her safe from Gideon. John, Mercymorn and Augustine arrive and question Harrow. Gideon has no memory of her version of events, and seemingly no memory of any events between his departure from dinner and waking in the incinerator room. - this perhaps suggests that Pyrrha has been in control for most of the time since leaving the dinner.

#### Two Months Before the Emperor's Murder

One night, an emergency alarm goes off throughout Mithraeum. Mercymorn has spotted the Seventh Beast and raised the alarm, shuttering the windows of the Mithraeum and beginning a lock down. Mercy screams over the comm, having accidentally looked at the Beast and fallen victim to its psychological effects. Augustine pronounces the Beast early and sends everyone back to bed.

#### One Week Before the Emperor's Murder

As the battle draws nearer, the residents of the Mithraeum meet to discuss battle strategy. Mercymorn outlines the plan of attack—tiring the Beast out in the upper levels of the River, and then dragging it down and into the stoma when it tries to flee. Gideon suggests they push the Beast down to the lowest levels of the River immediately to make their battle shorter, but Mercy counters with the example of Ulysses the First's death. Similarly, she counters Augustine and Ianthe's arguments and suggestions with failures from previous battles. In the end, Mercy's strategy wins and each Lyctor is assigned a direction of the Beast (save Harrow and John). Gideon is assigned the northern most point of the Beast.

The day of the Resurrection Beast's attack, Gideon makes one last attempt to kill Harrow. He corners her while she visits Cytherea's empty tomb and demands that she draw her rapier, but Harrow stops to question why he is bothering to kill her when she will be murdered as soon as the Resurrection Beast arrives. He does not truly explain but instead warns her to end her own life before going into the River and admits that this was not his idea.

#### The Night Before the Emperor's Murder

Gideon is on Mithraeum waiting to do battle with the seventh Resurrection Beast. The Heralds begin their attack on the Mithraeum in the East quadrant, and Harrow and Ianthe are hit with the worst waves of psychological attack from them. The Heralds continue their attack on Mithraeum for almost an hour as the Lyctors wait out the waves of fear in darkness. The Emperor gives instructions over the comm, and the Lyctors prepare to descend into the River.

Gideon stays in the River engaging Number Seven long after Mercymorn, Augustine, and Ianthe have pulled out and returned to their bodies in the Mithraeum. He is joined by Matthias Nonius, Ortus Nigenad, Protesilaus Ebdoma, and Marta Dyas. Though they nearly take the beast, Gideon the First is killed and Number Seven flees. Pyrrha Dve surfaces and takes control of Gideon's body.

## **Appearance and Personality**

Gideon is described as:

> *"His frame carried nothing but muscle. He was sinew over bone. He was a walking tendon. He had a raw, stretched look to him like an idiot's construct, bones that had been slippered in meaty fibrils to keep them moving. A metabolized, contracted striation, without fat, from rib to stomach. [...] You beheld a blunt brown face, skin too close to the skull, all shabby defeated features with its lineaments more temporalis muscle than anything else. His skull was a bumpy, knobbled, close-capped thing, hair shaven nearly to the bone. This hair gleamed a dull and unappealing russet, like a vague and bloody shadow on his head."*
>
>

Gideon the First is an serious and reverent man, taking the name "Saint of Duty" very literally.

## **References**

1. ↑ In Harrow the Ninth, this period of time is clearly marked as "Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder," despite seeming to make little chronological sense.
2. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 20
3. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 9