Coronabeth Tridentarius

Coronabeth Tridentarius illustrated by [starcanist.tumblr.com/ @starcanist]

**Coronabeth Tridentarius** *(Cor-OWN-a-beth Try-den-TAR-ee-us)* is Heir to the House of the Third and Crown Princess of Ida. Lacking any true necromantic ability herself, she has spent her entire life glued to her sister, Ianthe Tridentarius's, side to create the illusion of a powerful pair. Naberius Tern, the cavalier she shares with her sister, is fiercely protective of her.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Coronabeth Tridentarius was born on Ida, and the first born between herself and her sister, Ianthe Tridentarius. As the oldest, she was named Heir and will rule Third House once her father relinquishes his seat. Unusually, this title was not shifted to Ianthe upon the discovery of Corona's lack of necromantic talent.

At six years of age, Corona and Ianthe began a simple ruse—Corona would pretend to be a necromancer, and Ianthe would cover for her with her own considerable talent. As Ianthe became drenched in blood sweat from performing necromancy for two, Corona would be untouched and appear a powerful necromancer.

Due to their pact, the Tridentarii received home instruction and sought no Cohort placement. At twelve, Naberius Tern was registered as cavalier primary to both sisters. At some point in their relationship, Naberius began training Corona in cavalier skills.

### **Gideon the Ninth**

#### Act I

Coronabeth Tridentarius, Ianthe Tridentarius, and Naberius Tern receive a summons from The Emperor to come to The First House and compete for the position of Lyctor. As the summons dictates only the Heir of the House attend, and Corona has no magic of her own, Third House sends the three as a set—claiming that the twins were born at the exact same time.

When they arrive at Canaan House, the additional body in the shuttle causes a delay, and The Third Priest attempts to straighten out the mess. With Teacher's permission, the Tridentarii are allowed to compete together with one cavalier—though Teacher implies it will cause them problems in their attempt to ascend.

Inside Canaan House, the Tridentarii and Naberius join the other competitors in tea and prayer. Naberius is awarded an iron key ring for their House, and Teacher (vaguely) explains the bounds of the competition. Left with more questions than answers, the Tridentarii and Naberius are led to their rooms for the night by a construct.

#### Act II

In their first day at Canaan House, The Third House explores the building, descending the stairs into the hallway near the pool room. At the same moment Gideon is hiding in the shadows. Naberius complains about the competition's vagueness, the food, and anything else he can think of, while Coronabeth and Ianthe pose questions and theories regarding their purpose at Canaan House.

The conversation quickly turns ugly as Ianthe begins to insult Corona's powers and intelligence, and Naberius attempts to defend her. Corona and Ianthe immediately close ranks and chastise Naberius for insubordination. He becomes sulky, and he and Coronabeth continue down the hall.

Days later, Coronabeth bumps into Gideon in the dining hall and invites her to the cavalier sparring matches she has been organizing. She leads Gideon down to the pool room where Naberius, Magnus, Jeannemary, and Marta are already at work. Corona glows, pleased to be the one to introduce the elusive Ninth Cavalier to the group, and sets about arranging a duel between her and Magnus. The match turns out to be no match at all, as Gideon crushes him in three turns. This is plenty enough to get Naberius's attention.

Coronabeth attempts stave off her eager cavalier, but in the end allows the two to fight. She pushes aside concerns of her impartiality to officiate, and calls out the rules. The match is long and fairly evenly matched, but eventually ends when Naberius disarms Gideon. Corona is slow to call the victor, and Gideon, thinking the match unfinished, punches Naberius. Concerned, she rushes to him and attempts to soothe both his pain and his anger. She is only moderately successful, and it puts an end to dueling for the day.

Coronabeth attends the anniversary party thrown by Magnus and Abigail and spends much of the night in conversation with Magnus.

#### Act III

When Third House first arrives on the scene of the Fifth House murders, Ianthe joins a number of other nercromancers in bleeding themselves to call forth their passing spirits. Coronabeth tends to her sister, but does not join in. Failing this, the twin work side by side to attempt to raise Abigail and Magnus, leaving and returning to the scene a number of times. Though Coronabeth lacks any true ability, they make a show of kneeling together and holding hands--leaving Ianthe drenched in blood and sweat. As time passes, Ianthe turns to her house specialty, cannibalizing chunks of Naberius' hair, nails, and even flesh to power her spells. She is not able to achieve any results.

Back upstairs, Coronabeth quickly reaches the end of her tether with Judith Deuteros. She insists that the Second Right has no authority to call upon the Cohort to investigate the death of Abigail and Magnus, and that certainly Judith has no right to claim any authority over the necromantic Scions gathered at Canaan House. Naberius supports her, and she tries to remind Judith that they (Second and Third) grew up together and grew up knowing Abigail and Magnus.

She attempts to push the conversation in a more productive direction, but it only opens the floor for Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth to start bickering and tossing out veiled accusations. She interrupts again, stressing that if they can't find a way to trust each other, the entire competition will devolve into madness. Palamedes takes over for her then, suggesting they investigate the bodies of Abigail and Magnus and try to learn more about what may have killed them before deciding on any next moves.

The matter is nearly resolved when Teacher pressures Ianthe into admitting she also is in possession of a Facility key, a fact that is news to both Corona and Naberius. Third House leaves the meeting *"with dislocated proximity and the clenched jaws of three people on their way to have an enormous tiff."*

A while later, Teacher is in the Dining Hall when Coronabeth approaches him and asks for a key to the Facility. He explains to her that the key is Naberius' by right, and there is only one key for each cavalier present. She asks for the Fifth's key, and he explains that Magnus had already asked for his when he died and that he does not know where it is. At this point, Palamedes offers to escort her to the Facility with his own key. Despite Judith's protests, she asks him to help her get the same keys as her sister, promising a favor (wealth, military prizes, research material, etc) in return. Judith denounces the bribery passionately, but Palamedes is forced to decline and reveal to the group that there is only one key for each testing chamber.

Coronabeth is quick to find the positive and insists that this means the teams are destined to work together. However, Teacher reiterates his sermon from the first night in Canaan House-- *"What I mean is, there is no law. [...] I have given you your rule, and there are no others. Some things may take you swiftly down the road to Lyctorhood. Some things may make the row harder to plough."*  When it is finally put bluntly, that nothing stops the teams from murder, theft, blackmail, deceit, intimidation, or any other unlawful action, Coronabeth quickly disappears to find her sister.

Coronabeth and Naberius are swimming in the Pool Room when Gideon and Isaac Tettares come in. Isaac is looking for Coronabeth due to a discovered body, and Marta, Naberius, and Colum tag along. Isaac takes them to the incinerator chimney, and a burned pile of ashes and bone. The group studies the ashes and argues as to whether it constitutes anything alarming. Colum proclaims the ashes need a bone magician and leaves to prepare for his duel with Protesilaus, taking his ref, Naberius, with him. Left with Coronabeth and Gideon, Isaac explains he's been seeing things and Jeannemary says she wanted the two of them so they *"could get the warning."*  They look exhausted and feral as they leave. Coronabeth and Gideon close the grate to the incinerator.

The next day, all of the necromancers gather to examine the remains. Ianthe pronounces the ashes to be three months dead and notes that the ashes seem to be from two separate people, but Coronabeth does not deign to get her hands dirty. Silas arrives with Dulcinea's keys and Judith Deuteros tries to assert her authority by taking them from him. Failing that, she forces a duel between her cavalier and Camilla for the Sixth's keys. Coronabeth claims that Naberius will represent the Sixth, but Ianthe forbids Naberius from interfering. When Corona tries to convince him to go against her twin, he refuses. Camilla wins in an upset, but is badly injured in the fight. Despite this, Ianthe presses Naberius to challenge her himself.

Coronabeth immediately protests, but Ianthe insists that she is doing this to secure a Facility key for her. Judith protests, saying that she has no cause and it goes against the rules--but Ianthe neatly throws every argument and discussion Judith has led that proves that is not the case back into her face. She coaxes Coronabeth gently, and her sister folds immediately. Camilla is readying herself to fight when Ninth steps in and volunteers to represent the Sixth, with Jeannemary close behind demanding the next duel. Faced with two strong duelers, Naberius withdraws and the gathering breaks up.

#### Act IV

Palamedes and Harrowhark gather the remaining postulants and bring them to Dulcinea's sick room. With Protesilaus' decapitated head in hand, Palamedes proposes that Protesilaus has been dead the whole time and has been reanimated by flesh magic called the beguiling corpse — which Dulcinea confirms easily. Corona says little throughout the conversation, except to agree that Harrow should not have carrion rights to Protesilaus' head or bones. Ianthe and Naberius start to squabble, and the Third leaves.

Third House takes it upon themselves to investigate the bodies of Fifth House, and realizes that Abigail has had a key concealed inside her since she was murdered. Ianthe takes the key and they proceed to the study. Inside, Ianthe learns the final piece to the megatheorem puzzle and consumes Naberius — ascending to Lyctorhood. Coronabeth is crushed by her sister’s betrayal and breaks down into tears. She stays huddled on the ground for the entirety of the confrontation with Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth House, and they leave her to her grief.

### **Harrow the Ninth**

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

Following the Battle at Canaan House, Coronabeth is taken in by the Blood of Eden with Camilla Hect and Judith Deuteros. The three of them successfully make it off of the First House without drawing the notice of the Emperor or Cohort and are pronounced dead to their Houses.

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

Coronabeth, Camilla, and Judith track Harrowhark Nonagesimus to an isolated, uninhabited planet where she is completing a mission for the Emperor. Coronabeth watches over Judith while Camilla seeks out Harrow's assistance to locate the revenant of Palamedes Sextus. Camilla returns a while later with an unconscious Harrow. She shares whatever explanation Harrow has offered in her letter about her amnesia with Judith and Coronabeth. When Harrow wakes, she sees Coronabeth and Judith and, after reading two letters to herself, necromantically seals their jaws shut. Seizing her only opportunity to rebel against the Blood of Eden, Judith attempts to warn Harrow of a traitor amongst the Emperor's inner circle. Curious, Harrow unlocks their jaws, however, Coronabeth covers Judith's mouth and drags her back into the shuttle before she can get out more than a few words. Judith attempts to communicate with Cohort hand signals, but Harrow does not know them.

### **Nona the Ninth**

Coronabeth is working as a Blood of Eden agent codenamed Crown Him with Many Crowns, on a project to awaken Harrowhark’s Lyctoral powers in the amnesiac soul known as Nona.

#### Day Five

With Pyrrha (posing as Gideon the First) and the unconscious Judith Deuteros in tow, Crown meets with Ianthe as part of a plot to get her fellow Blood of Eden agents into the necromancer barracks and retrieve Gideon Nav's body.

## **Appearance and Personality**

Gideon first describes Coronabeth as thus:

> *"The other two were young women, both blond, though the similarity ended there: one girl was tall and statuesque, with a star-white grin and masses of bright golden curls. [...] They were actually the same height, Gideon realized; her brain had just deemed that proposition too stupid to credit on first pass. It was as though the second girl were the starved shadow of the first, or the first an illuminated reflection."*
>
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### Appearance

Coronabeth appears somewhat larger than life, a quality that helps her with being perceived as special. While she is tall (taller than Palamedes) she isn't taller than her sister. Her skin is golden and tanned, her hair is long, big, and bouncy.

### Personality

Coronabeth in reputation is a talented necromancer, a charismatic leader, and an energetic and vivacious person. While it is true that she excels in dealings with people, much of her personality is a front of sorts. She is once called out on this by Nona, who observes that “you look at Commander We Suffer like you want her to think you’re into her, but you aren’t at all, it’s just something you’re doing with your eyelashes.” Perceived as the ring leader of the Third House trio, she actually relies heavily on her sister for support and direction.

## **Relationships**

### Ianthe Tridentarius

> "Don't feel bad, sweetheart--what can you do?"
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> "I can do nothing."
> "Then let's do this together. I need you."
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> "I need you."
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## **Trivia**

* In the original, Ianthe and Coronabeth were "Cainabeth and Abella" after the famous biblical brothers.

## **References**

1. ↑  tazmuir, Tumblr.com.
2. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 18
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 21
4. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 7
5. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 24
6. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," A Little Explanation of Naming Systems