Glaurica

## Sister Glaurica

> *"I know the things that befall cavaliers, my lord, I know his fate!"*
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**Sister Glaurica** *(GLAU-ri-kah)* is a Nun of the Locked Tomb and mother of Ortus Nigenad. An immigrant from the Eight House, she married the cavalier primary to Lord Noniusvianus, Mortus the Ninth.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

On the same day that Priamhark and Pelleamena hanged themselves, Sister Glaurica's husband Mortus also hanged himself. In the wake of his death, she became despondent and overprotective of her remaining son.

### **Gideon the Ninth**

#### Act I

Following the secundarius bell's muster call ring, Ortus Nigenad and his mother, **Sister Glaurica**, go to the Ninth House Church. There, Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus announces that she and Ortus, her cavalier, have been summoned by The Emperor to travel to First House and compete for the position of Lyctor.

Immediately, Sister Glaurica panics and begs Harrow to spare her son from *"the things that befall cavaliers."*—a reference to her husband, Mortus the Ninth, who died in service to Reverend Father Priamhark Noniusvianus. Ortus does not protest, agreeing that he fears death, but still attempts to calm his mother. Harrow silences both of them, and the accompanying congregational commentary with a prayer.

When Glaurica fails to settle, Harrow has Marshal Crux escort both mother and son out of the church. At her behest, Crux takes them to a shuttle called by Gideon Nav in one of her many attempts to escape Ninth House. Sister Glaurica intends to return to her family on the Eighth House, but Harrow has bribed the pilot to return them 24 hours later in disgrace. Incensed at Glaurica's betrayal, Crux plants a bomb on the shuttle. Ortus and his mother are both killed in the detonation.

#### Act IV

As a revenant, Sister Glaurica speaks to Silas Octakiseron. Under his interrogation, she shares a rambling history of the Ninth House's misdeeds. She shares the story of the creche flu that killed a generation of Ninth House children and the knowledge that it was a planned genocide to generate enough thanergy to concieve a necromancer as powerful as Harrowhark. She fades quickly, unable to stay.

## **Appearance and Personality**

Sister Glaurica is described only as:

> *"She looked as though she were about to follow the faithful departed to an untimely grave, face frozen beneath her alabaster base paint, black skull paint slipping with sweat."*
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Defined more by her grief than her physical appearance, Sister Glaurica is a tragedy. Consumed with grief for her lost husband and fear for her son who has taken his position, she has faded to a caricature of a person. She is deeply bitter about what Ninth House has cost her, and determined to prevent any more harm to her family.

## **Relationships**

### Ortus Nigenad

> *"...his mother was obsessed with him; each time he caught a cold he was swaddled and made to lie still until he got bedsores."*
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After the loss of her husband, Sister Glaurica became consumed with caring for her son. He encompasses her entire world. and she would abandon Ninth House and everything she knows to keep him safe.

### Mortus the Ninth

Sister Glaurica's clearly cared about her husband a great deal. His suicide ruined her, and turned her into a clinging, overprotective mother. She is deeply bitter about what Ninth House has cost her, and determined to prevent anymore harm to her family.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 3