John Gaius

The Emperor illustrated by exmakina

Oil slick irises, ringed with white glow, matte black sclera (Lyctoral)

> *"The Emperor said, 'I saved the world once—but not for me.'"*
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**John Gaius**, His Celestial Kindliness, the First Reborn, and The Necrolord Prime is the Emperor and primary deity of The Nine Houses. His resurrection of the star Dominicus, and The Nine Planets provides the thanergy which creates necromancers and from which they draw their power. For ten thousand years he, his Lyctoral Saints, and his Cohort have been at war with an unnamed enemy.

## **Biography**

### **Before the Resurrection: Nona the Ninth**

#### John 20:8

Before the Resurrection, the Earth is dying, ravaged by a climate crisis growing more dire by the day and the demands of its 10 billion inhabitants. John, an accomplished scientist and researcher, works with a loyal and committed team — including his cryptically named friends G—, A—, M—, C—, N—, and P— (John leaves the pre-Resurrection names of his cohorts unknown) on a plan to develop cryogenic chambers capable of preserving the people of Earth as they are transported off planet. He cares deeply about Earth and wants to give it time to heal itself, without the burden of its people. Despite promising progress, the team is stopped in its tracks when funding for their project is pulled.

#### John 5:20

The night power is to be cut to the team's cryo lab in New Zealand, John bids personal farewell to several of the research corpses, knowing they will decay without power. However, defying explanation, two corpses remain whole and perfect. This is the beginning of John's mysterious abilities, the source unclear to even himself.

#### John 15:23

John continues to hone his abilities and spend time with the bodies, realizing he can sense them. The bodies stay perfectly preserved no matter what is done to them. Eventually, he is able to control and manipulate the bodies with his abilities, and names them Ulysses and Titania.

#### John 5:18

John learns he can manipulate all corpses, not just Ulysses and Titania, making them follow simple instructions. The team, fearful of the implications of John's power, decides to go public with this development with a live stream.

#### John 8:1

The team goes viral after going public with John's abilities, and hundreds of people descend on the lab. John learns he can heal living people's health problems, from asthma to cancer, and the crowds grow to thousands. Eventually, the government, deeming this a cult, tells John and his team to turn themselves in. When they learn the riot police are coming to collect them, John decides something big is needed as a show of strength, and draws from the cattle on the lands around the lab, creating a three foot thick wall of meat, bone, and sinew, pulled from several hundred cows and sheep, around the lab. This, unsurprisingly, horrifies and angers many.

#### John 19:18

Earth continues to deteriorate. John tries to bring Titania and Ulysses back to life, but fails. The team learns that the funding that was taken from them was redirected to faster-than-light (FTL) space ships and a plan to evacuate the whole population, with a dozen guide ships being sent out first. John and the team are deeply suspicious of this plan, and believe it to be the rich elite saving themselves at the expense of everyone else.

#### John 5:1

Despite this setback, John and his team are still determined to save the planet. They are approached by a group of mysterious men belonging to an organization whose leader has died; they want John to puppet the dead leader around so that no one realizes he is dead, and are willing to pay an obscene amount of money for it. John accepts, and is flown in to see the body, at which point he learns the organization is actually a country and the leader its president. After John demonstrates to the country's agents how he will puppet the dead president, M— and A— step in to aggressively negotiate the terms. As a result, John walks away with several billion dollars and a suitcase nuclear bomb.

#### John 3:20

The FTL plan continues to progress with more and more nations signing on, and John manages to get access to its main engineering facilities, where he learns that things there aren't as they should be or developing according to published plans. Despite this evidence, he is again brushed off by world governments, and gets angry. He decides to lean into being a cult, and calls himself a necromancer.

#### John 9:22

This declaration brings in thousands of new people, and alarms the governments, who send in troops. John continues to try to understand the soul, the missing element. Then, five people die outside the wall of the cryo lab, and John is able to feel their deaths and use their energy. He takes it and kills everyone with a gun in a kilometer radius, just over a hundred people. P— is enraged by this, but he claims it is just an accident, though in truth he intended to kill them. The team recovers the corpses to use as troops.

#### John 1:20

Via the dead president John is still puppeting, he learns that the FTL plan is almost ready and that the first wave of ships are about ready to leave. The focus of world governments is now on John and his team and what to do about them. John's team deduces that there is no second or third wave of ships, and the trillionaires are escaping on the first wave, leaving everyone else to die; John is determined to stop them by any means necessary. John tries to alert the governments, but this just speeds up the FTL plan, shrinking down from months to days. John decides he'll physically stop the ships from leaving if he has to.

In order to stall the FTL project, John and his team decide to go to his client, the government of the dead president, and threaten the use of the suitcase nuke if the government does not step in to stop the ships from leaving orbit. The government agrees but demands return of the nuke. John's friend G— is sent to return the nuke, and upon arriving John announces that the nuke is armed and G— is a dead man's switch. Also, John, through the dead president, has his finger on the nuclear button, ready to launch a nuclear war. He tells the government they have 30 minutes to stop the orbital gates from opening.

News of this spreads, and some of the followers who are inside the lab complex turn on John and take people hostage. The lab goes into lockdown, and the ex-cultists try to force their way in. Overwhelmed, John locks himself in his room. One of his team, a nun, who has been trying to help him find the soul, talks to him through the door, and offers help. He lets her in and after she calms him down, she shoots herself in the head. John instantly feels the rush of energy and sees her soul, and which point he realizes that the enormous energy of the Earth drowns everything else out, which is why he hasn't been able to detect individual souls.

He leave the room to see chaos, a mass shootout occurring in the lab. Most of his team is killed before his eyes. Determined to harness the Earth's soul, which is more powerful than anything else he's ever felt, he reaches out and kills G—, triggering the nuclear bomb. Then, he has the dead president give the command to launch his nukes, causing a domino effect of nuclear launches around the world. The death of billions gives John enough power to turn him into a demigod, and he kills the rest of the world's population, at this point drunk with power and thinking only of stopping the ships. He then tries to take in the soul of the Earth into himself, only to find it too big. He crafts a body from his own blood, ribs, vomit, and dirt, modeling it after a Barbie from his childhood, and places the rest of it in the body, Alecto.

It's still not enough; he still wants to stop the ships from escaping. He reaches into space and kills the sun, and then Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but the ships escape at the edge of the range of his power. He goes on to kill Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and any craft with people in it. It is revealed that the Earth itself chose to grant John his abilities so that he might save it, and this is how he repays it.

### The Resurrection

At the Resurrection, there was only John. Having killed the world and absorbed its power and that of its ten billion inhabitants, John sought to resurrect the solar system in his image. With his new-found power, he resurrected the sun, which he renamed Dominicus, the Nine Planets, and his companion―Alecto.

Alone on a reborn-but-empty planet, the two of studied necromancy and invented the Lyctoral process, achieving Perfect Lyctorhood. Slowly, John began resurrecting people—some of whom he kept to the side, asleep, in case of an emergency. Among these resurrections came his first disciples: five necromancers (Augustine, Mercymorn, Gideon, Cassiopeia, and Ulysses) and five humans (Alfred, Cristabel, Pyrrha, Nigella, and Titania).

Under the umbrella of his power, his disciples did not age or die. Together, they founded the Eight Houses of the Dominican System and many of the foundational traditions of the new Empire—including that of the cavalier. They also discover the principles of the River and the ability to travel long distances. In time, they gathered three more pairs (Cyrus and Valancy, Anastasia and Samael, and Cytherea and Loveday) to join them, completing the set.

John chose not to share the knowledge of Perfect Lyctorhood, allowing his disciples to rediscover the Eightfold Word themselves, and incorrectly assume that their cavaliers must die. One by one, each of his disciples murdered their cavaliers and achieved Lyctorhood—all except Anastasia. With Cassiopeia's help Anastasia took her transformation methodically and nearly achieved perfection. According to John, she had made some nearly-fatal error and, to save her life, John killed her cavalier. Having failed to isolate and consume his soul, Anastasia remained human.

Nearly one thousand years after the Resurrection, John, Alecto, and their Lyctor's discovered the existence of the Resurrection Beasts. In their first confrontation, they manage to take down Number Two but the Lyctors' discover just how inhumane and dangerous Alecto's botched resurrection makes her and beg John to kill her. John puts her to sleep and has Anastasia construct her a Tomb on Ninth House, sealed with a perfect blood ward tied to himself.

Telling his Lyctors that Alecto is dead, they flee through the River and establish the Mithraeum—a space station home forty billion lightyears away from Dominicus. Over the next several thousand years, John and his Lyctors focus on establishing an Empire (via the Cohort) and dealing with the Resurrection Beasts as they appear. In this time, they succeed at killing four more Beasts, at the cost of three more Lyctors (Cyrus, Ulysses, and Cassiopeia).

Five thousand years after the Resurrection, the Empire comes in contact with the Blood of Eden, an insurgency group that begins attempting to dismantle the Empire by way of turning colonized planets against the Emperor and necromancy.

A few thousand years later, John returns to Imperial controlled space and, twenty years later, begins living aboard the Erebos. Nearly forty years into his tenancy, Blood of Eden gains a new commander, Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead, and begins causing major problems for his Empire.

John, his Lyctors, and his Cohort tangle with the Commander and the Blood of Eden numerous times of the following decades. At one point, Blood of Eden takes down a Beast's Herald and uses the body to fashion weapons capable of inflicting insanity on the Lyctors. Finally, twenty-four years into her command, the Commander is killed by Gideon The First, and Blood of Eden is nearly destroyed.

Eighteen years later, John summons the heirs to the Houses of the Dominican System to First House intending to raise them to replace his fallen Lyctors.

### **Gideon the Ninth**

#### Act I

John sends out a summons to the heir—and their cavalier primary—of each of the Nine Houses (excluding the First House, which contains only a small staff of priests and construct servants). The summons instructs each heir to come to Canaan House on the First House and study with the intention to ascend to the position of Lyctor.

#### Act IV

Aboard the Erebos, John and his Cohort officials receive an SOS from Judith Deuteros and Marta Dyas, urgently calling for their return to First House. Despite the danger of his return home, the Erebos turns and comes nearly within Dominicus's halo.

#### Epilogue

When the Erebos arrives, trusted Cohort officials are sent to search Canaan House for survivors, and find Harrowhark Nonagesimus (ascended to Lyctor) and Ianthe Tridentarius (ascended to Lyctor). Among the dead, they find Marta Dyas, Isaac Tettares, Jeannemary Chatur, Abigail Pent, Magnus Quinn, Palamedes Sextus (remains), Protesilaus Ebdoma (head), Silas Octakiseron, Colum Asht, and Gideon Nav. Judith Deuteros, Coronabeth Tridentarius, and Camilla Hect remain unaccounted for, even after the house is swept from top to bottom.

John visits Harrow's room and works on his tablet while waiting for her to wake. She begs him to resurrect Gideon but he refuses, saying that he cannot separate their souls now. He tells her about who Cytherea the First was before and assumes responsibility for her actions. He apologizes for the way that she became a Lyctor, explaining that he had never planned for any of them to ascend under duress. John carefully explains that the Empire is dying and that he needs her and Ianthe to help him restore it. He offers to restore the Ninth House and asks her to come with him and join him. She agrees.

### **Harrow the Ninth**

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

Seeing Harrowhark Nonagesimus's alarming half-Lyctoral state, John instructs Gideon the First to *"either fix or put down Harrow."* Gideon accepts the mission unflinchingly, but is repeatedly stopped by the need to uphold appearances—Mercymorn the First, Augustine the First, Ianthe Tridentarius, and even John himself continually stumble on his attempts to "fix" Harrow (via murder) and are duty-bound to step in and save her.

Harrow asks why John will save her but not put an end to the attacks once and for all, and he simply responds that Gideon made a pact with *"an authority [John has] no power to gainsay"* and that something has caused him to decide that Harrow is dangerous to John. He claims he cannot ask Gideon to forsake that vow but asks her to wear a rapier. In the same conversation, he recounts the story of Anastasia's time with the Lyctors, how she got the Lyctoral process fundamentally wrong, and her creation of the Locked Tomb. He recites Annabel Lee to her but does not elaborate further.

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

Amongst his duties with the Cohort and the response to the Edenite attack on three of his warships, John attempts to give Harrow and Ianthe the chance to heal from their Lyctoral ascension and recuperate in his flagship, the *Erebos*. Ianthe is recovering well but Harrow, especially once her sword is returned to her, is a shaky, vomiting mess.

As Mercy's requests for John to return to the Mithraeum grow louder, he visits Harrow and invites her to walk with him. John brings her to the cargo hold to show her the resurrected people who will repopulate the Ninth House, and the caskets of those who died in Canaan House. He explains the Resurrection Beasts that hunt him and his Lyctors, and how they mean that Harrow can never return home. Following this, Harrow is distracted by her hallucination and seemingly distraught over her half-Lyctorhood. In his attempts to comfort her, she begins to talk of Ortus Nigenad and faints.

Catching John in a meeting, Mercy arrives aboard the Erebos and acts without his permission. She gathers Harrow and Ianthe and has a transport shuttle prepared to take them back to the Mithraeum. John catches up with her as she is arguing with Admiral Sarpedon, and she forces him to go along with her plan or face openly disagreeing with her in front of his fleet.

Aboard, he starts to chastise her before noticing Ianthe and Harrow listening in. Non-verbally, she argues with him, claiming that he cannot afford to stay dangerously close to the Dominican System and Blood of Eden with so few Lyctors remaining and the Seventh Resurrection Beast closing in on the Mithraeum. John argues that Ianthe and Harrow are not yet ready to make the arduous journey through the River. In the end, John concedes. He bestows appropriate accolades on the service people of the *Erebos* and the transport shuttle is launched.

Mercy pilots the ship, and she and John begin to lecture the young Lyctors on River travel. Doing his best to ignore Mercy's unhelpful remarks, he outlines the basics of River travel and impresses the seriousness of this task on Harrow and Ianthe. As they submerge, John becomes the unchallenged leader and carefully sets a pace and watches his Lyctors.

Ianthe struggles with fear immediately, but Harrow seems unusually collected — even going so far as to attempt theorems. The longer they remain in the River, Mercy begins to strain against the fear of remembering Cassiopeia's death and John struggles to restrain her. Finally, as Harrow's focus slips, John tells her to accelerate. He grabs her and they speed out of the River at the Mithraeum.

Immediately, John, Augustine and Mercy hold a funeral for Cytherea the First. As they share stories of Cytherea's life, he is barely able to control the squabbles of Augustine and Mercymorn, who are not on good terms. They talk about when they'd last seen her and if there was any sign of her plot, as well as of her cavalier, Loveday Heptane, who they did not like. John demands they eulogize Loveday as well.

Mercymorn notices Harrow and Ianthe are awake, and John brings them to Cytherea's casket. Augustine introduces himself to his new siblings. Gideon the First returns from his unnamed mission and announces that the Seventh Resurrection Beast is on its way to the Mithraeum, and will arrive within ten months. He asks if they are going to stay and fight or run; John chooses to stay.

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

One night, Harrow finds John in his study looking over the reports of the attack that had driven Mercymorn to retrieve them from the Erebos. He explains the terrorist group Blood of Eden to her and their likely connection to Cytherea's attack on Canaan House. Though he is concerned about the resurgence of Edenite activity, John is more concerned with the issue of Harrow's partial-Lyctorhood and bizarre energy readings.

He questions her about her birth and when Harrow explains the Ninth House Genocide—which John claims to be a type of resurrection. He proclaims her a miracle and pledges to make her family's crime right. John promises her that no one needs to know the circumstances of her creation, and absolves her of blame. Another night, Harrow shares her fears that the corpse of Cytherea is moving, but John dismisses her concerns and suggests she stay out of the room.

Aside from his talks with Harrow and a few group discussions about the Resurrection Beasts, John does not take an active role in the mentorship of either new Lyctor.

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

As the Resurrection Beast draws nearer, John, Augustine, Mercymorn, and Gideon begin planning for the battle in earnest. Despite the months of training and careful discussions, it is still clear that Harrow stands little chance of surviving. One night, Harrow comes to John and asks if it is certain she will die in the battle. He cannot give her an optimistic answer but says he hopes she lives and reminds her to train with her sword more.

Another night, Harrow comes to John with the accusation that Gideon has defiled Cytherea's corpse with grave lust. Though she is adamant in her accusations, John denies the likelihood, stating that Gideon is *"legendarily unamorous."* He advises that she take time to rest and pick up a hobby—concerned the stress of the oncoming Beast is getting to her.

When Harrow shows an interest in cooking soup, John asks her to cook a meal for everyone. He and the Lyctors attempt to show appropriate enthusiasm and interest in her new hobby but as they are offering suggestions on improving her soup, Harrow explodes Gideon with pieces of her own marrow she has cooked into the soup. John uses his necromancy to freeze everyone in the room.

Shocked, he chastises Harrow for attempting to kill her brother in front of him. She supplicates herself to him and begs for his protection from Gideon's attack but he only asks her when she last slept. At her response of six days, he heals Gideon and sends everyone out of the room—instructing Ianthe to put Harrow to bed. Only Mercy is asked to stay, where he fiercely chides for missing Harrow's impossible skill.

Days later, John receives a formal dinner party invitation from Augustine. Augustine hosts a decadent multi-course meal for all and they feast and drink for two hours—becoming quite drunk despite John pushing water on them. Augustine and Mercy begin toasts: first to lost friends, which ends in an argument over their cavaliers, Cristabel and Alfred; then to Pyrrha, Gideon's cavalier, which angers him. Ianthe toasts to enemies and Augustine names Wake causing Gideon to storm out. John is tempted to end the party but is too happy to see Augustine and Mercy talking again.

John checks in on Harrow and Ianthe, pleased to see them acting like sisters. Augustine attempts to toast to sisters and women left behind, but John balks. He apologizes and Mercy toasts to John. They drink more and John, Augustine, and Mercy descend into more sentimental and playful conversations about people they knew. As Mercy finishes her glass, John removes all the alcohol from around her. Despite his protests, they continue their conversation about Cristabel and Alfred. They appear to reconcile and Mercy kisses Augustine. When John tries to interrupt, Augustine pulls him into a kiss too.

They are interrupted by the incinerator alarm and John, Mercy, and Augustine rush to the alarm. He finds Gideon, stabbed through the heart and healing, piled on the ground next to Harrow, who is still half encased in the bone creations she made to drag him out. John melts away her bone constructs takes control of the situation. Disappointed and weary, he leaves Harrow and Gideon and goes with his other Lyctors to examine the incinerator.

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

Following Augustine's disastrous dinner, John cannot locate any sign of Cytherea's body despite days of searching. Even as the other Lyctors begin to move on and focus on the impending battle, John (and Harrow) remain alert for any hint at who or what might be moving Cytherea's body and where she has gone.

Concerned with Harrow's lack of progress, John again calls her into his study and asks that she allow herself to be locked in with him when they face the Number Seven so that he might protect her. She stubbornly refuses, claiming that she is capable of taking care of herself.

One night, Mercymorn sets off the emergency alarm and shutters all of the windows on the Mithraeum. John gathers everyone on the comms and Mercy explains that Number Seven has arrived ahead of schedule. Though the Beast is still too far away to injure them, the entirety of the Mithraeum begins locking down to prevent the psychological effect of looking directly at the Beast.

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

John and the Lyctors gather to discuss battle plans. Mercymorn begins with outlining the layers of the River and their strategy to defeat it—to fight it until it is tired and then lure it down the bottom of the River and push it into the stoma, or hell mouth. The Lyctors argue over potential changes to the strategy, but do not end up making any changes to the plan. Each Lyctor is assigned a direction of the Beast to cover, and John is to be left safely locked in his chambers. The Emperor again calls Harrow to his study and attempts to convince her to be locked in with him.
She asks why he is locked in at all, and he explains that if he were to die the entire system would also die. Harrow asks about A.L. and the Emperor tells her a little bit about his companion and her origins. Though he loved her, he explains the monstrous and angry beast she became after Resurrection. The Emperor explains that his Lyctors are all "the First" after A.L., that he thinks she would have liked Harrow, and, thinking to compliment her and express his affection, that he himself would have liked Harrow as a daughter. Harrow is so overcome that she throws herself at his feet and confesses to opening the Locked Tomb. He explains that the blood ward is tied only to his blood and that she could not have broken it. He reaches down to comfort her, but discovers that someone has *"been tampering with [her] temporal lobe."* She flees before he can investigate further.

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

John is in his rooms 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. John doles out instructions over comm and attempts to offer Harrow additional protection by leaving her door closed as long as possible. To his sorrow, she adamantly refuses. After a few minutes of silence, he gives the cue and Harrow, Ianthe, Augustine, Mercymorn, and Gideon sink into The River to do battle with the beast.

#### Thirty Minutes Before the Emperor's Murder

At some point during the battle, Commander Wake in the body of Cytherea the First finds the Emperor in his rooms. He disarms her and ties her to a chair. She makes him call her by her full name Commander Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity, and attempts to interrogate the Emperor and charge him with *"acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the human race."* The Emperor interrogates her in return, demanding to know her mission and her business on Ninth House. They argue about her anti-necromancy and the use of dead children in their propaganda before Mercymorn and Augustine stride in.

Mercymorn and Augustine both appeal to the Emperor to come clean, saying *"It's over, John. It's all come out ... it took ten thousand years, but it's all come out."* The Emperor asks if he is in trouble, and then directs their attention to Cytherea's body and introduces his Lyctors to Commander Wake. Mercymorn and Augustine draw their rapiers and the Emperor, puzzled that they have met, asks for clarification. Wake claims that Mercymorn and Augustine were working for her, which the Lyctors deny. The Lyctors and Wake argue over the details of the plan and whatever went wrong, but no one speaking clearly enough for the Emperor to understand exactly what they are talking about.

The Emperor silences them with a burst of necromancy. He again asks what Wake was doing on Ninth House and she explains that she was going to break into the Locked Tomb. Wake explains that she came armed with a baby that she had birthed herself, much to Augustine's horror, after Mercymorn's dummies and ova had died. The Emperor is explain exactly how the plan would not have succeeded when Gideon the First walks into the foyer, steals Gideon Nav's sunglasses, and walks into the Emperor's rooms. Gideon the First walks up to Wake and shoots her in the head. The Emperor protests, but her ghost is already gone. At Augustine's question, he shares that the Number Seven has fled.

The Emperor sits, and asks Gideon if he was aware that Wake was pregnant. He confirms he was and explains, to the horror of everyone, that he thought that it was his child. The Emperor insists that the plan would still not work, and Augustine and Mercymorn fill him in on Dios apate, major—their plan to steal his genetic material and create a child capable of opening the Locked Tomb. The Emperor asks if Wake and baby died on entry, and Gideon walks into the room and announces herself.

With Gideon in the flesh, the Emperor understands why his Lyctors are so upset. They argue over Alecto and how monstrous she was, and Mercymorn presses for the truth of what happened to her and how she was killed. The Emperor admits that he did not kill her, just *"switched her off."* Mercymorn and Augustine explain that what united them years ago was the realization that The Emperor had not killed Alecto, and what Gideon has caused them to realize that is that she was his cavalier and perfect Lyctorhood was possible. Ianthe decides to join them in the room, but says nothing.

As Mercymorn presses for any sign of regret for having killed all of their cavaliers, Augustine asks about Anastasia's failed attempt at Lyctorhood. The Emperor admits that she had nearly cracked it, but claims she had still made a mistake. Augustine asks the Emperor to put an end to his mission, but he refuses. Mercymorn promises that she will forgive him if he will do one thing: look her in the eyes and tell her he loved Cristabel, her cavalier. As he does so, she reaches inside of him and rends him into dust with her necromancy.

The Emperor does not stay dead long, but rather reforms and murders Mercymorn. He asks each of his Lyctors if they will be loyal to him. Gideon the First and Ianthe answer in the affirmative and are spared. Gideon Nav is spared from answering due to the extenuating circumstances of being his daughter and being in Harrow's body, but tossed across the room and bound by his necromancy. Augustine answers in the negative, but before he can be killed Augustine drops the Mithraeum into the barathron River. The Emperor, Augustine, and Ianthe dive in.

Augustine and the Emperor battle as the current sweeps them lower and lower into the River. As they approach, the stoma opens and horrible tongues and teeth appear around the void. Both Augustine and the Emperor are caught up in the tongue of the stoma and sitting in a stalemate—neither able to finish the other without getting dragged in themselves. Augustine yells something, presumably a call for Ianthe to help, but she ignores him. Ianthe swims down and frees the Emperor, pulling him to safety. Augustine is pulled in and the stoma closes.

### **Nona the Ninth**

**Epilogue**

After Alecto wakes up, she visits a sleeping John and drives Gideon's sword through his chest, at which he awakens and greets Alecto good morning.

## **Appearance and Personality**

> "*In the chair sat a man. On the arm of his chair was a tablet and in his hands a sheaf of flimsy, which he would occasionally shuffle and take notes on. He was simply dressed. His hair was cropped close to his head, and in the light it shone a nondescript dark brown. [...] He approached her, and she saw his sclera was black as space. The irises were dark and leadenly iridescent—a deep rainbow oil slick, ringed with white. The pupils were as glossy black as the sclera."*
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> *"You can be quite the most appallingly vindictive person I have ever met."*
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John presents himself as a sorrowful and kindly personality, with a sense of humour-- not unlike Teacher on First House. He comes across as patient, forgiving, and wise, with a unique sense of humbleness towards his own God status. However, it is clear that he expects loyalty and obedience above all, and does not tolerate dissent or betrayal, as demonstrated by his swift handling of his disloyal Lyctors.

Before the Resurrection, when John was a scientist and researcher, he was an obsessively driven man, desperate to save the dying Earth. He was scornful of other initiatives and convinced his cryogenics research was the best solution, but was still charismatic, commanding the loyalty of his friends in the cryo project. After he gained his powers over life and death, he became increasingly cruel, wrathful, and bent on revenge towards those who pulled funding from his project, and on the rich elite planning to flee Earth, resulting in a willingness towards violence and a disregard for life that ultimately culminated in his mass genocide of the world.

Despite his kindly exterior, his thirst for vengeance and total hatred for those who escaped Earth and their descendants still burns as brightly as ever, and motivates him as strongly as his fight against the Resurrection Beasts.

He is totally convinced of the rightness of his actions, and is not concerned with the morality of any of his murders, from before the Resurrection onwards.

## **Relationships**

### Harrowhark Nonagesimus

While Harrowhark worships the Emperor Undying as her God and is uncomfortable with any signs of familiarity or normal friendliness between them, the Emperor is shown to be fond and admiring of Harrow. He is protective of Harrow, showing immense care when talking with her and teaching her in Lyctorhood, but also is slightly inclined to treat her as a child. In *Harrow the Ninth*, he tells Harrowhark that he would have liked to think of her as his daughter.

### Augustine

The Saint of Patience is possibly one of the oldest relationships the Emperor has, as it is implied that they knew each other before the Resurrection. He often calls God by his name "John", and is irreverent and familiar with him. He is also the only Lyctor to joke around with God. However, Augustine holds a myriad-deep grudge against John because he suspects him of not killing his cavalier A. L., whom all the Lyctors feared and beheld as a monster. It is implied that for this, and other unrevealed reasons, Augustine betrays the Emperor by working with Blood of Eden to destroy the Ninth House and the Locked Tomb with it.

### Mercymorn

The Saint of Joy has a conflicted but worshipful attitude towards the Emperor.

### Gideon

The Saint of Duty is considered to be the Emperor's "sharpest sword", and is possibly his most trusted Lyctor. They have a platonic and strong brotherly bond.

### Alecto

Alecto is the Emperor's Cavalier, also referred to as A.L. and Annabel Lee, but also revealed to be the Resurrection Beast of the murdered Earth, created when John killed the world and its ten billion souls. John created her with his own limbs and blood and vomit, crafting a body to store the part of the Earth's power he could not store within himself. This creation, called Alecto, proved to not be fully stable and scared the Emperor's Lyctors, eventually prompting him to trap her in the Locked Tomb on the Ninth House, despite the love he has for her.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Epilogue
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Harrow the Ninth," Act IV, Ch. 37
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 51
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 2
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 20
6. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act IV, Ch. 36
7. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 7
8. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 14
9. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 6
10. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 30
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 50
12. ↑ In Harrow the Ninth, this period of time is clearly marked "Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder," despite seeming to make little chronological sense.
13. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 52
14. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 25
15. ↑ "Nona the Ninth," John 1:20