Katakaluptastrophy

I feel like he kept up with training to maintain appearances but as the years went on he started skipping out on it more and more in favor of his writing. But even so he's still yoked from a lifetime of training to carry around two backpacks full of skeletons.

🚨 Semi-lethal spoilers for A Canticle for Leibowitz.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" is a 1959 short story cycle about a sect of Catholic monks whose role is to preserve relics of knowledge in the nuclear apocalypse (but by doing so also doom the future yadda yadda). In the third story in the collection/cycle there is a older woman with a six legged dog. She is an unsettling figure and is petitioning the head of this order of monks to baptise her second head (did I mention this occurs post nuclear apocalypse). However, a second nuclear crisis occurs and in the blast the woman appears to die and a new, young, feral, voice is heard speaking from the head. While the world falls to ruins again, this new being skips forth.

So when I read this part I was like "Oh Cathoic-vibes apocalypse AND a six legged dog? Is this a Reference?" Anyone else able to comment?

truth over solace in lies

finished one of the most amazing reading experiences in my recent memory! these two are my very favourites.

Was it a battle injury? Do the Templars truly live up to their name and see actual battle?

This, to me, seems incredibly risky. To go through all the effort of getting one heir with a matching cav and then risk them both potentially dying in combat, after going through the trouble of making three potential cavs to get a blood type match, is just not worth it. I mean, Judith, heir to the official military house, hadn't ever seen actual combat. And Isaac was going to join, be we know the fourth uses stored genetic material, and is an appendix of the fifth, so his personal survival didn't matter as much. So if it wasn't likely a battle injury, and cavs of the Eighth need to be a blood type match, I have a second theory.

What if Silas ate it? (Or, at least, has it)

I admit, it seems waaay too much like something heretical for the eighth to do, but, they're also soul siphoners. What if the necro having tasted/consumed a small part of the cavs flesh allows them to call them back easier? Maybe this is why a blood type match is so important, because the flesh is more involved than it would appear. We know Ianthe uses a similar practice to boost thanergy, and while the others think it's gross it's not said to be openly heretical. And it's an essential part of the Lyctoral process, a requirement to merge souls. And we know that souls, to return from the place beyond the physical, need a link back. The link to the corpse is the strongest.

So even if Silas didn't eat it, it's not ridiculous to think he wouldn't at least have a preserved Colum finger on him. Or somewhere on the Eighth. To make it easier for Silas to "bid him return"

(This line is so specific too, and the way he mentions how long it took Colum to come back... hmm... the things we don't know)

Though I could be over-reading into the fact that we learn that Colum is missing his middle finger and that the Houses use giving a middle finger as an insulating gesture in the same paragraph: "at least one finger on his left hand was a gross-looking stump, which she admired" and later, that's specified to be his middle finger: "is “your kind” people who aren’t nephews and who have middle fingers?... If it had been Crux she would have given him the finger."

When they're both Orpheus and Eurydice>>>>

Ceramics can be made of bone china, so it is not unfeasible for Cassiopeia to have made herself something to haunt with her own bone, and made it inconspicuous so that it would fly under the noses of John and the other Lyctors. And we know how much Tamsyn loves doing foreshadowing with lines like these:

We know Cassie was smart, Mercy described her as 'brilliant and sensible and careful', we know she distrusted John for a decently long time given the existence of the break clause, and we have some hints she may have been close to Anastasia (this last part is the most circumstantial but I like the theory).

The Anastasia bit is also like, yeah almost tangential to the general Cassiopeia theory, but everything in this series is done for a reason so the note from Anastasia in the Sixth lab feels important (and the note at the end of Dr. Sex could have easily been from her?), and liiiike. Team 69 through the ages come onnnn. xD And it definitely wouldn't hurt the whole "Cassy played long games" thing to have worked with Miss Mysterious Pact With Alecto, eheh.

But yeah more potential stuff:

Cassy died specifically to Varun, who we've now met. And who ... doesn't actually seem all that murderous. It doesn't attack until Nona calls for help, and then it says "I came to help! I am made a mockery" and "Their vengeance is not my vengeance."

In fact, to this day, the only Lyctor that ever even might have been directly killed by a Resurrection Beast (assuming you don't count Harrow or John as Beasts) is G1deon, six months ago, and his death is mysterious as hell. Why did Varun run? How did Pyrrha walk away? (Especially an interesting question given "Camilla and Pyrrha didn't answer" above, implying Pyrrha's silence is also significant rather than only Cam knowing.) What ever happened to Nonius and the cav crew?

The rest died by their own plans. Cyrus drew part of one into a black hole. Ulysses dragged one into the stoma. And Cassy was torn apart by feral ghosts ... though Augustine says "disappeared into a large intestine" and then got ripped apart? Don't ghosts usually flee from RBs? Is Varun carrying some around? Or I suppose the ghosts could be a matter of RBs always looking different, eldritch in nature and all, even when two people look at the same one at the same time. Maybe that's only what it looked like. Either way, if we trust Augustine's account, Varun might have eaten Cassy, in a way, which ... I guess may or may not count as directly killing her / directly contributing? But if we trust Mercy's account too, it sounds like at most it would be indirect, and either way, this was Cassy's plan to drag it somewhere just like the first two deaths.

So RBs in general don't actually seem like they're trying to kill John or the Lyctors, but chasing them for another reason. (Maybe even ... much like John's original intention for the trillionaires, wanting to drag him back to the system to fix what he broke? Which in turn might kill him, literally or in essence, or otherwise activate whatever the reason is he refuses to cross that threshold even a little. After Canaan House he's "nearly in Dominicus's halo", but won't cross. But still looking to hold him accountable and maybe help Alecto rather than just take vengeance. 🤔) And then we have specifically the same RB between Cassy's death and G1deon's mysterious circumstances + the cav crew.

So I have to wonder if Cassy somehow made a deal with Varun way back when...

-

And ALSO. Way more debatable, but the first time Harrow travels through the River, in HtN Ch7, the chapter skull is the Sixth and they do talk about Cassy quite a bit, and maybe that's all it is.

But at the end, when Harrow sees the five points of light and wonders "...five?" I... don't think it should actually be Gideon, or Alecto, because I think if one showed up as a unique signature, both should. Plus Mercy and Ianthe only read as one signature rather than two, Harrow is vaguely aware of herself as a sigil with her 200 but still reads as one big light, John's only one big light. Gideon and Alecto should both just read as another part of Harrow (and/or John).

I don't think it's Wake in the sword because they're all described as incandescence, and I don't think she would stand out from every other normal ghost in the River + if Harrow could perceive her surely John could and would have caught her right away.

And then perhaps most importantly: it specifies that one light was below them. There's no cargo area on the shuttle, it's this one little room and a tiny probably-bathroom on one side, still not below. Below makes it sound like something outside the shuttle. So... I wonder if, somehow, for some reason, that light could have been Cassy... Why? I don't know but I'd sure like to...

We're told "Cassiopeia the First left us instructions years ago" but Cam's account to Nona says:

He wanted to evoke the break clause … which means, he wanted his family away from the Houses...

...The Warden convinced the Oversight Body, convinced the Sixth House to come with us. We showed them the secret of the installation. We helped them find a stele that would anchor such a big thanergy transition… which means, we helped them move.

It's rather ambiguous whether Master Warden Pal — and no one else on Oversight — knew about the break clause and the secret of the installation, or whether this was something BoE pointed them towards.

The other thing I keep wondering about is the intersection between Aim's newly acquired apparently plural pronoun and the necromantic implant — House technology! — she has in her body:

“Back on Lemuria, or anywhere else,” said Palamedes, “did you ever have an operation, or receive medical care, from the Nine Houses? Even if you don’t remember it. Did you ever get some kind of implant? You said you met archaeologists. Were they House? Did you specifically meet any necromancers who gave you any kind of treatment?”

Aim never answers.

She later tells Nona:

“I’m the Messenger,” said the Angel simply. “We are the Message … the message has two parts left, and you are looking at one of those parts. The name for this part of the message was ‘Aim’ when the message was passed to us through my forebear Emma Sen. The message is too simple for human beings like us to understand. What do you think the message is?”

When the message was passed to us. Does that mean us as in 'this generation' or suchlike, or does 'us' refer to Aim? Is this implant something that is being passed on like a Trill simbiont (though you don't get the sense Aim is getting anything as helpful as shared memories)? What's the other part? And what does it have to do with the Houses?

If you get into white work embroidery, you might discover cutwork. And when you start doing cutwork, you might get curious about incorporating detached elements. And before you know it the fabric is gone, you are making needle lace, and there goes the rest of your week.

Buttonhole stitch - not even once.

Ceramics can be made of bone china, so it is not unfeasible for Cassiopeia to have made herself something to haunt with her own bone, and made it inconspicuous so that it would fly under the noses of John and the other Lyctors. And we know how much Tamsyn loves doing foreshadowing with lines like these:

We know Cassie was smart, Mercy described her as 'brilliant and sensible and careful', we know she distrusted John for a decently long time given the existence of the break clause, and we have some hints she may have been close to Anastasia (this last part is the most circumstantial but I like the theory).

The Anastasia bit is also like, yeah almost tangential to the general Cassiopeia theory, but everything in this series is done for a reason so the note from Anastasia in the Sixth lab feels important (and the note at the end of Dr. Sex could have easily been from her?), and liiiike. Team 69 through the ages come onnnn. xD And it definitely wouldn't hurt the whole "Cassy played long games" thing to have worked with Miss Mysterious Pact With Alecto, eheh.

But yeah more potential stuff:

Cassy died specifically to Varun, who we've now met. And who ... doesn't actually seem all that murderous. It doesn't attack until Nona calls for help, and then it says "I came to help! I am made a mockery" and "Their vengeance is not my vengeance."

In fact, to this day, the only Lyctor that ever even might have been directly killed by a Resurrection Beast (assuming you don't count Harrow or John as Beasts) is G1deon, six months ago, and his death is mysterious as hell. Why did Varun run? How did Pyrrha walk away? (Especially an interesting question given "Camilla and Pyrrha didn't answer" above, implying Pyrrha's silence is also significant rather than only Cam knowing.) What ever happened to Nonius and the cav crew?

The rest died by their own plans. Cyrus drew part of one into a black hole. Ulysses dragged one into the stoma. And Cassy was torn apart by feral ghosts ... though Augustine says "disappeared into a large intestine" and then got ripped apart? Don't ghosts usually flee from RBs? Is Varun carrying some around? Or I suppose the ghosts could be a matter of RBs always looking different, eldritch in nature and all, even when two people look at the same one at the same time. Maybe that's only what it looked like. Either way, if we trust Augustine's account, Varun might have eaten Cassy, in a way, which ... I guess may or may not count as directly killing her / directly contributing? But if we trust Mercy's account too, it sounds like at most it would be indirect, and either way, this was Cassy's plan to drag it somewhere just like the first two deaths.

So RBs in general don't actually seem like they're trying to kill John or the Lyctors, but chasing them for another reason. (Maybe even ... much like John's original intention for the trillionaires, wanting to drag him back to the system to fix what he broke? Which in turn might kill him, literally or in essence, or otherwise activate whatever the reason is he refuses to cross that threshold even a little. After Canaan House he's "nearly in Dominicus's halo", but won't cross. But still looking to hold him accountable and maybe help Alecto rather than just take vengeance. 🤔) And then we have specifically the same RB between Cassy's death and G1deon's mysterious circumstances + the cav crew.

So I have to wonder if Cassy somehow made a deal with Varun way back when...

-

And ALSO. Way more debatable, but the first time Harrow travels through the River, in HtN Ch7, the chapter skull is the Sixth and they do talk about Cassy quite a bit, and maybe that's all it is.

But at the end, when Harrow sees the five points of light and wonders "...five?" I... don't think it should actually be Gideon, or Alecto, because I think if one showed up as a unique signature, both should. Plus Mercy and Ianthe only read as one signature rather than two, Harrow is vaguely aware of herself as a sigil with her 200 but still reads as one big light, John's only one big light. Gideon and Alecto should both just read as another part of Harrow (and/or John).

I don't think it's Wake in the sword because they're all described as incandescence, and I don't think she would stand out from every other normal ghost in the River + if Harrow could perceive her surely John could and would have caught her right away.

And then perhaps most importantly: it specifies that one light was below them. There's no cargo area on the shuttle, it's this one little room and a tiny probably-bathroom on one side, still not below. Below makes it sound like something outside the shuttle. So... I wonder if, somehow, for some reason, that light could have been Cassy... Why? I don't know but I'd sure like to...

We're told "Cassiopeia the First left us instructions years ago" but Cam's account to Nona says:

He wanted to evoke the break clause … which means, he wanted his family away from the Houses...

...The Warden convinced the Oversight Body, convinced the Sixth House to come with us. We showed them the secret of the installation. We helped them find a stele that would anchor such a big thanergy transition… which means, we helped them move.

It's rather ambiguous whether Master Warden Pal — and no one else on Oversight — knew about the break clause and the secret of the installation, or whether this was something BoE pointed them towards.

The other thing I keep wondering about is the intersection between Aim's newly acquired apparently plural pronoun and the necromantic implant — House technology! — she has in her body:

“Back on Lemuria, or anywhere else,” said Palamedes, “did you ever have an operation, or receive medical care, from the Nine Houses? Even if you don’t remember it. Did you ever get some kind of implant? You said you met archaeologists. Were they House? Did you specifically meet any necromancers who gave you any kind of treatment?”

Aim never answers.

She later tells Nona:

“I’m the Messenger,” said the Angel simply. “We are the Message … the message has two parts left, and you are looking at one of those parts. The name for this part of the message was ‘Aim’ when the message was passed to us through my forebear Emma Sen. The message is too simple for human beings like us to understand. What do you think the message is?”

When the message was passed to us. Does that mean us as in 'this generation' or suchlike, or does 'us' refer to Aim? Is this implant something that is being passed on like a Trill simbiont (though you don't get the sense Aim is getting anything as helpful as shared memories)? What's the other part? And what does it have to do with the Houses?

"Step two, analyse it—understand its structure, its shape."/"I mean, I tried. There was so much of you."

"Step three, remove and absorb it: take it into yourself without consuming it in the process.”/"I opened my mouth and tried to cram you inside."

“Step four, fix it in place so it can’t deteriorate."/" I needed a house to put you in."

"Step five, incorporate it: find a way to make the soul part of yourself without being overwhelmed."/"Fuck knows what would’ve happened if I tried to absorb you all the way; I probably would’ve burnt to death."

"Step six: consume the flesh. Not the whole thing, a drop of blood will do to ground you."/"I scooped dirt into my mouth…ate until I vomited."

"Step seven is reconstruction—making spirit and flesh work together the way they used to, in the new body."/"I conjured up a beautiful labyrinth to house you in. I was terrified you’d find some way to escape before I was done."

Oooh, but @sailingpaperhats, I think we do see the Eightfold happening in the creation of Paul. It's just...slower... (unrelated, I'm sure, to John's comments about Anastasia's attempted ascension: "She’d learned the trick was to do the Eightfold slower").

"Step one," she said, singsong, "preserve the soul, with intellect and memory intact". We learn that at some point during/prior to Canaan House, Palamedes "deliberately fixed his soul to his body, with spirit magic”. Pyrrah later describes that preserved soul, inside Camilla, as "only a step in the theory" of Lyctorhood.

"Step two, analyse it—understand its structure, its shape. Step three, remove and absorb it: take it into yourself without consuming it in the process. Step four, fix it in place so it can’t deteriorate... Step five, incorporate it: find a way to make the soul part of yourself without being overwhelmed." I rather suspect this is taking place throughout NTN, as they try very hard not to destroy each other by accident: "And now here I am, installed in your body, mere minutes from chewing up your soul". Following their brief overlap on the beach, a furious Pyrrah says "You can’t do that ever again, Hect, never. Synthesis is a one-way ticket—I walked the Eightfold, I should damn well know."

"Step six: consume the flesh. Not the whole thing, a drop of blood will do to ground you." I suspect the white and grey powder that Camilla eats during the creation of Paul comes from Palamedes' bones. Immediately after, she consumes some of her own blood.

"Step seven is reconstruction—making spirit and flesh work together the way they used to, in the new body." A few moments after eating the bone powder and blood, Camilla bursts into flames and we get a long and distressingly graphic description of her flesh burning. This seems to align with John's fear that if he had tried to consume Alecto in her entirety, he would have "burned to death".