I Am Undone Without You

illustrations by edward miller for subterranean press edition of gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

illustrations by edward miller for subterranean press edition of harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir

harrow the ninth strips him down. he’s not just a god anymore. he’s a cool god. he makes shitty jokes. he eats peanuts. he fucks his friends on the dining room table. he tells our main character that he sees her as a daughter figure. he shows emotion; he makes mistakes; there are things that he cannot do. if gideon the ninth introduces him as the wizard of oz’s huge and intimidating head, then harrow the ninth is john pulling back his own curtain to show the man behind it. see! he’s kind of pathetic! he’s Just Like You!

and both of these images of john ultimately serve the same purpose, because they both play to his favor. whether you fear him or you woobify him, you have fallen into the trap he has set for you. because nona shows us an even truer john, a john who doomed the world and fucked it all up, a john convinced he was in the right even as his friends killed themselves in front of him. if harrow pulls back the curtain, nona peels off his face.

it does make me wonder whether there is a secret, smaller, fourth john gaius that will be explored in alecto the ninth. alecto is the only being in the universe who really and truly knows him. she knows what he’s done and why he did it. she chose him for a reason. beneath the god and beneath the god pretending to be a man and beneath the man pretending to be a god - is there truly just a man? is there anything left?

ianthe's little cannibalism moment except it's not little, it's 15 pages long, enjoy!

(and yes, I was drawing Harrow’s hair a little longer at first because of the HtN cover)

I love drawing bones and women

let's see how generous tumblr

Because necromancers are an ideal. Adept/soldier seems to be a popular pairing. They are the height of power in society and because their culture romanticizes death the summoners and wielders of it are of course further romanticized.

There is however, the fact that necromancy is a deeply unhealthy. Adepts are incredibly skinny and weak. Even if you aren’t actively dying like the seventh it’s still akin to living with chronic illness à la Victorian era. I think it really signifies something when Gideon mentions mags where necromancers are drawn with uncharacteristic cleavage.

Fertility has always been a sign of physical attractiveness in society and a society like the nine planets where fertility is notoriously complicated would probably have feelings about it. This clashes against necromancy with there being these two opposing things that society wants.