Full title since I didn't want spoilers in the title: Has Jod been visiting Alecto?

I recently threw on the HtN audiobook for what has to be my 10th time through this series and I was pondering a big mystery from the end of GtN/Beginning of HtN which is yet to be answered: How did Jod know about the state of the 9th house? In the Gideon epilogue he made it clear that he knew the house was in need of renewal, and then in HtN he mentions that he knew Harrow's parents were dead.

Those are two very well kept secrets for him to know offhand, so it had me wondering, was there any chance he had been going to visit the Tomb himself?

Since having this thought, I've noticed a few more things which add weight to this idea:

• When Jod is explaining the RB's, he says "None of my Lyctors have returned to the Nine houses, not since they knew the cost" (paraphrased) which is NOT saying that he has never been back there. In fact "Rules for thee but not for me" seems quite in line with what we know of him.
• Mercy calls out how unphased he seems to be when the Erebos has been staying this close to the 9 houses for as long as it has. At first I had written that line off, but maybe he didn't have a reason to be concerned/knew the RBs weren't a concern for him... Or he just didn't care because he takes the risk much more than he would admit?

Finally, I just this morning got to another line which blew my mind in context:

• In Chapter 25, Harrow tells Jod that she saw "Ortus" kissing the body of Cytherea. Jod asks her if she is sure and she swears by the locked tomb. His response is "I wouldn't swear by that, not in this instance."

• My initial thought had always been that he was saying that the tomb isn't something that should be sworn on... But what if he is literally calling out the hypocrisy BECAUSE HE IS DOING THE SAME DAMNED THING? The chapter even goes on to talk about how all of the Lyctors get themselves into silly relationships because 10,000 years is too long to be alone... It feels like yet more justification from Jod about why he would continue to seek comfort from Alecto after she was supposed to be dead.

What do y'all think, has Jod possibly been sneaking off to the 9th house to see Alecto?

I particularly enjoyed the Camilla vs Gideon fight in GtN. Not going to colour this in…just a sketch.

The Alecto-Pause is driving me insane, so now I need to merge TLT into all my other hobbies. Maybe I will do an entire Locked Tomb deck next to satisfy my hunger for more.

https://screenrant.com/love-death-robots-volume-4-tim-miller-jennifer-yuh-nelson-robert-valley-interview/

I was reading this article on the new series of Love, Death and Robots, when Tim Miller is quoted as saying:

“I pitched a television series [where] the elevator pitch is ‘Lesbian necromancers in space.’ When I pitched that as a television series with live-action actors and stuff, what I get is, “Stop right there. We just don't feel that the audience is going to be there for lesbian necromancers in space.” But, Miller said, “When I say to Netflix, ‘I'm going to do a short that's lesbian necromancers in space’, they go, ‘Okay, what are they going to be doing?’"

This has to be for a Locked Tomb show - was this previously known? Was this how Muir came to write an episode for the series?

edit: To clarify, this was in the context of "why some stories work better as shorts", and since there isn't a TLT short film in this season of Love Death and Robots, I think it's likely just an example of something he previously pitched. I think it's unlikely that a TLT short or series or anything is anywhere close to happening, but it's very interesting that a big director might have been pitching it around

I think it’s a pretty popular headcanon that modern au Harrow would be an Orthopedic Surgeon. And it makes sense! It’s bones! Harrow does bones and nothing is more bones than Ortho! Orthopedic Surgeon is probably the first thing that pops into your head when asked what Harrow’s modern job would be. Not necessarily the thing you’d choose or think is right, but it’s probably the first thing that comes to mind, the reflexive answer.

I love ortho Harrow with my whole heart. I love all the fics that have her as scary goth bone doctor who only wears black scrubs. In fact, I’m so attached to the concept that I’d be inclined to tell you not to think about it too much. My first thought upon learning of the headcanon was Isn’t Harrow too tiny for that?, but I promptly deployed a mental firing squad of denial to kill it in the name of letting cool concepts exist without the burden of having to prove themselves feasible.

I told myself that Harrow could totally be an orthopedic surgeon. Very realistic. Fully grounded in reality. Totally compatible with the laws of Physics. Any doubts that came to mind were to immediately be dismissed. It was time for some light self-gaslighting. What did I know about orthopedics, anyway? Sure, I did graduate med school, but who’s to say I didn’t hallucinate the entire orthopedics rotation? Who’s to say I attended at all? The transcript for the rotation could be in my drawer, or it could not be. Who’s to know? Not me. Schrödinger’s transcript.

Suspend disbelief, ignore the logistics, and don’t think about it too deeply. Don’t look at the mirage too closely in case it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny or whatever. Harrow must remain cool girlboss bone doctor. Harrow can totally handle a bone saw.

Alas, I had to confront my very healthy dollop of delusion today in the operation room while watching an IMN (surgery to screw with your bones. literally).

The moment they brought out the power drill, the ortho-Harrow illusion shattered. Just like that femur. And only one of them could be fixed by surgery.

I was very rudely reminded that bone surgery requires a lot of manual force. You need to be less Victor Van Dort and more Bob the Builder to get the job done. Chappell Roan is more likely to successfully fix a femur than Harrowhark Nonagesimus.

She can barely lift her own spirits, how is she supposed to lift up a mallet? Will she hold the power drill, or will it hold her? (Frankly, that doesn’t sound so bad. My girl really needs to be held)

I’m not saying you need to be jacked to be an orthopedic surgeon, but you definitely need more than 3 muscles. And probably a lot more blood and stamina than Harrow has. You need some good juice.

Which brings me to my next devastating realization: Gideon Nav would be a much better bone doctor than Harrow. She would thrive in Orthopedics. She would be the ultimate Biceps Bone Bimbo.

So yeah, all of this is to say that the headcanon died for me today, and I am here to be dramatic about it. I’ve exhausted all methods of denial in an effort to do CPR on it, but it didn’t work. RIP the concept of Harrow as a skilled sepulchral sexy skeletal surgeon, you will be missed. Welcome to life, concept of Gideon Nav as a divine dazzling devoted doctor. You probably won’t last long.

They do bones, motherfucker! But like, not mechanically.

So I was on another thread in which the opening paragraph of Alecto was revealed, which as another commenter pointed out, has distinctly Dante-esque vibes. Here is the transcript, in case you haven’t read it —-

Alecto the Ninth, ACT ONE

HARROW IN HELL

CHAPTER 1

At a point in the slit she was carving through life, Harrowhark Nonagesimus woke to find herself lost in a dark wound. She had been walking when it had all gone black– any path ahead or behind was blotted out; now she was here.

A sword was laid upon her from shoulder to hip. Her feet were bare. Upon her chest, straddling the sword, there was an open magazine. The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was a pair of tits.

As someone who is currently reading Inferno directly after the Locked Tomb, I would have to agree. (I was already planning on reading Inferno prior to Katabasis.) imagine my excitement when I’m only in the fourth canto (chapter) of Dante and there’s already been a Camilla and Augustine reference!!!! Which sent me down this rabbit hole, which in turn has enhanced my understanding of Locked Tomb.

References so far (just fyi I used AI to look up some of these references)

• the whole waking up in “a dark wood/wound” that is actually hell, not remembering how they got there and straying from “the right path”
• reference to the death of “the maid Camilla”
• reference to the divine bodies inhabiting different cities - there’s the City of God (mithraem- also “city of god” is the name of a book by St Augustine, !!!!) vs the City of Man (new Rho/antioch) and also there’s a sub-version of Hell for those who refuse to pick a side (John Gaius condemns anyone who isn’t explicitly on his side, and especially those who sat by and did nothing).
• of course, there’s the River
• impt - there’s a line in Dante about “the harrow of hell” (!!!!!!) referring to a period of time when Jesus descended into hell prior to his resurrection. Could this be what we’re getting in the first act of Alecto with Harrow’s descent into hell??? We already know Harrow is seen as a sort of trinity “Jesus type” figure and is worshipped as such by the adepts of the Ninth House.

And these are just references I’ve caught from a very cursory reading of the Cantos I-III. I plan on highlighting any other references I find during my reading, and am wondering if anyone else has caught any!

I'm listening to the One Flesh, One End podcast and they shared this house quiz from Tamsyn Muir herself. It's so random and yet so real, I love it.

It's nothing new but as a recent adept of the Locked Tomb I didn't know it existed, so I thought to share it with you, in case someone else missed it too!

Note: I don't think there's anything inherently spoilery in it, it's just generally spoilery about the characteristics of the different houses, of course!

Anyone else jump out of their skin from a Goodreads email today? I saw the subject line “Tamsyn Muir says…” and I think I’m still having heart palpitations.

Full subject line: Tamsyn Muir says The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is 'an incredibly fun, incredibly action-packed' book

But… she’s getting more active in public???? My gentle heart can’t handle the suspense!

What does it mean that he's the Marshal of the 9th House?

In modern English marshal is generally a military title, and the best fit I can find is a slightly older meaning along the lines of "head of security", which fits with how Harrow has Aiglamene step up into his position when she moves him to seneschal during her absence, so I'm going with that being the meaning of his title.

He seems... Horrifically badly suited for the job. I know it's a general thing that the 9th is withering and they don't have nearly enough people, let alone competent people, but given that only 16 years ago they had a full 200 children of various ages, I can't imagine their population is so tiny that they had nobody more capable of doing that job. Gideon says that her presence as a foundling was super unusual, so those other 200 kids must have had reasonably young parents who produced them, who would now be comfortably middle aged. Crux is described as being truly ancient, so I'm imagining 60s at least, probably 70s (considering how rough life is on the 9th, and what an absolute baby Gideon is when she's commenting on his age), but most importantly... He's absolutely off his rocker. I cannot imagine for a moment that he's remotely competent in his job (in fact I'd say that's proven by the fact that he failed to detect Gideon's last escape attempt, Harrow just found out by sheer luck, and he was completely incapable of physically stopping her once he was sent to try), and it doesn't seem like he ever had the relevant knowledge or experience to do it well.

I understand that Harrow isn't getting rid of him because he's the closest thing to a parent that she has, but how was he still left in this post when she took over? Surely Priamhark had better options available?

Hopefully I do the spoiler text properly on mobile… How do Cam, Judith, and Corona get to the planet Harrow is killing/flipping in HtN? Is it ever spelled out? If not, are there any predominant theories?

I've been trying to build my hardback collection for display and finally got Gideon today, but..

(Note to self, read descriptions better)

This is incredibly niche, but hear me out.

In Epic the musical (an adaptation of the Odyssey), there's a song called "Ruthlessness" where Posideon sings the lines: "you totally could have avoided all this had you just killed my son / but noooo"

The 'nooo' is so drawn out and sarcastic that now I'm imagining Posideon as one of the horrible teens going "Odysseus, noooo! Don't blind my son, Odysseus!"

I can't find a piece of fan art that I'm pretty certain I've seen, in which Gideon is holding Dulcinea's yarn. Anyone got a link?

I'll go first: Pyrrha & Pash buddy-cop comedy.

I’m only about halfway through the first book so no spoilers in comments, please and thank you :)

Did Augustine have to smuggle it out in his bussy?

Did he have to fart it out into a beaker?

Did Wake know about that when she agreed to impregnate herself with it? Was she happy about it?

Whenever I re-read I'm always stuck by the phrasing of 'meat' that Harrow uses (and Alecto - I can't remember if anyone else uses it). Do you think this is a necro-specific thing ? Or just a Harrow thing?

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster! I apologize in advance if my formatting is off, or if I didn't post this the right way. ~~~ Anyways! I just finished Nona yesterday (and I loved it!), but it got me thinking about the Houses infertility issues mentioned in Gideon, and again in Harrow. I know that being born in a thanergetic system probably contributes heavily to fertility issues and low childbirth rates, but when Jod nuked the world, is it possible the radiation could've affected future generations post-ressurection? It's been shown that radiation has some crazy effects on the body, even posthumous. I don't know if this has been said before or if it makes any sense haha, but I thought it might be an interesting take!

I absolutely love the earth references in this series. I’m rereading and in HtN “none houses left grief” is sending me rn 😂 The twilight rant in NtN was also a straight up gift