Harrow Nova foreverrrrr

was supposed to draw harrow nova... went off to go ham on necro griddlehark

I found a way to split the difference between "Gideon sacrifices herself for Harrow in every universe" and "perspective switch in the second book because previous MC died" in the Harrow Nova AU.

At the end of the first book, Harrow would force Gideon's hand to absorb her soul, but it would be less about self-sacrifice than "this is the only way I'll ever reclaim my birthright as a necromancer." Same outcome, different motive.

However, in the second book, she wouldn't be dead. Only mostly dead. Her soul isn't in her body, but her body is still functioning fine. Better than fine, even. Her death-wounds healed themselves, and, despite being in a vegetative state, her muscles haven't atrophied one bit.

This is because Gideon is hemorrhaging thalergy, just like Anastasia was before they euthanized Samael. Gideon has made Jod promise not to do that and to explore other options, but in the meantime, she's slowly dying just to keep Harrow's corpse breathing. Gideon is still sacrificing herself, but by inches.

Some designs! gonna make another ribcage

harrow nova with a chainsaw is such a wonderful image. gonna rotate that in my mind for a while

the engine body is decorated w a painted pelvis bone + decal writing of Samael's name, hope this helps

I know the fandom consensus is that Nova AU Gideon is still buff because something something flesh magic something John Gaius life magic or whatever...and that’s very very good, I love it, don’t stop...but consider:

Necro-build Gideon. A 6′2″ butch beanpole. Looks like she got pulled through Willy Wonka’s taffy machine. Somewhat resembles a coatrack with a red beanie on top. Has to ask her girlfriend to open jars. (Harrow Nova is 5′2″ with a gymnast’s lean muscle and the stamina of an endurance runner.) 

seen a couple Harrow Nova designs lately, thought i’d try my hand at em

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲. 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐭, 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫.

~*~*~*~

Cw: blood

Fuck backgrounds. Took too much away. ANYWAYS have some Harrow Nova/RD Gideon post beating eachother to shit brainrot. Will be posting a Timelapse of it soon

ha hah what if we kissed on the murder fence in my roleswap au (and we were both girls)

Harrow the Ninth from Harrow Nova's POV once Gideon forces reverse lyctorhood onto her in that Pyrrha-G1deon way.

another edit: I need to clear that up. Harrow keeps her own body. At the end of Harrow Nova's gtn AU, necro-Gideon dies protecting Harrow (in my head, Gideon always dies protecting Harrow in every AU). Gideon figures out some way to reverse-lyctorhood Harrow. So the Cav becomes the lyctor instead of the adept.

Haven't worked out how she stops the process yet. Probably Ianthe. Ianthe would be my constant in all the AUs. She's always herself. Always becomes a lyctor. She's too good the way she is to change any of her bits.

I just want you to imagine Harrow Nova on the Mithraeum with all those silly dinks.

Instead of the memory-loss plot, I'm going for a Harrow Nova murder spree on the Mithraeum.

I think that works.

edit:

And because Gideon was her adept, Harrow can no longer die.

This realization is what tips John off to something being different.

an underrated part of cav!harrow aus is watching necro!gideon continue to be a grand disaster but like. with magic bone powers. like she 100% makes the ninth skeleton constructs play their own ribs like a xylophone and harrow nova sits there and is consumed with lust for her anyway

Thinking about how the Tomb would be opened in Harrow Nova. First, I subscribe to the fan theory that it required both John and Anastasia's blood to open the door, so it must have followed Harrow's flogging at the altar. Second, I think that in both universes, this is when she loses her parents, even though they're alive in Harrow Nova.

Here's how I see it playing out:

Up until she was like 9 or 10, Priamhark and Pelleamena were still trying to force the necromancy into her. Forbidden rituals. All-night cram sessions. Harsh punishment if she so much as touched a knife, let alone a sword. They'd already adopted Gideon, so Harrowhark (as she was still known) managed the Doofenshmirtz-esque feat of being an only child and still not her parents' favorite.

Gideon dared her to steal the chain since there was some arcane rule that they couldn't take that away or something. At this confirmation that they had birthed a cavalier, they punished her near the point of death at the altar. Gideon intervened, but only by convincing them to demote her to cavalier instead of killing her.

After this, the truth of her birth came out in an argument, and Gideon decided that this whole rotten house needed to burn. She went to the Tomb and, with hands still stained by Harrow's blood, she undid all the wards, hoping the monster inside would kill everyone.

However, Gideon changed her mind when she got to the corpse. Of all the horrifying realizations of the day, the one that broke her was when its eyes shot open and stared at her. It's faintly luminous, golden eyes.

HER eyes.

Gideon panicked and ran, sealing it all back and never speaking of it to another soul. She realized that her eyes were not those of a savior but of a monster.

This leads into my idea that this Gideon is far less confident than the main universe version. She still projects confidence but is plagued by doubts and imposter syndrome, now with the deep-seated fear that she's actually some kind of demon. (Unaware that those are God's eyes)

Honestly I think Tamsyn Muir made Harrow Nova specifically to cater to my all-consuming love of roleswap aus

Ok, I need everyone to be real cool.

I have legally changed my name to Harrow.

ms. maya, you have good opinions & ive been chewing on this question for a while: what do you think rd!gideon would do if cav!harrow died for her? im not so sure that she'd go down the lobotomy route, but i do think shed do something equally insane

bruh. I don't even know. I agree, she'd come up with her own bull-headed solution. Her mind doesn't twist into labyrinths like Harrow's. Building a construct out of her own skull to enforce a self-administered lobotomy was a uniquely Nonagesimus kind of solution.

Harrow Nova absolutely would sacrifice herself for Gideon. She'd do it gladly, if she thought it would save her necromancer's life. She might do it believing this was the reason the universe had suffered her to exist at all; so she could use her ill-gotten life to fuel Gideon's ascension. And Gideon would.....

It depends on the situation, but I think Gideon might say no. To all of it. She would refuse to elevate herself at Harrow's expense, to derive further privilege from Harrow's suffering. She'd find some way to keep Harrow without consuming her at all, and not become a lyctor. Trap Harrow's soul and stuff it in a jar. Hold onto the pieces of her until she can figure out how to fix them and put them back together.

That is, of course, assuming she'd be able to survive without becoming a lyctor. Which I am assuming because the thing Gideon knows, and Harrow mercifully doesn't, is that Cytherea didn't intend to kill Gideon. She says as much before Harrow gets there, right after Palamedes went off.

If she had to take a nibble to survive, and started the process? Fuck, man. She'd wish really, really, hard? We don't know, it might work. Pyrrha survived without any elective surgery, and our Gideon is very very good at not looking into the parts of her brain she doesn't want to see, and not thinking about things she isn't ready to understand. She might end up exactly like the Gideon before her, blacking out and losing time and having no idea why because her secretive bodymate elected not to enlighten her as to her continued existence.

Or, and this is a fun one, she might go 'welp, can't eat her if I'm not here!' and put herself into a coma. My favourite scenario for this is that it yeets her soul right out of her body and into the River before she's even been taught how to do that, and Harrow is left behind in her body to be a broken lyctor who can't necromancy. The more things change...