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direquail · 6 months

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Dear Creator Letter, Femslash Exchange 2023

Thank you so much in advance! Details/prompts/etc. are below the cut

General Stuff

Honestly, I'm really open to most anything you feel excited to write! Including stuff that is not included here, and things like fluff. If you're looking for some ideas, though:

Likes:

Angst, whump, hurt/comfort

Exploring canon bad/sad endings, traumatic experiences, or tragic plot events

Loyalty; dangerous characters restraining themselves for loved ones, dangerous characters being hurt and cared for/protected by loved ones; characters going to dangerous lengths for loved ones

Worldbuilding, character study, backstory exploration, case fic/mission fic

PWP

Morally complex characters and situations

Generally metaphorically putting characters in a centrifuge and spinning them around

This is a little difficult to articulate, so feel free to ignore this one, but: If you're going to have a character talk about their sexual identity, and the setting is in a second world of some kind (like Star Wars or SPOP), I would prefer it was framed in terms of the character, their history, their experiences, and how they feel about them, rather than drag-and-dropping contemporary labels.

Likewise, I'm okay with mentioning or discussing past or current non-f/f experiences, so long as it's limited to discussions/flashbacks and the f/f experiences & pairing remain centered in the story.

Sex scene or PWP likes:

Banter

Fraught, uneven, or even shifting power dynamics

Tenderness within an objectively fucked up pairing or situation

Two damaged and fucked-up characters taking care of each other while still being undeniably fucked up about it

Drugs and alcohol are not required but can add another element (though I would ask that you avoid any of the characters being unconscious, unresponsive, or otherwise unable to understand what is going on during a sex scene)

Displays of physical strength/aggression where appropriate, e.g. pinning down, shoving against a wall, ripping clothes

Use of magical/supernatural abilities during sex, e.g. to restrain someone, cause them to become more physically aroused than they already are, provide additional stimulation, sex while flying, sex while shapeshifted, etc.

DNWs:

As mentioned above, sex with any of the characters involved being unconscious, unresponsive, or otherwise unable to understand what is going on

Hard noncon (although, to be clear: I am fine with consensual non-consent as a negotiated kink and most varieties of dubcon, as well as mention of or flashback to sexual assault in a character's past. I just don't want noncon done by one character in the pairing to the other character in the pairing.)

Emetophilia, scat kink, and lactation

Art Likes

Specific Stuff

Locked Tomb 1:

The Body | Alecto | The Girl in the Tomb/Harrowhark Nonagesimus

I'm kind of obsessed with the way Harrow is obsessed with the Body, how she worships it, lies about it, protects it, was made for it, and her bedrock psychosexual Baggage(TM) about that.

I also really enjoy the horror elements, especially as presented in Harrow the Ninth: The sense that this obsession crosses into necrophilia makes it all the more interesting, but also the sense of divinity as horror and non-normative sexuality as heretical and sacreligious. Loving "the death of God" even though it's her undoing and the undoing of God, who she loves more than anything but maybe not more than His death.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus/Ianthe Tridentarius Gideon Nav/Ianthe Tridentarius

These two go together because what I enjoy about them is partly shared, I think: The Banter.

I feel like Gideon and Ianthe get up to Shenanigans out of boredom and constantly try to annoy and one-up each other, but also they're both profoundly lonely (bereaved, really) and the only real company the other has (a bit like Gideon and Harrow's dynamic in their childhood). I would love to see some of that "unwholesome companionship" Tamsyn Muir alluded to in that one AMA. In that sense, I guess I can see them going the route of the first-generation Lyctors wrt outrageous necromancy-fueled sexcapades, but with a lot less hope for their future.

Ianthe and Harrow are also always insulting each other, but it's always felt to me much more like two academics who hate each other and hate each others' work than Gideon and Ianthe, who honestly just seem stuck together. I also really enjoy the suggestion in Gideon's narration in Harrow the Ninth that Harrow is attracted to Ianthe in spite of her disgust for her, and I especially love the idea of hatesex, fuck-or-die scenarios, or other kinds of elaborate sexualized necromancy (like the arm scene in HtN).

Cytherea the First/Gideon Nav

After loving the hot older woman/baby butch vibes between Gideon and "Dulcinea", I probably loved even more the idea of the literal femme fatale manipulating this earnest and extremely talented young butch warrior (and I do think that that's a pretty solid casting of the dynamic, or at least of Dulcinea--she's a femme fatale type).

I'm very intrigued by Cytherea's feelings about her cavalier and how they spill over into charged interactions with living cavaliers--particularly with Gideon, who she seems to not want to kill. I'm intrigued by all the ways she might go about trying to keep Gideon out of harm's way, or from getting involved in situations where she intends for other Canaan House guests to die. I'm also interested in ways she might get sloppy--by indulging in remembrances or nostalgia. I'm not averse to her doing something like sex pollen-ing Gideon (or herself) using whatever aphrodisiac Ulysses the First used to incite sexy parties, for instance, although maybe that'd be too heavy-handed for her. Much to think about, though.

I'm also interested in Cytherea seeing Gideon as an object of veneration or something holy, and the idea that she allows Gideon-and-Harrow to kill her at the end of GtN because Gideon is a divine figure to her, even if she doesn't know her own heritage.

Camilla Hect/Dulcinea Septimus Camilla Hect/Nona

I love Camilla because, to me, she is one of those inherently dangerous, loyal characters who restrains herself for the people she loves. Some reference posts, if you want:

For Cam/Dulcinea, you can go either way with "Dulcinea"--either the real Dulcie Septimus that Cam canonically never got to meet (but clearly had some intense & complicated feelings about), or Cytherea the First-as-Dulcinea Septimus seducing a fabulously deadly cavalier worthy of a Lyctor (which I am SUPER interested in, but will also not be disappointed at all if you decide to go the Cam/Dulcie route)

For Cam/Nona, I'm particularly interested in Nona as kind of an eldritch being? Simultaneously young in that she doesn't have much experience living in a human body, but also so very ancient--and also, being the literal Earth, which is associated with all kinds of primal knowledges and desires. And I think this in particular gets reflected in her canonical ability to understand any spoken language, and her incredible facility for mimicry and body language.

And then, complicating it even more, there's the slow reveal that she maybe hasn't totally forgotten who she is, or is intentionally "forgetting" herself or looking away from her own self-knowledge. But even though she's looking away, she's slowly remembering herself, whether she wants to or not, and those parts of herself make it harder to live as "Nona". She is profoundly deceiving herself, because she wants to live and not die; she wants to be happy and play forever, which is kind of an inherently creepy thing. But even at her most "blank", there are things that she knows and cannot un-know.

So, like:

Coronabeth Tridentarius/Ianthe Tridentarius (with optional Corona/Babs/Ianthe) Coronabeth Tridentarius/Pash | Our Lady of the Passion

Corona! My favorite shady Tridentarius twin.

I like the contrast between these two pairings because they sort of outline the duality of Coronabeth Tridentarius for me?

On the one hand, you have Coronabeth Tridentarius, who is outwardly hyper-competent, but behind the scenes has no hard power in her relationship with her sister--she has to exercise power through manipulation, culminating in the scene where she threatens to kill herself in Nona the Ninth and, in the process, reveals multiple situations where she's made similar threats. She is outwardly the "powerful" twin, but inwardly subordinate to Ianthe; she even comments at one point that her sister always thinks that she knows what Corona is feeling, even if she doesn't really. She has to play the necromancer when really, she wants to be (and thinks of herself as) Ianthe's cavalier--even though that's simply socially impossible, and she can't outwardly show any of that. She wants to differentiate, but she also wants to submerge herself completely in Ianthe; she wants to be a cavalier (since she can't be a necromancer), and a king and a diplomat and a military leader, but Ianthe has already decided the role she's going to play. Like Noodle, she wants to go out, but she also wants to stay in, etc.

And on the other, we have Lieutenant Crown Him With Many Crowns, who is finally getting some recognition of her actual physical abilities and inclinations, but at the cost of all her previous relationships, and also submersion in the frankly genocidal cult of Blood of Eden. Like in her previous life, she has to play all her cards extremely close to her chest, while dealing with an incredible ethical dilemma: Her home sucks, but Blood of Eden also sucks. She wants to protect "her people"--the people of the Empire and Camilla and Nona and Judith--but she has to do it by pleasing Blood of Eden and giving them what they want. She wants to not be part of a violent empire, but also can't be seen as too "soft" or unwilling to commit violence against Imperial citizens, in order to maintain her standing in Blood of Eden.

Both of these pairings have lots of opportunities for hatesex, although the vibes would be very different. Pash/Corona feels very rough-and-rowdy, very physical and physically violent. Corona/Ianthe, meanwhile, feels very psychological, with old lies, people playing one role while feeling something else, and a very subtle struggle for power that might be viewed as completely settled by one party (Ianthe).

Corona and Ianthe also involves Babs: Babs as a go-between or stand-in for Ianthe; Corona being made to compete with Babs--who she can't really compete with, because Babs has canonically been necromantically augmented, as well as trained from birth; and Babs being punished when either twin feels anger that they can't take out on each other. I could absolutely see Ianthe spying on Corona and Babs during some kind of sexual encounter, or punishing one or both of them for getting it on without her.

Locked Tomb 2:

Cytherea the First/Mercymorn the First Casseiopeia the First/Nigella Shodash Mercymorn the First/Cristabel Oct

Honestly, I separated these because I really wanted to highlight that I want to know/hear/read more about the Old Fucks. Their antics and trauma and how they invented necromancy and ate each other and committed crimes that stained their eternal souls, and then what they thought and felt and did after that.

I am specifically open to including other Lyctors, male or female, that were not included in nominations, whether you include them for sexy party reasons or other ones. I am particularly interested in Loveday Heptane, since she is Cytherea's cavalier.

The letter in "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex" from a cavalier to their Lyctor drives me absolutely insane. Feral. The little bits of epistolary material and necromantic marginalia sprinkled throughout the series are another favorite format of mine, so if there is a "historical document" you'd like to either produce or include in a fic or use as inspiration, please understand I am So Here For That.

But also, I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on them! And am open to most anything involving them.

Terminator:

Grace Harper/Dani Ramos Sarah Connor/Grace Harper Sarah Connor/Grace Harper/Dani Ramos Sarah Connor/Dani Ramos

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power/SPOP:

Castaspella/Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner Adora/Huntara Huntara/Perfuma Light Hope/Mara Adora/Mermista Huntara/Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner Adora/Perfuma Adora/Glimmer Catra/Glimmer Mara/Original Female Character

Arrowverse:

I am up for literally anything here. Go wild. Write me your pet headcanon for your favorite ship on this list. Write me the fic you want to write for yourself but can't ever seem to find time for. Include other characters if the spirit moves you.

If you'd like a starting point, definitely check out my general likes, and also some of the stuff I have to say about specific other ships and see if an idea there sparks joy!

I am, and I mean this genuinely, very excited to read it. ❤️

Barbie Movie:

aaaaaaaa I was so STOKED to see this fandom in the tagset! If I'm being honest, I just want more fic for this movie, and these pairings in particular made my shipper heart happy.

This fandom is the one I am the happiest with Soft(TM) content for, in spite of what my general Likes contains. I am, as always, open to worldbuilding; pre-canon, post-canon, and missing scene fics.

I was thinking Maybe Kate McKinnon's Barbie and Margot Robbie's Barbie had a bit of a kinky vibe to their dynamic? A little bit of BDSM. The full weirdness of Barbie sex without sex parts is unknown to us yet.

But where I could REALLY see the softness going through the roof is with Margot Robbie's Barbie & Gloria. The ache and pain of life, that they share, and comfort each other through, and fight about, and love each other through. Idk they make me surprisingly emotional. They already have this profound connection as well as profound difference, and maybe there could come a point in their relationship where Barbie is able to give Gloria something that Gloria has previously mostly given to her, with her greater experience in the human world. (I do really dig those kinds of relationship inversions.)

Star Wars:

Padmé Amidala/Sabé Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano Padmé Amidala/Sabé Ahsoka Tano/Asajj Ventress Mara Jade/Leia Organa

Carmilla Web Series:

Laura Hollis/Danny Lawrence Carmilla Karnstein/Danny Lawrence Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein/Danny Lawrence

I am a Danny fan, and I especially love stories where she is a werewolf, a vampire, or generally being physically insanely competent.

I love the jealousy and tension between Carmilla and Danny over Laura, and I love to see it resolved in ways that are psychosexual or sexual-sexual, and I would especially love to see whump or hurt/comfort where Carmilla has to "help" or care for a newly-turned Danny, with or without Laura's assistance.

Or, alternately, where Laura undertakes to help a newly turned Danny Lawrence without Carmilla and things get (possibly) scary and (definitely) sexy or romantic.

Original Work & Creator's Choice of Fandom:

A lot of the general likes go double for these two, because there's not a set character or canon dynamic apart from the one mentioned in the prompt.

Original Work:

Werewolf/Werewolf Saloon Girl/Gunslinger Lonely Frontier Farmer/Mail Order Bride With a Past Reclusive Witch Living in the Woods/Wounded Werewolf Looking for Shelter Ancient Forgotten Goddess/Clueless Historian Obsessed With Her Adorable Female Trick-Or-Treater/Female Homeowner Who May Or May Not Be A Demon Troublemaking Bad Girl at School/Goody Two-Shoes Assigned to Tutor Her Demonic Princess/Delicate Human Princess Knight Sworn to Hunt Witches/Childhood Friend Who is Secretly a Witch

Creator’s Choice of:

Sister/Sister Warrior/Her Sister in Arms Magical Girl/Girl She Rescues Chosen One/Her Bodyguard Military Officer/Civilian

#dear creator letter #femslashex 2023 #i think i accidentally wrote a couple ship manifestos so uh. sorry about that

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theskyexists · 4 years

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ive bought harrow the ninth and am now attempting to reread act 1 so that i may understand it better

ianthe clearly proposes that Harrow not get herself killed trying to bring Gideon back - reading it over again. instead to take the future and somehow?? be really powerful together and forget about their cavaliers. but harrow says no

im once again struck with how offhand this book introduces the concept that the empire goes out to deliberately kill planets over a couple of generations

now im not sure....there also seems to be an implication that there’s no aliens - because they say only humanity has a soul - but client planets were said to rebel - i guess the human colonisers rebel against central solar system command sometimes? but then what enemy does the Cohort fight? possibly it’s just bigotry that they think aliens dont have a soul

but like - they find LIVING PLANETS and then - kill them slowly. to the extent that they need to move the entire population. WHAT? why do they do that??? just so they can do some bone tricks???!

what the fuk

so how did the planets get murdered again? and which solar system planets could really have been said to have had enough life to have a soul?? cos like, only one of them is really known for that

why did God give Harrow the choice to go back home TWICE if he was never going to let her?

once again, why mess with the Hand candidates if God was always gonna come for Cytherea? just to mess with him more?

yeah - harrow keeps hearing and saying ortus ninegad but the rest of the world remembers gideon.

Harrow truly is totally mentally shattered AND time is totally fucked up

but sometimes in the fake-ish timeline Harrow remembers but doesn’t remember Gideon - like how she notes that there were two womb-bearing members of the Ninth who were the right age...but only elaborates on herself

for some reason - Harrowhark remembers Ianthe’s arm ripped from her by Cytherea - but now it’s whole. for some reason

that letter is still so what the fuck

‘like you did the last time’ - hm harrowhark sewed Ianthe’s lips shut? how did she come by the power?

is ianthe - calling Harrowhark God?

throughout the first act, they keep referring to time, having too much time, or not mastering time, or not having enough time, ‘this time’ etc.

the eggs you gave me all died - that’s DIRECTED at Harrow, is my theory

ok but the planet revenants come after Lyctors and also God (- God became God when? at the Resurrection) before the Lyctors happened - God was still at Canaan House - despite the Revenants already coming right...

is Teacher criticising god and lyctors for leaving Canaan House lol?

ok so yeah Canaan House WAS part of a ‘last sacrifice’

ok so - Harrowhark is a little resurrection miracle. This implies that God killed a lot to resurrect the Houses.

wow God is being a very dad to Harrow

Blood of Eden - BOE - they turned their back on the solar system. now they hate necromancy. in other words - when the solar system died, God resurrected it - but before that point some humans had fled - lived. and they can see what absolute fuckin horror necromancy is ACTUALLY

so what im getting is...maybe...god resurrected humanity by killing the planets...?

i just realised that Ianthe has taken Gideon’s place as the smartass in the room - the counterweight to Harrow’s portentousness

what the fuck do augustine’s comments to Mercy mean???? why is she unloveable? why would he say that God doesn’t need her? and why is it obscene that Augstine calls God John? What is the dangerous game she’s playing? What was the foul implication??

‘Then that is your downfall’ OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Harrow BURN!!!

what i don’t get is - the Cohort is an army - when they land they die because they’re being killed by an enemy at the front - NOT in pure sacrifice for thanergy. so why does only the death of humans and planets produce thanergy. why is the death of the enemy not good enough? they don’t have fuckin souls?? they MUST be complex life. and doesn’t a planet produce a constant stream of thanergy? but i guess it’s not dying enough - generally its life maintains itself in ecosystems.....unless a fuckin lyctor ‘makes the juice flow’ i guess!

sometime in the next book there IS gonna be a ‘are we the baddies’ meme. muir loves memes and she stuck skulls on absolutely EVERYTHIGN. Like WHY THE FUCK would you colonise planets if you gotta kill them for it? LOL????

huh? augustine just said that they can’t use necromancy when in the river - but mercy mocked harrow for having hypothermia ? implying her fundamental failure was not being able to necro while in the river? Harrow’s inability was what was wrong partly right?? oh no ok it’s how Harrow tried to compensate for her body going lights out while in the river. alright. that was written confusingly

how and why is this a completely different story???

The Sleeper.......is Harrowhark? the suit is too close to what she was wearing killing the asteroid. and the sleeper is lying on ‘something’. oh they just straight up say it lololol

ortus got into trouble 19 years ago...hhmmmmm wasn’t Gideon 19??? huh? which is why Mercy started at Harrow’s peculiar YELLOW eyes that Harrow can’t see herself i think

‘i do things face to face’ ortus says after stabbing harrow. HUH? why go for a stab if decapitating would have done the job? just to give her a small chance to fight back? (face to face?)

why not tell God that ‘his’ attack dog is trying to kill you?

why does Ortus the First want me dead? ‘who?’ ---uh. has she forgotten him completely (time shit) or is she saying the wrong name? mercy wouldnt reply like that then right?

she told him and he’s like - oh well guess you gotta just get through repeated almost-successful attacks on your life. ???? THANKS GOD!!!

‘you, with your unfortunate memory for poetry’ HA! i love how we are reminded that she knew all the fuckin damn books nearly by heart which is insane!

Teacher suggests his dying at least three times a day?? hahaha what?.........................is this purely a meme reference. is that meme the mental image im supposed to have of Teacher??????????? is this trying to say that this meme was preserved in the amalgamation of human life that is Teacher?? oh my god....

no.....palamedus and camilla....did old Harrow really kill them.....

seems like all the murders were consensual maybe?

it’s probably too straightforward that Harrow created and alternate timeline and made for a Harrow Lyctor without Gideon dying and kicked her to the original? maybe she took Ianthe and Coronabeth with her bc she needed Ianthe’s help

is this Cytherea or Dulcinea? Pro seems real this time. why does Dulcie call Pal and Cam strands and cords?

did muir put in a fuckin secondary school S - muir’s just like - im gonna put in all the memes as a nod to ancient human culture

still no idea what the messages are that Harrow is getting

This Harrow is so goddamn sick. I mean she was sick before, but at least she had Gideon. Really do feel that that helped her. now she didn’t have that -- AND she’s getting slapped with trauma another five times

if ortus can undo the thanergy of her own bone then why not simply crumble HARROW into dust? cos there’s a core of thanergy fusion in her that he can’t undo?

FLKJDFKLJSDLFSD fucking IANTHE ‘Wow! Not how I imagined this happening, at all.’ FUCKIN HELL

Harrow with her fucking fucked up dramatic inner monologues about weakness and Ianthe comes in with this shit. she really is doing Gideon proud here.

Did love Harrow’s musings about how only a truly idiotically obedient Cavalier would be the only one to keep to a vow of silence. HAH! nice one muir

‘have you taken the time to rest lately?’ asks God, YOUR FUCKING SAINT IS TRYING TO KILL HER IN THE FUCKING BATH YOU IDIOT AHAHAHAHA

JEZUS FUCKING CHRIST - try and be normal Harrow! try and make some soup and read a book! Harrow: *does and then hyperventilates hidden under her bed after 86 hours of zero sleep*

she was trying to remember what cutlery did. why is this so goddamn funny hahahaa. this book has ONLY been Harrow being in extreme states of misery ALL THE TIME both mentally and physically to the point of death

GOD IS HAPPY THAT SHE MADE SOUP AND DOESNT EVEN FUCKIN NOTICE SHE’S NOT SLEPT FOR A WEEK SOMEHOW THIS IS THE MOST HILARIOUS SHIT

thats what you fucking GET you piece of shit god! you push a prodigy teen to the brink and she fuckin explodes your lyctor and feeds you her fuckin marrow. maybe you shouldn’t have ignored her goddamn fucking understandable distress

SHE FUCKIN HITS HIM WITH THE FUCKIN TRUTH what an IDIOT of a God. he truly doesn’t understand mortality anymore huh

I LOVE HOW MERCYMORN CONTINUES TO MAKE HARROW YOUNGER IN HER HEAD AHAHAHAHAHAHA she’s only nine years old!!!hahahaha

naturally God focuses on how - wait- actually harrow is truly an INSANE necromancer - INSANE

still no idea what the fuck is going on in the not-past

aww. ianthe’s scent soothes harrow now. begrudgingly of course.

i thought this was gonna be lovely angsty harrow/gideon but naturally that did not happen

harrow is comfortable! first time in the whole book! one moment of comfort!!!

‘love my twin, also murder’ tridentarius pffjlfjdljf

‘how i crave your honeyed words’ hah

wow this scene sure is weirdly sexual with these similes lol ‘as though she had shyly undressed for you’ ok there Harrow you about to chop her arm off calm it probably sex repulsed thirsty teen

i do love how....there is this theme again that’s everybody underestimating the main character - who is actually a prodigy. Gideon had that with the sword and Harrow also has it with being a Lyctor now

it’s so telling that these Saints would rather be shits to these babies than help Ianthe grow a new fuckin arm

i dont see why Ianthe can’t work off this bone construct which is her own stuff and put some flesh on it since SHES A FLESH NECRO?

Ianthe that’s super gay

wow muir really never delivers on full gay does she??? i dont mind but i think it’s so striking hahaa

how are Harrow and Ianthe still hung up on the Saint of Duty? i mean, if they dont have him against the RB they’re dead anyway

why is the First going through rain and ice?

Harrow haunted? naawwww

i cant help but like mercymorn though - she cares. it’s soured ages ago but she cares.

awww Harrow needs Ianthe to sleep

Ianthe constantly poking Harrow for her prudishness is so goddamn funny.

‘It’s the type of energy i wish to take into my future’ AHAHAHAHAHAAH IANTHE MY GOD

‘i always forget you were an honest to go nun ... and six years old to boot if you listen to mercymorn’ HAHAHAHAHAHA

‘you look good enough that im proud of my handiwork but not so good that i’ll be consumed with lust and ravish you over the nut bowl’ fpdfjsdfkjsd this is what harrow means with crude japery and yet....

mercymorn has started to call harrow three years old. i will NEVER tire of this gag

all of the blood of eden stuff happened in the past 25 years??? god was on the erebos, but he also remembers ortus kicking the commander out of an airlock? that was in the last 25 years??

Ianthe‘s carressing the nape of Harrow’s neck. hmmhm

its honestly super weird if you think about it for more than 10 seconds that theyre talking about their cavaliers whom they murdered (im still not sure if all consensually) ten thousand years ago (!) and how hot they were that just seems.....fucked up

Harrow is like WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! basically all the time but especially now. yep well that was to be expected i guess lololol

Harrow being painfully frozenly fascinated by (god having) sex and deeply repulsed is very Harrow

oh nooooo well that was a perfect kiss between them really

the funny thing about Harrow is that though she is so completely fucked up - just like Gideon - she is fundamentally a helper.

why wouldn’t Harrow have thought of blood wards! she knew he could only bleed thanergy! it;s the first thing i thought - just use not bone wards then!

ortus thinks anastasia is in Harrow - which makes me think - why does he think that’s possible?

mercymorn now calls Harrow a two-year-old. i am waiting for embryonic genius

so did they use the river to get to the planets theyre killing?

Harrow feels the peace and pleasure of a stroll through nature that she has come to kill

oh my god - Harrow somehow saved Cam and Pal is still attached to the mortal plane!!

Harrow helps Cam risking herself entirely just like that. yknow as she does

i wonder if Pal has realised that Harrow is not who he remembers

i think he realised once he realised haz mat suit was Harrow also...

ianthe xo’d harrow.....lol

im sad that original harrow is definitely dead.... :( loved her. guess gideon’s not coming back either. not sure how the second adept survived. she didn’t survive in the original timeline either. but she was ‘killed’ in the other - just like coronabeth..so that means soemthing

this whole ‘flashback’ stuff to Canaan House is Harrow being in the River the whole time. the cold temperatures, the blood, the creatures theyre fishing from the sea that apparently abominations

after all, we’ve just learned about river bubbles and a haz!harrow that can change their parameters.

all the people ‘dead’ she’d not spoken to much or at all beforehand. like they’re NOT real, in the River. the only one not like that is Dyas...

the fact that the narrative keeps calling Dulcie, Dulcie means she’s really Dulcie.

there’s giant organs falling from the ceiling. this is definitely the river

they talk about time AGAIN

the Body is the devil who let herself be used to complete the work of Teacher and the Lyctors in his mythology....hmm. and when they realised the price (AFTER? the work was done?) they wanted her dead but he buried her....SHE allowed them to become Lyctors?? I still don’t understand why the heck that was necessary

the king is dead, long live the king. hmmmm

Harrow comes onto a hallucination of the devil who was her first crush with the voice of her parental figures and the eyes of a love interest she can no longer remember - which is actually not precisely a hallucination probably - and gets summarily rejected lol OUCH (the Body didn’t mean it that way ofc)

Harrow is so repressed on every single front but definitely sexually

I love Mercy

so there is death beyond death. does everybody go into the river and become a mad horrid ghost? like - is that everybody’s fate? how awful

ok so God DID resurrect the planets also. ? but like. then why are there resurrection beasts?

what does resurrection mean? and who killed the planets in the first place?

BECOMING NONE HOUSE, LEFT GRIEF

oh.....my god.

ARE YOU AND IANTHE BEING SAFE!!?!?!?! HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

HIS BODYGUARD IS THE DEVIL??

so the destruction of Earth somehow made God? as though it was something that simply followed from it

A.L. was destroyed in the first assault? Of an RB

so the RB’s were happily running off in the other direction until they decided to fuck around and kill their mates to become immortal and powerful - then the RB’s turned around and came towards them - which meant leaving the planets God had resurrected forever.

what the fuck god??? hahahahaa

God always seems so likeable goddamn.

Harrow is such a dramatic bitch. Affection??? JUST KILL ME!!! KILL ME!! LET ME SMASH THE GLASS SO I CAN KNEEL IN IT AND BLEED ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!!!

Harrow goes into her fun kid's game of not dying to traps.

But she instantly calls him father. OH MY GOD

HE DOESNT BELIEVE HER!!!

'then that will be your downfall' - is what Harrow said to Augustine AND IT WILL BECOME TRUE FOR THEM ALL

to be dismissed like that where it hurts most - to have God Dad dismiss her only slip of comfort her only pillar of truth in this crazy old world

'nobody had watched you leave'

SOMEBODY HAD - I love all the deliberate references to Gideon

Temporal lobe!!!! Again the temporal lobe!!!

So why was it again that Harrow refused to be locked in with the Emperor?

So isn't God gonna check out Harrow's temporal lobe? He's just gonna let that mystery go to its death?

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKK

Muir what the fuck??!!!!!!!!

Oh it was.....a hallucination?

Always love how this dips into genuine horror sometimes

What's weird is that Lyctors seem made for the task of going into the river and killing Resurrection Beasts - instead of the other way around.

So say - that the sword somehow holds Gideon's soul (we've just learned that that's possible from Pal and also Ortus trying to get Pent to summon his grandma by his sword) - does it not make sense that Harrow 'for some reason' stabbing Cytherea's corpse with it transferred it to her? Or maybe it's SOMEHOW Anastasia if Ortus was macking on her. But Ortus thought HARROW had/was Anastasia.

IANTHE WANTS TO MARRY HARROW - HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

Every fucking chapter doesn't make things any clearer. This is worse than Gideon the ninth

Hello???? Am I reading a canon alternate universe roleswap au??? What the FUCK is going on. This is like - if they hadn't gassed the 200 and her parents instead adopted Gideon for her clear necromantic gifts which nobody noticed somehow the other time round

I do love how Aiglamene was the sole source of slight comfort in Gideon's life. And Crux was Harrow's - apparently in any sequence of events.

Harrow is tumbling through timelines. But how can you do that just by messing with the lobe?

WHAT!! WHAT!!!

Is this...is this what I think it is??? Is thi

The fanfic roots are STRONG in this one. In fact I believe I've READ this fanfiction

Harrow's temporal fever dream (in the river?) HAD HER (Decidedly Not) VYING FOR 'HER DIVINE HIGHNESS' hand, which is either the Body or Gideon or both lololol. Seeing as the previous had Gideon as the main unnamed titled character - I bet it's Gideon ahahaaga

A fucking. COFFEESHOP AU. OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDD

We've had roleswap, 'ball' au, and coffee shop au populated by the ghosts of the dead LOLOL,

I knew it!! I knew that they were ghosts and that they were in the river!!

Ok so but when did Harrow shoddily create the bubble? When she adjusted her memories at the start? When is this. Ah Harrow has the same thought hahaa

So the stage is a - she was building her memories while sleeping?

Why is that she cannot access her lyctorhood like this...

I just realised that Harrow's mind made the party food taste like SALT based on Ianthe's cooking!!!! Hahahaha

THE NARRATOR IS GIDEON. But it doesn't sound like Gideon though

There's more to the work than simply preserving Gideon's soul though. There are next steps that Harrow prepared for that Harrow doesn't know about yet

Who was the sleeper and why was it in Harrows riverscape of memories that she ACCIDENTALLY??? made

Ok she sounds like Gideon NOW

Gideon no it's not because she didn't want you! It's because she wanted you to live!!!!!

And she succeeded....your soul is INTACT in her body!!!! You're protecting her with full consciousness!! How the fuck. And why didn't that happen before when she went to the bubble?

Are the ghosts of the contestants happy that they got pulled out of the River briefly? Or were they so briefly in there they couldn't remember?

She returned them to the RIVER???? is that really such a kind fate????

Something has gone wrong in the River - yeah because why r all these ghosts going insane and stoppering it up like slib

Do love how Muir has found a way to give these characters more screentime

I actually said 'oof' when Harrow screamed at Ortus - oof that really is embarrassing. GodDAMN Ortus you stepping up with the emotional support!

I've EVEN read the damn fanfic in which they switched bodies. My god.

A. L. apparently is thought to wander about still. I think she's the body....I do believe she's the body. That's why the Lyctors are scared of her

She thought - what. Mercy is talking about blood of Eden's commander. What is going onnnnn still!!!! Mercy is the traitor I guess. But how is blood of Eden connected to the ninth house and the body?

Why is Mercy awake on the mithraeum and not in the River anyways?

Gideon.... And the commander were in cahoots? So did A. L. and Anastasia an the body and the commander all have the same eyes?????

What the fuck is going on indeed.

Cytherea seems to have had a plan B for getting revenge on the Emperor. Or something had a plan B with her corpse as the main weapon.

If guns are so effective against people why aren't they still used.

The messages are from the commander. I.e. Gideon's mother. I.e. Anastasia? We never explicitly did learn how she met her end no? Gideon was convinced that Anastasia had taken the baby. It just seems incongruous how the Emperor spent like 80 years on the Erebos and the Lyctors were faffing about - meanwhile there was this drama going on in the last half century?

I love Abigail Pent. Love that I got to see more of her.

I'd honestly forgot that Judith was alive by the end of all of that shit

The sleeper is -the sleeper is Gideon's mother. Also. She's haunted by her mother. SOMEHOW. what the fuck? They couldn't drag her spirit back from the river they said!

'you wizards never learn' there's a whole modern regular sci fi world and culture out there! Or maybe it's just a. L.

Is it? Or is it Anastasia? Or is it the commander? Or are they the same thing?

The sleeper wants Harrow's body. Somehow invaded it - probably from the river? - which means its Anastasia or the commander. Which means that whatevers possessing Cytherea is someone else.

In retrospect - Harrow's coldness to Ianthe talking about - to what her - seemed nonsense at the time - in the very first part - doesn't quite fit.

Oh my fucking GOD Gideon is fighting Ianthe for messing around with her fucking girlfriend - who is HARROW, who actually, Ianthe wants to marry.

They just went from ramping up to a serious fight to Gideon dropping Corona's name and suddenly they're like - ah we got more important priorities actually.

Augustine's first thought at thinking a.l./the body (?) is in Harrow is John - and the Second is Joy!(mercy?)

'How I was gonna have to take showers with all your clothes on.' fuckin Gideon hahahaha

Wonder if Ianthe truly believes what she's saying - that Harrow was trying to rid hersel of Gideon. It's preposterous. It's just hurtful talk.

GIDEON REALLY THOUGHT THAT LOOK TO MEAN THAT HARROW DIDNT LOVE HER??? THIS IS A CONSTANT BARRAGE OF ALL THE ANGSTY DRAMATIC SHIT IVE BEEN YEARNING FOR

Oh my fucking god Gideon calling Ianthe out for being in love with Harrow in the most iconic way ufsojdjdodnd 'she wants the D - the D stands for dead'

Crazy brain-mutilated Harrow sure made it seem that way I can tell ya that!!

Hahahahahaha Ianthe remembering Harrows prudish Ortus/Cytherea shit. Amazing

Aw Gideon really went and fell right into the cavalier/bone mistress shit huh. And trying to shield Harrow - well as noted before - very necessary because harrow has been having a godawful miserable time - mostly because of herself.

Gideon appreciating Ianthe's pun xD

Love how neither of them position themselves as the love of Harrows life but instead as inexorably attached to her by the sheer role they play in her life - they don't dare aspire to what they think they can't get.

Muir realises this is gonna end up as a Gideon/Harrow(/theBody)/Ianthe ship right?

Oh WOW THIS IS AMAZING. nonius the legendary nonius!!! Come to protect Harrow!!!

For some reason the Sleeper can manipulate the rules of this River bubble and doesn't seem surprised about it

If all her cavaliers were this excited for death, she was definitely the problem.lololol. somehow Harrow, you inspired undying loyalty in even a person that you treated abominably

Yeah Harrow you slowpoke. If the Sleeper can adjust the rules - so can you

If the sleeper was not Harrow's invention - but planted itself - then they're very lucky it got to the ghosts that weren't actually there - first.

So it was the commander....a portrait in a shuttle of blood of eden - can only be the commander. And redhaired? There are too many red haired people in this book!!

It's nice how all these ghosts got to have lasting impact from beyond the grave

NONIUS KNEW ORTUS/GIDEON?

Ok so ....there's the bed of the River with stoma. But there might also be the other side.

Did Harrow really not account for steps beyond her plan to mutilate her brain?

Is this book really gonna go: fuck you Gideon will die anyway ?????

But.wait. the sleeper had a two-hander. Where did that go???

I don't get it. If they go into the river - won't they also go insane?

SO NYAH!!!!!???

Ok but - what? The Commander ALSO -somehow - took over Cytherea's body?

'did the ten billion give you that too' I KNEW CANAAN HOUSE HELD EVEN GRUESOMER EXPERIMENTS AND SACRIFICES THAN LYCTORHOOD. God is made of ten billion souls. I think they killed humanity on earth to spare it 'slow inexorable apocalypse' and used the power to make the Empire from the resurrected. There was an extremely vague implication by Teacher to the amount of souls violated in Canaan house in the first book.

So God knows the commander went for the ninth house? Firstly, how. I don't understand how Anastasia fits in here!!! It would explain though how the commander

So the commander found the ninth house - and she died right? They tried to call her spirit but couldn't. But she became a revenant?

Ah. God THREW the bomb.

A fuckin wake me up inside joke jskdjskdnd

So Mercy and Augustine ( not Gideon ?) had all turned against God? And they were working with the commander to -... Make a baby????? And then evacuate the houses???? (For when God dies - there being a risk that Dominicus would go out I guess)

Make a baby/body to lever the one who lies in the tomb into....?

Love how the book foreshadowed Mercy and Augustine manipulating and lying to God - and turns out they did that on much bigger scale

They....meant to kill the baby to break the blood ward?

'The woman who I was pretty sure was my mother, wearing the body of the woman I'd had a crush on, who in turn had been wearing the identity of a woman she'd murdered -' KSNFKDJDKFJJFC

So why did they want this consistently characterised as kindly and humane god dead?

GIDEON THOUGHT IT WAS HIS!!!! But he called Wake Anastasia then????

They really are the same???

Oh my god I know what they're gonna say. Gideon is the daughter of God. WHICH HARROWS FUCKIN ROYALTY AU FEVER RIVER DREAM FUCKING FORESHADOWED HAAHAHAHAHHAA

Isn't it fucking ironic that God told Harrow that - HE WANTED HER TO BE HIS??? WHILE GIDEON HIS ACTUAL DAUGHTER WAS SPINNING INSIDE HER CHEST LIKE A LITTLE NUCLEAR FUSION REACTOR

They've been trying to kill him for more than 500 years???? Did mercymorn actually genuinely learn the extremely fine knowledge of the body for THIS purpose? How many thousands of years ago did they decide to kill god?

A fucking DAD JOKE

GIDEON REMEMBERING HOW SHE USED TO TELL HARROW HOW HER OTHER PARENT MIGHT BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD SO STOP PICKING ON HER

I am fucking DELIGHTED I AM SO GODDAMN OVERJOYED

It segues into a reminder of how shit their childhoods were and how their suffering had them lash out at each other endlessly and how it made Harrow suicidal and shit though - which is great

ALECTO'S EYES. THE A. FOR A. L.

A. L. The cavalier of God....but she walked. She had a body.

Ohhhhh. That's why they betrayed him. That age-old hurt. Ten thousand years old but still the bane of their existence, the seed of their madnesses. The loss of their cavaliers. Oh how did they manage to keep that from him?

I honestly thought - is Mercy saying she knows he killed humanity? But that's not what she couldn't have forgiven?

But why did he hide it? Why did he hide the perfect way? ('it would be easier' why???)

Ah. Yes. The expansion, why would the Emperor do that?

Uhhhhh. Couldn't Mercy have done that all along??????????????????????? Couldn't Mercy have killed God all along? That was both a trick and utterly sincere.

Augustine and Mercy were trying to do the right thing..... Mercy.... :'( Augustine was right. God is much less sentimental than he seems.

'im not even mad that you failed to either fix or put down Harrow' hm guess the constant kill quest HAD come from God after all. What a goddamn bitch of a man

What was the original plan? Unleash a. L. ? And then what? How would that help with the whole Dominicus going out problem?

Had God ever really thought to make up for all the bullshit he put his Lyctors through. He seems so affable and human but he's caused so much suffering. He's as good at manipulation at them - better!

The resurrection beast can't kill him, but he let his Lyctors die to them one by one anyway. So why??

Why are they punching each other in the River? They can use theorems right? God could blast Augustine to pieces same he did mercy?

Yes! It's true! Pyrrha and Gideon both exist in the same body - foreshadowed by his cavaliers build. There was something so fishy about it.

I love how Gideon has exactly the same response as me: what the fuck. Pyrrha??? Gideon??? What the fuck??? Why did they BOTH have an affair with their enemy??? So ok. Pyrrha stayed underground from Everybody for the thousand years. SOMEHOW their compartmentalisation let her pop up in his body regularly and not just when Gideon remembered her - because the hadn't fucked up his brain. But then how did THEY do that.

This absolutely galactic balsiness

The stoma thinks John is a resurrection beast. Might it be.....because he's..... A revenant. A 10 billion souled kinda- revenant ? A bit like.....Harrow is? Which is why he felt kin to her? Which is why he compared her creation to Resurrection?????I've really gotta reread those messages from commander wake.

A fucking jail for mother meme. Jail for one thousand years. Gideon how do you know this one????

I KNEW Ianthe would do that. Knew it. She doesn't want the system to die. Coronabeth is still out there. Well guess what - she's on the opposite side babe. Ok I realised that Gideon's mum apparently stuck to Gideon and then the sword? But also did Harrow manage to break the blood ward because of of her proximity to Gideon? Did Harrow uhhhh get put into a pocket in the river? But the emperor wasn't murdered!!! Fuckin chapters kept lying. They're on a hold planet. Finally - we meet the people. Alecto and Camilla and Corona? And Judith.? Did Alecto somehow do a time twisty around to come save Gideon at that moment in the river? Once again nothing much more is clear.

#my stuff #harrow the ninth #gtn #ninth

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alarajrogers · 4 years

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Locked Tomb, so many questions

I read the additional material at the end of Gideon the Ninth and now my host of questions has spawned even more. I can’t figure any of this out.

Contains spoilers, so if you haven’t read Harrow the Ninth proceed at your own risk.

- John claims humanity died of something that sounds like climate change and nuclear war (“Rising sea levels and a massive nuclear fission chain reaction”), but that should only have affected Earth. How were the other planets and the sun killed?

- It’s pretty obvious that the Nine Houses are supposed to be our solar system, but Sol cannot become a black hole. (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/why-the-sun-wont-become-a-black-hole) So why will Dominicus become a black hole if John dies?

- There’s something unusual about the system of the Nine Houses – necromancers can only be born there, and in no other system. According to the notes at the end of Gideon the Ninth in paperback, the system of the Nine Houses is in a stable thanergetic condition, which means things can still be born on those planets and the planets aren’t dying; but this cannot be replicated anywhere else. why not? John, what did you do?

- Augustine claims the power levels don’t add up… he can’t figure out where John’s power comes from aside from being a perfect Lyctor. But if A.L. was one of the resurrected, John could not have been a perfect Lyctor when he resurrected her. How do you take the thanergy generated by nine planets dying and use it to make nine planets live again? In nature, there are no perpetual motion machines; it always takes more energy to undo entropy than to speed it along. John would have needed more energy than was given off by the massive die-off to undo the massive die-off.

- Some people weren’t resurrected until now, or still haven’t been. Was John using necromancy to keep them stabilized before the invention of some kind of mechanical stasis? How much power did that use?

- Lyctor power levels don’t make sense either. Harrow is the product of the thanergy of 200 children dying, but is just a powerful necromancer, not an immortal regenerating entity. Lyctors consume one soul and it powers them for 10,000 years. How? Does this mean that if a Lyctor-to-be killed more than one person they would be more powerful, or is it only possible to absorb one additional soul?

- Where does the power come from if instead of consuming the soul the two souls co-habit, which is implied by the concept of perfect Lyctorhood and the fact that Harrow’s thumb regenerates while Gideon is in there? If a living soul could provide more power than a dead one, Lyctorhood wouldn’t be a thing, it would have stopped at power siphoning.

- Shouldn’t this have meant that Gideon the First would have regenerated notably faster and better than his fellow Lyctors?

- If Resurrection Beasts are the souls of the dead nine planets of Sol System, now Dominicus and the Nine Houses… what is serving as the souls of those planets now? Reproduction can’t happen on soulless planets.

- Why would the Resurrection Beasts particularly hate John? Was he responsible for their deaths? If he’s found perfect Lyctorhood with A.L., why would they have ever gone after him at all?

- “And when the cost of Lyctorhood was paid, when the emotions were at their peak … we found out the price for our sin. The monstrous retribution. To be chased for our crime to the ends of the universe, to have our deed stain our very faces and follow after us like a foul smell.” – but this makes no sense if the purpose of creating Lyctors was to fight the Resurrection Beasts. (Wait, is that actually something the Emperor said? I can’t find the reference, but I could have sworn he claimed the Lyctors were necessary to fight the Resurrection Beasts.) If that’s not the case, then what was so important as to justify everyone murdering their cavaliers?

- Teacher claims the purpose was for the ten original disciples (only 10?) to live forever without the Emperor’s power having to keep them alive. That does not sound like a good reason to kill half of them. But the cavaliers died willingly, so there was something important enough to be worth dying for.

- “But don’t forget that he’s spent the last ten thousand years on a perpetual search-and-destroy mission out of, as far as I can tell, purely symbolic retribution. John is never as sentimental as you think.” Purely symbolic retribution against who? John claims to be running from the Resurrection Beasts because they’re in constant pursuit, and certainly Augustine, Mercymorn and Gideon, and the dead Lyctors, don’t/didn’t behave as if their fight against the Resurrection Beasts is purely symbolic retribution.

- We’re told there were gaps, and that Cytherea came later (generations later). Alfred and Augustine were the first, apparently, and Mercymorn is now one of the oldest. Does that mean that Gideon and Cytherea both came in late? But Cytherea was there when the Lyctoral process was discovered, so why does Teacher claim there were 5? Is this because only dead people are real in Harrow’s simulation in the River? But Gideon the First isn’t dead yet; Pyrrha says he was killed fighting the Resurrection Beast in the River, after Ortus, Nonius, Dyas and Protesilaus went to help, which happens at the end of Harrow’s bubble long after Teacher claims there were 5 necromancer/cavalier pairs in the beginning. Maybe he can only detect entities in the River, and Gideon’s been in the River fighting since the start of Harrow’s bubble?

- Where is the ninth Resurrection Beast?

- Not really the same kind of question as the others, but why does Gideon Nav think the Emperor should have been sucked down a stoma when she knows that this would turn Dominicus into a black hole and kill everyone in the Nine Houses? Dude may have lied to everyone, but if his life protects the life of everyone in a solar system, I kind of think that counts higher. She is very disappointed when Ianthe rescues John rather than Augustine, but she was there when Mercy killed John the first time and she and Augustine discussed how Dominicus was about to turn into a black hole.

- Also, once again, I’m sorry, how does being attached to one other living soul give you the power to keep a star alive?

- Necromancy only seems to work on things that are alive. Does this mean that stars, like planets, have souls? If so, why weren’t there ten Resurrection Beasts?

Ugh, so many questions and I have to wait until 2022 for any canonical answers to any of them...

#locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth

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coincidencetheories · 7 years

Text

Guess Who’s Coming to Amonkhet?

Part 3

The final installment of my look at the current roster of Planeswalkers and their likelihood of appearing in Amonkhet! (see Part 1 here, and Part 2 here) Let me know who you think will make their appearance on Bolas’s Playground!

Saheeli Rai

Appearance in Story: Only as a last resort, and only in a very ancillary capacity. Saheeli might be aware of where the GW are going, but she’s decided for the time being to help rebuild Ghirapur, the Consulate (in whatever new form it takes) and Kaladesh. Also, I hear she has a bunch of cats to look after. Card in Block No. Even if she appears as part of a rescue operation, it will be as one of many, and she won’t appear in card form.

Sarkhan Vol

Appearance in Story: Possible, not probable. Sarkhan has no love for Bolas. He came from a land of no dragons to find a dragon to wonder and serve, and he ended up with Bolas, who manipulated him into cracking open the Eye of Ugin. It turns out the real dragons were inside us the whole time. Well, thousands of years in the past, but Sarkhan has been then, and done that, and now created his utopia, a Tarkir of Dragons He is finding out how much of a blessing or a curse that is. I don’t see him jaunting the multiverse any time soon. The exception, of course, might be to team up with his former enemies in Chandra and Jace to fight Bolas. More likely if Narset appears first. Card in Block No. Like a few others, if Sarkhan appears it will be as part of a larger contingent, and not likely to make it onto a card

Sorin Markov

Appearance in Story: No. This is set in stone. Card in Block: No.

Tamiyo

Appearance in Story: Might appear. Has been used quite smartly in Kaladesh as a contact point for the Gatewatch, both to direct people to them, and let people know about their existence. I have no doubt she’s probably off to find some more fascinating moons, but we’ll not find them on Amonkhet. Card in Block No. Unlikely to be appearing as a card, although like with Ajani in Kaladesh, her appearance is more likely to be off-screen, or in flashbacks.

Teferi

Appearance in Story: Technically no longer a planeswalker, Teferi sacrificed his spark to close rifts on Dominaria. So we won’t see him on Amonkhet. It’s unknown if he’s still alive. (spooky music) Card in Block: No. He can’t get there.

Tezzeret

Appearance in Story: Almost Certainly. Whatever Tezzeret’s plan, the planar bridge core technology seems to have been successfully integrated into his Etherium arm based on the clues from the Breaking Points story. And it’s clear he’s on some mission from Bolas, whether or not those are directly connected is unclear. So Tezzeret might be headed back to warn Bolas of the Gatewatch’s knowledge of him, or perhaps he simply went somewhere else (compleatly at random maybe?) to complete his Bolas-Task. Card in Block No. If he appears on Amonkhet it’s simply to give Bolas a heads up and then he’ll be off on some other mission, not worthy of a second card in as many blocks.

Tibalt

Appearance in Story: A possibility for color reasons, nothing more, nothing less. Another ‘walker that has no inherent hooks at this point, but this frees them up to appear wherever, whenever. With Sarkhan not so mad anymore, and Daretti ensconced on Fiora, there is a gap in the main roster for a Rakdos colored ‘walker, and Tibalt is well and truly secondary in black. He could also be included and remain mono-red, however the fit for the set should be balanced with the popular theory that Amonkhet is a Planeswalker factory for Bolas, which would suggest a higher likelihood to see new walkers. I think Tibalt is the most likely existing walker to appear as a sidereal character, in the mold of Arlinn or Kiora, woven into the narrative but in no way a vital part. Card in Block: May pop up in Amonkhet, paving the way for Hour of Devastation’s Bolas. Might be Mono-Red, might branch out into Black/red. Expect him to show up in the future, hopefully with a less experimental, or at least more playable Planeswalker card.

Ugin

Appearance in Story: The Archest of Bolas’s Arch-nemeses. I think it’s too early for Ugin to have to deal with probably his two biggest headaches, Bolas and the Gatewatch. As far as we know in story, Bolas thinks him pretty dead, as he had left Tarkir before Sarkhan coccooned him for the multiverse’s most supreme siesta on record. Look for Bolas to be very disoriented when he finds Professor X back in town.

Card in Block Would certainly be an amazing coup-de-gras for Ugin to appear out of nowhere in Hour of Devastation to throw Bolas for a loop. And we know that Wizards is occasionally a little too eager to throw relevant characters back in the mix rather than bide their time *Cough’rakul*. But I don’t expect Ugin in body or spirit.

Venser

Appearance in Story: His Spark lives on in Karn, but his all too human flesh lies fallen on New Phyrexia. Somewhat the sacrificial lamb to the narrative necessity of meaningful character death, it would undo much of Wizard’s previous efforts to bring him back, and it would need to be a sufficiently harrowing process for it to not seem cheap, so would require a story unto itself. Card in Block No.

Vraska

Appearance in Story: An intriguing possibility. One of few in the current roster who has been active in the Gatewatch era but we are yet to have seen. She is implicated in Gideon’s investigation (that lasted all of about a paragraph of story time so far), and Ral mentioned she ‘walked from Ravnica to somewhere untraceable. This does not seem to indicate Amonkhet, but who knows what precautions Bolas might have around his little petri-dish-plane that could cause it. Does Vraska have some dealings with Bolas? Tune in, and find out! Once again, I hope that the creative team are laying their hooks for future sets, but i might be wrong. Card in Block: If I am wrong and Vraska’s story *is* intertwined with Bolas’ then she is an immediate inclusion. With a Nissa card unlikely and Bolas in Grixis, Green is looking a little light, as is Black, after an almost entirely black-less Kaladesh Planeswalker roster. Otherwise, Vraska’s murders and mysterious planeswalking will be the entry point to a new set a little way down the line. (I’m looking at you, supposedly unimportant leaked pakaging images.)

Xenagos

Appearance in Story: Implausible to the point of impossible. Killed by Elspeth on Theros, already with a replacement in the RG slot in the roster with Arlinn Kord (and he was fighting with Domri, anyway), Not popular enough for fan demand to bring him back. Just Dead. Card in Block No.

#mtg #magic the gathering #hour of devastation #amonkhet #mtgakh #mtghod #speculation #vorthos

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