History Literature / HarrowTheNinth

* {{Elseworld}}: Harrow's FakeMemories end up as this, completely changing the events at Canaan House around Gideon's absence. [[spoiler:The beginning of Act 5 is a cascade of them as Harrow desperately tries to avoid admitting Gideon's death. As an injoke, all of them are based on popular fanfiction tropes: a RoleSwapAU where Gideon is the Reverend Daughter and Harrow Nova her abused cavalier, a MasqueradeBall where the events of Canaan House are a means to find "Her Divine Highness" a spouse, and a [[CoffeeShopAuFic Coffee Shop AU]] complete with a MeetCute with Gideon.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: After the Saint of Duty's numerous attempts to kill Harrow, she plans to assassinate him, with indirect help from Ianthe, Augustine, and Mercymorn...only to find him trapped in the incinerator and about to be murdered by the possessed corpse of Cytherea. She could easily flee the scene and let him die, achieving the end result she'd wanted without the Emperor ever knowing she had any involvement, but she chooses to save his life instead. She promptly gets some LaserGuidedKarma for this, as [[spoiler:Pyrrha]] tells her how to properly make wards that will prevent future murder attempts.

* ShoutOut: The Dios apate minor and Dios apate major plots are well named, since it refers to an episode of the ''Literature/TheIlliad'' when Hera seduces Zeus to distract him from supporting the Trojans against the Greeks, like how Augustine and Mercymorn seduce the Emperor to distract him from noticing any other plots that are ongoing.

* ScunthorpeProblem: InUniverse, when Harrow replaces her memories of Gideon with Ortus to cover up the fact that Gideon was actually her cavalier, she accidentally replaces the name of another lector, Gideon the First, with Ortus, and believes that Ortus is his name.

* SharingABody: One big reveal near the end of the book is that [[spoiler:Gideon the First and his cavalier Pyrrha Dve have been doing this for 10,000 years since he killed her; unlike the other Lyctors and their cavs, her consciousness was accidentally preserved when he compartmentalized her death somewhat while absorbing her soul. However, only Pyrrha knows that this is the case; from Gideon's perspective, the periods where she takes over his body are memory lapses for him.]]

* ShoutOut: The Dios apate minor, [[spoiler:and Dios apate major,]] plots are well named, [[spoiler:since it refers to an episode of the ''Literature/TheIlliad'' when Hera seduces Zeus to distract him from supporting the Trojans against the Greeks, like how Augustine and Mercymorn seduce the Emperor to distract him from noticing anyother plots that are ongoing.]]

* NowOrNeverKiss: Of the "Now Or Maybe Never" variety, including some crossover with KissingUnderTheInfluence. A half-drunk Ianthe tries to kiss Harrow before the latter leaves to fight the vastly more powerful and experienced Ortus the First, but Harrow turns her mouth away and the kiss lands on her cheek, to Ianthe's irritation. The latter's parting words are "good luck" and "try not to die."

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Emperor is easily the least toxic and most helpful person on the Mithraeum. [[spoiler:Subverted by the ending, though, where he brutally murders Mercymorn, admits to ten thousand years of treachery, and forces all of his Lyctors into a JoinOrDie AllegianceAffirmation.]]

* SentientCosmicForce: The River is both a metaphysical location full of the dead, and also itself tries to violently destroy any living thing that enters it.

* HehHehYouSaidX: Invoked; at one point, Harrow says she's been told repeatedly that being half-cocked is "worse than not being cocked at all", and the narrative remarks that Ianthe should have taken the opportunity for this and doesn't. [[spoiler:There are several similar moments; it's Gideon obliquely doing this trope from the back of Harrow's head.]]

* MutualKill: [[spoiler:Augustine]] attempts this with [[spoiler:the Emperor]], trying to drag them both into the stoma. [[spoiler:It would have worked if it wasn't for Ianthe saving John.]]
** In the past, this is often how lyctors have killed Resurrection Beasts.

* MemoryGambit: Harrow's memories of what happened in Canaan house are completely different than what happened in the last book, including her not remembering Gideon exist, and letters from her past self suggests she's done it on purpose for some kind of plan. [[spoiler: It turns out not remembering Gideon prevents her from absorbing Gideon's soul and making her permanently dead.]]

* EmpathicWeapon: Gideon's longsword is characterized as one by Harrow, having a personality and moods, mostly composed of a complete hatred of Harrow, and burns her hands when she tries to wield it. [[spoiler:It's actually the SoulJar of Commander Wake, who does completely hate all necromancers.]]

* EldritchAbomination: This book introduces the Resurrection Beasts, which are the souls of planets violently killed by necromancy. The Emperor accidentally created nine of them in the Resurrection, and his Lyctors have been fleeing/fighting them ever since. They’re {{planet eater}}s that grow more powerful by sucking the life out of living planets and absorbing their mass, and inexorably hunt down anyone who has committed the “indelible sin” of becoming a Lyctor. Over the last ten thousand years, the Empire [[CrypticBackgroundReference has killed five of the nine, with three left]], and lost half of his Lyctors doing so.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: When [[spoiler:Harrow regrows Ianthe's arm bone]], the way the scene is described makes it feel more like they're having sex. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/i45jq6/im_tamsyn_muir_author_of_harrow_the_ninth_second/g0h078e/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 This was confirmed as intentional by the author.]]

** ''As Yet Unsent'' in a log/report kept by Judith Deuteros while she's in captivity by the Blood of Eden, and as such, is from her point of view.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: How Augustine, Mercymorn, [[spoiler:Pyrrha, and to a lesser extent Gideon]] feel about [[spoiler:TheReveal that John lied to his Lyctors all along by telling them that the only way the original eight necromancers could achieve immortality was by killing their cavaliers to consume their souls, when in fact there was another method to do so that would not have required them to die (which he not only knew about all along, but used himself, together with Alecto), thus making the cavs' deaths and the 10,000 years the Lyctors have spent [[TheLostLenore mourning them]] into an utterly SenselessSacrifice. Mercy and Augustine both separately attempt to kill John for this, and Pyrrha turns against and abandons him as well.]]

* InnocentlInnuendo: In his epic poem, Ortus has Mathias Nonius go into a "bone frenzy". Harrow suggests that such a phrase might be open to...ahem...misinterpretation, which sets Ortus off on a rant about how only dirty-minded churls could find sex jokes in his poetry and he doesn't want people like that to read it anyway.

* AccidentalInnuendo: In-universe. In his epic poem, Ortus has Mathias Nonius go into a "bone frenzy". Harrow suggests that such a phrase might be open to...ahem...misinterpretation, which sets Ortus off on a rant about how only dirty-minded churls could find sex jokes in his poetry and he doesn't want people like that to read it anyway.

** ''As Yet Unsent'' adds a few more, revealing that Coronabeth Tridentarius reciprocated Gideon Nav's attraction to her in the first book and ogled her a lot as well; however, she's also been obsessed with Judith Deuteros [[ChildhoodFriendRomance since they were kids together]], and even offers to be her cavalier in the present day. While the feeling is mutual, as Judith has likewise desired Corona for 12 years (since childhood), she additionally had a crush on her cavalier, Marta Dyas, since age 14 (when the latter was 19), before they were even officially matched together; she confessed her feelings when she was 17, but Marta, a ConsummateProfessional devoted to duty, turned her down, feeling that they needed to keep a StrictlyProfessionalRelationship since she was her subordinate in the military. Despite accepting this response and even considering it to be kind, Judith has enough lingering feelings for Marta to turn down Corona's offer in honor of her memory.

* AwfulTruth: Two huge ones is rapid succession:

* TheScunthorpeProblem: InUniverse, when Harrow replaces her memories of Gideon with Ortus to cover up the fact that Gideon was actually her cavalier, she accidentally replaces the name of another lector, Gideon the First, with Ortus, and believes that Ortus is his name.

* AssassinationAttempt: Multiple people are trying to kill Harrow. They're almost successful in the prologue.

* ImmortalityImmorality: Used in an existential way. Lyctorhood does confer vast thanergetic reservoirs and enhanced abilities, as well as becoming TheAgeless... but marks someone forever with an indelible sin, drawing the attention of the planet-destroying Resurrection Beasts from across the entire universe.

** The final chapter of Act 4, "Epiparados", is a {{Flashback}} to Harrow and Ianthe performing "the work" on the former's brain, and is narrated from Ianthe's perspective rather than Harrow's.

* ChekhovsGunman: Throughout the book, all of the Emperor's now-deceased acolytes--the dead Lyctors and all of the cavaliers--are mentioned regularly, sometimes in passing and sometimes more directly. One of the most frequently mentioned is [[spoiler:Pyrrha Dve, the cavalier of Gideon the First (one of the only three original Lyctors still alive at this point)]]. Then come the end of the book, [[spoiler:Pyrrha is revealed to still be alive inside of Gideon's body--unbeknownst to him--and regularly takes control of it, including, in the past, for the purposes of carrying on an affair with Gideon's mother.]]

* AndroclesLion: Harrow, despite planning to assassinate the Saint of Duty (who has been trying repeatedly to kill ''her'', and was able to destroy the bone wards she used to attempt to fend him off), rescues him when she finds him about to be killed in the incinerator by Cytherea's possessed corpse. He [[spoiler:(or rather, his cavalier Pyrrha Dve, whose soul is controlling his body at the time)]] then tells her how to set proper wards that will prevent future attempts he may make on her life. Sure enough, these blood wards work.

* ShoutOut:
** To ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' of all things, when Ianthe compares Harrow to a puppy missing three legs insisting she can make it on her own, a description of "[[http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Li%27l_Brudder Li'l Brudder]]".
** To a [[https://old.reddit.com/r/insanepeoplefacebook/comments/7kqzb9/church_lady_asks_the_community_facebook_group_to/ viral Reddit Post as well]], wherein an overly entitled woman demands help and then refuses all offers as inadequate.
--> '''Mercymorn''': It's a Resurrection Beast, honey! Thank you, next!
** When revealing the Sleeper's true name, we get a triple ShoutOut:
--> ''Commander Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity''
*** "Awake Rememberance of Those Valient Dead" is from Shakespeare's Henry V
*** "Kia Hua Ko Te Pai" is a line included in the Maori language version of author's native New Zealand national anthem.
*** "Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity" is a lyric from Eminem's "Lose Yourself."