Gideon the Ninth characters

Appears from the start

An eighteen-year-old indentured servant of the Ninth House, a cold, sunless world of tombs, ossuaries and reanimated skeleton labour at the far edge of the Empire. Delivered to the Ninth as an infant and raised there without family or standing, she has spent her whole life trying to leave and has failed at every attempt. She is trained with the sword and prefers a heavy two-handed blade to the rapier a proper cavalier is expected to carry, and she meets the House's misery with sarcasm and a stack of contraband magazines. Her ambition at the start of the book is simple: enlist with the Emperor's Cohort and never see the Ninth again.

Also known as Harrow, the Reverend Daughter

Appears from the start

The Reverend Daughter and heir of the Ninth House, a teenage necromancer of extraordinary skill whose art is bone: she raises, shapes and wields skeletons the way lesser adepts manage a single construct. She effectively governs a House reduced to a handful of the elderly and its skeleton servants, and she has personally blocked every one of Gideon's escape attempts. The two have loathed each other since childhood. Harrowhark is disciplined, secretive and ruthless about the Ninth's survival, and she holds the House's founding duty, the sealed tomb it exists to guard, above everything else.

First appears in chapter 4

The Ninth House's cavalier primary, a heavy, melancholy man far more devoted to the enormous epic poem he has been composing for years than to swordsmanship. When the Emperor's summons requires the House to send its heir and her cavalier to the First House, Ortus leaves the Ninth instead, departing with his mother on the shuttle that brought the letter and forcing Harrowhark to find a replacement at once.

First appears in chapter 6

One of the small group of priests who keep Canaan House, the crumbling seat of the First House on the Emperor's abandoned home world. He greets the eight visiting delegations warmly, feeds them, and tells them almost nothing: there is no curriculum, no schedule and no explanation of how a candidate is meant to become a Lyctor. He asks only that they not force the doors that are locked and that they work things out for themselves.

Also known as Corona

First appears in chapter 8

One of the twin heirs of the wealthy Third House, tall, golden-haired and immediately the most striking person in any room. She is presented as the Third's necromancer princess and behaves like it, warm and confident in company, and she is openly devoted to her sister Ianthe.

First appears in chapter 8

Coronabeth's twin and the Third House's other heir, pale and washed out where her sister is vivid, with a dry, needling manner. She appears content to be overlooked beside Coronabeth, and she watches the other delegations, and the house itself, far more closely than she lets on.

Also known as Babs

First appears in chapter 8

Cavalier primary of the Third House, a vain and heavily drilled duellist who is generally acknowledged, not least by himself, to be the finest swordsman among the visiting cavaliers.

First appears in chapter 8

Heir of the Second House and a serving captain of the Emperor's Cohort, who treats the gathering as a posting rather than a mystery. She argues for rules, shared information and a chain of command, and is steadily frustrated by the other Houses' secrecy.

First appears in chapter 8

Necromancer heir of the Fifth House and a historian by training, whose speciality is the long dead: she reaches ghosts and old memory where other adepts work only on flesh and bone. Organized and genuinely friendly, she is the first to try to get the eight delegations to behave like colleagues rather than rivals.

First appears in chapter 8

Cavalier of the Fifth House and Abigail Pent's husband, an amiable middle-aged man who holds a civil post at home rather than a martial one. He makes a deliberate effort to be kind to the younger candidates, including the Ninth's silent cavalier.

First appears in chapter 8

Master Warden of the Sixth House, whose people live aboard a vast orbiting library. A necromancer of unusual range and an obsessive reasoner, he treats Canaan House as a problem to be solved and shares his findings far more freely than anyone expects. He is blunt, quick, and uninterested in the posturing between the Houses.

First appears in chapter 8

Cavalier of the Sixth House and Palamedes Sextus's lifelong partner in everything he does. Quiet and economical, she fights with paired short blades rather than the traditional rapier and offhand dagger, and she is one of the most dangerous people in the building.

First appears in chapter 8

The very young necromancer heir of the Eighth House, dressed in white and severe far beyond his years. The Eighth's art is siphoning, drawing power out of another living soul. He regards the Ninth House as heretical and says so openly, and he treats the competition as a moral trial in which he expects to be found worthy.

First appears in chapter 8

Cavalier of the Eighth House and Silas Octakiseron's uncle, a scarred Cohort veteran twice his necromancer's age. He speaks rarely and does what Silas requires of him.

First appears in chapter 8

Necromancer heir of the Fourth House, a teenager sent out young as the Fourth's tradition demands. He is out of his depth among the older candidates and works hard not to let it show.

First appears in chapter 8

Cavalier of the Fourth House and Isaac Tettares's inseparable companion, a teenager as young as her necromancer, eager to prove herself and quick to take offence on his behalf.

First appears in chapter 12

Necromancer heir of the Seventh House, who arrives seriously ill and spends most of her time in a wheeled chair, tiring easily and coughing blood. She is cheerful about it, curious about everyone, and entirely unbothered by the Ninth's forbidding reputation. She takes an immediate interest in Gideon and treats her as a person rather than as scenery.