#cytherea the first

[rosemarydisaster]

I know that all the names of The Locked Tomb Series have a lot of deep meaning but I just love the Seventh house. Like, the way you can figure out the plot twist just by reading the names. (Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth).

Dulcinea is named after Dulcinea del Toboso from El Quijote. The titular Quijote lives in a fantasy world due to reading too many books about Knights, so he starts imagining the world around him as the one from his books. He kinned too close to the sun. Dulcinea del Toboso is his lady love, the most perfect woman in existence. Obviously Don Quijote's "squire" Sancho Panza doesn't believe Dulcinea exists. She's part of Quijote's fantasy. Except they do meet her and she's just a peasant woman named Aldonza Lorenzo, ugly and rude. Quijote assumes she must be under some curse and bows to free her (he never gets to). So obviously when I read Dulci's name in Gideon the Ninth and she turns out to be too perfect to be real...yeah, I figured out that wasn't the real necromancer from the seventh. Tbf, I'm from Spain so Dulcinea immediately triggers my second grade memories.

Protesilaus. This one's crazier and I didn't get it until the end of the book. You see the name sounded familiar and I was sure it was from some Greek myth or tragedy. Turns out in the Iliad the Oracle tells the Greeks that the first man to set foot on Troy would die. That's why Odysseus jumped on his shield to not "set foot on trojan soil". Protesilaus was the first one to actually disembark and, as such, was killed. Just like TLT protesilaus was the first one to die (protecting Dulci). Also in some versions of the story his wife, wracked with grief, asks the gods to see her beloved again. The gods take pity on her and allow her five minutes, after which they both die. This reminds me of how the real Protesilaus was brought back by Harrow's bubble, created by her grief for Gideon.

Cytherea is another name for Aphrodite and Gideon's very obvious lust aside, this tracks too. Not only is Cytherea described as really beautiful, she's a Lyctor which makes her godlike. It's also her love for her cavalier that makes her lose her head a bit. And even while she's Killing everyone in Canaan House she makes it a point to state that she still loves all of the contestants. She even admits to still loving John (much like Mercymorn). Also, the one that finds out she's not who she says she is is the man in love with the real Dulcinea.

Gotta love Tamsyn spoiling her book with names. This series is so fucking good.

#tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #gtn #gideon the ninth spoilers #cytherea the first #dulcinea septimus #protesilaus ebdoma #the seventh house #seventh house #7th house #tamsyn muir

[hatepotion]

iii / vi / vii / ix

#ah yes i managed to fit literally every single shade of gray in one photoset (i thought these were all kinda uniform but alas) #this was my excuse to get procreate dreams :) #gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #griddlehark #ortus nigenad #campal #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #coronabeth tridentarius #ianthe tridentarius #naberius tern #dulcinea septimus #protesilaus ebdoma #cytherea the first #tlt #tlt fanart #my art

[midnightcrows]

The Emperor Undying and His Saints.

Inprnt store here!

#my art #fanart #just wanted to post them all together #the green dress is what imagine cyth wouldve worn to the dinner party #artists on tumblr #the locked tomb #harrowhawk #ianthe tridentarius #cytherea the first #gideon the first #augustine the first #mercymorn #john gaius #harrow the ninth #art #tlt #harrow the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers

[pierogish]

Exploring

#gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #phewwww finally. finally i'm here again. how are we doing #canaan house #gideon nav #dulcinea septimus #cytherea the first #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #harrowhark nonagesimus #napping in her bone blankey #my art #tw heights #just in case..

[nortess]

birth of venus except it sucks!

#slayed too close to the sun #beautifully tho #the locked tomb #cytherea the first #cytherea loveday #gideon the ninth #tlt #art #my art

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

i looove cytherea as a "nicest* person here was secretly the villain the whole time" reveal cause like. my problem with those is usually that they do a complete 180 in terms of personality and suddenly they're a totally different person. they absolutely do not give a shit about these people they just spent so much time cohabitating with. they developed absolutely no empathy or compassion or remorse for the people who worked with them, trusted them, confided in them, tried to help them. it just never seemed realistic to me. i always end up wishing for more nuance. it feels like the authors tend to go for shock value over the actual substance of the character, unless they're angling for a redemption arc.

cytherea, though.

cytherea is 10,000 years old and she's been inches from death the entire time. these people's lives mean something fundamentally different to her than they do to them. she kills jeannemary in a shocking and brutal and unnecessarily dramatic fashion, and then she offers gideon genuine compassion and comfort in the aftermath, and both of those things are true and authentic and both of them are motivated by the fact that lyctorhood is fucking terrible.

the way she was interacting with gideon was always a little weird and the fact that she does genuinely understand never goes away. she's fucking old and weird and bored and in pain and she will gore a 14 year old in front of you and then she will hold your hand and give you well-meaning advice while you process the trauma. she will tell you how terrible it is that people are taking advantage of you, she will cradle you and pet your hair and tell you that you're worth more than this, and then she will kill you like she killed all the rest of them. and it really is a shame that you don't understand how that's a mercy, too.

cytherea is scary because the kindness was never fake. and that's why i love her.

#cytherea the first #the locked tomb #tlt #my post #gtn spoilers

[vict-torn]

For that one user that said Gideon needed to be bigger, you are dead right and I proudly present exhibit g(a)y

#tlt #tamsyn muir #the locked tomb #griddle #gideon the ninth #griddlehark #gideon nav #harrowhark fanart #dulcinea septimus #illustration #character art #fanart #cytherea the first #cytherea loveday #sketch dump #art dump #I’m not gonna lie #I fucked up the perspective in the pool sketch I just hadn’t noticed 😆 #gideon deserves more muscle this is true #character design #procreate #concept art #digital illustration #I literally cannot draw them all up fast enough I cannot wait to draw the rest of these guys #ugh #necromancer

[andry-di]

Pro tip: you can make a figurine with a kneaded eraser to figure out how to draw a pose if you are desperate enough

#harrow the ninth #htn #the locked tomb #tlt #harrow the ninth spoilers #htn spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #tlt spoilers #spoilers #cytherea the first

[jademaomi]

happy women's day to cytherea the first, disabled queen who murdered children and refused to kiss god bc it would mess up her lipstick

#The Locked Tomb #Gideon the Ninth #Cytherea the First #Cytherea Loveday #TLT #shes literally so gender #我的 #字

[noctilia]

#gideon nav #cytherea the first #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #my favorite relationship in gtn #started this piece 2 years ago but it didn’t want to come out til now #love me a gatekeep gaslight girlboss #noctiliart

[iamanoccasionaldoodler]

It's very funny when people reading Gideon the ninth for the first time comment in confusion about how little people talk about "Dulcinea" but like. Actually we DONT talk about Cytherea enough.

Cytherea - who was dying for 10,000 years! Cytherea the miracle worker who was brought before God and he LIED to her and he told her and her friends they were doing the right thing and he WATCHED as they killed each other and he is DOING IT ALL OVER AGAIN. Cytherea who is trying to get God's attention but who is also trying in her own monstrous way to be kind. They all have to die because /the only other option is to become what she is./ Of course Jeannemary and Isaac have to die. Isaac has to die because she can't let him kill Jeannemary. Jeannemary has to die because she watched Isaac die and Cytherea knows there's no coming back from that. Dulcinea HAS to die because the only other option is to suffocate slowly in her own cancer for 10,000 years and Cytherea /can't let her do that./ The fifth and the fourth and the sixth and the ninth - they ALL have to die because if she could go back that's what she would have wanted. They don't know it yet, but in 10,000 years, they'd want it too. She didn't take her chance to die when she had it. They don't know how lucky they are.

And Cytherea who put on airs of being petty and selfish meanwhile she gave herself away until there was nothing left. Cytherea who hated God because he took everything she had without blinking twice. Cytherea who said over and over "me, I will" and whose sisters and brothers died around her and who wouldn't let them forget about Loveday - who loved Loveday when they all hated her.

Cytherea who held Gideon in her arms while she was dying during the siphoning trial and told her "remember this feeling. Remember how much it hurts. And if anyone ever asks this of you, you have to remember and say no." Gideon, who reminded Cytherea so much of Loveday. Cytherea, who /asked that of Loveday./ And Gideon, who went out and /did it anyway./

Cytherea, at the end of everything, who NEEDS to kill Gideon and Harrow because they love each other and she can't let them get it wrong like she and Loveday did, who sees the skull they're hiding in open and sees Gideon's body and sees Harrow pick up that sword and has lost despite everything, and who finally gives up and lets them kill her.

#cytherea loveday #the locked tomb #tlt spoilers #gideon the ninth #gtn #cytherea the first #Cytherea is fucked up and insane and did a lot of murder but like. girl. i get it.

[sylphoxide]

YOU LIED TO US

#gideon the ninth #cytherea the first #cytherea loveday #I must post this because the bone worm structure shading had fried my brain but still very fun #the locked tomb #tlt #horror #gothic #she’s so correct #gtn #htn #my art #bones #creature

[bugcowboyart]

Back at it again at Krispy Kreme…. Aka the locked tomb.

Cytherea-as-Dulcinea sketch! Eventually I want to design a couple looks for everyone from the first book to match the busts I drew, so this is a start.

I headcannon Dulcie as an ambulatory wheelchair user, but sometimes uses a walker— she likes wheels, and after years of similar cancers her home is extremely accessible.

I also HC that the mythraeum isn’t accessible at all (like Canaan house) so Cyth uses forearm crutches, a cane, or bone constructs/beguiling corpses like Pro in trickier areas when she needs to move more quietly.

#cytherea the first #cytherea loveday #dulcinea septimus #dulcie septimus #gideon the ninth #gideon the ninth spoilers #gtn fanart #gtn spoilers #gtn

[crispinkiss]

i love horrible horrible women

#my little master manipulator <333 #cytherea loveday #cytherea the first #the locked tomb #my art

[mercymcrn]

something something isn’t it significant that the first thing augustine does in htn is criticise mercy? isn’t it so upsetting that she is so aware of how resented she is? isn’t it horrible that one of the last things she says is “this is the chance for unlovable mercymorn—critical mercymorn—to show she is the most capable of her name… every time you’ve said i did not understand the human heart, that i was unfeeling, that i only knew worship without adoration […]”?

the fact her house, the eighth, is the most devoted to the emperor, and yet john still degrades her so publicly and casually.

mercymorn died one of the only few victims of 21st century misogyny after living 10,000 years with it.

#she makes me sick. i want to hug her bad #the other victims include alecto and possibly the other female lyctors #we don’t know how they were treated #but!! remember how in all male/female og necro/cav pairs the woman was the ‘submissive’ role (cav) #while the man was dominant. remind u of anything. hm. #the locked tomb #tlt #harrow the ninth #gideon the ninth #mercymorn the first #augustine the first #cytherea the first #john gaius

[henreyettah]

Glass House: a Keys Out mystery

(Veil-less Harrow version under the cut)

(I’m gonna make prints out of this but I’m not sure which version to do so if y’all have opinions please send them my way)

#please take some time to look at the deets yall #gideon the ninth #gtn #the locked tomb #tlt fanart #Gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #coronabeth tridentarius #ianthe tridentarius #Abigail pent #Magnus Quinn #isaac tettares #jeannemary chatur #Camilla Hect #palamedes sextus #dulcinea septimus #cytherea the first #cytherea loveday #judith deuteros #silas octakiseron #tagging every bitch in this #tamsyn muir #she gets an honorary mention #art #doodle #henreyettart #glass house: a keys out mystery #canaan house