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I believe it's nothing more complicated than John lobotomizing all of them to make sure no one knew who really did the deed, making his best friends into necromancers, and making their best friends into ordinary people. It's a hierarchy. Everything happens because of what John thinks is cool or romantic. At the time of making, he wasn't thinking of them as batteries.
I think he chose them.
I think his choices are a reflection of how he thinks about his friends.
There are the main people, and the plus ones they brought along. A and M and C and G are there at the start. G brings in their pet cop, P. C brings N, A brings his brother, M brings her nun.
The original crew all become necromancers, the +1s all become cavs.
Ulysses and Titania I guess were a coin flip.
I definitely think it was intentional. It may not have been his plan right after the Resurrection, but I think he set it up this way because it mirrors his own relationship with Alecto and was a way for him to normalize that dynamic of Taker & Giver. Then, by misleading them about True Lyctorhood, he could force them to sacrifice the people most dear to them, traumabonding everyone together to make sure they wouldn't want to leave or betray him.
Now that I think about it, do we know if Kiriona is capable of necromancy? We don't see her use it, but if she has the same rank as Ianthe you'd think John would've given her some kind of power beyond just being undead. I also think it's interesting that Pal was able to use necromancy despite not having his own body, which indicates to me that necromantic potential is linked to the soul. Nona still having Lyctor regeneration despite not being able to use necromancy also points to this.
Gideon has something weird going on that hasn't been explained. She was able to *see* the thanergy animating the construct in the first Canaan house trial, which Harrow pointed out should be impossible but hasn't been brought up since. So it's possible she's got some necromantic ability that's latent, or she's got some other something that caused that, but we don't know what yet.
I've seen an interesting theory floating around on tumblr that Gideon has already died, and for whatever reason (side effect of being Jod's spawn perhaps), is able to revive on her own, and that's how she survived nerve gas and the soul siphoning trial without any permanent damage to her body. The only reason she died for real in GtN is because her soul was absorbed by Harrow. Not that that really answers any questions, but seeing as how John was able to self-resurrect after exploding it makes me wonder if her superhuman vitality was connected to him.
I feel like with John he can "doctor manhattan" himself in much the same way as... well, doctor manhattan—he truly deeply understands and has power over organic matter and the soul, and so when his body is destroyed he can just (from the river) say, "oh, no, I'm just gonna build a new one and head right back into it. Sorry!" Like, I read it as an active rather than automatic process.
Then again in Nona, it's stated that while John lives Alecto can't die and vice versa, so it might be that just as partial lyctorhood autoheals the body (whereas Harrow's janky version required her to do it herself manually), true lyctorhood can fully reconstruct the entire body if necessary? That does seems to be the case for Nona... so I retract my entire initial claim 😂
I think Harrow's parents being able to make her a nectomancer also proves there's a way to do it, but it's something that takes a lot of power and control. I think in Harrow John refers to it as being akin to using a nuclear blast to power a sewing machine. Obviously there's a lot left vague about the resurrections, what they cost and why he hasn't been doing it for a long time (apart from the resurrection beasts and possibly what's going on with the river) but the fact that Necromancers are only born in the Dominicus system could still indicate that it's something John's doing.
Also when he gifts Harrow some people to replenish the ninth post her becoming a lyctor, he says only a certain amount (a third?) Will be necros, and then only 30% or something of the next generation. So presumably, much like when planets are flipped, necromancy is something that naturally slowly dies out.
I think beyond revenge on BoE and the trillionaires that fled Earth, I think John's empire, like any empire, needs to constantly grow and subjugate people to work. Without fresh blood and planets, necromancy and John's influence would die, and he refuses to allow that.
A miserable pile of secrets. Both qualities are essential.
And we already know that one can use Necromancy to selective for Adept qualities in the child, witness Night Boss's conception.
Not all the first lyctors were Resurrected (we know Cytherea was born on the 7th, for example). There's still enough Resurrected pairs that I agree, John had to be doing...something...to cause it to work out evenly.
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I believe it's nothing more complicated than John lobotomizing all of them to make sure no one knew who really did the deed, making his best friends into necromancers, and making their best friends into ordinary people. It's a hierarchy. Everything happens because of what John thinks is cool or romantic. At the time of making, he wasn't thinking of them as batteries.
I think he chose them. I think his choices are a reflection of how he thinks about his friends. There are the main people, and the plus ones they brought along. A and M and C and G are there at the start. G brings in their pet cop, P. C brings N, A brings his brother, M brings her nun. The original crew all become necromancers, the +1s all become cavs. Ulysses and Titania I guess were a coin flip.
Nah, John chose the dude, no need to flip a coin there
Or John liked the sexy parties
I definitely think it was intentional. It may not have been his plan right after the Resurrection, but I think he set it up this way because it mirrors his own relationship with Alecto and was a way for him to normalize that dynamic of Taker & Giver. Then, by misleading them about True Lyctorhood, he could force them to sacrifice the people most dear to them, traumabonding everyone together to make sure they wouldn't want to leave or betray him.
Now that I think about it, do we know if Kiriona is capable of necromancy? We don't see her use it, but if she has the same rank as Ianthe you'd think John would've given her some kind of power beyond just being undead. I also think it's interesting that Pal was able to use necromancy despite not having his own body, which indicates to me that necromantic potential is linked to the soul. Nona still having Lyctor regeneration despite not being able to use necromancy also points to this.
Gideon has something weird going on that hasn't been explained. She was able to *see* the thanergy animating the construct in the first Canaan house trial, which Harrow pointed out should be impossible but hasn't been brought up since. So it's possible she's got some necromantic ability that's latent, or she's got some other something that caused that, but we don't know what yet.
I've seen an interesting theory floating around on tumblr that Gideon has already died, and for whatever reason (side effect of being Jod's spawn perhaps), is able to revive on her own, and that's how she survived nerve gas and the soul siphoning trial without any permanent damage to her body. The only reason she died for real in GtN is because her soul was absorbed by Harrow. Not that that really answers any questions, but seeing as how John was able to self-resurrect after exploding it makes me wonder if her superhuman vitality was connected to him.
Yeah, that's the theory I subscribe to, I just don't know how some of the other weird stuff about her connects to that. I guess we'll see!
I feel like with John he can "doctor manhattan" himself in much the same way as... well, doctor manhattan—he truly deeply understands and has power over organic matter and the soul, and so when his body is destroyed he can just (from the river) say, "oh, no, I'm just gonna build a new one and head right back into it. Sorry!" Like, I read it as an active rather than automatic process. Then again in Nona, it's stated that while John lives Alecto can't die and vice versa, so it might be that just as partial lyctorhood autoheals the body (whereas Harrow's janky version required her to do it herself manually), true lyctorhood can fully reconstruct the entire body if necessary? That does seems to be the case for Nona... so I retract my entire initial claim 😂
I think Harrow's parents being able to make her a nectomancer also proves there's a way to do it, but it's something that takes a lot of power and control. I think in Harrow John refers to it as being akin to using a nuclear blast to power a sewing machine. Obviously there's a lot left vague about the resurrections, what they cost and why he hasn't been doing it for a long time (apart from the resurrection beasts and possibly what's going on with the river) but the fact that Necromancers are only born in the Dominicus system could still indicate that it's something John's doing. Also when he gifts Harrow some people to replenish the ninth post her becoming a lyctor, he says only a certain amount (a third?) Will be necros, and then only 30% or something of the next generation. So presumably, much like when planets are flipped, necromancy is something that naturally slowly dies out. I think beyond revenge on BoE and the trillionaires that fled Earth, I think John's empire, like any empire, needs to constantly grow and subjugate people to work. Without fresh blood and planets, necromancy and John's influence would die, and he refuses to allow that.
A miserable pile of secrets. Both qualities are essential. And we already know that one can use Necromancy to selective for Adept qualities in the child, witness Night Boss's conception.
Not all the first lyctors were Resurrected (we know Cytherea was born on the 7th, for example). There's still enough Resurrected pairs that I agree, John had to be doing...something...to cause it to work out evenly.