#*completely normal for a rabid tlt fan

[harrowharksoup]

NTN COVER REVEAL 3 DAYS AWAY *starts foaming at the mouth like Alecto*

Some initial thoughts, and: is Camilla Hect on the cover of Nona the Ninth?

I’ll start with the bottom left panel —

The right hand is in a similar position to Harrow’s on the HtN cover, in what I’d guess is a necromantic gesture. We know that Ianthe’s right arm is the gilded bone one, so we can probably rule her out. The skin tone appears to be a few shades darker than Harrow’s, which could point to Gideon, but this relies heavily on the quality and definition of the photo.

I’m not sure if I’m seeing it entirely clear, but the right hand appears to be wearing some sort of fingerless glove. This could support Gideon (or Gideon’s body) as the cover character, since the need for gloves could be indicative of swordplay (though it isn’t the knuckle-knives because those would be on the left hand). The person appears to be wearing some sort of gray clothing that might be a cloak or a skirt/dress.

The N being in a different style than the other three Ns makes sense because it denotes a new character rather than a House title. That’s all I have to say on this topic for now.

Lastly, I’ve read speculation that the strange blue lighting alludes to an underwater setting, and I agree wholeheartedly. The River will have a big part to play in the remaining books, and this would be a perfect first glimpse of that.

On to the middle panel —

I honestly have no idea what that strange diagonal cord-looking thing is — maybe it’s a dog tail (jk). Surprisingly, there are bones.

The final panel —

Now this is a particularly interesting one. It has far more detail and variation in content than the the first two book covers have in their entirety. That might be a hazmat/deep-sea diving suit with a glowing yellow faceplate in the top right corner, and there’s some industrial metallic-looking components that could be part of a space ship or the suit.

The vertical crosses on the top right and bottom right Ns are absent on the middle right N. It makes me think of the crossed out IX on Gideon’s skull symbol that we first see in Chapter 37 when she and Harrow have begun the lyctor process and Harrow is a body containing two consciousnesses. Additionally, we are given the promise that “Gideon will return in Nona the Ninth,” and Gideon herself has been quite resistant to being tied to the Ninth in the past, so maybe there’s some sort of parallel to be found there. It might also be a cavalier thing.

And here we arrive at a third possible cover character I hadn’t really considered before: Camilla Hect. The gray clothing made me first consider the idea, and the rest of the details kind of fell into place to support her as a definite possibility. In this post, tazmuir describes Cam as being “Middle Eastern extraction,” which is supported by the hand’s darker skin tone. The hand is making a necromantic gesture, but we know that Cam now has Palamedes’s eyes (and possibly other Sex Pal traits?), and the glove as cavalier symbol fits with Cam’s excellent ability to go loud.

Overall, I’m inclined to say that whoever is on the cover, they’re probably someone we already know, and they’re likely to have the shared characteristics of both a necromancer and a cavalier. And whether it’s Camilla or Gideon or some body completely new, I am dying to find out. 💀