Killed Off for Real: At the time of Harrow the Ninth, three Lyctors have died due to fighting Resurrection Beasts.Immortality Immorality: To ascend, Lyctors have consumed the souls of their cavaliers, marking them forever with an indelible sin that causes the Eldritch Abomination Resurrection Beasts to chase them around the entire universe whatever the Emperor did to attain his own immortality is implied to have been far greater and far worse.Finding out that this was not the case is a big deal to Mercy and Augustine. Heroic Sacrifice: All of the Lyctors' cavaliers submitted to be killed, believing it was the only way for their necromancers to become Lyctors.However, it has limits severed limbs don’t grow back all the way, and decapitation or destruction of the brain will always kill them. Healing Factor: Lyctors and the Emperor all possess one as a prerequisite of their immortality.By the end of Harrow the Ninth, only Pyrrha Dve, the leftovers of Gideon the First, is left of the original seven, and she's turned against the Emperor, leaving only Ianthe as his last and newest Lyctor. The plot of Gideon the Ninth begins because the Emperor badly needs new ones.

10,000 years of fighting Resurrection Beasts later, there are four.

Dwindling Party: Aside from the Emperor, there were eight Lyctors originally, reduced to seven with Anastasia's failed ascension.

Even Gideon had some degree of friendly contact with the head of Blood of Eden.

Deck of Wild Cards: Augustine, Mercymorn, Pyrrha-in-Gideon, Cassiopeia, and Cytherea all come to turn on their Emperor.

Witnesses are, naturally, completely baffled. As a result of having known each other for milennia, the First sometimes conceal conversations in front of others by dropping into a mostly silent shorthand, and seem fully capable of conversing fluently while doing so. The Emperor can do the same - his inner sanctum in the Mithraeum gets decompressed when danger calls. Batman Can Breathe in Space: Lyctors are noted to be capable of doing spacewalks without a space suit.Back from the Dead: The first ten disciples of the Emperor were part of the Resurrection, and John seems to have known at least some of them before he became God.The Ageless: All members of the First are immortal, though still capable of being killed.

The ninth house series