Premath

Premath is the third son of Oparan, Alkhand of Peor, and the youngest child in a family defined by the Alkhand's fear that his sons will repeat the succession cycle of the dead Empire - one son banished, one unready, two as pawns - ch 5. Born Premaran, he was initially understood to have been renamed to conform to the approved suffixes of the dead Empire, a reading revised in ch 25 when the name is revealed as one he took voluntarily in religious devotion to the Moeribandi death cult. Unlike his brothers Gorbudan and Dekamran, Premath showed no interest in the Mirror Throne; his mentor, Arkanith, the Grand Moerend and head of the Moeribandi, had designs for him that "have nothing to do with inheriting the throne and everything to do with a greater kingdom" - ch 5. He was, in Arkanith's later words, the kid nobody had a use for - ch 44.

His arc across Days of Shattered Faith moves from confinement to self-willed death to unintended resurrection. After Gorbudan seizes the throne, Premath is painted in skull imagery and denied his paints to prevent him becoming a figurehead - ch 18, 19. With the complicity of his sister Enshili, who steals toxic pigments from the Moerend wing and passes them through a secret ventilation shaft, he starves himself and ingests the lead-and-antimony face-paint, daubing his face into a Moerend skull before the mirror, and dies in silence - ch 19, 25. Arkanith, for whom Premath was a "second father's" project, recovers the corpse and attempts to channel accumulated necromantic power through the House of Hard Angles into a new Necromancer-Emperor; the working is interrupted by Arkanith's death, but the House's ghost-trap overloads and Premath rises unintended - ch 44, 45. He kills Drathel with stone-hard fingers and walks out of the shattered House toward "the cold necropolis of his new kin" - ch 45.

He matters to the series as the fulcrum of the necromantic plot: his body is the object that the Moerends, Gorbudan, Dekamran, Arkanith, and Drathel all try to control or exploit - ch 18, 25, 31, 44. His death and resurrection are the events that break the House of Hard Angles and release the stored dead power that cascades through every occult channel in the city - ch 45. His final appearance, seated at the sealed gates of the Necropolis in the Successor Steppes, "eternal, undecaying," waiting for the dead, sets a thread that remains open at the book's close - ch 50.

Character

Appearance

After his confinement following Gorbudan's coup, Premath is found painted with faded skull imagery, surrounded by bones and Moeribandi ornament - ch 18. His scalp had been shaved and painted as part of his studies in "the more arcane points of death-cult theology," but servants were stopped from continuing the shaving, so his hair was growing back unevenly - ch 19. After his resurrection his eyes are milk-coloured and his skin greyish, marking the change wrought by the necromantic power; his fingers are stone-hard - ch 45. He is described as "eternal, undecaying" - ch 50.

Personality

Premath carries himself with a stillness that unsettles others; Gorbudan finds him "weird, creepy" yet cannot bring himself to order his death - ch 18. He is inwardly certain and outwardly passive, expressing distrust only obliquely: when invited to a family meal he refuses with the words "Double mourning. Our poor brother," a refusal that openly signals he does not trust Gorbudan not to poison him - ch 18. His devotion to the death cult is total to the exclusion of secular ambition - ch 5. Faced with the prospect of exile, imprisonment, or use as a dynastic pawn, he chooses his own ending: he starves himself, then ingests the toxic sacramental paint, daubs his face into a skull, and dies in silence - ch 25. After resurrection his temperament shifts to something cold and absolute; his dead eyes see "only sacrilege and spoliation," and he kills without hesitation - ch 45. He is patient in a way the living are not: "the dead are patient" and "He could wait forever" - ch 50.

Beliefs & Motivations

Premath's driving commitment is to the Moeribandi death cult. He was a Moru acolyte under the Moerend faith Arkanith leads, and took the name Premath voluntarily in devotion - ch 25. He immerses himself in death-cult theology to the exclusion of any political ambition, and Arkanith grooms him toward what the Grand Moerend calls a sacred necromantic death - ch 5, 44. The rule he lives by, insofar as he acts at all, is one of refusal: he refuses Gorbudan's table, refuses the throne, refuses to be a figurehead, and finally refuses to be made one by suicide - ch 18, 19, 25. After resurrection his orientation is toward the dead and their institutions; he walks toward the Necropolis because it is the home of "his new kin" - ch 45.

Affiliations

• Moeribandi - scholar

History

Days of Shattered Faith

The Duel with Tarcomir

Premath is introduced as the Third Son of Oparan, born Premaran and renamed to fit the approved suffixes of the dead Empire - ch 5. He is the favourite royal student of Arkanith, the Grand Moerend and head of the Moeribandi death cult, and is immersed in death-cult theology to the exclusion of secular ambition - ch 5. Unlike his siblings, he shows no interest in the Mirror Throne; Arkanith's designs for him "have nothing to do with inheriting the throne and everything to do with a greater kingdom" - ch 5. The Alkhand's mild, foreign-educated temperament is noted in contrast to his sons' obsessions - war for Gorbudan, diplomacy for Dekamran, religion for Premath - and the succession cycle Oparan fears repeating: one son banished, one unready, two as pawns - ch 5.

Gorbudan on the Mirror Throne

Six days after Gorbudan seizes power, he visits Premath's chambers and finds his youngest brother confined there, painted with faded skull imagery, surrounded by bones and Moeribandi ornament - ch 18. Gorbudan considers letting him join the priesthood to win Arkanith's credit, but fears a living brother on the throne could be seized by enemies; he finds Premath "weird, creepy" yet has no wish to kill him - ch 18. He invites Premath to a family meal; Premath refuses, saying "Double mourning. Our poor brother," a refusal that openly signals he does not trust Gorbudan not to poison him - ch 18. Gorbudan says nothing - ch 18.

In the following days, Enshili visits Premath through a secret ventilation shaft connecting their chambers, a narrow passage with ornate gilded grills known only to them - ch 19. She tells him she is leaving the palace permanently and promises to bring him his paints, which Gorbudan has denied him specifically to prevent him becoming a figurehead - ch 19. Enshili steals pots of antimony, lead, white, and black from the Moerend wing, marked with the dead Moeribandi alphabet, and passes them through the vent - ch 19. His scalp was shaved and painted as part of his studies in "the more arcane points of death-cult theology," but servants were stopped from continuing the shaving, so his hair is growing back - ch 19. They say goodbye; both are leaving their former lives - ch 19.

The Killing of Kakrops

Premath is found dead in his bed at dawn, having starved himself and then ingested toxic sacramental face-paint - lead and antimony - to kill himself at dusk the previous evening, daubing his face into a Moerend skull before the mirror; he died in silence - ch 25. Gorbudan stands over the corpse in a room of morbid curiosities and feels guilt: he had already decided Premath must be removed - exiled to a mountain monastery, sent to the House at the Brink of Death, or locked in a palace wing with no visitors - and Premath's suicide removes that duty; rage follows the guilt - ch 25. He summons Arkanith and accuses the Grand Moerend of filling Premath's head with a "necrotic creed" and causing his death - ch 25. Arkanith denies responsibility, reframing the suicide as a faithful progress "approved of by the judging gods," and Gorbudan nearly draws his sword on him for sacrilege - ch 25. Messengers burst in with news of Dekamran's night assault, and Gorbudan orders Arkanith confined under guard, hoping the old man will also face "a final judgment" - ch 25.

Drathel's Operations in Alkhalend

A month after Dekamran's coronation, alone in the audience chamber, he recounts his siblings' fates: Gorbudan dead in battle, Premath by suicide, Enshili vanished - ch 31. He surrendered Premath's body to the Moerends for their political support, waiving the royal family's right to inter him in the palace mausoleum - ch 31. The Moerends, "skull-faced," carried the corpse off for final rites in exchange for their support... at least a little - ch 31.

Gil's Arrest and the Destruction of the House of Hard Angles

On the day of Dekamran's escape from the House of Tranquillity, Gorbudan and Premath are confirmed dead, making Dekamran the last surviving son - ch 43. In the crypt of the House of Hard Angles, Arkanith performs a necromantic ritual over Premath's preserved corpse, which lies in a death-imagery coffin accumulating the power Arkanith channels - ch 44. Arkanith had been a "second father" to Premath, the "kid nobody had a use for," and groomed him toward a sacred necromantic death - ch 44. Drathel descends to the crypt and confronts him, mocking his plan; Arkanith declares - "I do not need their rallying. Do you think Death cares for popular acclaim? Premath was chosen. A child born to death. I will take him to the doors of the Necropolis. I shall knock, and they shall open. The Imperial Family shall adopt him. The first new Necromancer-Emperor in a thousand years, ready to reclaim his rights." - ch 44. Drathel shoots Arkanith with a modified rod, killing him, and prepares to harvest the accumulated power from Premath's corpse into her bandoliers of uncharged tablethi - ch 44.

When the Under-warden's ritual, completed by the Reckoner, overloads the House's ghost-trap and shatters its wards, the stored necromantic power cascades through all occult channels - ch 45. Drathel, her wards burned out, pries at her half-melted, gilded tablethi in the crypt; Premath sits up, his milk-coloured eyes and greyish skin marking the change, and his dead eyes see "only sacrilege and spoliation" - ch 45. He catches Drathel's throat with stone-hard fingers and crushes it; "There is nothing left living in his grip" - ch 45. The resurrection was unintended by Arkanith, whose death interrupted the full working; the House had been built to "funnel dead power into some scion of the ancient line," and Premath's rising breaks the trap - ch 45. He steps out of the shell of the House, looks up at the stars, and wanders away - out of the city, north across the mountains, toward "the cold necropolis of his new kin" - ch 45.

Render Unto the Sea

Months later, Premath stands at the sealed gates of the Necropolis in the Successor Steppes, far north of the Garmoers, reading warding glyphs and sensing vast necromantic power within - ch 50. He sits and waits, "eternal, undecaying," knowing the dead are patient - ch 50. He could wait forever - ch 50. A company in charcoal-grey uniforms marches toward him across the steppes - ch 50.

Relationships

• Oparan - Father and son. Oparan is the mild, foreign-educated Alkhand whose sons each embody an obsession: war for Gorbudan, diplomacy for Dekamran, religion for Premath. Premath is "the third son of Oparan," a designation repeated even after his death and resurrection - ch 5, 44, 45, 50.
• Arkanith - Mentor and surrogate father. Arkanith is Premath's favourite royal student-teacher bond and, as Premath's "second father," the one who sees a purpose in the kid nobody had a use for - ch 5, 44. Arkanith grooms him toward a sacred necromantic death and, after Premath's suicide, performs a ritual over his corpse to make him the first new Necromancer-Emperor in a thousand years - ch 44.
• Gorbudan - Brothers. Gorbudan finds Premath "weird, creepy" but has no wish to kill him; he considers confining him to a monastery or palace wing as a dynastic liability - ch 18, 25. Premath openly signals his distrust. Gorbudan feels guilt that Premath's suicide removes a duty he had already decided to perform, and rage follows the guilt - ch 25.
• Enshili - Siblings who share a secret ventilation shaft between their chambers, a narrow passage with ornate gilded grills known only to them - ch 19. Enshili calls him "my littlest brother" and, understanding his confinement and the denial of his paints, steals toxic pigments from the Moerend wing and passes them through the vent, in effect helping him die - ch 19, 36. They say goodbye; both are leaving their former lives - ch 19.
• Dekamran - Brothers. After Gorbudan's death and Premath's suicide, Dekamran surrenders Premath's body to the Moerends in exchange for their political support, waiving the royal family's right to inter him in the palace mausoleum - ch 31. On the day of Dekamran's escape, Gorbudan and Premath are confirmed dead, making Dekamran the last surviving son - ch 43.
• Drathel - Premath kills her. After the House of Hard Angles overloads and he rises, his dead eyes see "only sacrilege and spoliation"; he catches her throat with stone-hard fingers and crushes it - ch 45.
• Moeribandi / the Moerends - The death cult claims Premath as its own. They take his body for final rites, "skull-faced," carrying the corpse off in exchange for political support to Dekamran - ch 31. Arkanith, as their head, performs the necromantic ritual over his preserved corpse - ch 44.

Notable Quotes

"Double mourning. Our poor brother" - Premath, refusing Gorbudan's invitation to a family meal, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 18

"There is nothing left living in his grip" - on Premath killing Drathel, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 45

"I do not need their rallying. Do you think Death cares for popular acclaim? Premath was chosen. A child born to death. I will take him to the doors of the Necropolis. I shall knock, and they shall open. The Imperial Family shall adopt him. The first new Necromancer-Emperor in a thousand years, ready to reclaim his rights." - Arkanith, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 44

Tags

1. dead-emperor · #third-son · #usmai · #necromantic · #moeribandi